[Review] HG U.C. HARDGRAPH 1/144 ZAKU THE GROUND WAR SET

 

Hello peeps! For my second review, I’ll be trying out my camera for time lapse build videos. Please forgive the poor quality and bear with me until I figure out the logistics.

Here’s the box art. This is a larger than average sized high grade kit bundling the HGUC Zaku II Mass Production Type with 4 new runners for the ground war accessories.

 

Here’s the build of the HGUC Zaku II:

 

The Zaku II’s mould is very dated (based on the HGUC Char’s Zaku II released in 2002). But sadly, back in 2009, at the time which this was released, this was the latest mould they’ve got of the Zaku II (since the Zaku II FZ released in 2008 was too far a departure from the original design and the Zaku II F2 came out in February 2010, exactly a year after this set was released… ~_~).

Now that we know that this kit is technically 12 years old, let’s see how it actually compares to our modern day standards…

For starter,  inappropriate hangar placement!

 

A grand total of 1 sticker in the entire kit for the monoeye:

 

 

Proportions are VERY dated. Here’s a quick comparison with the F2’s.

 

From the bottom up:

-the lower legs are too shorter

-waist is thinner and literally look like skirts

-left shoulder armor has roughly the same dimension on all three sizes as opposed to the wider on the F2

-shoulder spikes are too large and round

-biggest problem is the head, its neck joint is too long, making it look almost detached to the body, and the “snout” and the mono-eye opening  are unnecessarily large, resulting in the goofy aesthetics.

Thanks for foreshortening though, you can sort of cheat some of these proportional problems. In fact, this model proportions seems like it’s almost made exclusive for looking at it from above at desk height. It’s similar to photographing people, all the low shots usually turn out unflattering.

 

 

Comes with a commander’s antenna from the Char’s version’s mould which the manual tells you to throw out because Bandai thinks you’re stupid and you want to buy another HGUC Char’s Zaku II just to get it.

 

The mono-eye can rotate, but you’ll either have to rip its scalp off (which is a pain in the ass) or aggresively scrub the mono-eye sticker with a q-tip until friction does it for you (still a pain in the ass).

 

…might as well change the helmet to the non-commander version while im at it…

 

head up and down movement…

…next to none

Achievement unlocked: 360 head rotation!

some forward movement on the shoulders

shoulder can move on a hinge and allow the arm to raise up to 90 degrees, though I never really get why it has to do that if it just looks so ridiculously awkward.

this is about as much as it can go before it hits the awkward angle.

Shield 360 movement confirmed

Elbow bend: 90 degrees

 

360 rotation below the shoulder

forward kick at skirt height

90 degree backward kick below skirt height

which means it can impress the gyals via manly splits

slight rotation at the thigh and side kick is minimal

believe it or not, the knee bend is actually less than 90 degrees, but the bulky calf armor can give the illusion that it does slightly more

what redeems this kit in the articulation department is its legendary ankle joint which allows for a 90+ degree forward rotation

and allow for some toe down “aerial pose”

though a very unsightly one from the front

360 rotation confirmed

can serve as ghetto leg extensions

you can use it to cheat the proportions if you’d like

armaments:

first up is the 3-tube missile pods. It’s loose and flops around the legs… a lot.

individual missiles are easily removable

the staple heat hawk

its size is underwhelming in contrast to those gorilla hands

that’s about as dynamic as I could get with ground posing that heat hawk

the Zaku can’t actually hold the heat hawk properly as the hand holes are way too big for the handle, so it’s dinky AND loose.

aerial posing with this guy’s a nightmare, there’s no peg for an action base and the wait is too bulky and round for the Tamashi Stage to get a proper grip, and the missile pods will keep rotating out of position, on top of that the heat hawk almost never stays in one place.

it comes with a connector to allow for mounting capabilities on the side skirts

looks okay from the side

terrible from the front, and the connector doesn’t like to stay in the peg hole because the hole depth is less than a quarter of the length of the peg…

our beloved Zaku machine gun with a left trigger finger hand, it also comes with a right trigger finger hand which is very nice to have

and when the a machine gun is armed up in a Zaku’s right hand, you know what’s coming…

Char kick! (grunt edition)

Zaku bazooka

handle and scope swivels

“over the shoulder” pose is possible on top of the left shoulder armor, but that’s about as far as you can get before you pop the hand out of its socket.

and yes, it can kneel.

a very pleasant surprise

the right hand’s more appropriate for using the bazooka thanks to its flat shoulder design

no problems with the two-handed approach

it can mount the bazooka on its back but you first gotta get that panel to flip down… and it doesn’t actually flip down, you pretty much have to rip the back skirt off to get to it.

…and break a peg or two in the process

the attachment isn’t very secure.

“fully armed up” (for now), and the bazooka and the heat hawk will just fall at the drop of a hat

With the ability to dual wield weapons, you probably won’t be using those stupid attachments anyway

this back view actually looks pretty good

dat ankle joint tho

aerial poses still aren’t that great

decent detail on the feet though

 

Overall thoughts:

This is my first Zaku kit ever, and fortunately it does not disappoint. Even though the mould is ancient and the engineering is sub-par, it was refreshing to see how this thing came together almost 12 years ago. It was an interesting build with acceptable results.

tl;dr

 

GOOD

-can do splits

-can kneel

-2 trigger finger hands

-ankle joints

 

BAD

-bad proportions

-bad posability

-can’t grip heat hawk

-loose heat hawk connector

-bad bazooka connector

 

That’s all for the HGUC Zaku II parts. Now onto the main event! Here’s the build video of the Ground War Set parts:

As i’m used to always buildings MS kits, it was very interesting to build a tank for a change. Of course, as I’m not used to building old-school-military-esque kits, I did find that you can easily screw up in a view places if you don’t pay careful attention to the instructions. Other than that, it was a pretty straight forward build, you just gotta do it twice cause the 3rd and 4th runners are exact copies of the first two.

 

ACCESSORIES FOR ZAKU II

1 open left hand and 1 very peculiar right hand which is used for the next accessory. You get 2 of each, but they’re the exact same hands, so you’ll have them lying around as extras.

2 Sturm fausts & 2 side skirt connectors

fits into the very peculiar hand for “dynamic poses” I suppose? They are somewhat loose in those special hands though, and I find that the original fists from the Zaku kit works just fine.

2 Bazooka “smoke effect parts”, comes in pitiful grey which Bandai expects you to paint into gradients of white to grey

2 Wappas with pilots, very cool and nicely detailed

pilot is removable.

3 army men (2 Feddies, 1 Zeon)x2

size comparison with the Zaku II

2 crackers, very dinky.

The main attraction: The 1/144 Type 61 “M61A5 MBT” Tank x2

Badass.

Dual cannons up-down movement

 

size comparison with a lego blog (approx. 1cm tall)

size comparison with a 1/144 human and the Zaku II

Zaku II is also about 12 blocks tall

The details on this model are very sexy. This alone makes the kit well worth the purchase.

Explosion effect parts & broken tank treads x2. Again, in “we’re-too-cheap-to make-clear-runners” grey. Not very convincing.

That’s more like it.

Before

After

 

…and finally, a nice sheet of waterslide decals, with instructions on decal placements too.

 

FINAL THOUGHTS

After seeing the Type 61 Tank’s in action from MS IGLOO 2, I just couldn’t resist getting a model of it in 1/144 scale. The details are fantastic as with all U.C. HardGraph kits, which makes me wonder if they just took the larger model and shrunk it down. This kit is basically made for building dioramas, and the tanks are just awesome, AND you get 2 of them, so for all you people with OCDs of always having to get 2 of each item, this is a good incentive. On a serious note, this kit retails for 2200 yen, and the HGUC Zaku II included retails for 1000 yen when sold separately, so you’re basically paying 1200 yen for 2 Type 61 tanks, 6 army men and some accessories. For 4 runners, 1200 yen is a fine asking price, far better than the extremely over priced EX kits. It all comes down to how much you really like the Type 61 Tanks, if you like them, then you’d be willing to pay 1200 yen even for these 2 tanks alone, if not, and you’re not interested in painting your kits or making dioramas then this kit is an easy pass.

tl:dr

GOOD

-1/144 TYPE 61 Tanks!

-1/144 Wappas

-2 OF THEM!

-great detail

 

BAD

-build the same thing twice

-2 sets of the same hands instead of opposite hands

-grey effect parts

-2 dinky crackers that you’ll probably never use

-comes with an outdated Zaku II

 

Anyways, as you probably know by now I really enjoyed putting this kit together. Hope this review’s been informative,  I’ll catch y’all later.