RGCosmic Era

ORB-01 Akatsuki Gundam (Oowashi Pack)

A pocket-sized gold suit that actually earns the shine.

MechaGrade Score

4.2/5

Akatsuki Gundam (Oowashi Pack) · 1/144 · 2024

GradeRG

Scale1/144

Released2024

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is one of the better RG releases of the last couple years, and the electroplated gold is only the second-best thing about it.

I went in expecting a pretty shelf piece and came out impressed by how much the suit itself moves once the Oowashi backpack is off. It is not flawless, the hip joint is a known weak point, but for the price and the scale I did not expect this much engineering.

Best for: RG collectors who want a striking, highly poseable SEED Destiny suit without committing to MG size or price

The full review

What it is

The RG Akatsuki packs in Bandai's triple-shade gold electroplating straight out of the box, so the suit looks finished the moment you snap the last part on, no gold paint pen required. Underneath the shine there is real engineering: a pull-out shoulder mechanism, an extended hip range, torso swing, and sliding armor gimmicks on the arms and legs that actually change silhouette mid-pose. The Oowashi Sky Pack adds a second build's worth of parts, a jointed nose cone, a hatch, and beam cannons that swivel independently, and it comes with its own display stand so you can pose it as a flying unit on its own. Popping it onto the Akatsuki's back and watching the whole thing balance is a genuinely fun ten minutes.

The catch

The hip joint reuses an older MS Joint part, and it is the one spot builders consistently flag, it can feel loose or lose tension after repeated big poses unless you reinforce it. Most of the kit is undergated with minimal nub marks, which is great, but a handful of parts still use touch gates in visible spots, so careful nipper work matters more here than on a typical RG. Some tabs and notches fit tight on first assembly and want a little scraping rather than force. It also relies on the usual RG mix of small snap parts, so if you have shaky hands or hate tweezer work, this is not the relaxing build.

Who it's for

If you want a SEED Destiny suit that looks like a finished, painted model straight from the box and still holds real dynamic poses, this is close to the ceiling for what RG scale can do right now. It is a strong pick for anyone who already likes Akatsuki as a design and wants the definitive small-scale version, sky pack included, without stepping up to 1/100. Skip it if hip-joint fussiness is a dealbreaker for you or if you specifically want a suit built for constant, rough re-posing over years, that MS Joint is the one part of this kit that asks for patience. Everyone else, this is an easy recommend.

The build story

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

Most of the runners are undergated, which means barely-there nub marks on the vast majority of parts, a real relief on a suit this shiny where any stray mark would show. The tight spots are the tabs and notches on a few joints, nothing that needs force, just patience and maybe a light pass with a hobby knife before you seat them. The Oowashi unit builds like its own small kit inside the kit, and doing it after the Akatsuki body means you get to see the whole thing come together twice.

The articulation is the real story: double-jointed elbows and knees, a 360-degree waist, skirt armor that lifts out of the way for leg clearance, and shoulders that pull out to swing up and forward. Combined with the sliding armor gimmicks on the limbs, poses that would look flat on a static RG actually gain silhouette here. Accessories cover a beam saber, beam rifle, shield, swappable hands, and tetron sticker seals for the tiny gold trim details instead of paint, and the backpack unit alone justifies a chunk of the price given how much it does independently of the suit.

Lore & trivia

01Akatsuki means dawn in Japanese, tying into the recurring dawn imagery around pilot Cagalli Yula Athha's arc in SEED Destiny
02The Akatsuki was built on the orders of the late Uzumi Nara Athha and is piloted by Cagalli, Kira Yamato's twin sister, during Orb's invasion by ZAFT
03This RG release uses genuine electroplating in three distinct gold tones rather than gold-tinted plastic, a step up from earlier Akatsuki kit releases
04The Oowashi Sky Pack ships with its own dedicated display stand so it can be posed as a standalone flight unit separate from the Gundam