Gunpla #23 - RG Zaku II Review

My fifth RG as well as my first Zaku kit :-)

The idea of building Zaku actually came from nowhere. I just walked around a shopping mall to see some new kits, then I saw this guy. Well, I haven't bought any gunpla kits for more than 6 months, hence how about givin a try to this kit ?? Furthermore, I didn't have any Zakus in my collection. So, that's it. The green Zeon mobile suit box got into my room few hours later. I prefer the green Zaku over the red Char's custom Zaku, because I love grunt suits better.

I had almost no major problems building the Zaku, well, except for those springs for the leg cables. Somehow, they're too short to hold the pipe pieces, hence the cables sometime popped out while the legs were bent. Therefore, I glued the top two pipes on each ends of the cables and finally It solved the problem.

Aesthetically, this kit looks beautiful. The panel lines and color separation just perfect. The articulation was also quite good. I said 'quite good' because, while the hands and legs were able to do some great poses, the waist joint and skirts on the other hands were terrible. Sometimes they just fell or popped out the place. I also had small incident with the head. When I put the head for the first time, I felt the neck was too long and looked really different from the manual. Hence I push down the head stronger, and finally the click sound was heard and the head finally had correct neck length. I was scared that the head will be broken because of the force. Anyway, IMO, the best gimmick of this kit also came from the head. When the head turn left or right, the eye will also move to the direction. It's very cool.

This kit came with many accessories. You got Zaku machine gun, Zaku bazooka and a heat axe. Other than normal RG hands, you'll also get standard trigger hand and open hand. And of course, as any other RG kits, this Zaku had a large sheet of clear stickers. I had to admit, the stickers of RG Zaku were probably the best I've ever seen for an RG kit. The color of stickers just blend perfectly with the kit :-)

Final thoughts, this was a great RG kit. The articulation was quite good, great gimmicks, lots of accessories and nice decals. Just be careful with those legs cable and you'll be OK :-)   

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MS-06 Zaku II (Mass production type)

Pros :

• Highly detailed kit with lots of panel lines
• Lots of accessories and great clear stickers
• Nice head visor gimmicks

Cons :

• Poor articulated waist and fragile skirts
• Spring cables on both legs tends to pop out easily
• The head need to be pushed forcefully to get proper neck length, hence vulnerable to be broken if you're not careful.