Pardon the potato quality snapshots taken from the livestream.
Ahead of its release next weekend, the folks over at The Gundam Base ran a live stream demonstrating the HGUC Alyzeus from Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Nymph Circe. It is a highly anticipated kit, mainly because of the core unit underneath all random-looking armor, the Mass Production Type Nu Gundam. I will embed the 1.5 hour live stream at the bottom if you want to check it out yourselves.
Let’s start with size comparisons, and there’s no denying that the Alyzeus is going to be a behemoth of a kit. But for a better sense of scale, here it is between mobile suits made before and after, chronologically, in the Universal Century.
One thing I’m wary about kits like these are their dependencies on unsightly support structures, and the HGUC Alyzeus definitely needs one to just stand. But I’m inclined to think this is primarily because of the rear stabilizer unit. The livestream demonstrates how everything is connected, and I believe if the stabilizer’s connection to the rear backpack unit is reinforced, then the stabilizer can act as a third leg to support the entire thing altogether. But that’s just my speculation.
The studio lighting is unfortunately blowing out the highlights, but the kit is actually made from white and light gray plastic. Though there are still several sections that need paint for color accuracy. On that note, you might want to even paint the light gray parts in a darker shade to further differentiate them with the white parts.
And since we’re on color accuracy, let’s talk about stickers — and this has been the trigger for all the discussions following the livestream. But that’s mostly with the Mass Production Type Nu Gundam. For the Alyzeus, there’s a pink sticker for mono-eye at the tip of the front chest armor piece. I’ll probably replace that with a pink Wave H-Eyes part.
Let’s now get into the Mass Production Type Nu Gundam (referred to as “MP Nu Gundam” onwards) and yep, there are stickers. That said, I do want to commend the designers for picking which areas would get proper color separation given the budget they had to work with. Especially on those shoulder details and the thrusters across the body, the latter of which I had to paint when I built the HGUC Nu Gundam.
I can’t say these demands are completely baseless, given the excellent color separation achieved by cheaper kits like the Entry Grade Nu Gundam. However, please note that the budget for this is primarily for the Alyzeus so they had to make cuts somewhere. That’s not to say these complaints are invalid either.
For starters, there are small areas on the sides of the head needing paint, so stickers are fine for these. I wanted to say those yellow areas beside the cockpit hatch, and the green chest vents would be medium offenders.
What triggered a huge chunk of the ongoing discourse online, were the stickers meant to cover parts of the Beam Rifle and the right forearm. It doesn’t help that the sample kit meant to showcase all these features have stickers applied crookedly, with some already peeling off.
Again, all of these are mainly due to parts count allocation with respect to cost. Bandai Hobby can always put better parts separation, which will increase the cost. And then we’ll get a whole different wave of complaints due to the price. At the end of the day, it’s just a balancing act. If you paint your kits then this would be a nothing burger. But those who prefer just snapping their kits, then the HGUC Alyzeus might not be for you.
Finally, here’s the MP Nu Gundam with the Entry Grade Nu Gundam, and you can see that some of the good parts separation did make it through, like the thrusters on the lower legs and the gray details on the knee armor. Some are speculating of a stand-alone MP Nu Gundam release, and it is possible depending on how the runners are laid out. I am certain it will be an exclusive if they do release it.
My take from all of this is while I definitely prefer getting proper parts separation, especially for the MP Nu Gundam, I do know the design team had to make a compromise between color accuracy out of the box and costs. I’m inclined to believe Bandai Hobby sees the relatively lower price (it’s still expensive) as the better option since you can paint the missing colors. I’ve already pre-ordered a copy regardless, but I will definitely check out the early reviews once they come out. This should provide me information on how to approach the build of this kit.
HGUC Alyzeus
April 25, 2026 / ¥12,000
Order from HobbyLink Japan
Here’s the livestream that triggered all this discussion, and then you decide if all the stickers are worth it.
