HG 1/144 Gundam ZERO Launches in April 2027 for 2,750 Yen With Spine-Linked Articulation, a First for Gunpla

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The release month and price for the HG 1/144 Gundam ZERO are locked in. It arrives in April 2027 at a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of 2,750 yen (about US$18, converted at 153 yen to the dollar), tax included. The announcement came at the BANDAI SPIRITS booth at the 64th All Japan Model & Hobby Show, held October 2-4, 2026 at Tokyo Big Sight, and a prototype is also on display at Gundam Base Tokyo.

It has been about two and a half months since the kit was announced on July 24, 2026, and until now all we had was a painted sample with the release date and price still listed as undecided. Now there are numbers attached. Better yet, the release month lines up with April 2027, when the anime Mobile Suit Gundam RG XARX-ZERO starts its TV broadcast. Putting the hero machine’s HG on shelves the same month the show premieres is the same playbook recent new Gundam series have run.

What I really want to know is what is inside. The articulation that was teased back in August as “slack, relaxed posing” and as “a first-ever new technology for Gunpla” was explained at the Hobby Show as “spine-linked articulation.” At 2,750 yen it sits a notch above Aerial at 1,430 yen (about US$9) and GQuuuuuuX at 2,200 yen (about US$14). So where is that extra money going?

In this article I separate the numbers that are locked from the ones that are not, get at what the articulation gimmick actually is, cover what the prototype reveals about the design, compare the price against past hero-machine HG kits, and lay out the path from announcement to release.

First, the numbers that are locked in.

When Does the HG Gundam ZERO Release and How Much Is It? April 2027, 2,750 Yen

The HG 1/144 Gundam ZERO is scheduled for release in April 2027 at 2,750 yen, tax included. The exact release date and the preorder start date had not been officially announced as of October 6, 2026. The product page on the Bandai Hobby Site was not live as of that same date either.

HOBBY Watch’s Hobby Show coverage describes the articulation this way.

Spine-linked articulation enables natural, supple, and dynamic posing

Source:HOBBY Watch

The month and the price are set while the date and preorders are not, and that is probably because Bandai is leaving itself room to line up with the exact broadcast premiere. Recent hero-machine HG kits have landed within a few days of the first episode, so once the April 2027 broadcast date is fixed, the release date is likely to cluster around it. That is an inference from past patterns, not an official explanation.

What Is Spine-Linked Articulation? The Gunpla-First Technology Built for Slack Posing

Spine-linked articulation is an approach that connects the torso from chest to waist like a backbone and moves it as one, so the core follows the motion of the arms and legs. The specifics of the mechanism, meaning how many parts it uses and exactly which sections link together, had not been made public as of October 2026.

The setup for this came on the August 25, 2026 episode of the streaming program Gunpla Info Bureau. That is where the painted sample debuted, and where Bandai explained that the HG Gundam ZERO uses an organic design, is in development targeting “a range of motion that can reproduce slack, relaxed posing,” and will fold in a first-ever technology for Gunpla. At the Hobby Show, that new technology got a name: spine-linked articulation.

I don’t know of another Gunpla kit that put “going slack” at the top of its articulation goals. Traditional HG kits sold themselves on how far they move and what signature poses they can hit. Gundam ZERO is going after postures with the tension let out of them, standing with the shoulders dropped, squaring up with a bit of a slouch. Kenji Kamiyama’s work gives its characters those beats of stillness, so I figure he wants the machines doing the same acting. Not that a guy with two divorces behind him should be the one to say it, but slack posing hits hard in middle age.

The HG Gundam Helix, whose painted sample appeared on that same broadcast as the player’s machine from the game GUNDAM ROGUE ORBIT, was described as aiming for the opposite: “a range of motion that can reproduce high-mobility action.” Two hero machines from the same RG project, with their articulation swung in exactly opposite directions. ZERO gets suppleness, Helix gets speed. Build them side by side and the difference in design philosophy shows. That is the pitch.

What Does the Prototype Reveal About the Design? White Tricolor, Small Shields on Both Arms, a Saber on the Back Booster

The prototype at Gundam Base Tokyo is painted in the Gundam-standard white and tricolor, with a somewhat slim, simple silhouette. According to HOBBY Watch’s hands-on photo coverage, it carries a small shield on each arm and mounts a beam saber on the large booster on its back.

• A tricolor scheme built on a white base
• A slimmer, simpler design than past hero machines (the opposite of the HG Gundam Helix)
• Small shields on the left and right arms
• A beam saber on the large rear booster
• The right-arm weapon from the official machine spec is not yet reproduced on the prototype
• Other configurations such as a cape-equipped version have been hinted at, but no details have been announced

In its machine spec, Gundam ZERO is model number XARX-0, the newest experimental unit built to fight the Apocalypse, and a new-generation MS of the kind called a “Gundam type.” The pilot is protagonist Azumi Rei (voiced by Takeo Otsuka), written as a war orphan who lost both parents in an Apocalypse attack. The enemy is not human but an entity called the Apocalypse, and GAME Watch reports the story as a war between silicon-based lifeforms and humanity.

The sticking point is that the right-arm weapon is not on the prototype. Whether the equipment in the setting art makes it into the product, or gets pushed off to a separate release or a limited edition, is not clear. There is also that hint about a cape-equipped version, so you could read it as Bandai keeping the baseline ZERO at an accessible price on the assumption that variants follow once the show airs. That is speculation, but it does not contradict a 2,750 yen sticker.

Is It Pricey Next to Past Hero-Machine HG Kits? Aerial at 1,430 Yen, GQuuuuuuX at 2,200 Yen, ZERO at 2,750 Yen

2,750 yen is 550 yen (about US$4) more than the launch prices of recent hero-machine HG kits. The Witch from Mercury’s Aerial was 1,430 yen, and GQuuuuuuX and Calibarn were both 2,200 yen, while Gundam ZERO is 2,750 yen.

The reason for the increase has not been officially explained, but there are two ingredients. One is the spine-linked articulation and the organic design: reproducing a linked torso means more joint parts and more runners. The other is that BANDAI SPIRITS is rolling out price revisions, meaning increases, on existing Gunpla from January through March 2027, and it is natural for a new kit to be priced at that same level. Roughly double in four and a half years since Aerial is a startling number on its own, but as a 2026 HG release, 2,750 yen sits in the upper-middle of the range.

The good news is that it still came in under 3,000 yen (about US$20). The worry is that if the right-arm weapon and the cape loadout end up sold separately, there is no reading the total cost of a complete hero machine.

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What Is the Path From Announcement to Release? From the July 2026 Product Reveal to April 2027

The kit was announced on July 24, 2026, and the release month and price were settled at the Hobby Show in October of the same year. In between came the painted sample reveal and the decision on the TV broadcast window, with the release landing in April 2027.

The METAL ROBOT SPIRITS and GUNDAM UNIVERSE (roughly six-inch finished action figures) versions of Gundam ZERO had no release window and no price announced as of October 6, 2026. The HG is the first way in, and the cheapest.

The prototype is sitting in Gundam Base Tokyo in Akihabara, so if you want to see the real thing before the show airs, go. It is a neighborhood I hit once a week anyway, and next time I am there I plan to check whether that right-arm weapon has been added.

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What Is Mobile Suit Gundam RG XARX-ZERO? Kenji Kamiyama Directs the First RG Project Series, Airing April 2027

Mobile Suit Gundam RG XARX-ZERO, read as “Alex Zero,” is a new Gundam series beginning its TV broadcast in April 2027, with Kenji Kamiyama as director and series composer, Toh EnJoe supervising the science fiction setting, and Eiichi Shimizu on Gundam design. SOLA ANIMATION is producing, Sunrise is the planning studio, Go Shiina is on music, and Minoko Takasu is character designer and chief animation director.

The show is part of RG project, in which an anime and a game share one setting, and it is paired with the game GUNDAM ROGUE ORBIT. The anime is set roughly 100 years before the game, in the year A.A. (After Apocalypse) 45, after humanity has abandoned Earth. It is an era in which children born on the Moon and in colonies grow up treating the existence of the Apocalypse as everyday life.

The broadcaster and time slot had not been officially announced as of October 6, 2026. Once the broadcast details are set, the HG’s release date should be announced to match.

Summary: April 2027 at 2,750 Yen, Spine-Linked Articulation for Slack Posing, With the Date and Preorders Still to Come

The HG 1/144 Gundam ZERO releases in April 2027 at 2,750 yen, tax included. It was locked in at the 64th All Japan Model & Hobby Show, and the prototype is on display at Gundam Base Tokyo. The articulation is spine-linked, a first-ever technology for Gunpla aimed at slack, relaxed posing. The prototype is a slim machine in white and tricolor with small shields on both arms and a beam saber on the rear booster, and the right-arm weapon from the spec sheet is not reproduced yet. The price is higher than Aerial at 1,430 yen and GQuuuuuuX at 2,200 yen, but it stayed under 3,000 yen. The exact release date, the preorder start, and the windows and prices for METAL ROBOT SPIRITS and GUNDAM UNIVERSE had not been announced as of October 6, 2026.

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