MGUniversal Century

MS-06R-1A Masaya Nakagawa's Zaku II

The Ver. 2.0 Zaku frame in one of its handsomest MSV coats, brown and battered and ready for the shelf.

MechaGrade Score

3.9/5

Zaku II · 1/100 · 2017

GradeMG

Scale1/100

Released2017

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is the trusted MG Zaku II Ver.

2.0 engine wearing a paint job most builders never get a shot at owning. I like it a lot, not because it reinvents anything, but because the High Mobility Type frame was already one of Bandai's best mid-2010s Zakus, and this P-Bandai release just hands you correct brown-and-tan molded plastic instead of a paint list. If you already have a stock MG Zaku II 2.0 you know most of this experience already, which is exactly the point.

Best for: UC completionists and Zaku collectors who want Masaya Nakagawa's ace-pilot color scheme without an airbrush

The full review

What it is

This is the MG Zaku II High Mobility Type Ver. 2.0 mold, re-released through Premium Bandai in Masaya Nakagawa's personal E-Field Air Defense Battalion colors, that dusty ace-pilot brown instead of the usual field green. The molded color does the heavy lifting here, the brown, the tan skirt armor, and the mono-eye housing all come pre-separated so you're not hunting for the right paint match. Building it feels familiar in the best way, this is the same well-liked inner-frame Zaku that's been winning fans since 2016, just wearing new decals and a head sculpt with the correct blade antenna. It's a comfortable, satisfying build for anyone who already trusts the Ver. 2.0 line.

The catch

This was a Bandai Hobby Online Shop exclusive at roughly 4,860 yen, so secondary market pricing is the real cost of entry, not the sticker price on the box. Reviewers of the Ver. 2.0 High Mobility Type frame have flagged the rear skirt armor as a loose or fiddly fit on more than one release in this line, and leg articulation on the High Mobility variant reads a notch below the standard MG Zaku II 2.0 because of the added hip and thruster hardware. None of this is unique to the Nakagawa colorway, it's baked into the shared frame, but it's worth knowing going in.

Who it's for

Buy this if you already like the MG Zaku II Ver. 2.0 platform and want Nakagawa's brown ace scheme in molded plastic instead of painting it yourself, or if you're chasing a specific Universal Century MSV pilot custom for a display lineup. Skip it if you're hunting for HG-level affordability or an easy first Zaku, this is a Premium Bandai exclusive at MG prices and MG part counts. It's also not the pick if perfect leg articulation matters more to you than color accuracy, the standard MG Zaku II 2.0 poses a little more freely.

The build story

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

If you've built the MG Zaku II 2.0 before, this goes together the same way, and that's a compliment. Runner layout keeps main body panels separate from the small joint and skirt parts, cleanup is standard MG fiddliness rather than anything punishing, and the molded brown plastic means color separation happens as you clip parts rather than after you paint them. The new head runner with the blade antenna is a nice touch and slots in without drama.

The frame's headline features carry over well: the mono-eye shifts as you turn the head, elbows are double-jointed for a better bend, and the front, side, and rear skirt armor panels lift out of the way so the legs can actually kick forward. Fingers get 3+1+1 articulation with a swiveling wrist ball joint, which pays off on a Zaku more than people expect. Loadout includes the giant bazooka, standard Zaku bazooka, machine gun, and heat hawk, a generous set for a repaint release.

Lore & trivia

01Masaya Nakagawa was a Zeon ace lieutenant with the E-Field Air Defense Battalion stationed at the A Baoa Qu fortress base, and his Zaku is one of the earliest entries in Gundam's Ace Pilot Log line of MSV customs.
02The MS-06R-1A High Mobility Type was popular enough among named aces that it's also associated with the Black Tri-Stars, Eric Manthfield, and Shin Matsunaga, each getting their own Bandai colorway over the years.
03This release was a Bandai Hobby Online Shop (Premium Bandai) exclusive that hit in August 2017 at 4,860 yen, built on the same Ver. 2.0 tooling introduced with the standard MG Zaku II 2.0.