Shoot them down, Funnels!
After years of waiting, one of the most popular vegetable-shaped—scratch that, mono-eye mobile suits from "Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn" has finally received the treatment it deserves. While the Kshatriya previously appeared as both High Grade and SD kits, Bandai never gave it a Gunpla release with a truly intricate internal frame. That changed in 2026, when Marida Cruz—also known as Ple Twelve—finally brought the Kshatriya to the popular MGSD line. Now this machine of the Sleeves can spread its four enormous wings and descend upon a universe consumed by war.
Opening the massive box reveals a stack of multicolored runners, including translucent purple parts made with Reflection Cut technology. These pieces reflect light to simulate the glow of a resonating Psycho-Frame.
The primary green armor comes in three distinct shades. Of course, with dark parts this large, Bandai's ever-present flow marks are almost impossible to avoid.
By comparison, the frame parts look excellent, with subtle metallic flecks adding a convincing finish. One thing to watch out for is the increasingly narrow runner gates. They make cleanup easier, but they also increase the risk of parts breaking loose and disappearing during shipping. Inspect every runner carefully before opening the bags and starting the build.
The silver frames inside the four binders use Bandai's Realistic Metallic Gloss Injection process. There are still some flow marks and visible gate locations, but most will be hidden beneath the exterior armor and have little effect on the finished model. With the key runners accounted for, it's time to start building!
The MGSD line is built around packing Master Grade engineering into an SD Gundam body. For the MGSD Kshatriya, Bandai added purple Psycho-Frame elements around the chest and even recreated the spherical cockpit capsule. Open it up and you'll find a molded seat inside!
The internal frame comes together quickly, creating a compact but formidable mechanical body standing roughly 15 centimeters tall.
Silver accents break up the frame, while the abundance of orange-yellow piping gives the machine an extra layer of mechanical realism.
Remove the chest armor and the cockpit assembly can swing outward, allowing the spherical capsule to eject. In the anime, however, Marida takes the Banshee's beam attack head-on, ultimately fading into stardust alongside the Kshatriya...
Much like the MG Zaku II Ver. 2.0, the head includes a linked eye mechanism. Turn the head and the pink mono-eye camera shifts with it.
Multiple joints in the waist and extendable shoulder assemblies give the upper body an impressive range of motion. Before the armor goes on, pulling off all kinds of amusing poses is a breeze—and no green peppers, please.
There is a physical stop near the top of each arm, however, preventing it from moving any closer to the body beyond a certain angle. Keep that limitation in mind while posing. The kit uses a pair of partially articulated hands, eliminating the need to store a pile of interchangeable options.
The rear view provides a clearer look at the upper body's maximum range, although pushing it too far will naturally expose some gaps in the construction.
Most of the mechanical detailing across the back disappears beneath the finished armor, but Bandai still packed this area with an astonishing amount of sculpted detail.
The hip assembly can be pulled downward to create additional clearance for the legs.
A removable cover conceals the display-stand socket underneath when it is not in use, a feature that has become standard across the MGSD line.
The silver knee armor moves in conjunction with the joint as the leg bends. Because of the Kshatriya's short SD proportions, however, the effect is not especially dramatic in practice.
With the main body covered, it's time to add those four enormous balancing thruster binders!
Unlike the High Grade version, each binder features an internal deployment mechanism along with newly added purple Psycho-Frame details unique to this MGSD interpretation.
That wraps up our look at the Kshatriya's internal frame. Now let's install the exterior armor and complete its final form.
Wrapped inside its four wings like Wing Gundam Zero EW during its iconic debut, the Kshatriya prepares to emerge from beneath its shell...
Marida Cruz, Kshatriya—launching!
Since I don't currently have an MGSD Unicorn Gundam on hand—seriously, where can you even find one?—the Real Grade Unicorn Gundam in Destroy Mode will have to serve as our height comparison.
Each massive wing weighs 55 grams. Once all four are attached, the complete Kshatriya tips the scales at more than 350 grams, giving this SD-proportioned kit some serious heft.
Once the head armor is installed, the opening around the mono-eye becomes extremely narrow. Without direct lighting, the eye is almost impossible to see.
The four chest-mounted Mega Particle Cannons feature excellent color separation. To see the spherical cockpit again, you'll need to lift the cockpit hatch upward.
The Sleeves' signature black-and-white ornamentation finally receives treatment even more lavish than the MG Sinanju. No stickers are required—the elaborate patterns are recreated entirely through separate parts.
The white section of each shoulder incorporates an original deployment gimmick created for this kit, revealing the piping underneath. The unusual decision to use C-clips for the opening mechanism is a little baffling, though.
Much like the Sinanju, the inside of each wrist can store a Beam Saber hilt.
The waist armor delivers tremendous visual impact, but it also interferes significantly with articulation.
The side and rear skirts feature slight pull-out mechanisms, but the extra clearance still isn't enough to make posing this heavily armored machine particularly easy. Even so, the rear skirts look fantastic, with panel lines and exposed internal details creating an impressive sense of depth.
Once the armor is installed, the short legs take on a much fuller and more substantial appearance.
Finally, let's turn our attention back to the Kshatriya's four gigantic balancing thruster binders.
With each side carrying more than 100 grams, the multi-axis support arms above the shoulders need extremely tight joints. Rotating them produces some nerve-racking plastic-on-plastic creaking, and every adjustment feels like it could snap one of the locking tabs.
The upside is that those joints can securely hold the binders open, creating a magnificent silhouette like a poisonous flower in full bloom.
If building the Nu Gundam's Fin Funnels was an endless hell of multiples of six, then the Kshatriya's binders deliver a karmic cycle of multiples of four that is every bit as daunting. Push each Mega Particle Cannon outward from inside the wing and its three yellow fins deploy in unison.
Assembling the first cannon is genuinely entertaining. Then you remember that every wing has two, making eight cannons in total—and 24 individual yellow fin parts. By the end, the process becomes more than a little repetitive.
The new opening mechanism on each binder reveals a densely packed Funnel container inside.
Each wing stores six Funnels, for a grand total of 24. With multiples of six colliding with multiples of four, there really is no escaping this endless cycle of karmic Gunpla repetition!
Thankfully, the kit does not include effect stands, so there's no immediate way to recreate the Kshatriya's full all-range assault. A few spare stands will have to do for this quick demonstration.
The tip of each binder also conceals a multi-jointed sub-arm that can extend outward in several stages.
Here's a particularly nice touch: one section of the sub-arm can store the Beam Saber hilt the Kshatriya stole from a ReZEL while infiltrating the industrial colony in the anime.
Combine those with the Beam Sabers held in its main hands and the Kshatriya can unleash a spectacular four-armed, four-sword assault!
That concludes our overview of the MGSD Kshatriya, easily one of my favorite Gunpla releases of the year. With this kit setting a precedent, could other massive mobile suits that have never received High Grade releases—such as the Quin Mantha—eventually join the MGSD line? It's an exciting possibility, although next year will probably belong to Setsuna.
It’s only you that can fly this new unicorn
Into the sky...
