RGUniversal Century

MS-06R-2 Robert Gilliam's Zaku II

The Johnny Ridden RG frame in jelly bean blue and yellow, for the deep-cut Zeon fans who know exactly whose name is on the box.

MechaGrade Score

3.8/5

Zaku II · 1/144 · 2022

GradeRG

Scale1/144

Released2022

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is a great engineering base wearing a fantastic paint job, and P-Bandai is charging you for the paint job.

If you already love the RG Zaku II High Mobility Type sculpt, Gilliam's blue and beige colorway is a genuinely sharp reason to own a second one. If you have never built that mold before, buy this one first and treat the ace-pilot name as a bonus, not the point.

Best for: Zeon completionists and RG Zaku fans who want Robert Gilliam's ace colors without repainting a kit themselves

The full review

What it is

This kit is the same RG Zaku II High Mobility Type engineering that Bandai has been reusing since the Johnny Ridden release, just retooled in Robert Gilliam's blue and beige with his personal insignia. That base sculpt earns its keep. The proportions read as a proper battlefield mobile suit rather than an action figure, the monoeye swivels left and right off the head turn the same way MG 2.0 Zaku does, and the leg thrusters and cockpit hatch are molded in believable detail for something this small. Snapping this together after building a plain HGUC Zaku is a real jump, the parts fit is tight and confident and it looks like a finished model the moment the runners come off, no painting required to read as Gilliam's machine.

The catch

The frame under that great paint job has real limits. The side skirts on this mold barely swing up, nowhere near the range of the original RG Zaku that could rotate its skirt armor almost fully back, so certain dynamic leg poses get blocked by your own hip armor. The waist joint is on the loose side out of the box and some builders report it sagging under the weight of the backpack and shoulder spikes over time. And this is a P-Bandai exclusive, which means you are paying a premium over a standard retail RG for color variance rather than new parts, so the value math only works if you specifically want Gilliam's scheme.

Who it's for

Buy this if you know who Robert Gilliam is, want his jelly-bean blue and yellow paint scheme without mixing it yourself, and already appreciate what the RG Zaku II High Mobility Type frame does well. It is a satisfying, fast, confident build with real shelf presence next to other RG Zeon suits. Skip it if you are new to Gunpla or new to RG kits in general, a standard-release RG Zaku (Johnny Ridden's or Gabby Hazard's version, usually easier to find and cheaper) gets you the identical engineering and posing quirks for less money, and you can always repaint later once you know you love the mold.

The build story

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

Gate placement on this frame is typical modern RG, mostly on visible outer surfaces so you will want side cutters and a light sanding pass if you care about nub marks showing on the blue armor panels. Nothing here fights you the way older RG Zeon kits sometimes did, the inner frame clips into the armor shells cleanly and there is no fiddly small-part loss risk beyond the usual RG-scale caution with the monoeye unit and hand parts.

The standout piece of engineering is still the monoeye gimmick borrowed from MG Zaku 2.0, it swivels with the head turn and it is the kind of detail that makes people stop and look twice at a kit this size. Weapon loadout covers the Zaku bazooka, machine gun, heat hawk, and Giant Buzz, giving you real posing variety for the money even if the skirt armor limits how far you can push leg poses. Articulation elsewhere is solid RG-standard, double-jointed elbows and knees, decent shoulder range, just watch the waist for stability once the kit is fully loaded out with accessories.

Lore & trivia

01Robert Gilliam was a real ace pilot in Universal Century lore, credited with 115 mobile suit kills and 6 warship kills during the One Year War, ranking him the seventh highest scoring Zeon ace behind Gabby Hazard.
02His personal blue and yellow color scheme was inspired by his stated favorite food, jelly beans.
03Gilliam also piloted the experimental MA-05R Big Ruf mobile armor and was assigned to Gihren Zabi's personal guard during the war.
04This RG release reuses the MS-06R-2 High Mobility Type tooling first introduced for Johnny Ridden's Zaku II in the RG line, later reissued in other Zeon aces' personal colors as P-Bandai exclusives.