HGUniversal Century

MS-06S Zaku II (MARO17 Ver.)

The best Char's Zaku engineering Bandai has ever made, poured out in a color you were never supposed to be able to buy.

MechaGrade Score

3.9/5

Zaku II · 1/144 · 2020

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2020

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

I love this kit and I still can't recommend most people go chase it.

Underneath the black plastic this is the excellent 2020 Revive Char's Zaku II mold, and that kit alone is one of the best HG Zakus Bandai has produced. But the MARO17 version was never sold. It was a two-wave prize giveaway tied to a Japanese men's grooming campaign, only 400 ever existed, and every copy on the market now is secondhand at a premium over what the retail version costs.

Best for: Char's Zaku completionists and Gunpla collectors chasing a genuinely rare promo piece, not first-time buyers

The full review

What it is

This is a black recolor of the 2020 Revive HGUC MS-06S Zaku II, Char's personal Zaku, given away through the MARO17 men's anti-aging hair campaign in Japan between late 2019 and early 2020. The tie-in joke was Char getting black hair instead of his signature look, so the promo Zaku got swapped from anime red to solid black. Underneath the gimmick, though, the plastic is the same revive-era engineering that redefined what an HG Zaku could do. I built one expecting a novelty and came away impressed by how far the sculpt and joint work have come since the earlier Char Zaku molds.

The catch

The real catch has nothing to do with the plastic and everything to do with getting one. This was never a retail SKU. Bandai and MARO17 gave out 200 units per wave across two campaign windows, 400 total, strictly to promotion winners in Japan. Every unit you find now is secondhand, usually through Japanese auction sites or resellers, and priced well above what the standard red HGUC Char's Zaku costs new. There is also no box art or manual variation worth chasing beyond the recolor itself, so you are paying entirely for scarcity and the black colorway, not for anything mechanically different from the retail revive kit.

Who it's for

If you already collect Char's Zaku variants or you want a genuine oddball in a Universal Century shelf, this one is worth the hunt precisely because it is hard to find and tells a fun story. If you just want a great HG Char's Zaku to build and pose, buy the standard red HGUC Revive release instead. You get the identical double-jointed frame, the same articulation and color separation, for a fraction of the price and without gambling on a secondhand listing's condition. Save the MARO17 version for when you specifically want the rarity, not the kit.

The build story

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

Runner layout and gate placement match the 2020 revive Char's Zaku II, which means clean pip-style gates on the visible panel lines and comparatively little post-clip cleanup for an HG. The included alternate skirt armor is the nice touch here: Bandai gives you a soft, flexible one-piece skirt for the smooth TV-accurate silhouette, or individual hard armor plates if you want a sharper mechanical look. Both snap on without extra tools.

Where this kit earns its reputation is articulation. The double-jointed elbows and knees let it hold dynamic melee poses with the heat hawk and shield that the older Char Zaku molds simply could not manage, and the 360 degree waist rotation means torso twists don't fight the hip skirt. Color separation on the monoeye housing, vents, and backpack is handled almost entirely in molded plastic rather than stickers, which is a big step up from earlier HG Zaku releases and makes the black colorway look intentional rather than flat.

Lore & trivia

01MARO17 is a Japanese men's grooming and anti-aging hair care brand, and its 2019-2020 Gundam tie-in campaign joked about Char Aznable getting black hair, which is why the prize Zaku was recolored from anime red to solid black.
02The kit was never sold. Bandai and MARO17 gave away 200 units in a November-December 2019 wave and another 200 in a January-February 2020 wave, for 400 total, exclusively to campaign entrants who bought MARO17 products.
03It shares its mold with the 2020 Revive HGUC MS-06S Zaku II Char's Custom, the version that introduced double-jointed elbows and knees, a 360 degree waist, and a flexible soft-armor skirt option to the HG Char's Zaku line.