HGBuild Fighters

MSZ-008X2 ZZII

Killer heels, a rifle almost as tall as the suit, and just enough ZZ Gundam DNA to make the silhouette click.

MechaGrade Score

3.4/5

ZZII · 1/144 · 2016

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2016

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This kit is a fun oddball with a genuinely striking silhouette, but it needs glue before it earns its poses.

Minato Sakai's custom take on the ZII stretches the frame taller and adds ZZ Gundam shoulder blocks and wing binders that read great on a shelf. The Hyper Long Rifle is the star prop here and it is worth the price of admission on its own. Where it falls short is stability, the hands and forearm extensions are loose out of the box and you will want cement before this thing holds anything but a stiff shooting pose.

Best for: HGBF collectors and Build Fighters fans who want the Hyper Long Rifle pose more than a rock-solid action figure

The full review

What it is

The ZZII is Minato Sakai's answer to his rival's Lightning Zeta Gundam, and Bandai captured that backstory well in plastic. It is built on the ZII frame but stretched taller with those signature heel-boots, and the ZZ Gundam-derived shoulder armor and backpack wing binders give it real presence next to a standard Zeta lineage kit. Building it, the appeal is immediate, the proportions are lanky and dramatic in a way most HG kits do not attempt, and the sheer scale of the included Hyper Long Rifle had me grinning the moment I clipped it together. It also converts to a boxy Waverider mode through the usual HG parts-forming method, which is a nice bonus even if it is not the main event.

The catch

The build has a real weak point, the hand sockets in the forearms just float in place until a small blue arm guard piece clamps them from the outside, and that connection is shaky rather than secure. The forearm extensions have the same problem, they attach with very loose pin joints that wobble under any real pose. Builders consistently flag both spots and the fix is simple, a dab of model cement locks them down, but straight out of the box you will feel the looseness immediately. The tall proportions and heeled feet also cost it some balance, so dynamic full-body poses are riskier than the shooting stances it is clearly built for.

Who it's for

Grab this one if you are into Build Fighters kits, want a distinctive silhouette that stands out from standard Zeta-family releases, or just want that enormous rifle in your display case. It rewards builders who do not mind reaching for cement to fix a couple of joints along the way. Skip it if you want a kit that poses confidently right out of the runner with zero intervention, or if loose floating joints are a dealbreaker for you. As a straight build with the glue fix applied, it is a satisfying afternoon project that looks better finished than the sprues suggest it will.

The build story

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

This is a straightforward HG build across 13 runners, most of them small, with only two or three full-size sprues, so it goes together quickly. The trouble spots show up in the arms, the hand sockets do not lock into anything on their own and just sit against the forearm until a blue arm guard piece wraps around and holds the assembly together, and it is a wobbly hold at best. The forearm extension joints are similarly loose. Neither issue is hard to fix, a little model cement in both spots solves it permanently, but it is worth doing before you pose the kit seriously.

Where the kit earns its keep is the loadout and silhouette. You get the Hyper Long Rifle, a center HM cannon on the backpack with a wide firing arc, a pair of beam bazookas, beam sabers, and head vulcans, which is a genuinely generous accessory spread for an HG. The ZZ Gundam-inspired shoulder armor and wing binders give it a look no other kit in the line shares, and the parts-forming Waverider mode is a legitimate bonus rather than an afterthought. Articulation holds up fine for basic posing, it is really only the arm looseness and the tall heeled stance that ask for extra care.

Lore & trivia

01The ZZII was built in the Gundam Build Fighters Try Island Wars OVA by Minato Sakai specifically to counter his rival Yuuma Kousaka's MSZ-006LGT Lightning Zeta Gundam.
02Despite sharing its base frame with the MSZ-008 ZII, the ZZII pulls its shoulder armor and backpack wing binder design language from the MSZ-010 ZZ Gundam, giving it a mixed-lineage look.
03Its Center HM Cannon has an output on par with the ZZ Gundam's High Mega Cannon, and it can combine with the twin beam bazookas for an attack called Tri Burst.
04The kit was released in August 2016 as HGBF release #045.