HGUniversal Century

MSZ-008 ZII (Travis Kirkland Color)

A space-only Zeta successor wearing a borrowed coat of paint, and I mean that as a compliment.

MechaGrade Score

3.5/5

ZII (Travis Kirkland Color) · 1/144 · 2015

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2015

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

This is a genuinely fun transforming kit dressed in one of the more interesting lore colorways Bandai ever bothered to mold into plastic instead of just printing on a box.

I like it more for what it does than for how clean the build is. The waverider transformation actually works and actually looks purposeful, and the weapon loadout is generous for a 2015 P-Bandai exclusive. Where it loses points is the sheer number of stickers standing in for panel lines, which turns a fun evening build into a patience test.

Best for: ZII completionists and Missing Link lore fans who want the Travis Kirkland scheme molded in, not painted on

The full review

What it is

The ZII was built as a space-only successor to the Zeta Gundam, and this release takes that suit and dresses it in the colors Travis Kirkland painted onto his own ZII while hunting for his son in Missing Link. What got me is that Bandai actually molded the scheme into the plastic rather than leaving it all to stickers and paint, so the bones of the color story are there before you touch a decal sheet. The legs do the transformation work into waverider mode, and swapping between forms feels like a real feature instead of a marketing bullet point. Popping the beam saber effect into the Hyper Launcher barrel for a charged-shot pose is a small touch I did not expect and genuinely enjoyed.

The catch

The complicated panel lining across the body is reproduced almost entirely with tetron stickers, and a good number of them wrap around armor edges rather than sitting flat, which makes placement fussier than it looks in photos. This is a 2015-era HG mold, so the color separation leans on those stickers more than a modern HG would, and the joints and part fit read as period-appropriate rather than current-gen tight. It is also a Premium Bandai exclusive, so you are buying secondhand or import stock rather than picking it off a shelf, and the price reflects that.

Who it's for

Buy this if you already know who Travis Kirkland is and want the ZII in his colors specifically, or if you like transforming HG kits and do not mind an extended sticker session as the price of admission. If you want a clean weekend build with minimal decal work, or you just want a ZII and do not care about the Missing Link connection, the standard-color general retail release is the easier and cheaper way in. This one rewards patience and a soft spot for side-story lore over convenience.

The build story

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

Gate and nub placement feel like a kit of its year rather than dated in a bad way, but the sticker sheet is the main event here. A lot of the surface detail that would be molded panel lines on a newer kit is instead tetron seals, and the ones that curve around armor corners take real care to lay down straight. The transformation legs add a bit more part count and assembly complexity than a standard fixed leg, which is a fair trade for what you get in return.

The engineering payoff is the transformation itself, legs folding cleanly into waverider mode without feeling like an afterthought. Articulation is solid for the era: a ball-jointed neck that swivels and tilts, shoulders that swing upward, arms that rotate and raise to the horizontal, and elbows that clear 90 degrees. The weapon loadout, Hyper Launcher, two bazookas, beam rifle, and a pair of beam sabers with plug-in effect parts, is generous for an exclusive release and gives the finished kit real shelf presence in either mode.

Lore & trivia

01In the story, Earth Federation pilot Travis Kirkland acquired this ZII from Anaheim Electronics and repainted it in the same scheme as the RX-79[G]SW Slave Wraith while searching for his missing son, Vincent Gleissner, in Mobile Suit Gundam Side Story: Missing Link.
02The MSZ-008 ZII was designed as a space-only successor to the MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam, and its waverider mode gave up the original Zeta's ability to re-enter atmosphere and fly on Earth.
03This Travis Kirkland colorway was the first HGUC release of the ZII mold, arriving as a Premium Bandai exclusive in April 2015, well before Bandai's general-retail HGUC release of the suit in its standard colors.