RE100Universal Century

AMX-107 Bawoo

A spiky Neo Zeon transformer that finally gave the RE/100 line something worth building.

MechaGrade Score

3.8/5

Bawoo · 1/100 · 2016

GradeRE100

Scale1/100

Released2016

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is the RE/100 kit that made me stop rolling my eyes at the line.

The Bawoo splits into its Attacker and Nutter halves with an honest mechanical gimmick instead of a gluing trick, the waist spins a full 360 degrees, and the silhouette is one of the sharpest Neo Zeon designs Bandai ever shrank down to 1/100. It is not an MG and it never pretends to be, but for what it is asking of you, it delivers more fun per hour than most kits in its price bracket.

Best for: builders who want a real transformation gimmick and a striking Neo Zeon silhouette without paying MG prices

The full review

What it is

The Bawoo is a 1/100 scale Neo Zeon transformable suit from Gundam ZZ, and this RE/100 release was one of the first in the line to build in an actual transformation gimmick rather than just being a static display pose. You split the kit into the Bawoo Attacker (the upper mobile armor half) and the Bawoo Nutter (the lower half, which runs around on its own like a little beast), and reassembling them into robot mode is genuinely satisfying the first few times you do it. The waist is fully articulated and rotates the whole 360 degrees, which is more than a lot of kits at this price point offer, and the finished suit has that sharp, angular, almost dragon-like Neo Zeon menace that the anime art never quite got to show off in this much plastic detail.

The catch

The construction underneath all that detail is simple, more like an HG in engineering terms than an MG, so do not expect an inner frame or heavy panel lining payoff. The front skirt's Flying Dragon emblem is a tetron sticker rather than molded color, which is a letdown on a suit this striking. Grip is genuinely awkward: the hands are basically limited to holding the weapons you are handed, the shield only plugs into one spot on the back of the arm, and the half-transformed in-between pose looks a little ungainly rather than cool. The spiky armor everywhere also makes the kit annoyingly easy to grab wrong while you are posing it.

Who it's for

Get this one if you like Neo Zeon designs, want a transformation gimmick that actually works, and are not expecting MG-tier engineering for MG-tier money, because this kit does not cost that much. It is also a nice pick for anyone who has only built Gundam and Zaku shapes and wants something weirder and more mobile-armor-flavored on the shelf. Skip it if sticker markings are a dealbreaker for you or if fussy hand-grip limitations on weapons and shields are going to bother you every time you pose it. Builders chasing pure display presence over gimmick value might be happier one tier up in MG.

The build story

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

This is a straightforward build with simple, HG-like engineering rather than an inner frame, so cleanup is quick and there is nothing tricky about the runners themselves. The transformation joints are the real point of interest mechanically, since the kit has to hinge and lock in two different configurations rather than just one static pose, and Bandai worked that out cleanly for a kit at this price.

Articulation is a mixed bag: the waist rotation is excellent and the head sits on a ball joint that swivels well, but the ornate spiky armor across the shoulders and skirt gets in the way of a firm grip when you are trying to hold a pose. Loadout covers a beam rifle, two beam sabers, a shield, and missiles, which is a solid spread for the price band, and the transformation gimmick itself is the standout value proposition here since most kits this size do not attempt one at all.

Lore & trivia

01The AMX-107 Bawoo is a Neo Zeon transformable mobile suit from Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ, developed during the First Neo Zeon War as an answer to the transformable mobile suits the Earth Federation and AEUG had already fielded during the Gryps Conflict
02It was the first Zeon-lineage transformable mobile suit able to separate into more than one independent component, splitting into the Bawoo Attacker (upper body) and the autonomous Bawoo Nutter (lower body)
03Glemy Toto's personal orange prototype carried an archaic kanji on the left thigh armor read as 'bau,' the origin of the Bawoo name, and Glemy reportedly praised the Attacker unit's fluid mobility and its usefulness as an escape craft
04This RE/100 release, number 006 in the line, was released in November 2016 at 3,780 yen and was one of the earlier RE/100 kits to build a working transformation gimmick into the engineering rather than treating it as a static swap