BB Senshi Sangokuden Choko Zaku III Part 1

Shiba-I Sazabi's close relative by plamo rendition
Picking up on BB Senshi Sangokuden model kits after Doven Wolf done in October last year. ^^;



This is Choko Zaku III (manga version), which was released in early 2009. The "Shin" version came out in end of last year, with the exact content in different molded colors.

I picked up this fella because of its close resemblance to Zaku II. While it's supposed to be designed after Mashymre Cello's Customized Zaku III from "Gundam Double Zeta", the head unveiled when the helmet is removed is more Zaku II-like than Zaku III. ^^ Not to mention the color is such a reminisce of Zaku II as well - it's also the color of Zaku III of course. Also, it's being such a long time since we get a new BB Senshi version of any Zaku variation as well, so I totally welcome any release of it. ^^




Choko Zaku III's finishing move: 爪拳 and 獄連掌
One special feature of Choko Zaku III is that it uses certain identical parts from Shiba-I Sazabi - one whole runner of it to be exact for the helmet, skirt armors and legs. It's quite a surprise to me at first, for such a relationship to be forged between the two characters, which only exists by rendition of the plamo design. Zaku III is not related to Sazabi; Choko (Zhang He 张郃) in actual history definitely had no connection to Shiba-I (Shima Yi 司馬懿) at all. Nonetheless, it's very interesting to see how those parts are used on Choko Zaku III, and still be able to make it resemble the design of Zaku III from "Gundam Double Zeta". I suppose because both Sazabi and Mashymre Cello's Customized Zaku III have very large skirt armor and legs, the designer is able to get away with reusing Shiba-I's parts on Choko. Furthermore, seeing how the plamo kit designer also made Shusou Doven Wolf and Kanpei Gundam to be Ryuubi Gundam's close relatives by reusing one runner from the latter on the earlier two, it's not too much of a surprise anymore that the same design is bestowed upon Choko Zaku III.

As long as it works right? ^^


Content


Runner A1...


... together with Runner A2 contain parts of different colors for the components that are unique for Choko Zaku III.


Elaborate ornaments on the shoulder shield, which is going to be quite a challenge to paint. ^^


Runner B is a runner inherited from Shiba-I Sazabi, just that it's in olive green of course.


Unused parts of Shiba-I Sazabi's helmet.


Polycap and foil stickers.


All parts separated from their trees.
A loose straight assembly to see the overall appearance:






A lot of green for the entire body, plus golden headgear and weapons. Quite a modest design I would say, at least at this stage. Once the shoulder shield is painted, the red ornaments on golden background are going to steal all the show perhaps. ^^



The blades are very versatile for display. They can be attached to the spear, or onto the shoulder shield, or be used as conventional hand held weapons, or somewhat less conventional tonfa, which makes the weapon seem like the ones wield by this guy in my opinion. ^^


Karl Ruprecht Kroenen from "Hell boy"
Image is from cgTantra.
Some hand painting to be done on a few parts first, which will be covered in the next posting.