Review: HGUC 1/144 RX-121-2A Gundam TR-1 [Advanced Hazel]

Hello Builders, 

I've got an interesting kit for you today, and one that I especially know very little about! Today we're going to look at the Advanced Hazel released in 2005. 

It was a warm Saturday morning that had been long awaited by my friends and I, in our gunpla group. Finally, the day had come for us to embark on a trip to the fabled "Comic Store" located in New Hampshire. Upon arriving, it was down to business. Our group opened the door and made our way to the fateful aisle of Gunpla, and there it was.: a wall, lined with kits from a multitude of series. We were like kids in a candy shop, no, we were as close to Gunpla heaven as we could get. 

The day was filled with the seven of us perusing the aisle, enjoying the process of physically shopping for kits. Each of us would pick up a stack of kits, and then exchange them for others as the internal conflict in our hearts and minds (and wallets) shook us to our very core. Which kit do I want, which can I afford, how many can I get, is it worth it? 

At the end of the day, I escaped the store with 3 new kits, and some option parts. The HG Age-1 which I had the Razor parts for, the HG Cherudim, and the HG Advanced Hazel which we will be talking about today.

This High Grade kit comes from Advance of Zeta which takes place before the events of the anime series Mobile Suit Gundam Zeta. Again, I know very little about this series and its suits, however the interesting design of the suit really drew me in. 

In terms of a little background, what I gathered from reading a little bit about this suit, was that it was a Titans prototype mobile suit, based upon the GM Quel. Basically, it was a Quel with a Gundam style head, and various armaments. 

Parts

This kit comes with a polycap runner which is interestingly in a letter system, instead of a numerical system which I hadn't seen in awhile. It also comes with a foil sticker sheet, and a set of decal stickers, for Titans markings and logos

The A runner comes with yellow, red, and black plastic. It also includes the pink transparent beam saber. 

The B runner contains blue plastic pieces, including the two shields. 

The C runner includes blue plastic, and features a lot of the leg parts. 

The D runner includes the light grey plastic that makes up the joints and inner parts. 

The E runner is split into E1 and E2. E1 actually comes molded in 3 colors of plastic as well, which I hadn't seen before. 

Size Comparison

I decided to compare the suit with the Jesta Cannon and GM Sniper K9. The Advanced Hazel has a taller head height than both, but with the cannons extended, the Jesta has a height advantage. As you can see, however, I stripped the Hazel of most of its armaments. With the shield boosters, it gains significant height, and weight. 

Weapons and Manipulators

This kit comes with 3 shields. One standard shield, and two shield boosters. It also comes with one beam saber handle, and a beam rifle with a detachable magazine. The two additional magazines are only for show, as they only clip to the side skirts. 

The kit only comes with three hands. For the right hand, you can either have the standard holding hand, for the beam saber, or the trigger finger for the rifle. The standard holding hand is actually fairly different from other kits I've built, as the fingers are at an angle, so the saber will actually tilt forward in the hand. The trigger finger is also different in that it does not have a slot for the rifle to plug into. 

With the shields, you can see an interesting gimmick they included. The kit only comes with one hard-point connector for the shields. Instead of the connector plugging into each shield, each shield has a small grey piece that you can slide into connection piece. 

The Hazel can realistically have either shield connected to its arm, but only one at a time

Articulation

I feel that I've been spoiled with articulation lately, so this kit actually has been very disappointing in that area. It's so bulky with its armor and additional armaments that it really doesn't articulate all that well. 

I'll give it a little bit of credit though. With those bulky legs, you'd figure you wouldn't get a good bend, but they designed it in a way that it's not a brick at least...

Color and Quality

This kit is baffling to me in this area. For a 2005 kit, you don't really anticipate the same plastic quality as more recent kits, and this is no different. You're going to get that lighter feeling plastic that almost feels brittle.

This is a Titans suit. If you've ever built an HG you'll know that color separation is hit or miss, and with a dark colored mobile suit, especially from the Titans, you almost fear the worst. However, as you can see, there are some bright spots where the yellow and red really shine through the black and blue (which at times can be almost indistinguishable). Along with this, you're given some very nice decals which brighten up the kit as a whole. Adding these decals breaks up the monotony, and add a dimension not usually found in HG kits. 

Even more baffling was the foil seals. As you can see, the kit decides to use seals on the lower shins, and the top of the head (of which, only the back part will actually show). Areas that don't use seals include the enhanced sensor (shown below) and the beam rifle. 

For both those areas, I decided to use a hobby knife, and measure out a section of the leftover green to create my own makeshift seals. I was very happy with the outcome. 

Pros and Cons

If you couldn't already guess, you can go kick yourself for not expecting this. I love this kit for how unique it is. If you didn't see it before, I didn't really mention it. The shields are asymmetrical for the booster, and damn does it look cool. That shield booster is such a cool gimmick. The enhanced sensor gives it that cool "recon" look, and you're not going to get just another Gundam looking figure. Its bulky legs, covered in thrusters are really interesting as well. 

A kit with this color scheme most likely will look pretty boring, but including seals in the right areas, and decals in addition to a good amount of different colored plastic really breaks that up and makes it look great. The kit also comes with some cool additional armaments which I will talk about towards the end of the review. 

This kit however, feels fragile at times. When putting it together, there are areas which call for snapping parts into each other, which locks them into place. However, these points are all plastic connections into plastic slots. I fear that if you put too much force into it, those connection points will snap. I also found the hardpoints for the shields to be fairly loose in the area where the shield connects to the backpack, and the arm. Both still stay fairly well, but don't give you a snug fit that makes it feel more secure. 

The kit is fairly back heavy, and it doesn't come with a lot of manipulators or weapons, which is kind of sad. It's also a very bulky kit. 

BONUS: CLAWS!

This kit comes with a front pack that has folding claws. This section slides into the suits already ginormous crotch, to give it a fanny pack of grabby goodness. 

These claws have folding "fingers" which can grip an assortment of weapons. Here you can see it with some knives from the Zee Zulu

Need more fire power? No problem. The claws can grab your favorite HG Customize Campaign parts, like the gatling gun and grenade launcher!

Verdict

I am so on the fence for this kit. There is so much that I was disappointed with, but also so much I was impressed and amused by. I would have to say that this kit was very fun to build (aside from the stresses of maybe breaking a piece while building it). It is a very unique kit, and don't be afraid of the Titans color scheme. You'll find that this kit isn't average at all. Almost every section has a surprise in addition to its standard build. If this kit fits your definition of cool looking, I would say grab it just for the experience. I can't say this kit is for everyone though. 

Until next time!

Review: HGUC 1/144 ZII

Hello Builders!

To all my American friends, I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgivings, and eventful Black Friday shopping!

Today I have for you, one of the newer HGUC kits, the ZII or Zeta II. 

I actually had no real prior knowledge of this Mobile Suit, and recently read up on it. Originally I was fairly underwhelmed by the design, until I saw that it transforms! 

If you know anything about me, you know that I love mobile suits that transform into flight modes. This was another to add to my collection, and recently I even acquired an MG Zeta 2.0 from my secret santa over at r/gunpla. Shoutout to u/The_Tavinator for an awesome gift.

Anyways, the ZII was released just a few months ago, in September. I had some rewards points on Amazon left over, so I decided to pick this kit up for virtually nothing. I had my anxieties and hesitations afterwards. Most of my friends made fun of the kit for its "high heels" but I really started to grow to like the unique feet design. 

Without further ado, here is a look at this new kit. I hope this is helpful in seeing if you are interested in it or not. 

Parts

Here we go... as you can see there are 10 parts runners, 1 beam effect runner, and 1 polycap runner, and a hellish tiny sticker sheet with tiny seals for details. That'll be fun. 

The kit comes with a blue A plate, which interestingly enough is molded in only blue. No multicolored A plate here. 

The B plate is actually two identical blue molds, mostly for symmetrical armor pieces. 

The C plate is split into C1 and C2, and share similar parts, except C1 holds parts for the torso. 

The D plate holds the red detail pieces that are mostly just armor pieces that attach to the blue parts. 

The E plate holds most of the weapon pieces. 

The F plate holds an assortment of pieces ranging from joints, to weapons, to manipulators. 

The G plate is interesting. It is split into a G1 and G2 plate, but they share no parts, rather the G2 plate is molded in yellow, and provides for some of the yellow accent pieces. 

Size Comparison

The ZII is fairly short and bulky. As you can tell, the leg armor makes it really look like a triangle in shape. It is much shorter than the Unicorn, but seems to have a wider base. It extends a bit higher because of its backpack, adding to its height. Its upper body is not as bulky as the ReZEL. In general, it is fairly short, standing at 5 inches head height, and about 7 inches to the tip of the backpack. 

Weapons and Manipulators

This kit comes with 2 bazookas, 1 beam rifle, 1 mega beam rifle, and 2 beam sabers. The beam sabers can be plugged into either rifle, just like its predecessor. 

This kit comes with two pairs of manipulators for each hand. Two triggered finger hands for all of the long range weapons, with an angled wrist, and open hands for the beam sabers. 

Articulation

In general, this kit has some decent articulation. The arms can rotate freely at the bicep, and also swivel within the shoulder armor. The legs get good bend, but as you can see, there is a lot of bulky armor that gets in the way of some poses. 

The posing issues continue with the "high heels". with such a narrow base, it is hard for this kit to stand upright without looking fairly goofy. I would definitely have this guy in some aerial poses. 

The arms have some problems as well. The rotating piece in the bicep is just a short peg, that doesn't seem to reach as far into the forearm as you would want it to. You would think it'd be longer and sit snugly in the polycap, but it doesn't which causes it to loosen and sometimes fall off when fiddling with it. 

Color and Quality

This kit definitely has the yellow blue and red going for it. The deep blue that it comes in really sticks out, and looks great. The rest of the pieces just add to it. Here you can see that they provided yellow pieces to stick into the chest, and also red pieces to stack on top of the blue armor. These really contrast well, and give it that pop you want out of a kit. It definitely is not bland.

However, you also see the amount of thin seals used to detail up those yellow parts as well. 

The weapons also need some seals to finish them off, as you can see there are some yellow seals on the rifles as well. 

In terms of quality, for a new kit that is also transformable, it is very sturdy. The only parts that fall off are the arms, as I mentioned earlier. There aren't really too many flimsy parts on this kit, despite it being  transformable. It actually uses the same gimmick as the HGUC ReZEL and Delta Plus where there are parts included that you build, and then attach parts from the kit onto to make it the wave rider. 

No real issues in terms of flimsy joints, however the weapons can be very cumbersome. With the long stocks, and the design of the rifles, even with the angled wrists, the ZII has some trouble holding the guns without it looking a little weird. I also had the wrists pop off a bunch of times while trying to pose it with the mega beam rifle. 

Pros and Cons

This kit is very unique in its design. I actually love the color scheme it comes in. I don't have any kits that are primarily blue. It comes with a great assortment of weapons, and I just love how the bazookas can attach to the backpack. The color contrast and design is really great. I love the placement and use of colors to accent areas, and cut through some of the blue. Its just a fantastic piece to add to your shelf. This kit can also hold weapons ambidextrously, and also interchange which rifle can go in which hand.

However, the weapons just look odd at times when you pose them. This kit comes with angled wrists because the weapons are long, and have long stocks. 90% of the time you will be tucking the weapons under the armpit for hip firing. To also get the desired finish, you either have to use those tiny seals, or paint it. Paint is a definite, because there are some areas what don't have seals, but need some yellow and black to finish, like under the shoulders, and on the leg armor. This kit also doesn't stand too well because of the design of its feet. 

Verdict

At about 25$ retail, this kit is about right for its price. It comes with a good amount of parts, and will definitely keep you busy. It might be short and stubby, but it has a lot going for it. Maybe wait a little while for the price to drop, or pick it up on sale, but if you like unique designs, transformable kits, or the Zeta lineage, you should add this guy to your collection. I really enjoyed building this kit. It may look a little cartoony next to my Gundam Unicorn kits, but it really does pop off my shelf. 

I definitely don't regret getting this kit, and maybe you're thinking this design strays way too far from the original Zeta. If you really loved the old 80s designs, and are hard-pressed to see how Z-MSV designs can compare, I can understand why you might not like the design of this kit. 

My recommendation is, however, to give it a chance!

I didn't get a chance to transform it yet, but here are some images to show you what it should look like. 

Like I said before, the kit comes with pieces to replace the torso, just like the Delta Plus and ReZEL, so that you can transform the kit without having to insert the transformation gimmick into the entire kit, and make it flimsy. 

Not sure what I want to build next though. I have that Zeta 2.0 that I really want to do justice, the Tallgeese I that has been in my backlog for awhile, and the Byarlant kitbash that I've been procrastinating... 

I also have a Strike RM on its way too...

Christmas break has a lot of potential this year!

Until next time!

Happy building!