HGUC Black Tri Star's Customized Zaku I Part 9 [Final]

Superior predecessor
Last round of action poses from HGUC Black Tri Star's Customized Zaku I to start off this last posting of the review series. ^^


Supported using Action Base 2.




















Mentioned in Part 5 that the ankle and hip posability is somewhat limited by the bulky armor around the joints, however, the limitations aren't too obvious with the support from Action Base 2. The flexible shoulder, elbow and waist joints help to "cover up" the leg joints' weaknesses as well. ^^ As a matter of fact, you can gather from the action poses shown so far that I really didn't do much to the legs. ^^; With the different weapons included, their many configuration options and flexibility of the model kit itself in posing with them, there are plenty of fun and nice-looking poses to be adjusted on this kit. ^^

On the other hand, I mentioned about the connection between this kit (or rather the original blue and green grunt type unit) and Char's Zaku II in Part 6. Here's an explicit comparison between the two to have a clearer idea about their differences.




The heads' assembly is different between the two. Just the middle piece of the helmet needs to be swapped out in order to configure between the grunt or commander type look. For Char's Zaku II, the entire top part of the helmet needs to be removed.


Both left shoulder armors feature the same assembly method: equally divided front and rear part snapped together with a polycap in the middle. ^^


I prefer the single-piece right shoulder shield design on Char's Zaku II for its seamless appearance, but because of the three spikes on Zaku I's shield, I can understand why the parts need to be separated. Similar but "cruder" part separation of the weapon can be seen on Gelgoog Marine.



Huge differences between the elbow and knee joints' mechanical design.
I think the lack of molded details on those two joints of Char's Zaku II accurately reflects their lack of parts and range of articulation. ^^;


Despite having the same name, the two bazookas are very different in their designs. ^^
Char's Zaku II adopted a more anime-accurate, rounded, frankly "fat" (^^) design, even more so than Zaku I that is. Its release was more or less in response to Gundam RX-78-2 which came out a year before it, which itself was designed with a very simple, anime-accurate look. ^^ Apart from the contemporary limitation in technology, I believe there was a purpose behind the simple design of Char's Zaku II. It was designed to be simple because it was intended to be so. It may not be as articulated as Zaku I, HGUC kit-wise (^^), but in my opinion, it's one of the most show-accurate Gunpla designs of the MS released after the year 2000.

"It (Char's Zaku II) may not be as articulated as Zaku I." That sounds really wrong. XD

My conclusion about this kit is pretty much the same as my initial comments about it back in Part 6. It's a simple design overall, but it does feature a few interesting assembly steps and pretty impressive posability. As old as it is - seven years old, it's still an enjoyable build and fun kit to play with. ^^

All reviews on HGUC Black Tri Star's Customized Zaku I:
Part 1: Remember when even smaller HGs had ABS runner?
Part 2: Optional painting all the way
Part 3: Just one little extra effort
Part 4: Different familiarity
Part 5: Flexible joints rendered inflexible by the bulky design
Part 6: I forgot the little ax
Part 7: Just use it
Part 8: Shoulder armor and spike shield ram
Part 9 [Final]: Superior predecessor

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HGUC Black Tri Star's Customized Zaku I