Mg Zeta Gundam ver 2.0

Being a hardcore fan of Kamille Bidan in Zeta gundam , the Mg Zeta 2.0 is a must-get for me. After building the Mg MKii HD ver, i decided that i will not get a HD ver this time. My thinking is that HD ver makes the nub marks much harder to clean. Luckily Mkii was predominantly white and most of the nub marks are well hidden. The zeta, on the other hand, has less white in terms of colour proportions and hence the nub marks will look more obvious. Also being a transforming MS, more nub marks may be exposed in its waverider mode.

1. Intro:
Model: Mg Zeta Gundam ver 2.0
Size: Mg 1 100
Pilot: Kamille Bidan, Fa Yuiry , and many of the characters from ZZ.
Boxart:

A big sized Master grade Box, slightly thicker than my Mg epyon's box.

Sideshots:

Other than its weapons, the kit comes with the launch pad in Argama. Awesome.

The other side of the box mainly shows some poses for us to copy, and its waverider mode.

Manual:

Same cover as the boxart. Nice pose of zeta gundam.

Year: 2005 . Hopes it stacks up well with newer master grades.
Price: 5000 yen. At the higher end of Master grades,  i think the price is probably worth it since this comes with the huge Argama base.

2. Parts:
Head and torso:

I painted the jewel of the head in clear blue.

For the back of the head i just applied the blue sticker since it is not a clear part. The torso is rather complicated due to its transformation feature. I found that this sort of compromises its sturdiness as the torso does not feel as solid as it should. The inside of the torso feels a little hollow after i built it.

Arms and shoulders:

A major complain i have is that the yellow triangular trims on the shoulder and arms are supposed to be stickers. Not a big fan of stickers, i masked the sides with tamiya masking tape and painted them in yellow. Looks fine from afar and i am satisfied with my first masking attempt.

180 degrees of arm bend. Standard 3 finger, trigger finger split. The hands do have a peg in them to hold weapons securely. Unlike my Mg freedom which has problems holding even its beam sabers...

Wasit and side armour:

The side armour are supposed to be put on after the legs.

Panel lined the inside of the waist armour pieces.

The back looks better, as i painted the inner thrusters chrome silver. Also put on 2 "beware of blast" water slide decals on the back.

Legs:

The yellow trims are sticker again, and i painted them using the same masking method. 

The articulation is top notch. The feet can move more than usual Master grades due to its transforming feature. One problem with the leg is that when u try to bend it u may accidentally 'transform' by moving something u shouldn't. Probably a common issue with transforming MSes.

For the back of the leg i painted the inner thrusters in chrome silver again, and applied the same ' beware of blast' waterslide decals.

Backpack:

The backpack of zeta gundam. Comprises of 3 parts. The one on the right is in its extended form, while the left is in its compact form. Used a mixture of waterslides and dry transfers for the backpack, unfortunately they will largely be hidden from view in MS form.

The connection parts. Looks very secure compared to some other back-heavy kits, especially earlier ones. Yea my Mg freedom's backpack is not all that secure.

Weapons:

Starting from the top, we have the Hyper mega launcher, the beam rifle, the hand-mounted hand launchers and the beam sabers. The hyper mega launcher is obviously the star here. Strangely enough, Mg MK ii 's hyper bazooka is undersized for a bazooka but the Zeta has such a big and badass launcher.

                                  I wonder why?

The hyper mega launcher is a beast when it comes to sheer size. It has three handles that swivel out and can be packed back into compact mode for the waverider mode. Unfortunately due to size, it can look rather plain even with all the waterslides and dry transfers.

The beam rifle. I painted the 3 yellow parts. Surprisingly Bandai did not include stickers for the 2 yellow rectangular parts. An oversight, perhaps? Zeta gundam's beam rifle is one of the more unique ones in the gundam universe in that it can be used as a melee weapon. Its barrel can emit a beam saber. Which can be done in this 2.0 kit by attaching the beam saber part into the barrel. On a side note, Zeta gundam's beam sabers can be used as a beam launcher. The Titans must have been surprised.

The shield, which i forgot to include into the weapons' group shot due to the sheer size of the hyper mega launcher. This is the shield in compact mode.

And this is the shield in extended mode, by simply sliding the top piece out.

The bottom of the zeta shield, which looks really good with the grey parts.

The Argama launch pad/base.

The action base that comes with the kit, to justify its 5000 yen price point. The base is huge, looks fabulous, and has a few neat gimmicks. The parts for the Zeta gundam's legs can slide forward and backwards, like in the anime for the launch. The stand is well slotted into the middle of the base and can be easily adjusted to mount the gundam. Also come with 2 unpainted figures of Emma Sheen and an unnamed operator.

At the back of the Argama base, there are specific slots to store the 2 action mounts. One of them is for the MG mkii, Regular ver. The other is the action base connector for the Zeta gundam. The grenade launchers can be stored here as well. Too bad my MG Mkii HD ver did not come with its action base, which can be attached to this argama base. The MG Mkii can be mounted on this base though.

3. Details and Articulation

All assembled, the Zeta gundam looks sleek and slim without its backpack on. The proportion looks sharp and just perfect.

With the backpack on, the Zeta gundam looks more complete and powerful. The backpack is very heavy though. Even though the backpack is very well mounted on the pack of the Zeta gundam, the sheer weight still tends to make the kit unstable on the ground.

Excellent articulation.

The grendae launcher looks underwhelming.  You can slide the launcher pack forward and the missiles will reveal themselves.

Shield on, dual beam sabers, backpack extended.

The beam saber part can be attached to the beam rifle's barrel for a ridiculous yet extremely cool looking effect.

4. Poseability

My attempt at recreating the box art.

                           Kamille Bidan, in Zeta Gundam. Launch!!

5. Sturdiness.

Starting with the negative points:

The shoulder parts tend to come loose when posing the arms.

The heavy backpack makes it difficult to to pose on the ground. No such problem when on the action base though.

Sideskirts may get loose, as with many of the MGs.

Perhaps the most peculiar problem is that the Zeta gundam's head tend to pop inwards towards the torso when i accidentally press onto the head. This is due to the waverider's transformation. 

The Positive part about this kits's sturdiness can be summed up through pictures of it holding the massive hyper mega launcher.

When a kit has no problems holding a weapon this big, i cannot expect more in terms of sturdiness.

Bandai expects more, and wants us to attach the beam rifle at the forearm. Which i am not going to attempt since that looks nonsensical.

6. Conclusion:
Zeta gundam is one of the more revolutionary design in its time and one of my favourite gundam designs ever.
Kamille Bidan is also one of the most badass gundam pilot, far better than whiny oyw Amuro. The Zeta gundam 2.0 is clearly a must-get for any UC fan. Despite its fair share of flaws, this is a year 2005 Master grade that is comparable to many newer master grades.

The Goods:
1. Proportion looks sleek and powerful.
2. Weapons are amazing and there are no problems holding any of them.
3. Argama Base
4. Great poseability and incredible articulation.

The Bads:
1. Some yellow trims and small parts are done via stickers and not yellow parts.
2. Falling shoulder parts and head popping into the torso.
3. The Argama base may be too big and takes up much display space.
4. Backpack's weight make ground poses harder to pull off.

Details: 6.5/10 Those yellow trims/stickers are a big turn off for me. The rest of the kit are well detailed.
Articulation: 10/10 There is no part which i would like to be more articulated.
Sturdiness: 8/10 Hyper mega badass blue launcher in hand, all other sturdiness problems get eclipsed.
Poseability: 9/10 The abundance of weapons and gimmicks make posing a joy.

All in all, most of the negative points are sort of nit picks and i can safely say that the good points of Mg zeta 2.0 far outweigh its flaws. I will cover its legendary waverider mode in another time since transforming the kit is a hell of a project.

 

                                                                     Pure UC goodness.

Update: Finally transformed the kit into its waverider. Link: Mg Zeta Gundam 2.0 Waverider mode.