After about a month of construction, it’s finally done!
I have to admit, I was never one of those crazy-obsessed Zeta Gundam fans. Sure, it’s one of the best series but it’s far from perfect. I’ve never really been the big of a fan of the Zeta either, but I’ve always loved its variants like the White Unicorn Zeta, which I made several years ago (unfortunately before I started painting everything). Now, I was able to do a full Zeta Gundam with custom decals, and get the whole experience of the kit. Long story short, it’s pretty awesome.
The Zeta Gundam 2.0 Master Grade has a very lean, sleek frame, in an almost stark contrast to the first version from 1996. From what I’ve heard, that kit is a floppy mess and people didn’t like it when it was new. That just goes to show you how long it took for the Master Grade line to mature. This kit was the first Zeta Gundam that managed to do a proper transformation without any sense of floppiness or part swapping. I imagine the Real Grade improves on everything learned from this, but I don’t plan on making that for quite awhile.
And speaking of the transformation… it’s quite terrifying. I don’t think I’m afraid of death after this.
I’ve owned some monstrous Transformers in my day… the first that comes to mind is that stupid horse from Beast Wars Neo: Mach Kick. But as terrifying and complex as he was, nothing holds a candle to transforming a fully-painted Master Grade, especially when that suit is the Zeta. Wing and Epyon seriously had nothing on this. That said, it does everything it needs to, with parts sliding and locking into place like they should, and no part swapping is needed unless you’re attaching the beam rifle to the underside.
That said, I don’t think I’ll be transforming this again anytime soon.
For a weapon loadout, the Zeta has its rifle and shield as its main weapons. The beam rifle can be stored on the wrists when not in use, if you’re the type of person who likes to have as many weapons on your kit at once.
Two packs of grenades can also attach to either forearm, and can be used to display a pair of grenades on each arm via a sliding mechanism. When not in use, they can be stored underneath the stand.
The beam sabers store in the hip armor. Alternatively, you can stick a saber blade into the beam rifle to represent the long beam saber from the later episodes of the series.
But the best weapon is clearly the Hyper Mega Launcher. It’s huge and awesome, and probably stands taller than the Sazabi. It can fold up for storage, too, and you can do that “hey look how big my gun is!” pose everybody does with their Zeta kits.
For the decals, the only ones remaining were the custom “Z” for the shield, and Roux Louka/Zeta Gundam emblems for the knee and tailfin. I was supposed to have a big “NA-Nahel Argama” for the shield, but it wouldn’t fit. Ah well.
The stand is very cool as well, and it’s basically designed to be a launch catapult when not in full “stand” form. It actually lets you put the little in-scale figures to use!
The Zeta Gundam 2.0 is one damn fine kit, and I recommend it to anyone who’s looking for the suit in 1/100 scale. Really, they might as well discontinue the old 1.0 at this point, since it’s inferior in pretty much every way. While I’m sure the Real Grade schools the Master Grade, it’s the ideal choice for any 1/100 collector. If you want one, make sure to look for yours at FPNYC!
