Its time to see what the best of Neo France’s Mobile Fighter engineering has to offer. Here are the parts:

That’s quite a lot of runners. Now granted, two of the runners are for the Action Base 5, and one contains the effect parts for the Rose Bits. But even if you remove those, you’re left with eight runners. That’s quite a lot for a High Grade.

Now it wasn’t until after the build that I realized that I didn’t take a photo of the decal sheet. That was a major oversight on my part, since the decals are important to the story of this kit.

Best I can do is grab this screenshot from Mecha Gaikotsu’s video review, which shows the sheet after all the decals have been removed:

There are two on the left that are the usual decals for the head, and one big one on the right for the Core Lander’s windshield. That leaves just six very small decals for the rest of the body. When you combine that with the number of different colored runners in this kit, and one thing becomes clear - almost all of the color separation you see on this Rose Gundam is from color separated plastic. That’s a big deal for a High Grade, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it comes together.

Core Lander

I don’t think we ever see what this particular Core Lander looks like in the TV show, but here it is:

That’s definitely a Core Lander! It’s nothing fancy, but it’ll do.

In terms of gimmicks, the cockpit can swing forward and down so that the Lander can dock with the mobile suit.

Sheath/Sword

In-universe, the blade may be made of metal, but in Gunpla form it’s a standard clear beam effect part:

Meanwhile, the sheath is made out of just two simple parts. After having applied copious amounts of decals to not one, but two version of the Gundam Astray Red Frame’s katana and sheath, it’s nice to have something on the opposite end of the spectrum.

Also, I think it’s kind of clever that the sword grip simply plugs into the sheath when not in use:

Head

Everything you see here is made from color separated plastic:

The only decals to be found are inside the little red squares on the edge of the “hat”:

Chest

Once again, this is all color separated plastic:

I wish I would have taken some work in progress photos, because it would show you just how good Bandai’s gotten at layering parts to create this kind of intricate detail. Alas, the build was so fun that I got too swept up in it.

Suffice to say that the chest is not made out of all that many parts. They just manage to interlock really well.

Skirt Armor

It’s very simple, but I like the curved, swoopy look:

Legs

Okay, so this is the one time I took a work in progress photo, though it was fairly early in the build process:

But looking at this photo of the finished legs, maybe you can figure out how it all comes together in the end:

The little red mark on the knee armor is the only sticker here. Everything else is made of plastic.

Oh, and before I forget - let’s attach the Core Lander:

Like the Gundam Deathscythe, the Gundam Rose has only a single large thruster on its backpack. I guess that’s all it needs, though I must confess that it makes it look less fast.

Feet

These remind me of the Victory Gundam’s feet, albeit with some extra armor that really plusses them up:

Hands

We get a pretty good assortment of hands, including an open palm right hand:

That allows it to do some of its signature poses, such as when it draws its sword, and when it launches its Rose Bits:

But it would have been nice to have an open palmed left hand as well. Some of the poses with its sword would look even better if it had its left hand extended outward, but that’s simply not possible.

Arms

The little red marks on the wrist are the last of the kit’s stickers:

This is another nice, clean, swoopy design.

Right Shoulder

The two blue frills on the outer edge can move, but the other four are rigid:

I don’t have much else to say here, other than that this isn’t made out of as many parts as you might think.

Left Shoulder

Let’s look at this screenshot again:

Underneath the cape is a pair of blue and yellow vents that the Rose Bits launch from.

Now let’s look at how those vents appear on the Gunpla:

As you can see, the vents aren’t the right color, or the right shape. I know it’s a minor detail that I shouldn’t get mad about, but it still bugs me.

Anyway, here is the cape from the outside:

It is so clean and simple, but it looks so good. My only concern is that each of the individual segments is connected using a very tiny hinge part. This makes sense, since the segments are all meant to be easily detachable. But I worry about them breaking one day.

Finished

And with all that, the Gundam Rose is complete:

I’ll be back soon to put it through its paces.