I purchased the HGUC Xi Gundam at the same time it came out in stores, which is around the same time as Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway came out, right in the middle of the pandemic. So, while I secured the kit, I really didn’t feel building it. The kit stayed in the backlog since then, until sometime in late 2025 when the announcement that Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Nymph Circe was dropping to Japanese theaters in January 2026. I told myself, maybe I will be building the Xi Gundam in 2026.
The film had its Japanese premiere, but there was no word of any international release, until several months later. I was finally able to watch it a couple of weeks ago–you can even find my thoughts on the site (READ: More Universal Century Trauma-Dumping: My Unsolicited Thoughts on “Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Nymph Circe” (2026)). Which means I have no more excuses to put building the HGUC Xi Gundam on hold.
I’ve read generally positive reviews for this kit, although some are recommending specific modifications to make this kit better. And I’m just talking about the relatively simple ones. For starters, I decided to fillup the hollow parts on the large manipulators/hands, and the front geometric armor panels on the chest. I also decided to do partial painting, particularly on the orange and yellow parts, as well as gray recesses.
One visual change I decided to apply is change all the red parts from this rather brighter shade to a more muted one. You can see in the image above how the torso peg is much lighter than the rest of the red areas. I figured that for a mobile suit used by a terrorist group, having bright and friendly colors–like the Penelope–might be a little inappropriate.
I’ll just continue building this guy for now, not promising when I’ll finish the build. Our corner of the woods has entered this annual period where the weather is usually bad and I generally stop building kits for a couple of months. But I can still continue every once in a while. I do have a plan on the next build after the Xi Gundam, and this is a kit (are kits) that I myself am surprised I haven’t built.
