HGUniversal Century

Gunpla Starter Set: RX-78-2 Gundam vs. MS-06F Zaku II

Two 2001-era HG kits bundled at a beginner price, one box that hands you the whole One Year War in miniature.

MechaGrade Score

3.4/5

RX-78-2 Gundam · 1/144 · 2010

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2010

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

I'll say it plainly: this is the best twenty dollars you can spend before you know if the hobby is for you.

You get the hero and the villain, molded in color, snapped together in an afternoon, no glue and barely any paint required to look decent on a shelf. It is not a modern kit and it does not pretend to be. What it gives you instead is the entire premise of Gundam, one hand-built Gundam versus a whole army of these, for the price of a fast food meal.

Best for: First-time builders who want the Gundam and the Zaku origin story in one box before spending real money on newer grades

The full review

What it is

This is a 2010 repackage of two kits that were already nearly a decade old at the time, the original 2001 HGUC RX-78-2 Gundam paired with the MS-06F Zaku II, sold together as a starter bundle with a 16-page how-to guide walking you through nub removal, panel lines, and basic weathering. Both snap together fast and both come molded in their proper anime colors, so there's no scramble for paint just to make them look right. The guide book is the real value add here, it treats you like someone who has never touched a hobby knife, which is exactly the audience Bandai built this for. I built both in one sitting and walked away with a shelf-ready diorama pairing.

The catch

The tooling shows its age. These are 2001-spec HG kits, so the articulation ceiling is low, the feet don't get sideways ankle movement, and neither suit is going to hold a dynamic action pose the way a modern HG or an RG will. There are foil stickers for some detail work rather than full color separation, and polycap joints loosen over time the way older kits tend to. Neither kit ships with an action base stand, so out of the box they're standing display pieces, not posing toys. If you've already built a few kits from the last five years, going back to this tooling will feel like a step down in engineering.

Who it's for

Buy this if you are handing someone their first kit, or you're the one building your first kit and want to understand what Zeon versus the Federation actually means before you pick a side to collect. It's also a legitimately good practice pair for weathering, panel lining, or your first paint job, since the low part count and colored plastic mean you're not fighting the kit while you learn a new skill. Skip it if you already own a modern RX-78-2 or Zaku II and want an upgrade, this will just feel dated next to anything from the last decade. It's a front door, not a destination.

The build story

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

Both kits go together quickly, the runners are simple, gates are easy to clip and clean up with a hobby knife, and there's nothing here that will frustrate a first-timer. Polycaps handle the joints on both suits, which keeps things snap-fit friendly without needing tools beyond side cutters. The included guide book walks through proper part removal and light customization like panel lining and weathering, which is a nice touch for a bundle clearly aimed at people who have never cracked open a Gunpla box.

The value case is the pairing itself, you're not just getting a Gundam, you're getting the mass-produced grunt suit it was built to fight, which is the whole point of the show. The Zaku II carries ball-joint neck movement, a rotating waist, pivoting skirt armor, and knees that bend up to roughly 100 degrees, respectable for a budget kit from this era. Weapon count for the price is genuinely strong, seven accessories split across two suits, which is more than plenty of modern single-kit boxes offer at a similar price point.

Lore & trivia

01The original HGUC RX-78-2 Gundam tooling in this set dates to 2001 and borrowed design cues, including the stouter arm and leg proportions, from the MG Gundam Ver. 1.5 kit released around the same period.
02Bandai eventually replaced this RX-78-2 tooling with the 2015 HGUC Revive version, which carries roughly 150 percent more points of articulation than the 2001 kit found in this starter set.
03The MS-06F Zaku II depicted here became the most heavily produced variant of the Zaku II line, with over 3,000 units fielded by Zeon during the One Year War, making it the definitive mass-production grunt suit of the original series.