MGUniversal Century

RX-78-2 Gundam Kunio Okawara Illustration Image Color Version

The Gundam as its own designer first imagined it, molded in colors you will never find on a normal shelf.

MechaGrade Score

3.6/5

RX-78-2 Gundam · 1/100 · 2006

GradeMG

Scale1/100

Released2006

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

I think of this one less as a kit to build and more as a piece of Gunpla history you get to assemble with your own hands.

It runs on the MG RX-78-2 Ver. 1.5 frame from 2000, so the engineering under the surface is a known quantity, but the reason it exists is the color. Bandai handed out only 1,000 of these as a Summer 2006 lottery prize, molded in Kunio Okawara's original character-design palette instead of the anime's brighter primaries, and that alone makes it worth talking about.

Best for: RX-78-2 completists and Gundam-history nerds who want Okawara's original design vision on the shelf, not another anime-color repaint

The full review

What it is

This is the familiar MG RX-78-2 Ver. 1.5 sculpt, the one that introduced the Core Block leg damper trick and cleaned up the articulation from the original 1995 MG, dressed in a completely different coat. Instead of the bright red, blue, yellow and white you know from the show, the runners come molded in the deeper, more muted tones Kunio Okawara actually drew back in 1979 before the anime's color scripts brightened everything up for broadcast. Building it feels exactly like building the Ver. 1.5 you already know, snap-fit inner frame, Core Fighter that docks into the torso, familiar weapon loadout, but every time you pull a part off the runner the color throws you for a second. That's the whole appeal, and it works.

The catch

The frame under the paint job is a 2000-era MG, so measured against today's inner-frame MG kits it feels simpler: fewer articulation points than a modern release, a waist that barely rotates because of the Core Block system running through it, and panel lines that need a wash or panel-lining pen to really pop since they were cut for early-2000s standards. This was never sold at retail either. It was a 1,000-unit lottery prize from mid-2006, so you are not buying this new off a shelf, you are hunting secondary market listings, and the price reflects rarity far more than build complexity or part count.

Who it's for

If you already own a standard MG RX-78-2 and want a second one purely because the color story matters to you, this is a genuinely satisfying way to revisit a kit you know how to build. Gundam history buffs who care about Okawara's original design intent versus the broadcast color scheme will get the most out of it. Skip it if you want cutting-edge MG engineering, a full inner frame, or dense modern articulation, the Ver. 1.5 platform simply predates that generation of kits, and skip it if you are not prepared to pay a collector's premium for something Bandai never restocked.

What works

Genuinely distinct color story, Okawara's original illustration palette instead of the usual anime primaries
Familiar, proven Ver. 1.5 frame with the Core Block leg damper and the classic RX-78-2 weapon set (beam rifle, hyper bazooka, shield, beam sabers)
A real piece of Gunpla release history as a 1,000-unit 2006 lottery exclusive, not a mass-market repaint

Worth knowing

Waist articulation is noticeably limited by the Core Block system running through the torso
Panel lines and detail are cut to early-2000s MG standards, so they need washes or panel-lining to look sharp next to modern kits
Never sold at retail, so acquiring one means chasing secondary-market listings at a real premium over what a standard MG costs

Sold? Grab it.

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The build story

What the build is actually like, and the engineering worth knowing about.

Assembly plays out exactly like the standard MG RX-78-2 Ver. 1.5 because that is what it is under the color swap. Gate placement and part fit are those of a well-worn 2000-era MG mold, meaning most seams sit in reasonable spots but a few show on the limbs if you build straight from the runner with no cleanup. The Core Fighter still separates and docks into the chest the way it always has, and the swap between the standard head and the alternate parts works the same as any Ver. 1.5 build.

The real engineering story here is the Core Block leg damper, a molded-in mechanism in the thigh that lets the leg move right off the runner, which was a clever bit of design for its era and still holds a pose reasonably well thanks to the ball-jointed thighs and double-jointed knees. Color separation is where this version actually beats the standard release, since the muted illustration-accurate palette does a lot of the visual work that stickers or paint would normally handle on a stock MG, though the accessory loadout is unchanged from the base kit.

Lore & trivia

01This kit was a lottery-only prize from Bandai's Summer 2006 MG Gundam Lottery Campaign, limited to 1,000 units, never sold through normal retail.
02Its color scheme reproduces Kunio Okawara's original 1979 character-design illustration palette for the RX-78-2 rather than the brighter colors used in the Mobile Suit Gundam TV broadcast.
03It shares its frame and parts breakdown with the MG RX-78-2 Gundam Ver. 1.5 (released 2000), the version that introduced the Core Block leg damper mechanism.
04Bandai repeated the same Okawara Illustration Image Color concept the following year on a PG 1/60 RX-78-2, sold as a Chara Hobby 2007 event exclusive.