GKgundamkit Professional Modeller Blog: 2012-03

Mar 29, 2012

MG Sazabi Review Part 2 (proportion, articulation, pose and video)

I remember someone told me that kotobukiya 1/144 Alteisen from SRG was a flying brick because it can't really pose and i feel this MG Sazabi will have the same title especially both also red. It depend on what type of kit you want and how you want it to be. If you start this hobby or collection less than one or two years with the most recent Master Grade, you might have higher expectation on every MG and this kit might disappoint you. Well, all i can say is there are many thing we need to understand on why some kit design to be like this or that, when is the kit release, the technology, trend , concept of the model kit during the time of kit design and release. From there, we will actually able to see a lot of good stuff from the kit itself instead of complaining this or that when it compare to the current Master Grade kit. I think there might be some people asking for a MG Sazabi "Ver.2" but i think there are also many great modeller have bought the resin, conversion or G-system version MG Sazabi which have better proportion and articulation.

Proportion

So, I'm going to discuss about proportion, articulation and the pose that this kit can make in this post. First, i will start of with the proportion design. For me, i got no complain and everything was almost same in the anime and even looking from a model kit perspective, i think the proportion design is great but there are still room for improvement. I saw many modeller tend to sharpen many area on this kit. If you look at Keita's Sazabi, he sharpen the face plate, slightly extend the chest armor, etc... and it will look even greater.

Articulation

As for the articulation, i think you will know what i'm going to said when i said this kit also share the title of "flying brick". If it build with the straight build kit as the end result, it can be tough for it make different pose. From the previous review part 1, i mentioned that most of the major joint (for the entire hand to the chest and entire leg to the waist) was using ball joint. Ball joint is suppose to be flexible but not durable. What happen to this kit is those joint can't really hold the main part properly due to the size and weight. As a result, those main parts such as legs and hands can easily detach but i might due to those PC part are still new and not soft enough to hold the main part. It should be alright after some time when those PC part get softer after connecting with the ball joint from the main part. Like what i said, ball joint is flexible but not durable. In order for this kit to have durable ball joint, those female part of the joint which is made by rubber (PC runner) was design as deep as possible. Good thing is it help the joint to hold the main part properly but the bad part will be the flexibility of the ball joint decrease. Most of the main part will using the similar concept and i think that is why that this kit can't pose well or i can say that this kit can only do standing pose. You can said the articulation is bad for this kit but it wasn't design with the articulation technology or concept that we have recently in its time.

Pose

It can use "forget about it" when it come to posing this kit but standing pose is still a pose. From what i said on the joint, more or less you will know how much can this kit pose. Most of the joint of this kit is consider as a dead joint which mean it only use to connect one part to another and there are not much movement can provide from those joints. So, ground pose is definitely not suitable for this kit ( it can't recreate those pose in the anime when char do those jumping pose this mobile suit on the asteroid while fighting with amuro). Usually i will try to make some take some shots for the kit with the stand to create some pose on the air and try to get some dynamic shots from there but the size, weight and there is almost not room for the stand's connector to hold this kit, i totally give up on it.

MG Sazabi Review Part 1 (structure, building process and detail)

I start the assemble process last week when i thought i just want to take some photos for the first part of the review which cover the boxart, parts, runners and the entire package. Things get too exited when i open the box and i can't stop myself to build it up. I even make the video for the boxart or package review plus some assemble process. Instead of watching 3 minutes video on the finish product, the video will also cover other stuff like building process, manual, inner frame and others in roughly about 10 minutes video for the entire review.

So, back to the main topic. I saw this kit when i was 15 and know nothing about it at all. The only thing i know is this kit come with huge shield, those bulkiness are awesome and the price tag for this is something beyond my reach. At last, i get it now and i'm reviewing it. I only finish the Mobile Suit Gundam: Char Counterattack series yesterday after i finish assemble this thing to check on some action pose (and i think i found some weakness of this mobile suit, lol). Although this thing look bulky but in the anime, the mobility is very high (especially in melee combat but those scene only last for few minutes) and it even can make some Sinanju Kick on Amuro's Nu gundam. Unfortunately, the real kit can't do that. What weaknesses that this mobile suit have? do you remember the Nu gundam pull off one of the "pipe" near the neck area of this mobile suit which i believe most of the wiring that connect the entire suit to the cockpit (head unit) disable Char controlling the mobile suit. I mean how can such important "pipe" being expose out from the armor. The second thing is, do you realize that most of the Zeon mobile suit such as Gelgoog , Dom or Zaku version XXX look bulk? the reason is not because it got better armor but it got a lot of thrusters (and some cooler vent maybe) to improve its mobility (my opinion, just like American muscle bigger car, bigger engine, faster on straight line) but what i think is bigger size means heavier (might be a problem since it is space combat unit) and exposure to enemy will also higher. I'm not saying the design is bad, it just what i think base on some military basic concept. Maybe there are other reason that this mobile suit design and develop in this way since i haven't check out the full detail about this mobile suit. All i know about this kit will be the weapon, some sort of psycho frame technology which allow the pilot to control funnels, some kind of plasma beam cannon on the lower torso, one beam rifle, two beam sabers can be release direct from the arms to the palm, some tomahawk missile from the shield and a huge beam saber/axe.

Detail and Structure

As for this model kit, it was release around 200X (before 2005)and i can't simply expect that everything from this kit is as good as what the latest MG have but this doesn't mean it can't catch up at all. The design of the inner frame for model kit is actually quite impressive and flexible if anyone want to paint it. On top of that, the inner frame might not have much detail but those hydraulic pump gimmick plus the thrusters beneath the armors are impressive. Although those inner frame for the main body and legs are impressive but there are certain part of this kit doesn't have inner frame such as the arms unit. Other than that, there are a lot of ball joint use as the connector for most of the major part such as the shoulder and peg joints. Ball joint should be good in terms of flexibility but the problem is the sturdiness can't last long and the it can easily detach (If you have a MG freedom, you might have experience this from the waist joint). So, on the overall of the structure from this kit is very solid but not flexible ( i will explain this more in articulation part).