MGUniversal Century

MS-06R-2 Johnny Ridden's Zaku High Mobility Conversion Parts

The add-on set that turned Bandai's first Master Grade Zaku into Crimson Lightning's personal ride.

MechaGrade Score

3.4/5

Zaku II · 1/100 · 1996

GradeMG

Scale1/100

Released1996

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is a conversion set, not a kit you can build on its own, and once I accepted that framing I actually liked it a lot.

It takes the 1995 MG MS-06F Zaku II, still one of the earliest Master Grade kits Bandai ever made, and dresses it up as Johnny Ridden's High Mobility Type with a genuinely generous parts haul. The engineering underneath is dated by modern standards, but the idea of buying add-on runners instead of a whole new kit was ahead of its time.

Best for: collectors and vintage-Gunpla builders who already own (or are hunting down) the original MG MS-06F Zaku II and want the Johnny Ridden variant without buying a second full kit

The full review

What it is

I'll be upfront about what this actually is: a conversion parts set, not a complete standalone Zaku. You need the 1995 MG MS-06F Zaku II as your base, and this box supplies the High Mobility Type dress-up, a new backpack unit, extra armor pieces, a detail runner, manipulators with swappable open-palm and fisted hands, a 120mm machine gun, a heat hawk, a bazooka, a giant bazooka, and two Johnny Ridden figures (sitting and standing) for the diorama shelf. For a mid-90s accessory pack that is a shocking amount of stuff in the box, and it made me appreciate how early Bandai figured out that MSV variants could be sold as parts kits instead of full retreads.

The catch

The base kit it converts is a first-generation Master Grade from 1995, and it shows. Elbows and knees only bend to about 90 degrees, the mono-eye moves through a switch on the back of the head rather than a natural sculpt, and shoulders swing forward only slightly. You are also relying on dry-transfer decals and stickers for a lot of the marking work, and topcoating them is basically mandatory if you want the finish to survive handling. And because this is parts-only, your total cost and total build time is really two kits stacked together, which is easy to underestimate if you go in expecting a single afternoon project.

Who it's for

If you already have the original MG Zaku II sitting in your stash, or you can find one, this is a fun and cheap way to get a second, distinct-looking Zaku out of it, and the Johnny Ridden backstory gives the finished piece real shelf presence next to a standard green Zaku. If you do not already own that base kit, skip this and look at the later standalone Ver. 2.0 MG or the RG release instead, since either one gives you modern articulation and full parts in a single box without the scavenger hunt. This one is for people who care about Gunpla history as much as the finished pose.

The build story

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

The new runners fit onto the existing MG Zaku II frame cleanly, and the extra armor and backpack pieces snap on without the fuss you would expect from a 30-year-old tooling. Gate placement on the era-appropriate plastic is a little rougher than modern kits, so I took my time with cleanup on the visible armor edges, especially around the shoulder spikes and the new backpack vents.

The weapon loadout is where this set earns its keep. Between the 120mm machine gun, heat hawk, bazooka, and giant bazooka you have more posing options than most contemporary HG kits offer, and the manipulators swap between open-palm and closed-fist grips easily. Articulation is still bound by the underlying 1995 frame though, so do not expect the ball-jointed range of a modern MG; this is about character and loadout, not gymnastics.

Lore & trivia

01Johnny Ridden was nicknamed Crimson Lightning and was one of only four Zeon pilots ever given an MS-06R-2 High Mobility Type Zaku during the One Year War.
02In-universe, Ridden is so overshadowed by Char Aznable that other Zeon pilots occasionally mistake his signature Zaku for Char's own custom unit.
03This conversion parts release predates the standalone MG MS-06R-2 Ver. 2.0 kit by well over a decade, making it one of the earliest MSV-specific Master Grade releases in the line.
04Ridden was declared missing in action during the war's final battle and was posthumously promoted to Lieutenant Colonel.