By Loran
As my last review pretty much stated, I love cannonfodder. But you know what I can’t stand? When a series doesn’t give nearly enough-I’m looking at you, Zeta Gundam. Really, there are so many different suits in the show and only three of the major cannonfodders got HGUC kits. Yeah, you could count the Rick Dias but it didn’t show up in cannonfodder capacity. It’s a shame, too, since they’re some great designs, and the only missing HGUC one that’s gotten a kit recent is the Nemo (Master Grade). Not only that, it’s been several years since these kits came out so they’re starting to show their age.
The Hizack has got to be one of my favorite designs Zeta Gundam, and probably one of my favorite Zaku-based units from a series. It’s like a Zaku built with Federation technology (which well, is sort of what it is). It isn’t as intimidating as most Zakus but it has a certain charm to it, and its name sounds like you’re calling for someone. It got two releases in the HGUC line-Titans Green and EFSF Blue. Mine is a actually a Green Hizack in Blue. Fancy that.
The design of the suit is basically an updated version of the Zaku to fit in with the rest of the suits from Zeta. It has all the crazy tubes of the typical Zaku II but some of them are in different places now. For one, the ones that would move from the thighs into the lower legs are now on the knees and on the upper arms instead. Normally you’d think removing the cables from the legs would make them more articulate, but that unfortunately isn’t the case-they’re actually less poseable than most Zakus at this scale.
I do have a few issues with the cables, though… As with most kits, they’re made out of soft plastic. However, on this one, they don’t feel as strong as the others. In fact, they feel more like polycaps than actual parts. As such, cutting them off the runners is a bit annoying, and sanding them even moreso.
The poseability of this kit is really underwhelming. In some regards it feels less poseable than the 08th MS Team Zaku, but it actually looks a bit better because it has covers for all of the joints. However, it does have one thing most 1/144 Zakus lack-a waist joint. It’s not a very complete one as it doesn’t go all the way around but it works well enough.
Another issue I have is the shoulder armor. They work well enough on their own but there’s no way to get two spiked shoulders on the kit without taking an entire left shoulder module from another kit. A minor gripe but it’s one that annoys me as a kitbasher.
But the biggest insult of all is the weapons-you get a Zaku Machine Gun and a shield. That’s it. No beam sabers, no missile pods, no beam rifle, no heat hawk. What the hell. This suit has a ton of weapons and they all got completely ignored? To add further insult to injury, the second release of this kit was just a straight up recolor-no added weapons at all. Really, most of this could’ve been avoided if they just gave it a beam saber-most kits at least come with a melee weapon in addition to a gun…
Overall, the Hizack kit is okay. It’s a nice-looking kit but I wouldn’t really recommend it to someone that isn’t a huge fan of Zeta or the design itself. My biggest suggestion for this kit would be to track down the old Zeta weapons set. It isn’t common but it’s worthwhile to get some extra weapons for your Hizack. The FP store frequently has the Hizack in stock, but we also have neat old-style High Complete Model Hizack. I love old-style stuff… so deliciously chunky.
