What is the Highest Gunpla Grade? What Does the Grade Mean?

When I started building Gundam models, I was curious about what grades meant, as they aren’t available on other model kits. That’s when I learned about the grades, purpose, and highest Gunpla grades. So, what is the highest Gunpla Grade?

The highest Gunpla grade is called PG or Perfect Grade. As the name implies, this grade refers to the most detailed Gundam model on the market. Unfortunately, there are only a few models in this grade, since Bandai is always waiting for advances in the modeling industry to make their PG Gundams as realistic as possible.

This blog post will dive deeper into PG model kits. What do grades mean, the history of PG, and why PG models are few. Furthermore, we will also discuss the arrangement of Gundam grades from the least detailed to the most intricate, which is PG.

What is the highest Gundam Grade?

PG or Perfect Grade is the highest Gundam grade. It is considered one of the largest and most detailed commercially available Gunpla model kits. These kits are the best Gundam models made by Bandai and require the expertise of experienced modelers.

Before starting, we first need to understand what grade is and some misconceptions beginner modelers have about grades.

Grade in the Gundam model kit means how detailed the models are. A higher grade means the model looks more realistic than its lower-grade counterparts. Basically, a very high-grade Gundam kit is what an actual Gundam model would look like in real life.

The common misconception is that grade equals scale. While that is sometimes true, they are far from each other.

Two different grades can have the same scale. This is because what separates the grade is the number of details the model us.

For example, High Grade(HG) and Real Grade(RG) kits can be 1:144. First Grade(FG) and Master Grade(MG) can both be 1:100

In short, the higher the grade, the more life-like the model is.

When we say that the model is in the highest grade, this means this is the most life-like Gundam available.

The highest Gundam grade is called the perfect grade. This is considered the most detailed Gunpa kit. A PG Gundam is 1:60 in scale and is regarded as one of the largest commercially available Gundam models.

A PG Gundam is a 1:60 scale model. This means if you stack up 60 of these models, you will reach the life-like size of the actual Gundam.

For example, if you stack up 60 PG RX 78-2 Gundams, its height would be the same as the actual RX 78-2 in real life.

But why am I explaining this? This is because PG is also considered one of the largest commercially available grades.

For example, it would take 144 HG Gundam kits to reach a real Gundam height and 100 for MG kits.

Compare that to PG, which would only take 60.

Thus, while there are larger Gundam kits than PG, such as the MSM (1:48), PG is considered the largest commercially available kit.

PG Gundam started in 1998 when Bandai introduced the PG RX 78-2. However, until now, there are only a few kits made in PG because our current technology doesn’t allow many PG models.

The most important criteria in releasing a PG kit is that it should be incredibly realistic and has achieved every tiny detail a real Gundam has.

However, our technology doesn’t allow many Gundams to be as realistic as PG.

That’s why Bandai is always waiting for technological advances before releasing a PG model that can pass their quality check.

PG models are so intricate that they often use other materials and details they don’t use on different grades. For example, this is the only grade that actual metallic parts, multi-phase assembly, and highly intricate inner-frame.

Furthermore, many PG models include led lights on their models.

However, don’t think of building a PG as a beginner. Not only are PG kits hard to make for Bandai, but it is also hard to build.

Usually, it takes weeks for modelers to finish their PG kits fully, as they should be meticulous while building them.

For example, it took three weeks to build this PG Unicorn as it is also custom painted.

As you can see, a PG model would look significantly different from other models. For example, here is an RG model.

It also took me about 2-3 weeks to finish the PG Wing Gundam, which you’ve seen at the start of this post.

As a beginner, do not ever start with PG. Not only is PG costly, but it also includes very delicate parts, and it is harder to build than other grades.

Furthermore, it is larger than other model grades. Thus, it has more parts than others.

Recommended Read: If you are interested in knowing what grades to start as a beginner, I recommend you read my post about RG models: Is RG Good for Beginners?

If PG is the highest grade, what is the arrangement between the least detailed to the highest detailed? That’s what we will discuss in the next section.

How many grades are there in Gundam?

There are currently 5 commercially available grades in Gundam, which as High Grade (HG), Real Grade (RG), Master Grade (MG), Perfect Grade (PG), and Super Deformed (SD). In addition, there are also unique grades such as Entry Grade (EG), Mega Size Model (MSM), and Speed Grade (SG).

The EG, MSM, and SG are not common. Thus, they aren’t important as the 5 other Gundam grades.

However, these rare Gundam grades are worth noting, so you’ll know what they are.

EG or Entry Grade is a unique line made for Southeast Asians. The models are like HG kits, except they are more accurate in color.

MSM or Mega Size Models are very large model kits that are in the 1:48 scale. While it is true that PG is considered to be the largest common grade, MSM is bigger and is only being released on special occasions such as Bandai’s 30th anniversary.

Speed Grade (SG) is one of the smallest Gundam kits available. While the smallest commercially available kits are the HG and RG, which are 1:144 scale, Speed grades are 1:200 scale.

Here is the arrangement of the most detailed to the least detailed for the five common grades.

The highest Gundam grade is the PG, followed by the MG and the RG, then the HG and SD.

Sometimes, the SD is considered the least detailed since they are considered the “chibi” Gundam. Hence, they are less complex than HG kits.

However, many Gunpla modelers don’t consider SD kits a real Gundam. That’s why they consider HG to be the least detailed.

Differentiating these 5 common grades would make this blog long, so I suggest you stay tuned for that post.

Recommended Read: Are you ready to start building your kit? Do you know how much time you need to create 1 Gundam model? I made a post summarizing how much time you need to build each model grades here: How long does it take to build a Gundam Model?