When Bandai Spirits announced Project Pale Rider, they included a mobile suit development chart on the Premium Bandai special page that featured three Pale Rider prototype units that are yet to get model kits. And with the release of the Mobile Suit Gundam BATTLE OPERATION: Code Fairy it’s revealed that these three prototype units are part of the game and would be getting Premium Bandai exclusive kits. So, here we are a couple of weeks after and finally getting solicitations for these two, the latter being the HGUC Black Rider.
Unlike the flashier first prototype, the third prototype Pale Rider unit, the RX-80BR Black Rider is a more toned down and covert ops-looking variant. It also has another version of the EXAM System derivative which would eventually become the HADES System, known as the THEMIS System. With the White Rider geared for air mobility, the Black Rider is focused on electronic warfare thanks to the prototype “Steelyard” tactical unit mounted on its back.
And like all kits in the Pale Rider Project, you can choose between two sticker sheets to build this kit with the THEMIS System activated or deactivated. Though with this unit’s more stealth aesthetic, there aren’t that many stickers used outside of a couple of vent areas and on the rim of discs of the Steelyard unit.
For accessories, it comes with the removable Steelyard Unit, a pair of waist-mounted heat knives, and its rail cannon which looks like a beefier hyper bazooka.
With these two kits revealed, we only have one more Pale Rider variant left hidden in the mobile suit development chart, the Red Rider. Not sure if it will also come out of Code Fairy or it would be covered in some other game. Regardless, I’m not really keen on getting this kit but for Pale Rider collectors, here you go.
HGUC 1/144 Black Rider
February 2022 / ¥2,200
