HGUniversal Century

MS-06S Zaku II EAGLES Ver.

A classic Zaku sculpt dressed up in crimson ballpark colors for a one-off crossover that most builders will never see in person.

MechaGrade Score

3.2/5

Zaku II · 1/144 · 2019

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2019

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is a novelty colorway on an older HGUC Zaku sculpt, and I judge it as exactly that rather than as a modern engineering showcase.

It was built to celebrate the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles baseball team's 15th anniversary alongside Gundam's 40th, molded in crimson and black team colors in place of Char's usual red, and capped at 3,000 units in April 2019. As a kit on its own merits it is a serviceable, nostalgic build with real joint limitations. As the specific object it is, a limited crossover collectible, it delivers exactly what it promises.

Best for: Zeon completionists and Rakuten Eagles fans chasing a specific crossover piece, not builders shopping for the best MS-06S engineering

The full review

What it is

Underneath the team colors this is the older HGUC Char's Zaku II sculpt, the commander-type MS-06S with the taller head antenna and beefier backpack thrusters that separate it from the rank and file MS-06F. Molded in the Golden Eagles' crimson with black accents standing in for Char's usual red and Zeon green, it shipped as a companion piece to an RX-78-2 Gundam done in the same team colors. I like picking this one up specifically because the color swap actually reads well on the Zaku silhouette, crimson suits the mono-eye brute just as much as it suited Char, and building it is a quick, low-stress evening with a familiar, comfortable Zaku shape at the end of it.

The catch

This is an older HG mold, not the 2020 Revive or Origin-line Zaku, so the joints are simpler ball-and-polycap affairs that were already dated by 2019 and get looser with repeated posing over the years. The mono-eye and some panel details still lean on stickers or paint rather than molded color separation, which is standard for a kit this vintage but a step down from what current HG lines do. Because it was a 3,000-unit crossover promo rather than a mainline retail release, secondhand prices run well above what the sculpt itself would justify, and you are largely paying for scarcity rather than build quality.

Who it's for

Buy this if you specifically want the Rakuten Eagles crossover piece for a collection, or if you are a Zeon completionist who tracks every MS-06S colorway Bandai has ever put out. Skip it if you just want a good MS-06S Zaku II to build and pose, since the 2020 HGUC Revive or the Gundam The Origin HG version both give you a newer sculpt with better articulation and molded color separation for a fraction of what this promo item costs secondhand. This one is a collectible first and a build second.

The build story

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

The build itself is unremarkable in the best way, familiar Zaku parts breakdown, simple ball-jointed shoulders and hips, polycap knees and elbows, and gate placement typical of the era rather than the cleaner nub work Bandai does now. Cleanup is light because the part count is modest, and nothing about the assembly trips up a builder who has put together any other HGUC Zaku before it.

Where it earns its keep is the color. The crimson molded plastic reads as a real team-color reskin rather than a cheap paint job, and it holds together as a cohesive, good-looking finished piece on a shelf even though the frame underneath is a generation or two behind current HG standards. Accessories follow the usual Char's Zaku loadout, heat hawk and a rifle, with a shield that mounts the same way older HGUC Zaku shields always have.

Lore & trivia

01The kit was released in April 2019 as a joint promotion celebrating Gundam's 40th anniversary and the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles baseball team's 15th anniversary, limited to 3,000 units.
02It shipped alongside a companion HG RX-78-2 Gundam EAGLES Ver., also molded in the team's crimson and black colors.
03The MS-06S designation marks this as the commander-type Zaku II, the same base type used for Char Aznable's famous red Zaku, distinguished from the standard MS-06F by its extra thrusters and taller antenna.
04Rakuten, the Eagles' parent company, also owned Bandai Namco's e-commerce partnerships at the time, which is part of why the collaboration paired a baseball franchise with a Gunpla release in the first place.