MG 1/100 Sazabi Ver. Ka - Review by Team GG

MG 1/100 Sazabi Ver. Ka - Review by Team GG
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Review by Team GG Falldog 

From a design perspective, this isn’t your Yutaka Izubuchi’s Sazabi. It’s received a thorough Hajime Katoki design upgrade. Gone are the smooth, bulbous curves of the CCA version, upgraded with larger proportions and more flat angles. Frankly, it looks amazing. I think it’s a better example of a modern take than the ver. Ka Nu Gundam or current RX-78-2. There’s just something stunning about it.

Carrying over from the Nu Gundam and new RX-78-2 redesigns are the use of varying colour shades. This time around there are three different shades of red all over the kit that almost make it look like a patchwork creation. In most areas is looks great but there are a few that I feel could have been tuned differently. The net effect though is that the kit looks amazing out of the box. It’s something that will look great without any paint or detail work.

Speaking of details, there’s a ton! Over the whole kit there are a lot detail lines, extra bits, and areas where the frame is shown through. Well and far beyond most Bandai kits. Unfortunately the inner frame isn’t nearly as detailed and, in some areas, seems quite bland. They do spice things up by having multiple silver detail pieces that go between the frame and armor. More on those later.

When the Sazabi was fully announced many noticed the hefty price tag. The cost correlates to the size of the kit and the amount of pieces (over 480 by my count), most of which are quite large. The kit itself is quite large all together, standing taller than the formidable MG O. The MG RX-78-2 3.0 only comes up about waist high.

During construction most of the kit goes together with ease but there are a few steps that will make you scratch your head. For me it was how the funnels went together and the knee guards which fit into hidden slots after everything’s already put together. I encountered almost no fit issues aside from some of the seams created due to the transformation gimmick. The only area where I did have a fit issue was the head.. It’s designed so it can be opened up to move the monoeye but, on my kit at least, it never quite fitted together flushly.

Note that the kit comes, in traditional ver. Ka fashion, with a good deal of water slide decals. There are also a few stickers for red colour variation like was found on the Nu Gundam ver. Ka. There’s also clear ball cockpit you can use outside of the kit. I took a photo of the damn thing but can’t seem it find it right now.

Articulation

Despite it’s bulky size, the Sazabi can strike a pose surprisingly well, and hold it too! A lot of the impressive articulation comes from the shoulder joints which pop out from the torso and offer a fantastic degree of movability. I didn’t have any issues trying to strike a pose with the arms. Nor did I encounter any issues trying to support the weapons or shield.

The legs aren’t as impressive, but nothing to be scoffed at. Due to the design the armor skirts around the lower leg can impede the feet’s range of motion. Running poses don’t look so great due to some of these tighter clearances. To me, however, I consider that an acceptable tradeoff to the benefits of such a large base. The kit is properly large and the wide based feet have no issues supporting her. All of the joints are nice and tight and I had no issues balancing the kit on only one leg. While posing you may find that the large waist skirts get in the way from time to time and may pop off. There is also a small amount of articulation in the torso but nothing to make or break the design.

The kit can be held aloft with an action base, but its size and weight makes it awkward to work with. The attachment point is in the back just below the backpack, which unfortunately puts the stand right up against the rear armor skirts.

Armament

The Sazabi ver. Ka comes with a wide assortment of beam weaponry options, molded straight from the MG Sinanju. Two beam sabers, two short tomahawk effect pieces, and two long tomahawk effect pieces. Is there a better name than beam tomahawk? Well, that’s what I’m going with.

The Sazabi’s beam sabers mount in the forearm. It’s possible to insert them into the arm and have the beam effect pieces coming out. Unfortunately, unlike the Sinanju, they come out at an odd angle compared to the rest of the forearm itself, making it look awfully awkward.

The beam tomahawks are improved over the Sinanju versions and feature a longer handle. They can be held independently, facing opposite directions, or side by side. When side by side there’s a notch in the center to add a beam saber piece as well. Unfortunately it doesn’t sit very security and flops to one side or the other. Now that I think of it, based on how the piece is constructed, it may not have been properly seated. Either way it should be an easy fix.

The kit comes with two beam rifles, the one seen in Char’s Counterattack and a “Long Beam Rifle” based of off artwork by Hiroyuki Hataike. Both fit in the hands really well and stay in place thanks to the new MG premolded hands and their interconnecting pegs. The long beam rifle is also capable of accepting the Sinanju rocket launcher that comes with the Sinanju OVA version, SInanju Stein, and was released separately prior (with a magazine or light novel I believe).

Unfortunately the oversized cuffs and forearms on the Sazabi limit the poses available. The new long rifle at least has an extendable stock that will allow it to clear the forearm.

In a perfect universe only the Sazabi would have guns. Unfortunately the Sazabi exists in an imperfect universe and must counter the guns of others. That’s why she’s comes with a big honking shield! The shield, as large as most mobile suits, matches the aesthetics of the rest of the kit. The Neo Zeon symbol is a decal, not raised area like the Sinanju kits.

The Sazabi does a good job supporting the big and bulky weight of the shield. It’s able to spin around and has an added point of articulation that allows it to swing outward, though I’m not sure the use. The shield hinges near the elbow on a cleverly disguised hard point. There are two other hard points just like it on the forearm but I’m pretty sure the shield can’t be attached there because I could never get it hold tight. After the kit has been gone through the transformation gimmick there’s another hard point attached to the shoulder armor which can be accessed.

Last but not least, the funnels.

The kit comes with a total of six funnels which sit securely in binders coming off the backpack. These binders can open up to release the funnels themselves or just show off a funnel holding mechanism. The construction on funnels themselves is a bit awkward in that the internal parts move up and down between modes. When the funnel itself is extended the rifle end is retracted and the thrusters are covered up. When the thrusters are pushed inward the rifle end pokes out as the thruster pushes up on the panels to hold them in their distinctive shape. Unfortunately Bandai did not include any action effect pieces which would’ve been really easy to do. I suspect that they can be easily hand crafted with the right materials.

Transformation

“One more thing!” says the man with a bouncer’s build and an undersized red turtleneck, “There’s a transformation gimmick!”

Part of what makes the Sazabi ver. Ka such a beast is the ability to transform. It’s not really a transformation, such as into a plane like numerous other kits, but the ability for armor pieces to move away, arranging and revealing more thrusters. It also reveals a lot of the silver frame details built into the kit.

Transforming the kit is amazingly easy. Pull here, pull there, lift that, and you’re done. The only part that’s a bit odd to understand is the forearms. The sides are supposed to flair out so you can see thrusters underneath. For me they never flaired out enough to make them properly visible. You also can’t really see the thrusters in the front of the leg’s skirt armor because it’s high up behind the outer armor. Frankly, I think it’s just a bit too much. I mean, the kit looks fantastic already without looking fluffed up like a frightened cat.

Other Photos

At the end of the day, the Sazabi ver. Ka is an impressive kit. It somehow manages to mix traditional Master Grade sensibilities with the unique and innovative engineering ver. Ka kits have come to be associated with. And, very impressively, it joins the ver. Ka ranks as one of the few to not suffer because of it.

There will be an inevitable Titanium version of this kit. In a lot of areas Bandai managed to mold the pieces with really small nub connections. In other areas however they’re big and obnoxious, so prepare for an unevent amount of visible nub marks.

So, after reading all this, is the Sazabi ver. Ka for you? This guy is fairly expensive for a MG and I think it’s definitely worth the price. The amount of detail, the number of pieces, the various display options… in this case the cost definitely corresponds to awesomeness. I would not recommend this for novice builders. For the most part things go together really easily. Tons of pieces, but most are large and easy to handle. There just happen to be a few components that seem to awkwardly fit together. They’re just not intuitive and the guide isn’t that clear (probably because I can’t read Japanese). Moderately experienced builders and above should be able to navigate these little hurdles.

When not writing for Gundam Guy, Falldog is the owner of OtakuRevolution.com and the author behind the Layman’s Gunpla Guide, http://otakurevolution.com/content/laymans-gunpla-guide