HGUC Zaku I Review

Zaku I was always an MS I liked. The first successful Mass Produced MS on the battlefield that popularised the weapon all Gundam fans know as Mobile Suits. While the Zaku I is a very dated and old MS due to being the first, I will have to say that I love it's design. It's considerably more sleeker than other Zeonic MS and has less bulk, and despite it's dated technology, it has been used up until the final days of the One Year War. It's not an impressive MS, yet I really like it, and a lot of soldiers like their Zaku I's too.

Box:

The boxart of the Zaku I is the standard old HGUC boxart. You het a colored image of the MS with a monochrome background with a brown tint.

Parts:

For parts, you get one green runner, one grey runner...

...one blue runner, and another small, thin grey runner. This grey runner is made of ABS plastic instead of PS, so that helps with the sturdiness of certain joints.

You also get the polycaps...

...and a small amount of stickers.

Manual:

The manual of the Zaku I is quite average, inside you get information of the MS, part count, instructions...

...and the almighty color guide.

Completed Product:

Kit completed and the Zaku I looks pretty good. The plastic isn't super friendly to nubs though, and seamlines could definitely use some cleanup. Fors the most part, the kit may feel a bit light or loose, but trust me when I say he can hold his poses no issue, likely due to those ABS joints and the light-ness of the kit. It's a very simple build, and one I enjoyed doing, and the finished product is a good one in my standards.

Completed Product:

The head is on a ball joint, with the lower neck on a hinge. Although his head doesn't look up or down a whole lot.

Shoulders go up 90˚ and are on pegs, so they swing 360˚ no issue. The shoulderpads do not affect articulation whatsoever, as it has more than enough.

The arms hinge outwards, similar to modern-day polycaps.

Despite it's age, arms are double jointed and go about 165˚, which is very, very nice for it's age.

Waist is also on a peg so it can turn 360˚.

Front skirts are attached together and cannot be split. Leg goes up pretty well, but are connected by ball joint and polycap, so there is no thigh swivel, but the legs still go out a decent amount. The knees also bend about 130˚.

And since he's a Zaku, he's got some impressive forwards foot movement. Overall, articulation is very good, especially for the age and the fact he's an HGUC Zaku.

Accessories:

You get quite a lot of stuff with this guy, and considering he barely appeared, him having so much stuff is even better.

You first get the alternate headpiece which allows you to display the Zaku I as the Commander Type variant.

Fun fact: Char was not a commander at the time. So when Char was still using his Zaku I, it was just a normal one painted red to go 3x fast.

He comes with a left open hand, despite being on a ball joint, all it can do is swivel. It's permanently fixed at that angle to look more natural. It's not all bad though, as it does serve some purpose.

One of them being for extravagant dramatic poses.

The other will require an action base. Just take off the part at his crotch to reveal a polycap where you can shove a stand up there.

This combined with the open hand, can allow you to make your Zaku I do it's signature shoulder bash pose from the anime.

You also get his Heat Hawk. Unfortunately, like most other HGUC Zaku's, he does not hold his Heat Hawk very well, you may want some blutack to make this stay in the hand better.

You also get a sturm faust, which is nice.

He also comes with his knuckle shield, the best kind. It's a re-purposed Zaku II shoulder shield with ramming spikes at the end for both offensive and defensive uses.

You can also use this miniscule part, this is used to attach the sturm faust to the shield.

Storage is always cool.

You finally get two trigger finger hands, one standard one, and one at an angle which can only swivel.

With the regular trigger finger hand, he can hold his Zaku Machine Gun. It's not your typical zaku machine gun, as it's structured a bit differently. A tip from me, be careful with the handle, the hinge joint can break easily.

Both the handle and scope on this gun can move.

The next accessory use to be used with another one. You first need take off a small part off the Zaku's right torso armor (quite hard to take off).

After that, you can attach a resting pad to it, which is shaped to make it look like it connects to the backpack.

This is used with the Zaku I's Bazooka. This thing is better off used with the angled finger hand, and you can use the pad on his shoulder to angle it better.

The holding hand also fits wonderfully onto the tube.

Gimmicks:

For gimmicks, this Zaku's monoeye can move on a track. Under his head, there is a peg that can help you move the monoeye, but it's impossible to reach in, you'll have to find a small peg of some sort to move it, I use my tweezers.

It goes out decently, however it's not going to look too far to one side.

Size Comparison:

He's a bit shorter than the RX-78-2, but he's still about the standard size-range.

Verdict:

The HGUC Zaku I is a great kit, hell, even for it's age it manages to beat it's 1.0 MG, meaning the HG is actually the best kit of the regular Zaku I design as of now. Honestly there is little to complain about here, articulation is pretty good (best of any HGUC Zaku, almost even as good as the Origin Zaku), it's got tones of accessories, and it's all for an extremely cheap price. If anything, the seamlines on the arms and legs will be all you need to do for a great representation of the Zaku I. Yes the Origin Zaku I Denim/Slender custom is the better overall kit, but the HGUC Zaku I is far more accurate to the original anime, plus it comes with a different set of accessories, all for a very affordable price, as for which to get, i'd honestly say just get both, they're both great kits with different experiences. If you love Zaku's, you'll definitely love the HGUC Zaku I.

Pros:

- Quite good articulation, especially for an HGUC Zaku (!)

- Comes with a very nice amount of accessories, made better deal due to how cheap the kit is. (!)

- Very affordable and simple, tones of value. (!)

Cons:

- Large noticeable seamlines on the legs.

- The track for the monoeye is impossible to reach normally.