pic with poseable mono-eye mod

Model Specifications

Capsule
I've been almost bed-ridden for the past 4 days which was awful. Thanks to my girlfriend, I had some HGUC kits to keep me company -this nifty little Zugock was one of them! It's nicely molded in colours and the segmented joints in the arms and legs are cool and poseable. It's neat... and at HGUC prices (this one goes for about 700 yen) it's quite a lot of bang for the buck. :)

The lack of any accessories is a little disappointing but keep in mind that this mech doesn't really have hands to hold anything anyway.

All in all, I'd say recommended.

Kit Details
In General
Molded in 3 runners (polycaps not included) and 5 colors - 2 shades of red, black, white and a very slight grayish black. Very easy assembly, with pretty good parts fit although not totally perfect. Most seamlines are hidden by virtue of the segmented parts in arms and legs, but some work will be required on the fore-arms, 3-part body and tanks on back.

Head Unit
Well... at least what you can call a head. The Zugock has it's head integrated into it's main-body so there isn't much of a head to talk about. The head on this kit is molded in 2 parts - a black inner piece covered with the red armor - the latter being shaped in a way that reveals the black piece under. This is pretty cool as it looks very realistic.

The mono-eye is nothing more than a sticker which is kinda disappointing. Another kit I assembled while 'bed-ridden' was an older model Zugock-E - and I don't understand why that could include a translucent red plastic piece for the eye and this one couldn't. Perhaps they wanted to allow for the eye to change position which a sticker allows. (though I don't know how many people actually like the idea of peeling off stickers and re-applying them)

6 holes on top of the red armor are a nice touch so that the 'vents' portruding through them are from the black part underneath.

Body Unit
The body is actually a 3-part affair: Upper body, abdomen and lower body area. The upper body includes a part almost like an inner skeleton to which the arms, head and abdomen join to... it also holds the armor covering together. It is not a inner skeleton only in the sense that it has no details molded in.

All the 4 vents on the front of the mech are molded on a black part which shows through the red outer armor. Nicely done!

Speaking of the 2 red armor pieces that form the main upper body, these will require some seam-filling as there are obvious seams around the shoulder and 'armpit' areas (that's if mechs had 'armpits' <grin>).

The abdomen is a simple 4 part affair - 2 outer pieces sandwiching 2 polycaps inside. When the abdomen joins with the upper body, these 2 parts have an amazing amount of articulation! Unfortunately, quite a bit of that is restricted once the lower body is attached - but still, the whole setup works very well.

Some reference pictures I have seen show that the part of the abdomen that fits onto the lower body is a lot rounder in shape than the earlier HGUC Zugock release (blue-ish version). This allows for a lot more poseability in that joint than before. Nice to know Bandai is upgrading the design as they go along rather than just re-hashing the old kit in another color.

The lower body (groin/crotch area) also has a kinda internal skeleton feel to it. An inner piece with 3 ball joints on it encased in 2 covering pieces which form the lower body. Although there are no armor flaps on this mech to hinder hip mobility, the triangular shape of this part prevents the Zugock from raising its leg straight up in front of itself. I have some action figures with a similar type joint and that can really mess up a figure's ability to pose properly. Fortunately for the Zugock, the segmented legs kinda make up for the loss in mobility in the hip area.

Arm Units
The purely functional (read - not visually realistic) inner skeleton is featured here again... 3 movable parts fit together like a short snake to form the upper arm. Each of these parts has a one-piece outer covering. The outer covering limits the overall poseability of each joint, but together, they give a decent range of movement.

Coupled with a good elbow joint that has about 80 degrees of articulation, we have pretty good poseability on the arms.

On the hands, each of the claws are molded in white and individually moveable... cool! The 'palm' area where the claws attach also rotates which is a nice little extra.

Guys who don't like seam-filling will have to note that the forearms do have visible seams down the sides.

Leg Units
Similar to the arms, 3 internal parts covered with an outer armor form the upper leg. These attach to a very nice knee joint which gives 90 degrees of mobility. The knee joint is very cool because part of the joint blends ito the lower leg when the joint is straight - in a sense, you could say it's a hidden joint (I'll try to put up some pics soon).

Ankle joint is very poseable - and the whole leg setup results in a mech that not only poses well, it can do a very mean crouch!

All in all I find the legs very well done. Although not many details are molded, the proportions are pretty good. Oh... zero visible seams on the legs!

Weapons & Accessories
There are *NONE*! I guess this is excusable since (a) this mech doesn't have any hands to hold anything and (b) this mech was never really seen with any accessories at any time (except perhaps a feddie or two impaled on its claws...). In any case, the lack of accessories is somewhat made up for by the cool segmented arms and legs.

The Good
Segmented arms and legs are cool looking and poseable!

Knee joint is very well done - the hidden joint as mentioned earlier is a nice touch.

Overall fit is pretty good - not to mention that with the multi-segment parts there are less seams to go around.

Long legs give the Zugock some height. I always thought the Zugock was somewhat of a short mech but its even a hair taller than my GM... yet with a little posing I can achieve the low-slung mean look too!

Overall poseability is fantastic.

3-part body is well designed and works very well!

The Bad
Due to the many joints, I suppose an inevitable consequence would be that the model feels a little 'looser' than others. It tends to flop around a little at some joints - but I don't think it's anything a little paint won't fix.

The mono-eye sticker just doesn't cut it for me. I've always hated stickers for eyes but somehow they look even worse on the zeon mono-eye mechs. I suppose a poseable eye is too much to ask for at 700 yen, but I would even prefer an embossed, translucent sticker like I've seen on some other Bandai kits... surely that wouldn't have cost them too much more?

While the simple look is very retro, I feel that the overall mech is a little *too* simple. A little more detail would have been welcome.

Update: Spent some time inspecting the Zugock after the review and compared it with the HG Zugock-E. I must say that somehow the older Zugock-E just looks more aggressive than this mech reviewed. I think it has to do with the overall proportions. While they aren't bad, I think they certainly could have been better if they widened the body, and gave the 'eye' vents a steeper incline for a meaner look. In fact, from some views/poses this mech can look a little wimpy - recommend always putting him in crouched position... he just looks better that way I guess.

In Closing
Nice kit. I am finding that quite a few HGUC kits are commendable in that they give pretty good value for their small price tag. Having said that, it's important to note that not all are great (the AMX-011S Zaku III was somewhat disappointing) - but I have to say that the Zugock is one of the better releases.

It could have looked cooler with a little more detail, but that's something I could live with. Not as good as the GM, but still cool.

Check out the gallery for more pics.

Send questions or comments to gunbase@hotmail.com.