The red comet is back! Better than it’s ever been!

Hello! Kimi here and I’m back again this week with the review for a very awesome HG kit from a very highly rated HG line up! The HG 1/144 MS-06S Zaku II Char Aznable Custom from the Gundam the origins HG line up and before we forget, the very first one in this line of kits.

Like the previous week with the ASRA Archer, we won’t be doing a history lesson for the MS-06S Zaku II because unlike the ASRA Archer (which doesn’t actually have any lore attached to it) we actually have already made a pretty good lore section for this particular MS. So instead of just doing another one for this one, we are instead going straight to the review for this one.

However, if you are new or still keen on doing a read up on our take of this brilliant MS…you can check that out on the MG review of this here!

With that disclosure done, let us now move on and talk about this awesome looking HG kit.

I have to admit, I was at first quite skeptical with all the rave reviews that this kit has been getting when it first came out in back in 2015. I remember going to every gunpla shop during its release and seeing people raving on how good it was and hearing a lot of people say that this particular kit would revolutionize how the HG kit line up would be in the future. I wondered to myself then, why would one say that and there is no way that an HG kit would be that good.

Yes, thanks to that I was starting to get quite interested with the kit. However, as soon as I started to have some interest in the kit and having the urge to get and see what the fuss is about…..

Then the kit became as elusive as the ASRA Archer did…..

So yeah, it did take me a lot longer to finally get this but you know what?

IT WAS WORTH IT.

It is one of those kits that I honestly never have I imagined that I’ll be having so much fun with an HG kit and building this really make me happy building it, somehow it managed to make me feel like I was building my very first Gunpla kit. Building this was so strangely unfamiliar and familiar at the same time. It is one that really made me see the HG line up kits in the much more renewed light and once again made me excited to work on the more modern HG line up of kits.

Why you may ask?

Well, this is because with this particular kit Bandai really nails one of the fundamentals for how an awesome plastic kit should be with this. They managed to make this one a FUN and refreshing kit to work on. Something that I never had imagined they managed to do with an HG kit no less.

It is quite obvious when you really start working on the kit because you’ll find out that build here is pretty solid, the joints and everything just fit and work quite well. Though what surprises me more with this particular kit is the build quality. Because with my own experience with the HG’s of old you kind of expected it to have some bad seam lines with some of the parts. Even with some of the improvements made throughout the years, the seam line issues with the HG kits were something of an expected thing.

With this kit, however, the seam lines looked….almost unseen. Yes to some very keen eyes, you still can detect the ‘awful’ seam lines, but I would say that at least now the seam line issues it doesn’t get to the point of it being distracting. As well if you choose not to take that extra step of hiding/ removing it, its as well not a big issue since from what I could see with this, the kit still looked quite all right with you putting in that extra effort in.

It was further improved by the fact that most of the parts here were well gated and what is more surprising is that there were a lot of parts here that I found to be undergated. However, there were a few instances that I found that they gated it..in places that were quite hard to get and I did find myself struggling with getting rid of some of them (and all the nubs that it left in its wake). Though it is not enough to the point of annoyance or nor it hampered with my enjoyment of building this brilliant piece of plastic.

Another thing that I realized Bandai did with this is that they properly sectionalize the process of building this kit, part by part, just like how they did it with the MG though they still managed to do it in a very HG-ish kind of way. However, they didn’t actually do a good job on this.

The thing is I do like that they sectionalize the part building but they forget to arrange it in a way that you won’t get confused by it. Yes, I did get myself a little confused with the flow of the building. However, since this is my first take of the HG Origins and this being the first one that was released, I do give it the benefit of a doubt. Because this is their first take on doing something different and they could have worked on improving this by now. So I shall reserve my judgment on this and see if they actually did some improvements on the following kits.

Though the best part of all of is really when you get to see how awesome this kit looked, completed of course. I’m really impressed with the fact that Bandai really try to nail both the manga look and the realistic look of the Zaku II and they really managed to nail that both really well here. They managed it so well that now I could honestly say that, this is by far the best looking Zaku II variant that I’ve seen to date. I would go as far to say that this kit looks even better than the RG R2 Zaku II variant that we reviewed earlier this year and honestly at the time I thought that there is no way that would be another Zaku II variant that would look as good as this. Glad to know that Bandai still can manage to surprise me every now and then.

Thanks to the kit being solid as hell, in turns made the articulation for this to be so good and so flexible. Yes, you could really ask this kit to do whatever you ask of it and it would never fail you and really the only thing that is limiting it is its own armor set. Honestly, if you take some of the parts off, you may find it to be able to do a lot of impressive things.

Not to mention here is that you could mount all its huge weapons and still have the kit standing tall with no issues of it tumbling or whatsoever. Though the weapons aren’t that heavy, to begin with, however, due to the nature of it being long and somewhat unwieldy, I was impressed by the fact that it did manage to have itself stand without having to use any support or whatsoever.

Really there were a lot of things that I do find quite impressive with this, however, that’s not really the real reason on why I liked this kit. Strangely, this made me feel somewhat nostalgic. It was something that I wasn’t familiar with, really building it made me feel like I picked up the HG kit for the first time.

No that’s not it…..if I were to be really honest…this kit made me remember how I felt when I picked my first PLAMO kit. That very nostalgic feeling, one that I thought I never thought that I would be able to experience again in this day and age. Everything felt new and fresh, and I do find myself learning and experiencing new things with this.

However, as soon as I finished with the kit and really take a step back reviewing my experience with it. I still don’t get why people call this a revolution, because honestly no matter what Bandai does to this…it still felt and built like an HG kit.

No it not like that is a bad thing because honestly, I had fun with it, but to call it a revolutionary kit…..this is not really one that I would call that. It’s just a damn good HG REFRESH that Bandai needed to compete with all the new line up of kits in the modern times.

and YES this is one that gets my definite recommendation for all of our readers here to get.

Well, that is if ya’ll could find any lying around in the first place, cause this is one rare kit……..

So the best of luck…and may the red comet look over your shoulders.

With that ends the review for the HG 1/144 MS-06S Zaku II Char Aznable Custom (Gundam the Origins HG). I really enjoyed my time with this and as I move forward to the next one, I wonder what manner of awesomeness that I will encounter on my next HG Origins kit.

But for now, I honestly can’t wait to start work on the RG Tallgeese!

Anyways, we will be back again this week more Let’s Talk Gunpla Segment on the coming Wednesday and we will be back as well on the coming Sunday with a new Unboxing and First Impressions of another NEWLY released HG kit! So do look forward to that!

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We hope by sharing our love and passion for gunplas here, it’ll inspire you to pick up the hobby or reignite your love for gunpla!

Anyways, we shall see all of you again next week, and we hope that you all have an awesome week and weekend ahead! Have an awesome Gunpla building time there as well and until next time!

Ciao!