RGUniversal Century

RX-0 Full Armor Unicorn Gundam

The best RG skeleton in the line, buried under enough extra runners to build a second kit.

MechaGrade Score

4.2 out of 54.2/5

Unicorn Gundam · 1/144 · 2018

GradeRG
Scale1/144
Released2018
Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is the standard RG Unicorn's excellent inner frame wearing a small arsenal, and I think it earns the extra box size.

The base kit underneath is still the strongest engineering the RG line has ever done, and the Full Armor add-ons genuinely change how the thing sits on a shelf. Where it loses points is balance and pose fatigue, not the frame itself. If you already respect the base RG Unicorn, this is that kit with more toys and one real caveat about weight.

Best for: RG builders who already love the base Unicorn and want the full battle loadout, and don't mind a kit that needs a stand to pose confidently

The full review

What it is

Strip away the extra runners and this is the RG Unicorn Gundam I already rate as one of the best things Bandai has done at 1/144, wearing every piece of Armed Armor from the anime's final battle. The clear pink psycho frame under the white plating is still there, the NT-D transformation still works with almost no loss of articulation, and now I get twin hyper bazookas, a beam javelin that splits into a spearhead and axe, extra shields, and a small pile of Gatling guns and grenade launchers to load onto it. Clicking all that hardware onto a frame that was already this well engineered is a genuinely fun few hours, and the finished silhouette is dramatically bigger and busier than the plain Unicorn without losing the shape that made it good in the first place.

The catch

Bandai built this by handing you the full base Unicorn runners plus a second set of weapon and armor runners, so the part count and gate cleanup time roughly double a kit that was already not quick. Builders who've done both agree it takes noticeably longer than the standard RG Unicorn, closer to a weekend project than an afternoon one. The bigger issue is balance: with the backpack bazookas and shield mounted, the kit gets back heavy fast, and posing anything more dynamic than a stand can tip it over backward, which is why Bandai includes a display stand and I'd treat it as mandatory rather than optional. A few non-articulated cover panels around the thighs, waist, and leg boosters also fit loose enough that some builders glue them down for peace of mind.

Who it's for

If you've built the base RG Unicorn and wanted more presence and more gun to point at things, this delivers exactly that without changing the excellent frame underneath. It's also a fair pick for someone who wants the definitive small-scale Full Armor Unicorn and is willing to put in real bench time for it. I'd steer away first-time RG builders here, the doubled part count and fiddly weapon attachments are a rough place to learn the scale, and I'd steer away anyone who mainly wants to pose the kit mid-flight or mid-punch, since the weight distribution fights you on anything but a stand-supported display pose. Go in wanting a detailed statue with swappable armament and you'll be thrilled.

The build story

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

The build starts exactly like the base RG Unicorn, snapping together a genuinely clever partial inner frame with color-separated psycho frame elements molded in clear pink, so a lot of the detail work is done by the plastic itself rather than by panel lining alone. Once that core is done, the Full Armor runners layer weapons and armor plates on top, and that's where the time really adds up, small Gatling barrels, tiny grenade launcher pieces, and multiple shield assemblies all need the same careful gate cleanup as the frame did. Nothing here is more difficult than the base kit, there is just a lot more of it.

Articulation is the headline strength carried over from the base kit, hip and shoulder movement stay wide open and the legs aren't blocked by the skirt armor even in Destroy Mode, and none of that gets meaningfully worse once the extra armor is attached. The trade-off is entirely in weight distribution rather than joint range, the shoulders and legs hold their poses fine but the whole figure leans back once the backpack weapons go on. Accessory value is the other strong point, between the beam magnum, javelin/halberd, bazookas, and multiple shield configurations there's enough here to keep restyling the same kit for a while.

Lore & trivia

  • 01In the story, the Full Armor Unicorn was an enhancement plan devised by engineer Takuya Irei aboard the Nahel Argama, built around Banagher Links' existing Unicorn Gundam for the anime's climactic battle.
  • 02The hyper beam javelin carried by the Full Armor Unicorn is itself embedded with psychoframe material and doubles as a beam halberd, splitting into a spearhead blade and an axe blade on a shared handle.
  • 03All the add-on armor and weaponry is designed to be jettisoned once ammunition runs out, so the suit can shed the extra weight and fight on as the standard Unicorn Gundam.
  • 04This RG release reuses the acclaimed RG Unicorn Gundam frame from 2014, meaning the NT-D transformation and psycho frame gimmick are unchanged from the kit many builders already rank among the best Real Grades ever made.

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