Kimi The Builder

The MG that doesn’t feel like an MG kit

I do need to start this review with an apology. 

Because when I embarked on this journey of working on this MG kit, I realized I may have underestimated my grief over the loss of my father. I find myself struggling to work on this, and there were many times I found myself falling into a deep depression. 

Eventually, I did manage to take myself out of that rut, but admittedly it was one massive, never-ending and tireless effort that I needed to put in. 

That is why it took me so long to get this one done. I’m sorry for taking so long to review something that could take me less time to do. Hopefully, this is the last time I find myself in this situation. 

I as well wanted to take the time to apologize for the lack of blog updates in these past few days. The reason for that is because I injured my right hand quite badly and had to take a week off from everything to recover. It really sucks ass too, because that means I had to take time off from writing this review. 

With that out of the way, let us now talk about my final impressions of this MG kit. 

The Review

Since we have already covered the History Lesson here for this variant of the Zaku Warrior, I feel there is no need to go through another History lesson. But If you’re interested in learning more about the ZAFT’s Zaku Warrior MS units, you can check it out here. 

So let us move on to the actual review of it now, shall we? 

Part 1 The Build 

Honestly? I had fun working on this MG kit. The MG Lunamaria Gunner Zaku is an MG kit that I feel is one of those MG kits that is really easy to work on here. Everything is very straightforward and not too overly complicated. 

I personally feel the reason why is possible maybe because most of the designs of the parts are very simplistic. Which honestly makes the whole thing a lot easier to work on here, and not to mention, faster too since there aren’t any inner frame bits to paint or panel line here.

Plus, we imagine this simple inner frame setup would make it easier for the 3rd party resin parts maker to make custom resin parts for this kit. Since the peg position is very well defined and not to mention, there is a lot of space in between to work with here to make a custom mold of your new parts. 

The one other thing that I noticed while working on this is that most nubs locations are at places which is easy to deal with here. Why? Well, because the space in between the nubs is wide enough for you to be able to deal with them without worrying that you’ll damage the parts. Which I feel is splendid news if you’re a newbie.

Admittedly, this MG Lunamaria Gunner Zaku Warrior does come with some parts that come with under gated bits. But there isn’t a lot of them to deal with, and what’s more, we find that even compared to the other kits that come with undergated bits, the MG Lunamaria Gunner Zaku Warrior under gated bits isn’t that hard to deal with here. All you really need to do is take a bit more time to remove them carefully and not rush the whole process. 

But even despite that said, we do think that it’s something that a beginner would be able to learn to take on because it isn’t at all that punishing to deal with here. 

Part 2: Articulation and Looks 

Although Bandai did go cheap on the MG Lunamaria Gunner Zaku Warrior’s inner frame looks, the thing that we here notice is that at the very least, they didn’t go cheap on its articulation system and its outer frame armor. 

Let’s first talk about its articulation system. Because man, you can really stretch the MG Lunamaria Gunner Zaku Warrior up. I managed to get it to pull off a lot of badass poses here, and I managed to do that even with the Gunner Wizard attached to it. 

Yes, admittedly, there are some limited poses that you can do when you have the Gunner Wizard attached to it. But it’s not restrictive enough to prevent you from posing it like what you see in the anime. 

What’s more, since it doesn’t share the same leg unit peg system as the MG Freedom Remastered, you can really push the leg system to its absolute limit without worrying that the pegs would give in. 

But even with that said, this articulation system isn’t something new here. Because honestly, it is from an existing design, and Bandai designed it in a way that it’ll fit in well with the MG Lunamaria Gunner Zaku Warrior’s articulation system. 

Even the MG Lunamaria Gunner Zaku Warrior looks Bandai managed to nail it here. 

Why?

Well, that is because it looked badass. Just from the looks alone, I can understand why the MG Lunamaria Gunner Zaku Warrior was really hard to get back when it was first released back in Late September 2019. Not to mention, since it is the Remaster MG kit, you as well get a kit that is a panel liner’s wet dream. This MG kit does have a lot of parts to panel line here. 

And I admit, I was one of those that was excited about the thought of panel lining this MG kit when I first got it. Because honestly, I know how good it would look if one takes the time to do so. 

I would even go as far as to advise even beginners to take on the challenge of panel lining this kit because I do feel like this would be a great platform to learn the craft on. It has a lot of surfaces that are easy to work on, even for those training to panel line for the first time, 

But despite that, there is one element of the MG Lunamaria Gunner Zaku Warrior’s look that we are not a fan of here and that it’s sticker decals. Because even though the sticker decals mostly look great when applied on the kit, some really don’t stick too well on the MG Lunamaria Gunner Zaku Warrior. What’s more, we also find that some of the sticker decals, especially when placed on curved surfaces, look horrible.

Honestly, it makes me wonder why Bandai didn’t opt to give the MG Lunamaria Gunner Zaku Warrior a waterslide decals set instead. Heck, we wouldn’t mind getting dry transfer decals over what we got here. 

That is how bad the stock sticker decals looked here. 

Honestly, if you’re thinking of putting on the decals on the MG Lunamaria Zaku Gunner Warrior, I advise you to go and get the 3rd party Waterslides instead. Don’t bother using the stock sticker decals on this badass kit because it deserves better. 

Part 3: Price and Final Thoughts.

It is clear from this review that the MG Lunamaria Gunner Zaku Warrior is one MG kit that I love spending time building. I feel this is one MG kit that is great for beginners, and what’s more, it is one of those MG kits that is fun to work on as well!

Not to mention, it’s cheap too. Currently retailing at RM166 (USD 39.67/EUR 34.70), it is quite a cheap MG kit. So, if you’re thinking of making custom or some crazy builds, well, know that this is an inexpensive and effortless MG kit to work on here. So yeah, it’s a good MG to get. 

However, if I have to be perfectly honest here, building the MG Lunamaria Gunner Zaku Warrior felt like working on a 1/100 scaled HG kit. The lack of details on the inner frame is one thing, but the one that really got to me is that there is no depth to what I’m working on here. 

Because usually, MG kits like this, even though they had a simple inner frame set up. Bandai would compensate by giving it some clever tech, some very fascinating solutions so they could fix an old issue or improve on existing features. 

But this MG kit, I feel, had none of a sort. It had really nothing new to offer besides being just a good-looking MG kit. That is why I can understand why most veteran MG builders are left disappointed or wanting more. Because this kit really has nothing much to offer them. 

Honestly, we won’t question this kit so much if Bandai release this as a RE1OO or the SEED Full Mechanics kit. Heck, we would be singing praises if this is how good a RE100 or SEED Full Mechanics is. But since they released it as an MG, we have to judge it as an MG kit. 

And because of that, honestly, it feels like Bandai really missed the mark with this MG kit release. I can say without any doubt that the MG Lunamaria Gunner Zaku Warrior doesn’t embody any of the MG’s hallmark characteristics. More precisely, it seems like they have forgotten that this was supposed to be a Master Grade kit.

What we meant by that is that we do not feel like Bandai made this MG kit for those looking for something a bit more challenging, or for those that have a lot of imagination, and or especially, for those that are curious about the mechanical insides of their favorite Mobile Suit.

Because if you are hoping to get something more with this, well, you’d be really disappointed.

Even though we did say that this is good for a beginner to pick up, we would at the same time want to advise against getting this. Because honestly, if this is your first MG kit, you’d be surprised to see many others that are cheaper or at the same price MG kits that are tons better and a lot more detailed than this. Not to mention, it would also give you an exact idea of what MG kits are supposed to be.

But I get why they decided to release this under the MG lineup. Because at the time of this kit’s announcement, they haven’t made their minds up to release SEED kits under the Full Mechanics lineup. Maybe they are still trying to figure out how to do it, and the MG Lunamaria Gunner Zaku Warrior is the MG kit that will serve as the fundamentals of what SEED Full Mechanics would be like here.  

If that’s the case, it makes a whole lot of sense. But still, why don’t they release this into the first SEED Full Mechanics kit?

Regardless of our feelings, the one thing I can’t deny here is that this is still a fun kit to build, and it is a good-looking one at that as well. So, if one chooses to get this, well, you still get your money’s worth here. 

So, yeah, it’s not all bad. Just don’t come in expecting anything mind-blowing. 

With that concludes our review of the MG 1/100 ZGMF-1000/A1 Gunner Zaku Warrior (Lunamaria Hawke Custom)(MG) for today. Yes, finally, after going through a rough week, I managed to complete the review of this MG kit. I’m already looking forward to starting work on the next one on my slowly growing Gunpla Blog backlog! 

Anyways, we will be back again this coming Saturday (hopefully) with a new blog post. So, please do look forward to that! 

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Anyways, we shall see all of you again soon, and we as well hope that you all here have a splendid day and week ahead! Oh as well, do have an excellent time building your awesome gunplas there and until next time.

Ciao!