Collection 21: Bandai Master Grade (MG) Sazabi Ver. Ka. - Char's Counterattack!
The next year after the Nu Gundam Ver. Ka. released, his rivalry Char's mecha - Sazabi got the Version ka treatment as well. Can it live up to the expectation? Let see.
The inner frame is super impressive!! It has 2 layers of frame: inner layer is the regular grey frame, and the outer layer is the silver frame parts.
The cockpit is in the head, and there is an extra transparent cockpit comes with it which can show the pilot inside. If you have Nu Gundam, you can mimic the last scene of the movie with Nu Gundam catching the Sazabi's cockpit.
Once the kit is finished, Sazabi just looks menacing!! With the different colors of red separation, massive large size waterslide decals, both the details and proportion is way better than the old version.
Sazabi comes with plenty of weapons. The bean saber is quite massive which is as tall as Sazabi itself.
The bean saber can separate and transform into two bean tomahawks.
It also comes with the regular bean saber. The handle is stored underneath the arm. You can either take it out or shoot the bean right from the forearm.
This kit comes with 2 different bean rifles, for which both are very detail and cool looking. However the hands of Sazabi are wrapped around by the bulky forearm armors, and the handles are designed in the middle on both rifles. Hence the top part of the rifles and the forearm are always clashing each other, which makes it very difficult to hold the rifles firmly.
The slimmer rifle is still ok to hold in certain angle. But the big gun above is truly impossible to carry properly. Squeeze the gun in the armpit is pretty much the only way it can hold.
The gigantic shield is also an issue. It is too heavy for Sazabi, it won't be able to lift its arm with the shield on. The weight of the shield is only part of the reason, the joints of the kit overall is not very tight.
Although Sazabi does not have the psycho frame system, its armor can still be open up and exposed the inner frame. Most of the opened panels are locked into place better than the Nu Gundam. Also, the exposed armor has a better effect than Nu's psycho frame.
I had experienced some cosmetic issue when applying the waterslide decals, somehow the red on the parts will leak through some of the white color decals.
Same as Nu Gundam, the funnel part is not fun to build 6 times in a row. The funnels are very details, the flaps & nozzles can actually move. But this gimmick gives me the biggest complaint of this kit. We got all these engineering going on with the funnels but we don't have the display stands, like Nu Gundam, to show them. What's the point?
Comparing to Nu Gundam Ver. Ka., the inner frame details and overlooks are better than Nu. The implementation of the open armor gimmick is also better. But the joints, posability, and playability are not as good as Nu. To me, I will still prefer Nu Gundam.