MG Rick Dias (Quattro Ver)

My third MG in the Zeta line, the Rick Dias is an older MG from 2004. My only MG from 2004 was the freedom, which did not stand up very well against newer kits. Nonetheless, the Rick Dias is a must have for any Zeta Gundam fan, so here i go. I decided to pick up the red version instead of the standard black mass production colour because 1) Red mobile suits are three times better and 2) the red version is more common in Zeta Gundam than the black ones.

1. Intro:
Model: Rick Dias (Quattro Bajeena Colours)
Size: MG 1 100
Pilot: Quattro Bajeena and many others in Zeta Gundam.
Boxart:

Sideshots:

A tour around the box and i realise there seems to be no gimmicks/ impressive inner frame details.

The box does, however, has a nice looking cardboard cutout of the finished kit inside. This feature is probably
discontinued soon after this kit, since my 2005 kits like MG Zeta 2.0 did not have it.

Price: 3600 yen. On the lower side of the price spectrum for MG. It appears that we are getting quite alot from the big sized MG box.

2. Parts

Torso and head: The torso has an interesting cockpit in the form of the red ball with the opening on its left. There is no hatch or whatsoever as the head just attaches over the cockpit to cover it. The torso itself is rather simple in construction, even its inner frame is very basic since it does not have a opening cockpit like most other MGs. The mount mechanism at the back is very solid and not movable in any way. One problem i had with the torso are the 2 curved purple parts on the shoulders. Those are held in place when u attaches the front and back part of the outer armour pieces together. Unfortunately they keep falling out at every opportunity, which is rather annoying. The head, on the other hand , is very well designed. The green mono-eye is a clear green part and no stickers is used. In fact, one big bonus point for the kit is it comes with no stickers. Not even eye stickers.

 Arms. Articulation is rather disappointing, barely exceeding 90 degrees. The fingers are all individually articulated as the Rick Dias has large fingers. This is similar to Mg Char's Gelgoog 2.0.

Weirdly enough, the thumb is disproportionately short, while the rest of the fingers are very long. Also, this being a 2004 kit, it has no peg/hole to help secure its weapons.

Waist: Another rather simple build. The back skirt can only move very slightly. I painted the inner thrusters chrome silver. The black inner frame is not movable like recent MG such as the 00 Raiser so articulation will not be as good.  Despite the simplicity, each skirt do have its own inner frame and the overall effect of the waist looks pretty awesome.

Legs. The legs are exactly as the pictures show. Large, clunky armour without much articulation. I painted the inner thrusters in chrome silver again, like the waist. Unlike the Mg Char's gelgoog, the inner frame of the legs are not very impressive. Hence the simple leg build and the result make it feel like almost like a recent 1/100 Non-Grade. 

The 2 parts that mount on the backpack. These 2 are probably propellant tanks? Anyway they look rather good once built, and they actually have very detailed inner frames if u remove the outer armour. 

Weapons. The weapons are a big let down if u were expecting highly detailed and colourful weapons with fun gimmicks. Starting with the best weapon we have the beam saber. The bright green beam saber hilt looks very good on the brown handle. The beam rifle is all black and it has an ammo clip that can be removed. I painted the 2 rectangles in front with the same chrome silver i have used for all the thrusters in the kit. The 2 beam pistols are all purple and have no moving parts whatsoever. The red Quattro figure is for all the professional painters out there and mine is just going to sit in the ziplock bag labelled Mg Rick Dias.

3. Details and Articulation

All put together, the kit actually look fantastic despite many of my complaints while going through the individual parts. I applied the Bandai's waterslide decals and the decals do help to make the kit look much more detailed.  

This probably should be in the weapons section, but the head actually has a neat gimmick to reveal its Vulcan Phalanx Anti-missile gun system. A fabulous name for a fabulous gimmick. 

Articulation wise, the kit is not very articulated as expected. I tried to mount it on a action base 1 for better aerial posing but i could not find a suitable connector among those that come with the action base. Not a big issue though since i usually pose bulky kits on the ground.

While i don't normally talk about nubmarks, i have to mention that the nubmarks on this kit are atrocious. Many nubmarks are placed at questionable areas where it is impossible to sand them off. Others are exceptionally hard to clean off due to the large connection of the part to the runner. Normally i will have a few problems with nubmarks while building a kit but those are usually acceptable and a novice builder like myself can clean them off or at least make them less conspicuous. This is probably the hardest kit i have built in the aspect of nub cleaning. So beginners looking for a  first Master Grade kit to build should probably not get this.

4. Poseability

The 2 beam pistols look extremely awkward for the Rick dias to hold. They appear ridiculously undersized compared to the mobile suit and they cannot be held exactly straight. The arm design blocks the holding of both the beam pistols and the beam rifle and thus it is rather tricky to get it into a good pose. Hence the overall conclusion for the beam pistols is that 1) they look very dull due to the lack of colour. 2) they are awkward to hold and does not make cool poses. 3)they do not look good even when they are just mounted on the back.

5. Sturdiness

All the weapons : beam rifle, beam pistols and the beam saber hilt can be mounted on the back easily and securely.

Also, despite not having pegs on the weapons to secure them, the Rick dias seems to be holding the weapons well enough. Much better than Mg freedom where the beam rifle keeps going out of place.

My biggest issue with sturdiness is probably the 2 purple strips parts on the shoulder that keeps falling off.

6. Conclusion

While the kit does have its fair share of issues, it is still a great model for the Rick dias that we see on Zeta Gundam. Zeta fans like myself would have no regrets picking this up, as this is an important mobile suit in the Zeta family. The issues are somewhat to be expected, seeing that this is a 2004 kit. Bandai has made much improvements and to me, building older kits occasionally has the bonus effect of making me appreciate newer and better engineered kits more.

Positives:

1. No stickers = awesome.

2. Looks exactly how a Rick Dias from the anime should like.

3. The all separate-fingers hand looks good and works well.

4.The head vulcan gimmick rocks.

Negatives:

1. Bad nubmarks.

2. No easy method to mount kit on an action base.

3. Very limited posing options due to poor articulation and weapon holding.

4. Weapons are bland.

5. Lack of full inner frame and surface details on some parts.

Details: 5/10 The larger parts can make the kit feel a bit like a non-grade due to the lack of surface details.

Articulation: 6/10 The fingers are the most articulated in the entire kit.

Sturdiness: 8/10 Generally sturdy other than the purple strips on the shoulders.

Poseability: 3/10 Little posing options. Poses look restricted and not dynamic.

All in all, despite my barrage of complaints with the kit, i have no regrets picking it up, simply because it is a Zeta kit and it looks good simply standing there in my shelf looking like how a rick dias should.

The boxart pose is in fact the only pose i can think of where the rick dias holds its beam rifle.