I haven’t been posting much regarding Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX but there’s a lot going on with the last few episodes. We are beyond the Clan Battle subplot and more into the political machinations, albeit on a speed run thanks to the supposed 12-episode run. We also have the final confirmation of which kit is under the “New Product (D)” placeholder: the HG GFreD, and along with it, the reason behind the weird names.
FIrst seen in episode 8, the gMS-κ GFred, or Gundam FreD, is essentially GQuuuuuuX Unit 2 albeit in a more EVA-01 inspired color scheme. It’s also equipped with its unique Psycommu variant, the Kappa Psycommu, and is meant to interface with Yomagn’tho, this timeline’s counterpart of the Solar Ray. The GFreD confirms how the Gundams are being named in this timeline.
Gundam “QuuuuuuX” is apparently not from some writer dozing off and hitting the keyboard and presto, they have a name. It, along with “FreD” are metasyntactic variables. Going a little into application development and programming, these are basically words meant as placeholders for actual names of variables or functions. Note that the actual variable name is just “qux” and “quux.” How we got to having six “U’s” is beyond this explanation. Regardless, this also confirms the comment from the Clan Pomeranians member earlier on how Gundam QuuuuuuX is just a placeholder name.
Back to the kit itself, it does differ from the GQuuuuuuX is minute aspects beyond the color swap. The most obvious difference is with the head as it further ditches the conventional Gundam design with something. It prominently features cat ear-like fins that also deploy as remotely controlled bits.
The bits might be a little too small to work as removable head parts, so the solicitations mention including a replacement head part when displaying the GFreD with the bits deployed. You can then attach the bits to compatible stands to display them being deployed.
The other differences between the GFreD and GQuuuuuuX are cosmetic, including the pointed caps on the shoulder armor, and the similarly pointed thrusters on the backpack/Core Fighter boosters.
I initially thought that one of these pre-order placeholders will be for a potential mid or end-of-season upgrade for the GQuuuuuuX. But it looks like we won’t have one, which is a surprise since it’s the last “mainline” series where the hero machine didn’t get an upgrade was Turn-A Gundam. Even the similarly long 12-episode OVA Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory had a couple of upgrades.
But that’s besides the point and regardless, I’ll keep my HG GFreD pre-order for now. I also hope that the two GQuuuuuuX waterslide decal sets they’ll release in a couple of months would include ones for this guy, so I don’t have to wait for third-party ones.
HG 1/144 GFreD
August 2025 / ¥2,300
Order from HobbyLink Japan
