MGUniversal Century

RX-121-2A Gundam TR-1 [Advanced Hazel]

A P-Bandai deep cut that rewards patience with gimmicks most kits never bother with.

MechaGrade Score

3.9/5

Gundam TR-1 [Advanced Hazel] · 1/100 · 2018

GradeMG

Scale1/100

Released2018

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is a kit for people who already love the Universal Century rabbit hole, and it delivers exactly what that crowd wants.

The waist-mounted sub-arm deployment gimmick and the opening visor sensor head are the kind of engineering flourishes that make you stop mid-build just to fiddle with them again. It is not the most agile MG on the shelf, but it was never trying to be. It is trying to be a faithful, detail-dense version of a suit most builders only know from a wiki page, and on that measure it earns its price tag.

Best for: AOZ/Gundam Sentinel lore fans and MG collectors who want gimmick engineering over pose-anywhere agility

The full review

What it is

The Advanced Hazel is the upgraded form of the Hazel II, built to match the Hazel Custom's spec sheet with reinforced legs and a multi-weapon latch bolted onto an already busy frame. As an MG it packs in a lot of hardware: a sub-arm unit tucked into the waist armor that deploys on its own hinge, a head sensor housing with a clear-part visor that opens and closes, and a pair of shield boosters meant to mount on the backpack. Building it feels less like assembling a Gundam and more like assembling a piece of hard sci-fi machinery, which is exactly the appeal if you came to this kit already knowing what a Hazel Custom is.

The catch

This was a P-Bandai premium release, so expect P-Bandai pricing and the usual limited-run availability rather than a shelf kit you can grab anytime. The extra armor plating, shield boosters, and multi-weapon latch add real bulk, and more than one builder has flagged that the suit does not articulate as freely as its slimmer Zeta-era cousins once all the add-on parts are mounted. The sub-arm and visor gimmicks are satisfying but also more moving parts to keep track of during assembly, and the decal sheet leans on you to do the legwork for full color accuracy rather than handing you molded color for everything.

Who it's for

Buy this if you already know the AOZ/Gundam Sentinel lineage and want the Advanced Hazel specifically, or if you collect the Hazel family and want this variant to sit next to the Hazel Custom and Hazel Owsla. Skip it if you want a kit that poses like a Zeta-line MG out of the box, or if you are hunting for something easy to find at retail. This is a display-and-detail kit built for people who read the manual as carefully as they build the model, not a weeknight speed build.

The build story

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

The build moves in stages typical of a P-Bandai reissue kit: dense, well-organized instructions, color-coded runners, and enough small parts around the visor and sub-arm hinge that gate cleanup rewards going slow rather than rushing the sprue clipping. Nothing here fights you, but the extra gimmick assemblies mean more sub-steps than a standard MG of similar size.

The standout engineering is the sub-arm deployment mechanism in the waist, a feature you rarely see done this cleanly at 1/100 scale, paired with the opening head sensor visor that uses clear parts for the sight underneath. Weapon loadout covers a beam rifle, beam saber, shield, and the twin shield boosters, which is a strong accessory count for a kit built around a single specific suit rather than a mainline hero unit.

Lore & trivia

01The Advanced Hazel is a remodel of the RX-121-2 Gundam TR-1 [Hazel II], upgraded with leg reinforcement parts and a multi-weapon latch to match the specs of the RX-121-1 Gundam TR-1 [Hazel Custom].
02Its head trades the classic V-Fin for a folded-back antenna and a visor-type composite sensor unit, reusing optical and sight sensor technology from the GM Sniper III.
03The shield booster carries ten diffuse beam guns on its surface for shooting down incoming missiles and projectiles, at the cost of reduced propellant capacity as a booster.
04In the Advance of Zeta: The Flag of Titans storyline, the Advanced Hazel saw combat during the final days of the Gryps Conflict, piloted by both Eliard Hunter and Audrey April while pursuing Carl Matsubara.