HGUniversal Century

MS-06R-1A Zaku II High Mobility Type (Gaia/Mash Custom)

The Black Tri-Stars get the small-scale spotlight they earned at Loum, and it holds up as a genuinely fun HG.

MechaGrade Score

3.8/5

Zaku II · 1/144 · 2015

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2015

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is a better HG than its price band has any right to produce, and I mean that as a real compliment.

You get two loadouts (Gaia's twin-shield bazooka rig or Mash's anti-ship rifle setup) out of one box, real double-jointed knees and elbows, and a switch-flip mono-eye that actually feels worth having. It is not perfect, the hands fight you a little and the hip joint can loosen with use, but I came away from the build happy every time.

Best for: HGUC/Origin collectors who want a characterful One Year War Zaku with real posing range and two build options in one kit

The full review

What it is

This is Bandai's HG Gundam The Origin take on the high mobility Zaku that Gaia and Mash rode into the Battle of Loum, and it captures the exaggerated backpack and triple leg thrusters that make this variant instantly readable on a shelf next to a stock MS-06. I built it as Gaia's twin-shield loadout first and swapped to Mash's rifle configuration a week later, and both read as distinct machines rather than a runner with leftover parts. The mono-eye switch under the head is a small touch that I did not expect to like as much as I did. For an HG kit selling in the mid-teens, the amount of character packed into the runners is honestly impressive.

The catch

The hands are the first thing every builder flags, and I hit the same wall. They go onto the wrists tight, and if you are swapping weapons between the two build configurations, that friction works the joint loose faster than you would like. The hip and thigh connection can also get a bit floppy after repeated posing, which matters more here because the extra leg thrusters make this Zaku heavier at the bottom than a standard HGUC frame. Some of the dark grey plastic reads a touch more blue than the near-black purple of the reference art, so panel lining and a little paint help it more than most HGs.

Who it's for

If you want a One Year War Zaku with actual personality and don't mind doing a little joint maintenance over its life, this is an easy recommend, especially if the Black Tri-Stars or Gundam The Origin means anything to you. Skip it if you want a fire-and-forget HG you never touch again after building, the loose hip joint means occasional re-tightening is part of owning this one. For anyone building a Zeon aces shelf, the twin-configuration gimmick alone makes it worth the extra care.

The build story

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

Gate placement is standard HG fare, mostly on flat or low-visibility surfaces, and the plastic takes a hobby knife cleanly with minimal stress marks. The two-configuration design means you are handling and re-handling the wrist and shoulder joints more than a typical single-loadout HG, which is exactly where the tight hand fit starts to show. Nothing here is genuinely frustrating, it just rewards a slightly gentler touch on the small connector parts than most HGs need.

The engineering payoff is in the accessory count and the switchable mono-eye, which is a rare gimmick at this scale and grade. Between the machine gun, bazooka with spare magazines, ASR-78 anti-ship rifle, heat hawk, and the extra shoulder shield for Gaia's build, this kit hands you more weapon variety than most HGs twice the price, and color separation on the leg thrusters and backpack vents is handled through molded plastic rather than relying on stickers for the parts that matter most.

Lore & trivia

01The Black Tri-Stars, Gaia, Mash, and Ortega, were Zeon aces who executed the Jet Stream Attack at the Battle of Loum in UC 0079, sinking five Earth Federation battleships in the process.
02The same team is credited in Gundam The Origin with capturing the escape shuttle of Earth Federation Space Force supreme commander Johann Ibrahim Revil during that battle.
03The MS-06R-1A High Mobility Type traded general versatility for pure thrust, adding an oversized backpack propellant tank and three extra acceleration thrusters per leg over the standard Zaku II.
04Mash, one of the two pilots this kit can be built as, famously has only a single line of dialogue in the original Origin material, a curt Yes sir.