HGUniversal Century

MS-06R-AB Zaku Amazing

A green grunt suit piled so high with hardware it starts to feel like a boss fight.

MechaGrade Score

3.8/5

Zaku II · 1/144 · 2013

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2013

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This kit takes the humble Zaku II and buries it under enough gear to make an MG blush, and somehow it still snaps together in an afternoon.

The heat natas, rocket launchers, twin handguns, and shoulder shields all click into a coherent silhouette rather than a cluttered mess, which is the real trick here. It is not a refined engineering showcase, it is a toybox, and I mean that as a compliment. If you want maximum accessory count per dollar in the HG line, this is one of the strongest cases I have built.

Best for: HG builders who want a Zaku loaded with weapons and don't mind babysitting a slightly top-heavy backpack

The full review

What it is

I went in expecting a reskinned HGUC Zaku II with a bigger backpack, and that undersells it. The Zaku Amazing is a High Grade Build Fighters kit, so it leans into the source material's fantasy of a Gunpla built purely to look and feel overpowered, and the parts count backs that up. You get heat natas, a rocket launcher, a long rifle, twin handguns with holsters, shoulder shields, and leg mines, and building through that stack takes closer to two hours than the usual half hour HG sprint. Snapping the Amazing Booster support craft together from the leg armor and shield parts at the end was the moment the kit clicked for me. It is a genuinely fun, toy-forward build.

The catch

The backpack is heavy, and it shows. Push the arms or torso into a dynamic pose and you can feel the hip joints working harder than they should to keep the suit upright, a complaint I saw echoed by other builders and not just my own unit. The leg mines are small and fiddly to seat correctly, more finicky than anything else in the kit. This kit also recycles frame parts from older Zaku HG tooling, and at least one build report flagged looseness in the resulting joints as a stability issue during weapon-swap poses. None of it ruins the kit, but temper expectations if you were hoping for MG-tier posing confidence.

Who it's for

If you want a Zaku that reads as a one-suit army rather than a basic grunt, and you are fine doing a little joint-tension troubleshooting for it, this is a rewarding weekend build. It rewards builders who like sorting a big pile of weapon sprues before starting, since the loadout is the whole appeal. Skip it if you want a clean, minimalist Zaku silhouette or if hip-joint stress under heavy backpacks is a dealbreaker for you, an HGUC Zaku II High Mobility Type without the add-on armor will serve that itch better. For anyone chasing accessory density and build fighters flavor in HG scale, though, I would point them straight at this one.

The build story

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

This is a longer HG sprint than most, closer to ninety minutes to two hours once you account for the weapon variety, but it stays snap-fit and beginner-friendly throughout, no paint or glue required. The trickiest step is seating the leg mines securely, everything else clips together with the usual HG confidence.

The standout engineering move is the Amazing Booster, a separate support-craft mode built from the same leg armor, shoulder shields, rifle, and handgun holsters plus one extra base part, so the accessory sprue does double duty instead of becoming shelf clutter. Articulation is wide enough for the suit's bulky proportions, but the backpack's weight means the hip joints are doing more work than the frame ideally wants, and that is the one place the pose-holding confidence dips.

Lore & trivia

01The Zaku Amazing is the Gunpla built and piloted by Tatsuya Yuuki, the Seiho Academy student council president known as the Crimson Comet, in Gundam Build Fighters.
02It is based on the MS-06R-1A Zaku II High Mobility Type frame, up-armored with parts inspired by tank models within the show's own fiction.
03The kit was released in October 2013 as HGBF #002, part of the High Grade Build Fighters line launched alongside the original Gundam Build Fighters anime.
04Its leg armor, shoulder shields, and weapon holsters can be reassembled into a separate support unit called the Amazing Booster, compatible with other 1/144 HG kits.