A Price Analysis of Real Grade Gunpla model kits

Welcome to the second edition of our new blog series, in which conduct a deep dive price analysis of Gunpla model kits. In our first edition, we covered the High Grade line of model kits. Next up is my personal favorite: the Real Grade variety of Gunpla.

In case you are wondering about the data that we used for this analysis, let us start off with some numbers. This deep dive covered a total of 39 different RG models. In total, we track the prices of 615 distinct offerings. This implies that we have data on almost 16 unique vendors per Real Grade kit on average.

Enough on the dataset for now. Let us delve into the findings, shall we? The average price of a Real Grade product offer across the vendors we cover is slightly over $39. Like what we found in our analysis of HG models, however, this may offer a misleading picture due to some kits that are extraordinarily expensive.

The average price for the Last Shooting Zeong Effect Set, for example, comes in just below $100. Other expensive Real Grade kits include the Nu Gundam Finnel Effect Set, the Full Armor Unicorn Gundam and the fan favorite RG edition of the Hi-Nu Gundam. On the contrary, the cheapest Real Grade models include Char’s custom Z’Gok, both the regular Zaku II as well as Char’s custom Zaku II, and the Aile Strike Gundam.

In situations like this, it might be better to look at the so-called median price. In short, this represents the price of the typical Real Grade kit. For the RG line of Gundam model kits, the median price is $31.50. If we look at the typical price range for Real Grade models, this starts at about $28.75 and goes up to $34.25 approximately. As such, we find an average cost savings rate of 9%. In other words, it is well worth your time to make a quick comparison of Real Grade offerings when purchasing your next model kit.

If we look at which series has the highest number of RG offerings, Mobile Gundam Suit SEED takes the definitive top spot with 9 different models. Tied in second place come Mobile Suit Gundam Wing and the original Mobile Suit Gundam with 5 different Real Grade kits each. Fans of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam, and Mobile Suit Gundam Build Fighters are unlucky in this regard with only 1 Real Grade model per series.

Comparing the average Real Grade model kit price per series also demonstrated that these three series with the smallest number of models were the cheapest. As such, we wanted to evaluate the hypothesis that less popular series – as measured by the amount of different RG kits – also featured a lower average model price. A variety of statistical methods demonstrated, however, that this was not the case.

So, that is it for this second edition of this series in which we dive deep into Gunpla pricing. Hopefully, you have enjoyed this analysis of Real Grade model kits and will join us for our third article where we will be covering the rare, but amazing Perfect Grade Gunpla. And do not forget to compare the prices of your next RG model on our website to profit from that average 9% cost savings rate.