Model Specifications

Capsule
An expensive kit which is very time-and-energy-consuming to complete... but very good design with loads of gimmicks. Model is also high on realism and detail, not to mention poseability. If you can afford the time, energy and cash, then go for it!

Kit Details
In General
One of the 4 perfect grade kits available (Gundam RX-78-2, 2 Zakus: green & red and the latest Wing Gundam Zero Custom), this kit is huge at the scale of 1/60. It has a lot of parts so I will be reviewing them as I build them in modules... first the head... then the arms... you get the idea.

Correction: Thanks to "GekigangarIII" from the Gundam Project Message Board for pointing out that I missed out an important fifth Perfect Grade kit - the Zeta Gundam!

I thought you might like a breakdown of the hours I spent on the various stages of construction along with the parts involved. Remember though, that the time *I* spend and the time *you* or someone else spends might vary greatly. In any case, the hours only include time assembling the model wih the sanding away of some 'molding seams' - no painting or gluing or seam filling involved.

I'd rate the difficulty of this kit as a shade higher than the Master Grade kits simply because the higher part count can make some of the diagrams more complicated - oh... there's also a little wiring involved in assembling the light-up mono-eye and quite a few screws to work with.

What any potential builders of this kit should know is that this kit requires commitment to complete - 588 parts is really a lot of parts to put together and even more parts to carefully paint and detail. However, if you are patient and committed, you *will* be rewarded with an excellent Zaku model that's far cooler and any MG or HG kit you can buy.

The colours of the kit are actually very good in my opinion. Green plastic can sometimes look cheesy and toy-like but looking at the assembled (but unpainted) kit before me right now I must say that it looks good even without paint.

One last note before I begin... many screws of different sizes are used throughout the kit to ensure strong joints, so I won't be taking time to mention them during the review like I sometimes do (i.e. with kits using only a couple of screws).

Head Unit
Just to give you an idea of the number of parts we are looking at at the Perfect Grade level, the head alone as you see here consists of 41 parts! That doesn't add the 20+ parts for the hose that attaches to it. I must do a count of the MG Zaku II head for a full comparison. :)

I really enjoyed putting this head together - took about 2.5 hours in all. The mono-eye has an LED that is ingeniously included in the whole head array so that it works even when the eye is moved left or right. This movement can be achieved by operating a lever on the base of the back of the head.

Detail is very nice and some is visible from the flip-top 'hood' on the top of the head. You can see more of the internals by removing the 2 sides of the head armor which is held on by polycaps - nice touch!

Batteries for the mono-eye are stored in the neck unit just under the head - you will need to purchase 2 LR43 1.5v batteries (normally used for watches I believe) for this. I strongly recommend that you get these prior to assembly so that you can test the whole light setup before you build the rest of the kit - so that you can correct any errors before moving on. I cannot stress this enough - I put the whole thing together only to realize after installing the batteries that the setup didn't work... a lot of disassembly followed. :)

Tip for Electronics Assembly: To establish contact between the 2 wires supplied and the rest of the circuit, the instructions guide you to put the end of the wire into a small hole and then put a screw into the hole - the idea is that the screw threads will cut through the insulation and make contact with the wires inside. This was the problem causing my circuit not to work. I recommend stripping a little of the insulation off the wires before putting the screw in and putting in extra effort to ensure that there is contact between the screw and the wires throughout the whole circuit.

Another Tip: As the wires will o through the inside of the head all the way through to the base of the neck, it is a good idea to paint all the head-internals *before* assembly as you will not want to have to take everything apart again after you ensure the circuit works just to paint and detail the internals.

The mono-eye, once setup, lights up extremely brightly.

What I particularly like about the head unit is the neck. The RX-78-2 simply has the head on a ball joint. The Zaku has a nice neck assembly that allows the head to look up and down with a very nice action - there are 2 simulated pistons that move as you do this... very cool.

Tip for Cable Assembly: When assembling the cables on the head (this applies to all the other assembly steps involving the cables), you will find the spring way too short to fit everything on comfortably... don't worry - you didn't get a defective kit! Simply thread what you can onto the spring and then stretch the spring out to accomodate more parts. Be careful though that you hold the stretched spring properly until you get screw that secures the whole assembly on at the end - otherwise the tension will cause all the parts to fly everywhere if you lose your grip.

Once completed the hatch on top of the head opens to reveal the internal details - just like on the MG Zaku kits.

Click here for more pictures of the head assembly.

Arm Units
The next parts to assemble are the arms. These aren't hard to do, though you should pay special attention to use the correct parts for each step. With this kit, you should expect to spend quite a bit of time looking through the many runners of parts to find what you need.

There are cool chromed pistons that extend and contract when the joints of the arms move. The whole assembly is nice and tight and very cool to watch when in action. Compared to the arm of the RX-78, the Zaku arm is a little less complex but in my opinion that's an advantage - the whole assemby has a more solid feel.

One aspect of the design I especially like is on the fore-arm elbow joint. It's gonna be hard to explain but I'll try... there is a flap built onto the fore-arm that slides into the rest of the arm when the elbow bends - this allows the elbow joint a lot of flexibility without an ugly 'gap' in the forearm to allow for the joint to work. If you don't get it, just trust me on this... it's a simple idea but an excellent one nicely executed!

Hands are fully articulated with 3 individual segments per finger/thumb... this is *after all* a Perfect Grade kit y'know! I love these hands but due to the molding process, each segment has a little circle molded into one side of it which just got to me - so I puttied them up. They are hardly noticeable on a kit this big though so if you hate puttying, don't worry about it. Oh... it's nice that the articulated fingers are actually molded with the 3 segments already attached - very ingenious!

Although the armor is easily removable, there is only one 'flap' on each arm that can be opened. The Gundam, in comparison,has at least 3 hatches on each arm that can be opened to reveal internals.

Leg Units
The arms took time to build - more than 3 hours each... but the legs took me even more - about 5 hours each!

These are very well done and also feature several working chromed pistons. I especially like the knee design which has very nice action when bending and straightening. And speaking of bending, these knee joints have excellent articulation! I'm certain this figure can do a good crouch when completed. I'll be sure to get some pics up of the knee at full bend. This is even more remarkable when you conside that this is a bulky Zaku model here, not a sleek Gundam... so the full articulation is impressive!

The hip joint features (like the fingers) - working joints which have been molded as one piece.

The feet on the Zaku have individually poseable fore-feet and heels - this adds to the realism of the model design. Although the foot design is nice, there is limited forward ankle articulation.

All armor is easily removable to show the detailed inner skeleton. In addition, the knee pads and the armor on each foot can be 'opened'. The cables attaching upped to lower leg are essentially the same design as that found in the head and on the main body.

The whole leg assembly has a very solid feel and is very well designed.

Body Unit
Upper body houses the cockpit which features a chair which slides from side to side. The cockpit has 2 hatches which open. A small one which looks too small for the pilot to exit from as well as the entire central chest area which can flip open. Presumably the chair slides from side to side depending on the hatch that the pilot open. This sliding mechanism eliminates the engine block which is in the MG Zaku chest areas beside the fixed pilot seats.

Lower body is straightforward to assemble as all 5 flaps (2 front, 2 side and 1 rear) are poseable to allow for maximum hip mobility. Of special note is a little feature which is both useless but cool at the same time - the rear and front flaps are attached to a special suspension system so you can actually push down on them. The spring in the system pushes the back into position once the pressure is released. The crotch section lowers down to reveal inner details (insert own joke here).

The backpack features 2 thrustes and a couple of smart joints which allow the backpack armor to be flipped up to show the internal details. There is even a piston there which appears to hold the armor up - just like popping open a car hood. It's a nice touch. 2 thrusters are poseable but not like in most MG setups where the rocket output sits on a moveable ball-joint - rather, the entire rocket unit hiding under the backpack armor is moveable.

Weapons & Accessories
To be completed.

The Good
Working pistons throughout the robot are very cool - they add to the realism of the model although I'm not sure if the chrome works for me. :)

Very solid figure. It is heavy (588 parts baby!!!) and feels like a Zaku!

The mono-eye is just too cool. It lights up very much brighter than the RX-78 Gundam's eyes - I tried it in a dark room and it lighted up a whole wall in a creepy red when activated. When positioned to the side it makes the Zaku look plain mean!

Conductive cables are very well done. The tension in the springs give the cables a very realistic feel.

Some design aspects are very cool, like the design of the conductive cables and the flap in the forearms mentioned earlier.

Proportions are very good and the Zaku looks very brutish! While most of the internal details are hidden under the removable armor, some cool joints and pistons show just enough to hint at the mechanical accuracy and realism of the model.

Poseable fingers... 'nuff said.

The Bad
It's a lot of work to put this together... I'm on a break from work at the moment so I could afford the time but spending more than 24 hours on a kit isn't a joke... and that doesn't even include weapons assembly and painting yet!

The sliding chair mechanism was a nice attempt at including a gimmick into the chest area (after all, the Gundam has that cool core-fighter system). However, it really doesn't work for me. The sliding switch for the chair is not accessilble without removing the head... and even when that happens the switch doesn't work all that smoothly anyhow. Perhaps they should have included an engine core instead.

Holes in the fingers... just wastes my time to putty and sand...

In Closing
All in all, I don't have many negative comments to make about this kit - I like it very much. It is costly but for the price you do get a lot. It may not have as many gimmicks as it's Gundam counterpart, but it makes up for it by just being a Zaku - which has attitude!!!

If you like Master Grade kits and feel that you are up for a greater challenge (and if you have a fat wallet) then go pick up one of these bad boys! You won't regret it.

Comparison to Some Other PGs:

As a note, the green Zaku I built is almost identical to the red Char's version... it even comes with an optional leader's antennae if I want to use it. The only difference - aside from the colour - would be the thruster openings at the rear of the lower legs - the Char version has somewhat larger vents molded.

So which is better the PG Gundam or the Zaku? I can only give a full answer when I complete my half-finished Gundam but so far I have enjoyed the Zaku more... one reason is that I felt the molding of the Zaku parts was of better quality so it required less sanding. Believe me, when assembling a kit with a part count as high as this, less sanding and seam removal (or any other time consuming, repetative tasks) are much welcome things. So I'd say if you're torn between the two, get the Zaku.

Check out the gallery for more pics.

Send questions or comments to gunbase@hotmail.com.