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Hasegawa is turning Kaine Wakaba’s machine from Metal Armor Dragonar, the Dragonar-1, into a 1/72 scale kit. It’s all-new tooling, catalog number CW29 in the Creator Works series, priced at $56 (tax included; $51 before tax), with release planned for around December 25, 2026.
This is the kit whose sample caused a traffic jam in front of the glass case at the 64th All Japan Model & Hobby Show. It follows Crusher Joe and Xabungle as Hasegawa’s latest Sunrise mecha. Dragonar, finally. There’s a real lump-in-the-throat quality to that.
The sculpt is based on Kunio Okawara’s design art. In other words, instead of padding things out with an interpretation of how the mech was animated on screen, this goes straight for the proportions of the design art. At 268mm tall and 138mm wide it has the kind of commanding size you expect from 1/72, and the outer armor carries fine mechanical detail.
The question is how far the “no glue needed, 8-color molding” spec—very much Hasegawa’s recent house style—carries the look straight out of the box. Even as a painter, I want to stand a kit like this up unpainted and stare at it for a while before I bring a brush anywhere near it. Let’s go through the official specs: color separation, articulation, then weapons.
*Prices in this article are converted from Japanese yen at a reference rate of ¥153 = US$1.
What Kind of Kit Is Hasegawa’s 1/72 Dragonar-1? A Faithful Gawaragnar
To lead with the conclusion: this is a newly tooled kit built to the design art, loaded up with glue-free multi-color molding and articulation gimmicks across the board.
A faithful rendering of the Kunio Okawara design—the “Gawaragnar,” if you like.
Similar to but distinctly not the Barignar that PLAMAX released, and a gem in its own right.
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Product name | Metal Armor Dragonar XD-01 Dragonar-1 |
| Scale / catalog number | 1/72 / CW29 (Creator Works series) |
| Price | $56 (tax included; $51 before tax) |
| Release | Around December 25, 2026 (manufacturer shipping December 22) |
| Size | Model height 268mm / model width 138mm |
| Assembly | No glue needed, 8 part colors, detail marking decals included |
| Sculpting support | Kazushi Kobayashi (Modelism) |
According to Hasegawa’s official product page, the model is based on Kunio Okawara’s design art and requires no glue to assemble. A 268mm-tall figure at 1/72 is nearly double the bulk of HGUC Gundam-series kits (roughly 130mm at 1/144). It’s going to eat more desk space than you expect, so line up a display spot before it arrives.
How Far Does the Color Separation Go? Can You Hit the Design Art Without Paint?
The part colors are white, red, blue, yellow, gray, black, clear yellow and clear green—eight in total. Even the stripes on the shins are separated out as their own parts.
The heart of Dragonar-1 is that tricolor scheme, red and blue running across a white body. Handle that with stickers and it instantly looks cheap, so splitting the shin stripes into molded colors is an honest piece of design. Hasegawa’s own wording is that the kit “finishes with an atmosphere close to the design art.”
The head camera eye is a choice between two versions, clear yellow and standard yellow. You can either let the clear part catch the light or go flat and take the solid look of the design art. I’m dropping the clear part in without hesitation, but if you want everything matched to the design art, yellow is closer to what you remember from the screen.
If I’m naming a concern, it’s that 8-color molding also means a more complicated runner layout. There are more gate marks to clean up, so the sharpness of your nippers feeds straight into the finish. Stress whitening along a white-to-red boundary really shows, so I’d call a second, closer cut mandatory here.
What About Articulation and Weapons? Can It Hold the 75mm Hand Rail Gun in Both Hands?
It can. Hasegawa states outright that the shoulder joints swing forward, so you can pose the model bracing the 75mm Hand Rail Gun Type LPS9 with both arms.
The joints throughout use a generous helping of poly-caps, and the stretch from the ankles up through the shins includes sliding movement to secure the range of motion. The rear nozzle (lower) and its cover are articulated too, so you can reproduce both the deployed and stowed states. Letting parts slide away toward the inside of the armor is the standard trick for buying ground contact on a design-art-faithful kit like this.
The included weapons are as follows.
- 75mm Hand Rail Gun Type LPS9
- Close-combat laser sword x2 (the two can also be joined together and held as one)
- Close-combat assault knife x2
- Hybrid shield x1
- Throwing bomb x2
For hands you get five pieces in total: left and right fists (with articulated fingers), left and right open hands (with articulated fingers), plus a right weapon-holding wrist. Having articulated-finger fists for both sides is a big deal. When you brace the rail gun in two hands, being able to tighten up the finger angles is what sells the pose.
Being able to link the two laser swords together is a reward spec that lets you recreate the show’s money shot as-is. I’ve always felt Dragonar-1 is the type you have more fun posing with this close-range gear than with the weapon swaps it gets as a “Dragoon.”
When Is the Release Date? How Much Does It Cost? Preorder Guidance
The planned release is around December 25, 2026, and the price is $56 (tax included; $51 before tax). Manufacturer shipping is listed as December 22, 2026.
For $56 you get 1/72 scale at 268mm tall, all-new tooling, 8-color molding, poly-cap articulation, five weapons and decals. Measured against the going rate for character model kits in this class, I rate that as fair for the volume you’re getting. Launching on Christmas Day itself feels deliberate, too.
One note: Hasegawa’s official site states that its own online shop has not been accepting orders since the end of June 2023 due to various circumstances. Rather than waiting on direct sales from the manufacturer, the realistic move is to lock in a preorder at a hobby shop or through an online retailer.
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Summary: A Kit That Stands the Design-Art Dragonar-1 Up Straight Out of the Box
Hasegawa’s Creator Works series CW29, Metal Armor Dragonar XD-01 Dragonar-1, is a 1/72 scale kit with all-new tooling, planned for release around December 25, 2026. The price is $56 (tax included; $51 before tax), with a model height of 268mm and width of 138mm. The sculpt is based on Kunio Okawara’s design art, with sculpting support from Kazushi Kobayashi (Modelism).
Glue-free 8-color molding separates the colors right down to the shin stripes, and the head camera eye comes in two selectable versions. The shoulders swing forward so the 75mm Hand Rail Gun can be held in both hands, the ankles through the shins get sliding movement, and the rear nozzle (lower) and cover can be posed deployed or stowed. Weapons are the rail gun, two laser swords, two assault knives, a hybrid shield and two throwing bombs, with five hand pieces in total. Taken together with its place in the line of Hasegawa Sunrise mecha after Crusher Joe and Xabungle, this is one worth securing.
A 1980s Sunrise mecha arriving with 2026 manners: faithful to the design art, all-new tooling, no glue required. Honestly, that’s an event. What I want to credit is the decision to split the shin stripes into molded colors—refusing to leave that to stickers is what sets the ceiling on the finish. The flip side of 8-color molding is more gate cleanup, and stress whitening on the white parts is the one thing to be careful about.
This is one I absolutely want to display next to PLAMAX’s 1/72 Dragonar-1, the one everybody calls the Barignar. A Gawaragnar and Barignar double act? Far too good.
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