Bandai Spirits Hobby decided to drop their non-Gunpla announcements earlier this week and as expected, they had several major reveals at the actual show floor of this year’s All Japan Model & Hobby Show. I was expecting more kits from Gundam SEED FREEDOM to be announced so either those will drop in the next couple of days, or they’ll be revealed in a separate event.
In any case, let’s go to the literal and figurative elephant in the room.
Teased with a trail of destroyed (pun intended) BuCUEs, many have immediately speculated that they are going to do a Destroy Gundam in some fashion. And those guesses were right on the money as they have revealed an HG 1/144 Destroy Gundam on the show floor.
To those unfamiliar, the Destroy Gundam from Gundam SEED DESTINY is the Cosmic Era version of the Psycho Gundam from Z Gundam. The Psycho Gundam already got an HGUC kit, albeit being almost two decades old. And with Gundam SEED FREEDOM on the horizon, the timing to release a Destroy Gundam makes more sense than ever.
As gaudy as the Destroy Gundam design is, it has been faithfully translated into this giant HG kit. And I do hope that most of the colors here, especially those red beam emitters on that colossal backpack unit, are actual red plastic. Speaking of the backpack, did I forget to mention that it’s huge? As such, I’m not expecting the kit to stand on its own as much as I wanted to. Fortunately, it does include a support stand though I’ll probably need another set of clear acrylic display bases to accommodate such height.
Speaking of height, here’s the display they have on the actual show to well, show how large this kit is. Next to the HGCE Freedom and Force Impulse, the Destroy Gundam is approximately 390mm tall, most likely up to the top of those twin double-barreled cannons at the back. That’s also more than three times the height of a typical High Grade kit.
Besides its imposing stature and immense size, the Destroy Gundam is mostly known for spamming a lot of beams, and I mean a LOT. Each digit of each manipulator, and all those red bits on its massive backpack are fully functioning beam emitters. And they are giving us options in displaying this kit in such fashion, by including what’s probably the highest number of beam effect parts of any kit. It includes a whopping total of 40 beam effect parts. That includes the four massive red ones for the twin-barreled cannons, 12 1/144 scale beam saber effect parts, and 24 1/100 scale beam saber effect parts.
All these should allow you to display your HG Destroy Gundam like this.
Compared to the Psycho Gundam which has a creative transformation, the mobile armor mode of the Destroy Gundam looks rather uninspired. The lower half rotates 180-degrees, the arms spread out, and you basically put the massive backpack on top of everything. This is also the only mode where the support stand isn’t needed as everything balances out.
The last feature they are highlighting is how the individual fingers are constructed. Each is articulated to the individual knuckles, and they’re constructed by attaching a part to the rest of the fingers while still in the runners. The joint assembly is rather simple so you shouldn’t feel tired building several of these. I also hope they don’t get loose over time, which was one of the problems with the HGUC Psycho Gundam.
As much as I’m not a fan of the Destroy Gundam design, I do want to get a copy of this kit, especially with the hype of Gundam SEED FREEDOM. And I don’t think this is one of those kits that will get reissued often so once pre-orders are up, I suggest securing a copy as early as possible.
HGCE 1/144 Destroy Gundam
March 2024 / ¥13,000
