HGUniversal Century

MS-05S Char Aznable's Zaku I

The Red Comet before the Zaku II, and honestly the more interesting kit for it.

MechaGrade Score

4.1/5

Char Aznable's Zaku I · 1/144 · 2016

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2016

Runnersn/a

Check price on Amazon

Affiliate link. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

The verdict

This is one of the best Zaku kits Bandai has put out at this price point, full stop.

The HG Origin line was already punching above its weight and this Char custom adds a belt-fed machine gun, a spiked shoulder, and a swapped MS-06 backpack that make it feel distinct from every other Zaku I on your shelf. The articulation is a real step up from older HG Zaku molds, and the eye actually swivels in its socket. It leans on stickers to finish the color work, but the sculpt underneath earns the extra effort.

Best for: Origin-line collectors and Zaku fans who want Char's early, scrappier machine rather than the more famous Zaku II

The full review

What it is

This is the transitional machine Char flew before he got his signature Zaku II, an MS-05 Zaku I upgraded with MS-06 gear because the war broke out before the II was ready for full production. Bandai's HG Origin kit runs with that story: it gives you the double-shoulder look (one new spiked pauldron, one standard), a heat hawk in both sheathed and drawn versions, and a back-mounted ammo feed for the machine gun that actually connects to the gun itself rather than sitting there as a prop. Building it, the parts click with confidence and the whole thing comes together faster than the part count suggests, in the best way.

The catch

The color separation still relies on Tetron stickers for the twilight-red panels and Zeon markings, so if you skip them or your hands aren't steady, the finished kit reads flatter than the box art promises. A few builders have reported the front skirt armor sitting loose enough to shift during posing, which is a known soft spot rather than a one-off defect. And because this is fundamentally a Zaku I under the upgrades, the frame and proportions are simpler than a Zaku II kit, so if you're chasing maximum detail payoff for the dollar, the II variants still edge it out.

Who it's for

Grab this one if you already love the Zaku lineage and want the machine that sets up Char's rise, or if you're building an Origin-era Zeon shelf and want a kit with real design flourishes instead of a straight repaint. It also works as a step up from entry kits for someone ready to handle stickers and slightly fiddlier accessory assembly. Skip it if you specifically want the Zaku II Char's Custom silhouette everyone recognizes from the original series, since this is intentionally a different, earlier suit, or if sticker-free color separation is a dealbreaker for you.

The build story

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

Gate placement is typical modern HG, mostly on non-visible surfaces, and the ten-runner count keeps this a quick evening build rather than a weekend project. Parts seat with a confident click and nothing felt like it needed force. The machine gun and its belt-fed ammo container are the standout assembly step, snapping onto the backpack in a way that looks purpose-built rather than tacked on.

Double-jointed limbs and swiveling thighs give this kit a wider pose range than you'd expect from a Zaku I, and the head sports a functional eye swivel that older kits skip entirely. You get both a sheathed and an unsheathed heat hawk plus the machine gun, which is a solid loadout for an HG. Color separation is handled mostly through stickers rather than molded plastic, so the detail is there, it just needs the decals applied to read correctly on the shelf.

Lore & trivia

01The MS-05S was a stopgap machine, an upgraded Zaku I fitted with Zaku II equipment because the war broke out before the MS-06 could enter full mass production.
02Char's version added new right-shoulder shield armor for wider coverage and a spiked left shoulder pauldron meant for ramming damage in close combat.
03It swapped in the MS-06's backpack for better propulsion and used a belt-fed ammunition system for its machine gun, feeding from a container mounted on that backpack.
04This kit belongs to Bandai's HG Origin line, built to match the redesigned early-war mobile suits from Yoshikazu Yasuhiko's Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin manga and films.