My love of MSVs is quite well-documented. As such, I love it when true MSVs (or in this case, a rejected design from the original series) end up in the HGUC line, even though the only other one in it is Garma’s Zaku. That being said… why this suit? Why this thing before the GM Sniper II, the Gerbera Tetra, the Zetaplus, the Dijeh… seriously, why the Juaggu? I don’t hate the suit by any means, like I said, an MSV is an MSV, but I would’ve preferred some other stuff beforehand…
You may have also noticed over the years that I’ve only ever reviewed one amphibious mobile suit. That’s because when I started building up my Federation and Zeon armies, I didn’t want to get any amphibious Zeon suits because they didn’t really have anything to fight. If the rumors about an HGUC Aqua GM are true, I may just be adding an Acguy to my collection at long last.
Unlike amphibious suits, the Juaggu isn’t built for close combat: it’s more designed for artillery. There is a variant of this suit that comes equipped with an actual hand and a Gouf’s Heat Saber, but I believe that’s going to be an exclusive of some sort. Boo. Whatever. The Juaggu has its own little niche to fill in my collection… and it’ll stay in that provided it doesn’t take a beam javelin to the face.
This kit has a lot of strange little quirks. The… snout, I suppose, is built with a wire inside of it. While it gets a range of motion that wouldn’t otherwise be possible, but I worry how much stress it can take. Also, the components (namely the bottom one) tend to slide a bit, but they may be due to the current construction, which I’ll fix upon painting.
The mono-eye moves with a system similar to most other Zeonic suits, just on a larger scale.
A small piece of plastic will sit in front of the monoeye, but I haven’t put it on yet because I didn’t realize it was a sticker. I’m not sure how I’m going to deal with that in the painting phase but we’ll have to see.
The biggest disappointment with this kit is the legs. They’re… really bad. They don’t have much movement at all, and are mostly just two curved tubes. The heck? I expected a little better, but at least these “legs” are stable. Maybe I could do a kitbash using modified Z’Gok legs…
The arms fare a bit better. The “fingers” are each mounted on the polycap joints that the old SEED First Grades used. Six missiles are inside each launcher (that refused to show up in photos), giving this suit a total of forty-two missiles. Damn, that’s a lot. But, by design, the arms aren’t very pose-able, but they’re much more useful.
The underside of the suit has a polycap joint for placing it on an action base, to give it kind of a “swimming underwater” look.
Simply put, the Juaggu isn’t the kind of kit you’ll be getting for the heck of it. It has problems, and it’s such an odd suit to make a kit of, but well… it’s so damn cute, I can’t resist it. If you’re really into amphibious suits, or you’re looking to get all of the suits from episode 4 of Unicorn, it’s worth getting. If you want a sad space ocean elephant of your own, head on down to FPNYC!
