Just finished the RG zeta Gundam!
Here are my thoughts on it. To start off, this thing looks GREAT!
If it didn't, I wouldn't have chosen it when I went to hobby lobby a week ago
(yes, this has been sitting around unbuilt for a week.)
But it is not without issues. I'll get to those soon. The shield can be a bit difficult to pose, but you get used to it after a little while messing around. As for the beam sabers, they're pretty average. Just a blade on a handle. They can be difficult to put into the hands so you're better off just wrapping the fingers around them than actually attaching them since they can articulate. There is also a small piece you can attach here, but in my experience it just blocks the shield from extending. The beam sabers can also be stored in these small compartments on the sides of the hip armor, but I feel like if I leave them in there I'll forget about them and lose them. I'll just keep them in a plastic bag with the rest of the weapons/accessories; As for the beam rifle, it actually has a feature I've never seen before: a muzzle flash! Although I'm not sure if that's what it's called, it's a nice effect and helps it look like it's actually shooting rather than just pointing at a target menacingly. It's also NOT compatible with the beam sabers, I honestly thought they were just shorter blades at first. Other than the effect part the beam rifle isn't that special. Now for the transformation... Ok. To sum it up shortly: this looks great but is an absolute pain in the ass. There's also a few parts you can swap for the landing gear but I already transformed this back into the Gundam form before I could try it out, so here's a picture from the instructions. And yes, this has a custom base adapter. Quick weapon I forgot to mention. This blue part attaches to the arm and a compartment opens. I believe these are grenade launchers since I watched a review of the ver. ka of this Gundam. Also almost none of the instructions are translated so I'm going off of memory; As for articulation it's... Weird. The range of motion is pretty good but it's complicated to actually utilize it due to the transformation mechanism interfering; <- it also has a 1/144 scale pilot figure. I honestly thought this was an MG exclusive thing, but of course for MG it's 1/100. Idk maybe it's just been a while since I've built a real grade kit. This is a decent kit, 7.5/10. Would've liked it better if the transformation wasn't such a pain, and if it interfered with articulation less. Also since this is a 2012 model kit, it has a full inner frame built with pre made joints. Because of how these joints work, they will likely loosen up over time. Just put this in a pose on your shelf and leave it there to avoid this.
