MGUniversal Century

MS-06S Zaku II (J. Ridden's Custom)

The Ver. 2.0 Zaku frame in Johnny Ridden's crimson and black, dressed up with more armor than it knows what to do with.

MechaGrade Score

3.8/5

Zaku II · 1/100 · 2013

GradeMG

Scale1/100

Released2013

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

I like this kit a lot, but I like it as a display piece more than as a poser.

It takes the excellent MG Zaku II 2.0 inner frame, the same one that made Char's Zaku a modern classic, and bolts on Johnny Ridden's extra leg armor and oversized rear thrusters. The frame underneath is still great. The extra hardware on the legs is not, and it costs you real range of motion right where a Zaku needs it most.

Best for: UC fans who want Johnny Ridden's Zaku specifically and are fine posing it more upright than dynamic

The full review

What it is

This is the Ver. 2.0 Zaku II platform wearing Johnny Ridden's personal colors, crimson and black instead of Char's red, with the commander-type monoeye head and a loadout that actually nods to his in-universe reputation as Zeon's other red ace. Building it, I kept catching myself grinning at small touches, the way the monoeye rides a little gear track inside the head so it actually looks like it is scanning, the way the skirt armor swings out of the way on ball joints without you fighting it. The extra shoulder and leg armor plates give the silhouette real bulk and menace on the shelf. It reads as a distinct character, not a red repaint of Char's kit, and that was worth the extra parts count to me.

The catch

The leg thrusters are the real cost of this kit. They are huge, they look great standing still, and they physically stop the knee from bending much past 90 degrees, so dynamic running or kneeling poses are mostly off the table unless you are willing to modify or leave them loose. The spring-core energy cable pieces on the legs are genuinely fiddly, several builders report the tight rings slicing plastic shavings off the tube as you force them into place. And a chunk of Ridden's signature markings come down to foil stickers rather than molded color, so a straight sticker build looks noticeably flatter than a painted one.

Who it's for

Grab this one if Johnny Ridden matters to you as a character and you want him rendered properly instead of settling for a Char repaint with different marks. It also makes sense if you mostly display kits standing rather than posing them mid-battle, because the frame's articulation is there, it is just partly locked out by the armor Ridden's variant adds. If you want the most posable Zaku on your shelf, the plain Ver. 2.0 Zaku II without the extra leg armor will out-articulate this one every time. And if energy-cable assembly already stresses you out on a normal MG Zaku, know that this kit adds more of that same work, not less.

The build story

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

The core Zaku II 2.0 assembly is a joy, tight gate placement, clean nub cleanup, parts that snap together with real confidence and no looseness. Where it slows down is Ridden's added leg armor and thruster block, which stacks extra parts onto an already busy leg and, by several builders' accounts, can eat hours on its own before you even get to the energy cables.

The frame's engineering is the same one that made the Char's Zaku 2.0 a benchmark kit: gear-driven monoeye, ball-jointed skirt armor that swings clear for leg movement, double elbow joints, and separate finger articulation for a Zaku. Where this variant loses ground is exactly where it gains bulk, the reinforced leg armor and huge rear thrusters look striking but physically block the knee joint from the deep bend the plain 2.0 frame is capable of.

Lore & trivia

01Johnny Ridden was Zeon's third-highest scoring ace of the One Year War, credited with over 180 kills, and painted his Zaku crimson and black in a scheme that got him repeatedly mistaken for Char Aznable, the Red Comet.
02His original in-universe nickname, Red Blitz, was retconned to Crimson Lightning specifically because it echoed Char's Red Comet moniker too closely.
03This MG release adapts the 2013 Ver. 2.0 Zaku II frame, the same inner-frame overhaul used for the Char's Zaku 2.0, rather than reworking the older MG Zaku from scratch.