HGUniversal Century

MS-05 Zaku I (Denim/Slender)

The old Zaku I gets a proper reissue and it moves like it means it.

MechaGrade Score

4.1/5

Zaku I (Denim/Slender) · 1/144 · 2016

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2016

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is the HG that made me stop thinking of the Zaku I as the boring warm up act before the Zaku II.

It is a two in one kit, Denim's shield less arm on one side and Slender's shielded arm on the other, and both configurations feel purposeful rather than like leftover sprue filler. The mono eye toggle, the double jointed knees and elbows, and the sheer pile of weapons make this punch well above a typical mid 2010s HG. For a suit most people write off as a footnote, it earned my attention fast.

Best for: HG builders who want a One Year War grunt kit that actually poses like a modern release

The full review

What it is

This is Bandai's Gundam The Origin era reissue of the classic MS-05 Zaku I, and it is built to represent two specific pilots' machines out of one box. Slender's version keeps the familiar shoulder shield, Denim's drops it for a bare shoulder, and you choose which one to build (or keep both arm sets around). What struck me first was how much personality is packed into a first generation Zeon grunt suit. The mono eye slides side to side with a little switch under the head, the head itself rocks on a ball joint plus a tilt hinge, and the whole thing has a hunched, mean stance right out of the box before you have posed it once.

The catch

The gate placement asks for real cleanup if you care about a clean finish, this is a Skill Level 2 kit built around cutting and sanding rather than snap and go, and Bandai leans on stickers for a chunk of the color and marking work rather than molded color separation, so budget time for that if you want it looking sharp. The kit also does not include the extra shoulder pegs you would need to freely swap between the Denim and Slender arm configurations after the fact, you commit at build time unless you go peg hunting yourself. None of this is a dealbreaker, but go in expecting a kit that wants your attention, not one you rush through in an evening.

Who it's for

Buy this if you like Universal Century grunt suits, want a Zeon kit with real posing range for the money, or you are chasing a One Year War lineup and refuse to leave the original Zaku I out of it. It rewards people willing to clip carefully and maybe drop in a panel liner or a marker pass on the stickered sections. Skip it if you want a fifteen minute snap build with zero cleanup, or if you specifically need both loadouts fully swappable without extra parts, since that takes a workaround. For most Zeon fans, though, this is one of the easiest recommends in the older HG catalog.

What works

Mono eye slides via an under head switch and the head also tilts on a separate hinge, more expression than you expect from a grunt suit
Loaded weapon set including the anti ship rifle, machine gun with spare magazine, A2 bazooka with spare magazine, and both stored and combat forms of the heat hawk
Double jointed elbows and knees plus a real working waist give it far more range than older Zaku I molds

Worth knowing

Relies on stickers for a real portion of the color and marking detail rather than molded separation
No spare shoulder pegs included, so switching between the Denim and Slender arm builds after the fact means pulling parts you were not meant to pull
Gate cleanup is more involved than a typical entry level HG, this one wants a hobby knife and some patience

Sold? Grab it.

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The build story

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

The runners feel like a suit designed with intent rather than recycled tooling. Cutting and cleanup take a bit more care than a snap fit kit, there is real gate work here, but nothing fights you, parts seat with a satisfying click once cleaned up and nothing felt loose or wobbly in my hands. The two arm variants (shielded for Slender, bare shouldered for Denim) are genuinely different builds rather than a cosmetic swap, so picking one at the start matters.

Where this kit earns its keep is articulation and loadout. The waist and legs use the joints from the newer Zaku body architecture, which means deep knee bends and a stance that actually looks aggressive instead of flat footed. Add in the mono eye switch, the tilting head, and a weapons pile that includes a spare magazine for both the rifle and the bazooka plus both heat hawk states, and you get a huge amount of posing variety for an HG price point.

Lore & trivia

01The MS-05 Zaku I was Zeon's first mass produced mobile suit and predates the more famous MS-06 Zaku II seen throughout the original series.
02Denim and Slender are named after their pilots, whose personalized Zaku I units appear in Gundam The Origin, and this kit lets a builder choose which pilot's configuration to assemble.
03This release is part of Bandai's High Grade Gundam The Origin (HGGTO) line, numbered 009, which revisited early One Year War hardware with modern HG engineering standards.
04The kit came out in May 2016, timed with the broader Gundam The Origin OVA push that revisited Zeon's earliest mobile suit designs in more detail than the original 1979 series had room for.