HGPost Disaster

ASW-G-61 GUNDAM ZAGAN

A shield that turns into a claw, on a frame Bandai finally got right.

MechaGrade Score

3.9/5

GUNDAM ZAGAN · 1/144 · 2025

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2025

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

I like this kit more than its quiet release date suggests I should.

The Shield Pliers Unit is a genuinely clever gimmick, not a gimmick bolted on for the box art, and the retooled inner frame fixes a problem the Iron-Blooded Orphans line has been carrying since Barbatos. For a late-2025 HG built off a mobile game tie-in nobody was demanding, it punches well above where I expected.

Best for: IBO frame fans and Gundam Frame collectors who want the claw gimmick more than a household name

The full review

What it is

Zagan is one of the Seven Stars' personal machines from the Calamity War, and the HG's whole reason for being is the Shield Pliers Unit, a multi-jointed arm that folds flat into a shield for defense and unfolds into a grasping, crushing claw for offense. Building it, that transformation is the payoff. The joints in the pliers arm are small but they hold their shape through several configurations without flopping, and swapping between the default gripping hands and the open clawed manipulators gives the finished figure two very different personalities on the same shelf spot. It's a kit built around one idea, and the one idea works.

The catch

This is Skill Level 2, so expect visible gate marks if you skip cleanup and a sticker sheet doing some of the color separation work rather than molded plastic. The rest of the kit outside the pliers unit is fairly conventional HGIBO fare, meaning the standard frame is competent but not spectacular next to what MG or RG lines give you at 1/144. It's also a tie-in to Urdr-Hunt, a mobile game and its 2025 film adaptation that most Western builders have not seen, so the character and lore hook is thinner than an anime-mainline release.

Who it's for

Grab this if you already collect the IBO Gundam Frame kits and want to see the retooled torso runner Bandai built to fix the old Barbatos-era frame problems, or if the shield-to-claw transformation is the kind of engineering trick that gets you excited regardless of what show it's from. Skip it if you want a suit you recognize from the mainline anime, or if you're shopping strictly on part count and accessory loadout at this price point, because the pliers unit is doing most of the heavy lifting here and the rest of the kit is standard-grade HG.

The build story

What the build is actually like, and the engineering worth knowing about.

Runner cleanup is standard HG fare, plastic nippers and a hobby knife get you through it, but the Shield Pliers Unit's small multi-joint parts reward a careful hand since those are the pieces builders actually pose. The retooled torso frame assembles cleaner than the original Gundam Frame runner Barbatos launched with, less looseness at the waist connection, which matters since that frame has been reused across the IBO line for years.

Articulation is solid HGIBO standard: double-jointed neck, rotating torso, swiveling shoulders, and full waist rotation, plus the shoulder armor's front section moves independently so it doesn't choke the arm's range. The real engineering story is the pliers arm itself, several hinge points let it fold flat as a shield or splay open as a crushing claw, and the two hand-part sets (gripping and open-clawed) let you commit to either read of the character without extra purchases.

Lore & trivia

01Zagan first appeared in Mobile Suit Gundam IRON-BLOODED ORPHANS: Urdr-Hunt, a mobile game set between the anime's two seasons, later adapted into a 2025 film.
02In the story, Zagan was piloted by Arzona Issue, one of the original Seven Stars, during the Calamity War, and the Issue family kept it out of public sight afterward.
03The kit's inner torso frame was newly tooled specifically to correct construction issues present in the original Gundam Frame runners going back to the HGIBO Gundam Barbatos kit.