MGUniversal Century

RX-78-2 Gundam Ver.3.0 Success Original Color Model

The best-engineered RX-78-2 frame Bandai has made, dressed in a color scheme almost nobody outside Japan ever got to own.

MechaGrade Score

3.8/5

RX-78-2 Gundam · 1/100 · 2017

GradeMG

Scale1/100

Released2017

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is the Ver.3.0 frame at its most interesting, and also its most frustrating.

The engineering underneath is genuinely the best a plastic RX-78-2 has ever had, with full finger articulation and a waist that spins all the way around, but the plastic Bandai used to build that frame is softer than it should be for how many joints are stacked into it. I like this kit a lot when it is fresh out of the box. I am more cautious about it a year down the road.

Best for: UC completionists and Ver.3.0 fans chasing the Success color variant who pose it occasionally rather than constantly

The full review

What it is

This is the September 2017 Success x Mobile Suit Gundam Project release, the same Ver.3.0 RX-78-2 mold everyone knows, but redone in a promotional color split (two reds, two blues, four whites, one grey for the frame) that only went out through a Kao Success razor and shaving-cream sweepstakes in Japan. Nineteen runners, no gimmick wings or funnels, every part focused purely on the suit itself. Building it feels like building the standard Ver.3.0, snapping together closer to RG speed than you would expect from a full inner-frame MG, with color separation good enough that panel lining barely feels necessary in a lot of spots.

The catch

The frame plastic is soft, and after repeated posing the joints loosen noticeably faster than other MGs in this line, arms start to sag under their own weight and the wrists lose their hold. The multi-colored armor split means the frame underneath had to shrink to fit, which makes some of the elbow assembly more fiddly than a standard build. A few builders also flag the joint stickers tearing once you start bending things through their full range. And because this was a giveaway kit rather than a retail release, actually finding one means hunting secondary markets at collector prices, not a shelf pickup.

Who it's for

Go after this one if you already love the Ver.3.0 sculpt and want the Success color story specifically, or if you collect UC exclusives and don't mind that this suit will spend more time on a shelf than in a display case getting reposed weekly. If your priority is a workhorse MG you can pose hard and often for years, the standard-release Ver.3.0 gets you the same articulation without the premium you'll pay for this variant, and a newer-mold MG will hold poses longer besides. Skip it if loose joints after a few months would bother you more than the novelty of the colorway is worth.

The build story

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

The gate placement is kind to you here. Nub scars land on inner faces on most of the small color-split parts, and the overall part count stays lower than you'd expect for an MG with a complete inner frame, so the build moves fast without feeling stripped down. Where it slows you down is the elbow and a few frame joints, where the armor's four-way white split and two-tone red and blue meant Bandai had to trim the frame to match, and getting everything to click home cleanly takes more patience than the average Ver.3.0 assembly.

The articulation is the reason people still talk about this mold years later. Outside the torso, the limbs move almost anywhere you want them, shoulder and hip armor gets out of the way instead of blocking a pose, and the fully articulated fingers let you do actual hand acting instead of swapping fists. Double-jointed elbows and knees back that up. The tradeoff shows up over time rather than on day one: the same soft plastic that makes assembly forgiving is also what lets the joints wear loose faster than sturdier MG molds, so this is a kit that rewards posing it thoughtfully rather than constantly.

Lore & trivia

01This colorway came from a partnership between Bandai and Kao's men's grooming brand Success, marking Success's 30th anniversary, and was awarded through a sweepstakes to customers who spent 700 yen or more on Success products between June 12 and August 31, 2017.
02Only 920 units were produced for the campaign, and the kit was never sold at retail, only distributed to Japan-resident sweepstakes winners.
03Secondary market prices on Japanese auction sites in late 2017 ranged from about 19,000 to 44,500 yen, reflecting how quickly the giveaway kit became a collector item.
04The kit uses the same Ver.3.0 sculpt Bandai first released in 2014, just recolored, so its frame and articulation are identical to the standard-issue MG RX-78-2 Ver.3.0.