Club G MG

Enhanced Expansion Parts for ZZ Gundam Ver.Ka

Kit Review

Straight build + panel lining + waterslide decals

This kit is the Enhanced Expansion Parts for ZZ Gundam Ver.Ka, released as a Club G (Premium Bandai) online exclusive. As the name suggests, it contains enhanced armor that can be fitted onto the standard release MG ZZ Gundam Ver.Ka, covering a large number of exterior parts across the shoulders, chest, front/rear skirts, shield, knees, calves, feet, and backpack.

Swapping in the enhanced armor mostly requires disassembling and reassembling the kit. You'll need to be careful about breakage during the process — and if you've already applied waterslide decals like I have, you'll need to be extra careful not to damage them. (Even so, I managed to lose a couple...)

This kit does include its own set of waterslide decals, but for some of the newly sculpted parts, the instructions tell you to use decals from the original MG ZZ Gundam Ver.Ka. The problem is, if you've already applied those decals to the original kit, you won't have any left for the enhanced armor. It's only a few spots, but they really should have included decals for the new parts in this kit — feels a bit stingy if you ask me.

The Enhanced ZZ Gundam with its swapped armor does look noticeably more powerful than before, but it's not the kind of difference that jumps out at you immediately. Sure, if you look closely you can definitely spot the larger sculpts here and there — but honestly, unless you're a die-hard fan who knows ZZ Gundam's design inside and out, it could easily look like the same thing. The color scheme is identical, and it just feels like everything got scaled up a bit by section, so it's hard to shake the feeling that only those who already know will notice the enhanced armor.

That's more of an issue with the original design than with the kit itself, but either way, if you're a ZZ Gundam fan, it's definitely a meaningful change. Above all, the Enhanced ZZ Gundam just looks flat-out tougher, and setting aside whether anyone can tell the difference, the proportions are simply great.

That said, ¥2000 feels a bit steep for what you get — somewhere around ¥1200–1500 seems more in line with the volume of content. It's a limited release concept, so some premium pricing is expected, but regardless, it's great that we can build the Enhanced ZZ Gundam from the lore in such good quality, even if it's through a set like this. :-)

MG Enhanced Expansion Parts for ZZ Gundam Ver.Ka | 2017.12 | ¥2,000

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.