HGUniversal Century

MS-06 Zaku II

Zeon's grunt suit finally gets a modern skeleton to match its legend.

MechaGrade Score

3.9/5

Zaku II · 1/144 · 2021

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2021

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is the definitive small-scale Zaku for the money, and I mean that.

Bandai took a suit that used to feel stiff and sticker-reliant in older HG releases and gave it double-jointed elbows and knees, a working mono-eye switch, and a 360 degree waist turn, which is the one articulation fix Zaku fans had been asking for since forever. It is not perfect, the posing still tops out short of what a modern MG can do, but for a kit in this price band it is a genuine engineering upgrade over what came before.

Best for: Gundam fans building the One Year War roster who want a Zeon grunt suit that actually poses, not just stands there

The full review

What it is

This is the 2021 revive of Zeon's mainstay grunt suit, and it is built to correct the old complaint that Zakus in HG form always felt like they were standing at attention. The mono-eye slides side to side on an internal switch, the knees and elbows are double-jointed, and the waist actually rotates independently from the torso now, which older HGUC Zaku kits famously could not do. You get a choice of hard plastic or soft TPE skirt armor, an optional commander head, and the full classic loadout of machine gun, heat hawk, and bazooka. Building it feels like snapping together a piece of anime history that finally caught up to modern kit engineering.

The catch

The wrist joints are the weak point. Multiple builders report the hand pegs are thin and prone to popping loose mid-pose, especially once you start hefting the bazooka or machine gun two-handed. The hip mounted weapon holsters are fussy too, the guns do not want to stay clipped in place and tend to drop if you jostle the figure. And while the articulation is a real step up from earlier Zaku kits, it still falls short of an MG in range, the shoulders and hips only go so far before the armor plates bind. Nub marks on the visible skirt armor need cleanup or they will show.

Who it's for

Buy this if you want the Zeon side of the One Year War roster and care about a suit that can actually hold a two-handed weapon pose, at least most of the time. It is also a solid pickup for anyone who tried an older HGUC Zaku and got frustrated with the stiff torso, this fixes that specific complaint. Skip it if wrist durability is a dealbreaker for you or if you are set on display-shelf perfection, in which case save up for the MG or PG Zaku II instead where the frame and joints are built to a sturdier standard. As a grunt suit at HG price and size, though, this earns its spot in a One Year War lineup.

The build story

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

The build itself is straightforward and satisfying, this is not a fussy kit to put together. Gate placement is typical Bandai HG, mostly on flat or hidden surfaces, though the skirt armor panels show nub marks if you don't clean them up carefully since they sit in plain view. Snap-fit is generally confident throughout the frame, nothing feels loose out of the box, the wrist pegs are the one part where builders consistently report things working themselves free after repeated posing.

The mono-eye switch is the neat little engineering touch here, a tab underneath the head lets you slide the eye left and right without pulling the head apart, which is a small thing but it makes the suit feel alive on the shelf. The double-jointed elbows and knees combined with the new waist rotation are the real headline upgrade over prior HGUC Zaku releases, and the accessory loadout (machine gun, heat hawk, bazooka, swappable skirt armor, optional commander head) is generous value for an HG in this price band.

Lore & trivia

01The MS-06F rolled out in September of Universal Century 0078 after the Antarctic Treaty banned nuclear engines, which is why Zeon redesigned the earlier MS-06C into a lighter, conventionally powered suit.
02More than 3,000 MS-06F units are depicted as manufactured and deployed during the One Year War, making it Zeon's primary mass production mobile suit of the conflict.
03Three MS-06F Zakus under Char Aznable's command were the suits that first encountered the prototype RX-78-2 Gundam during the assault on Side 7 in the original 1979 series.
04The Zaku II's design lineage carried forward into later Zeon successors like the RMS-106 Hizack and AMX-011 Zaku III, cementing it as the template for the Gundam franchise's 'grunt suit' archetype.