This really took me a while to write
Ever since I started on this P-Bandai MG kit I do feel like I have been on somewhat of a journey. It started off for me as a very exciting journey, but towards the end, I ended up stumbling down due to one singular bad experience that I had with this P-Bandai MG kit.
In which I will talk about further in this review of the P-Bandai MG 1/100 MS-06FS Zaku II Garma Zabi Custom kit.
But before we get to that, let us first delve into some of the lore surrounding this awesome MS, shall we?
The history of the MS-06FS Zaku II Commander-use MS
Model name:
- MS-06FS
Classification:
- Custom Commander-use General-Purpose Mobile Suit
Weapon systems:
- 30mm Vulcan Gun
- Shoulder Shield
- MMP-80/90mm Ver.8 Machine Gun
- H&L-SB25K/280mm A-P Zaku Bazooka
- Heat Hawk
- ZIM/M-T-K175C 175mm Recoiless Rifle
- MIP-B6 Cracker Grenade
- Sturm Faust
- 120mm Assault Rifle
- Large Heat Hawk
Height:
- 17.5 m
Armour Material:
- Super Hard Steel Alloy
Powerplant:
- Ultracompact Minovsky Fusion Reactor (951Kw)
Total Thrust:
- 2 x 20,500 kg
- 2 x 1,000 kg
Effective Sensor Radius:
- 3,200 m
Crew:
- 1 pilot
During the OYW period, we got to see alot of really interesting Zaku II Variants out there, but none of them that we have seen so far is as interesting as the FS variant of the Zaku II. Because apparently this was supposed to be the Commander version of the Zaku II during the OYW.
During the early days of the OYW, the principality leadership recognizes the need to have a commander version that would stand out from its mainstay F models. However, the one thing that they all couldn’t agree on is how to go around it. Because at one side of the argument there were a strong emphasis amongst the leadership that an MS with an improved performance in the Battlefield is what they need but there is as well some in the leadership circle that as well believed that they should make do with what they have and just give it some minimal modifications to make it stand out from the other mass-production versions.
In hindsight, it is quite strange for us to imagine why some of them may think that it is a good idea. However, if you were to look at the situation at the time with the Federation still haven’t had a proper answer to the Principality’s MS it kind of made sense why they think that there is no real need to improve what it is good. That argument was further strengthened after the Space forces pilots gave some very favorable comments about the F series.
So in their infinite wisdom, they decided to create an upgrade package for the commander unit in an MS squad, this how the ‘FS’ variant came about. Yes the FS variant is basically just the same F variant but what sets it apart from the other F variants is the fact that it had 4 Vulcan gun port installed on the Zaku II’s head unit.
That’s all.
It was seen to be a very useful upgrade since it does help the Pilots to deal with incoming missiles and in close quarters combat. However, due to the limited space that was available in the Zaku II main head unit, the Vulcan pods didn’t carry alot of ammo. which does reduce the effectiveness of the guns to quite alot.
It was so bad to a point that one of the Principality’s Ace pilots (Eric Mansfield) decided to remove a set of guns out so he could have more ammo instead for his MS’s Vulcan Guns.
Sadly, after the introduction of both the S models and the R-1A models, most of the Principality ace pilots decided to move on to a much better performing Zaku’s instead of converting their MS into the FS variant. Which is why there isn’t alot of instances of this version being seen in battle in space.
However, funnily enough it wasn’t through space battles that we know of the existence of this MS, it was through the last days of the OYW land battles that we knew of the existence of this MS.
The MS in question is the one MS was made custom for Garma Zabi. Eventhough the MS did participate in battle but it wasn’t Garma that piloted the MS in battle. It was piloted by Tara I. Cicero during the last days of the OYW, to rile up the last remaining Zeon Resistance in the North America battlefield. It was eventually captured by the EFGF “Nemesis” MS team, during the battle.
The captured MS was last seen being displayed at the 10th Anniversary of Liberation Exhibition in New York in U.C 0090.
With that ends the history bit, now let us get into the review, shall we?
The Review
I thought when I started work on this and finding out that I was enjoying most of my time with the kit I thought that this would be an easy review to write.
But it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be, because eventhough I would say that I had alot of fun building this P-Bandai MG kit, unfortunately towards the end of my time with the kit, I didn’t find myself let down by it.
Even with that said, I want to get something out of the way. That is that the portion of the recolored P-Bandai parts and the retail parts of the MG Zaku II Ver.2.0 was great. There are many reasons for this, and one of it’s because of how awesome the design of the MG Zaku II Ver.2.0 was. From the way, everything just comes together and on just how everything just works with the kit.
But the design alone isn’t the only thing that gets me, there is as well the matter on my overall experience of building the kit. Eventhough this is not the first time I’ve built a kit based on the MG Zaku II Ver.2.0 design, I was still surprised to find myself enjoying the time I spent on working on the kit.
It was still a kit with a good balance of fun and challenge and it was still something that I find to be a quite exciting kit to work on even though it wasn’t my first time working on it. Although the nubs were a bit of a pain in the bum to deal with since the gating of the parts is quite bad. But it is not something that I was bothered by since this was something that I already expect to experience here with this MG kit. In fact, I would go as far as to say that I do enjoy taking the time to deal with the nubs as well.
Admittedly, working on this kit does help to help me realize something about this kit. The realization of why Bandai up until today never released an updated version of the MG Zaku II to replace the older ver.2.0. Why would they need to since the kit’s current iteration is perfect as it is?
However, that is me talking mostly about this P-Bandai familiar retail bits. So how bout the P-Bandai bits, you may be wondering?
Well, that is where this kit kinda falters. Why? Because this is where I find the parts to be a bit inconsistent.
But before we get to that, I want to first make a short disclaimer, that this P-Bandai kit comes with 3 kinds of P-Bandai parts. One is which makes the vast majority of the kit, the original & P-Bandai recolored parts of the MG Zaku II Ver.2.0, secondly is the new mold parts for this P-Bandai MG Zaku II Ver.2.0 variant. Lastly is the P-Bandai recolored parts of the MG Zaku II Char Aznable Ver.1.0.
Yes, you are reading this correctly, that this kit comes with the MG Zaku Char’s Ver.1.0 parts. As you guys can already tell, that is where most of my grievances of this particular P-Bandai kit comes from.
But the grievances I had for these parts weren’t due to my experience of building it, or by the way that the parts was designed. Because if I may be frank, I have no issue with that. It’s more to the fact that some of the parts that was included here aren’t that compatible with the kit itself.
That is can be clearly seen with this P-Bandai MG kits signature weapon, the Recoiless Rifle. There were no modifications done on the part itself which makes it really hard for the kit to hold the weapon properly. So posing the weapon with the kit can be a bit of a drag. Not to mention that the weapon keeps slipping off which is as well makes the whole experience to pose the kit to be a goddamn nightmare.
Admittedly this is the only thing that I was bothered with and disappointed by this P-Bandai MG kit.
Funnily that was enough to make me feel really conflicted and made my time writing this review quite hard. Because somehow this one single issue seems to be the one that agitated me the most.
I wonder why.
It was only after taking some time off from writing this review and just worked on the new MG project that I realized why I was so upset with that matter. It was because I enjoyed most of my time working on this MG P-Bandai, so having to encounter a bit of negativity after experiencing so much positivity with this can be a bit discouraging and infuriating. Especially when I was expecting everything here to be as good as the rest of this awesome kit.
Of course, I would be upset. But thanks to me taking the time to soak in my feelings for this P-Bandai MG kit, I realized that for the matter of a fact I shouldn’t be. Because the rest of this P-Bandai MG kit is still quite great. Especially those that was tailored for the main kit itself and despite that single issue that I encounter, most of the other P-Bandai parts were a joy to work on.
So with that all said and done, do I think that this is a good P-Bandai MG kit? Yes, and if you are a fan of the MG Zaku II Ver.2.0 I really do think that this is a really good addition to your collection. Even despite the issue that I faced with the Garma Zaku’s Recoiless Rifle, I would still recommend one to get it.
Because it is a good kit overall and one that I still had TONS of fun with it. It was just unfortunate that the one part that I was looking forward to posing the kit with is the only disappointing aspect of it.
With that ends the review for the P-Bandai MG 1/100 MS-06FS Zaku II Garma Zabi Custom (MG). What do you think of both the kit and the review for this P-Bandai MG kit? Do you share the same thoughts with us or do you think that this kit could’ve been better? This is one of those reviews that I really had a lot of trouble writing about. Before this was done, I really had to do alot of changes to the review because I kept finding myself not thinking rationally writing this particular review. It was only after taking myself away from writing this review that I managed to see things clearly.
Oh, it should as well be said that I feel that working on another kit does help me to figure things much more quickly as well, maybe I should do this more often..haha.
Oh before I leave I do want to thank all you awesome peeps in helping me decide which kit to build for my next project. I will be doing more of this poll in the future so we would be able to create posts that would be more engaging to you awesome readers.
Anyways, we will be back again with more new blog posts on the coming Friday. Kimi as well will be back again on the next coming Monday (Hopefully) with either an unboxing, a Review or a WIP post, so do look forward to that!
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Anyways, we shall see all of you again next week, and we hope that you all have an awesome week and weekend ahead! Have an awesome Gunpla building time there as well and until next time!
Ciao!
Kimi The Builder 