Kit Review

Straight build + Stickers

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

HGUC Zaku III Custom (Twilight Axis Ver.) - Various angles (1/6)

HGUC Zaku III Custom (Twilight Axis Ver.) - Various angles (2/6)

HGUC Zaku III Custom (Twilight Axis Ver.) - Various angles (3/6)

HGUC Zaku III Custom (Twilight Axis Ver.) - Various angles (4/6)

Various angles

HGUC Zaku III Custom (Twilight Axis Ver.) - Detail shots (1/4)

HGUC Zaku III Custom (Twilight Axis Ver.) - Detail shots (2/4)

Detail shots

A generous weapons loadout

HGUC Zaku III Custom (Twilight Axis Ver.) - Two of the beam machine guns are reused from previously released standard HGUC

Two of the beam machine guns are reused from previously released standard HGUC kits.
The top one is the beam machine gun from the HGUC Geara Doga,
and the bottom one is from the HGUC Geara Doga (Rezin Schnyder custom).

HGUC Zaku III Custom (Twilight Axis Ver.) - Being one of the very earliest HGUC kits, it has old-school ball-joint hips, an

Being one of the very earliest HGUC kits, it has old-school ball-joint hips, and there's no action base hole either.

Leftover parts

Same articulation as before

Backpack and heel articulation

Front skirt beam cannon gimmick

Poses using the Geara Doga beam machine gun

Poses using the standard Zaku III's weapons

HGUC Zaku III Custom (Twilight Axis Ver.) - Poses using the Geara Doga (Rezin Schnyder custom) beam machine gun (1/3)

Poses using the Geara Doga (Rezin Schnyder custom) beam machine gun

Together with the standard release HGUC Gundam Tristan.

HGUC Zaku III Custom (Twilight Axis Ver.) - Together with the HGUC Zaku III Custom & HGUC Zaku III. This kit is a curio

Together with the HGUC Zaku III Custom & HGUC Zaku III.
This kit is a curious mix of the custom and standard versions.
The backpack is the standard type, while the head, left shoulder, and rear skirt use the Custom's design.

This kit is the HGUC Zaku III Kai (Twilight Axis Ver.), a Club G (Premium Bandai) online exclusive. It combines the runners from the standard releases of the HGUC Zaku III Customand HGUC Zaku III into one package. On top of that, an additional runner has been included combining weapons from the standard releases of the HGUC Geara Dogaand HGUC Geara Doga
(Rezin Schnyder custom)into a single runner.

The body design is a blend of the Zaku III and Zaku III Custom — the overall look is based on the Zaku III Custom, but with the standard Zaku III's backpack. On top of that, the beam machine gun from the HGUC Geara Doga and the beam machine gun from the HGUC Geara Doga (Rezin Schnyder custom) are included. In total, runners from four different HGUC kits have been cobbled together, with absolutely no new tooling whatsoever.

That said, the Zaku III itself is an early HGUC kit from 1999, so the quality inevitably takes a hit — there are heavy seam lines, the joint structure is outdated, and articulation isn't great. The polycaps are also a bit small for the kit's size, making joint strength feel a little shaky, and the lack of an action base hole makes aerial display poses tricky. All things considered, you'll want to go in with tempered expectations at this point.

Still, there's something meaningful about the mobile suits from Twilight Axis getting released at all, even if it's through Club G. Given how badly the HGUC Gundam Tristan flopped (T_T), we should probably just be glad it came out at all in some form. Anyway, old-kit quality and awkward origins aside, if you're a fan of the Zaku's big, beefy design, this Char-colored Zaku III might just be worth a shot. :-)

HGUC Zaku III Custom (Twilight Axis Ver.) | 2017.6 | ¥1,900

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.