So lets start with some of the basics, The RG Zaku II will run you about 30.00 USD or as the box says 2,625 Japanese Yen. It is the second release in the new Real Grade series, Bandai will pretty much release the same series of figures when trying out a new grade. The first release is always a RX 78-2 and then they release its counter part The Char's Zaku II. It was said that the next Real Grade release was going to be the normal green Zaku II but to the surprise of most Bandai decided to move on to an unsuspected Suite. The next Suite to be released in April of 2011 will be the Aile Strike Gundam heres a little sneak peak of the what you may expect.
In the picture they display the PG Strike Gundam doing some poses, so I hope they are alluding that the RG version will be able to make some of these poses.
Anyways back on topic, The RG Zaku II is everything they set out for it to be. When I buy a kit always look at a few things; Detail, Articulation, Gimmicks, Weapons, and the ability to modify (I will get into this more later).
Heres a shot of the box art, and I do have to say it looks pretty awesome. I love the colors they used on the box art, the deep reds and salmon colors. So I decided when I went to paint the kit I would use the box art as inspiration.
The Real grade implements some cool technology much like what you see in the hands of Perfect Grades with its advanced MS joint runner. You can see that the advanced plate already has the small joints made up to save you the frustration of creating tiny joints. They are also much stronger this way, less likely to break. I know some were a little upset saying that the advanced runner takes away from building but I disagree theres much more to the inner frame than that one plate.
As far as articulation of the frame goes there is great mobility in every sense. The frame was designed to be able to pretty much do any of the action poses that you may have seen in the Anime. Bandai released these few shots to show what its capable of.
The RG Zaku has a great range of motion, totally blows away any 1/144 scale HG I have ever seen. Starting with the head and moving down.
The head is on a double ball joint so you get the same chicken like movement that you see in Master Grades. The head has a bit movement left and right, whats really cool is when you turn the head the mono eye moves much like the MG Zaku II 2.0. Because of this gearing you can not get a full 360 with the head. The head is very detailed, the panel lines are very nice, there are holes cut for the vents in front (No need to paint the vent black like in the HG), the cable armor around the head are individual beads that are strung onto plastic runners much like the MG 2.0 version. Very nice over all
You can see that the shoulders can almost come out in front of the Zaku, this is great if you want to pose him in his shoulder bash. Anyways moving on to the arms, they connect at the peg and have 2 points at the elbow so that they can come straight up. The detail of the arms is just what you would expect from a Master Grade. There are multiple colors (5 shades of red through out the whole figure), moving armor pieces that expose inner frame when bent, and very detailed panel lines once again.
The hands are probably my favorite part as I stated last night. The RG comes with two sets. One set is the standard fisty set, and the second set are the almost fully articulating hands I spoke about last night. Like I said last night all the fingers have a ball joint at the first knuckle, and another joint at the second knuckle. Only the fore finger and thumb are independent, and the other three are connected (but they still all have the second knuckle).
The torso and waist connect at a double ball joint so there is a great amount of movement there. Same great beaded cable armor as in the head, even an opening cockpit! No tiny Char though....I think that may have been pushing it. I could only imagine how small it would be. The side skirts are all on their own joints, the front two on ball joints, and the other 3 on plastic flaps.
Hopefully these pictures can give you a little idea on how they move with the legs. While all the skirts have a good range of motion the side skirts will fall off if pushed up too far. The inner frame to the waist is pretty interesting, it can swivel back and forth giving the waist some pretty good articulation for a 1/144 scale model.
Finally the legs, these made this build. just watching how the armor moves when you bend the leg was awesome to see. These kits are so much like Master Grades it hurts. The leg connects to the waste with a peg that has some good up and down, as well as side to side motion to it. The leg bends at two joints at the knee which makes it possible for the leg to go straight back 180. Like I said before the top armor pieces slide out when the leg is bent just like a Master Grade. The legs have that great beaded cable armor except this time they are on a tiny spring instead of the plastic cable. This allow the leg to bend all the way up and the armor stay in tact.
Love the detail on the legs as well, how the small thrusters pop through from the inner frame, the panel lines are perfect as well, no too much not too little. Lastly the feel connect with a peg has a little bit of side to side and front to back action. The actual food has 3 points of articulation; the tip, middle, and back. They don't move much but its enough to pose.
Over all I love this kit, love this kit so much that the next kit I'm going to get after I finish what I'm working on is the RX 78-2 RG than hopefully the RG Aile Strike Gundam. Well thats it from me for now, being that I started my blog yesterday these pictures were not taken to cater to the review so hopefully my next review will be better. Love to hear some comments or suggestions from anyone, if anyone is actually reading this yet....
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