Kit Review

Straight build

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

RG Sazabi [Mechanical Core Plating] - Various angles (1/6)

RG Sazabi [Mechanical Core Plating] - Various angles (2/6)

RG Sazabi [Mechanical Core Plating] - Various angles (3/6)

RG Sazabi [Mechanical Core Plating] - Various angles (4/6)

Various angles

RG Sazabi [Mechanical Core Plating] - Upper/lower body detail shots (1/4)

RG Sazabi [Mechanical Core Plating] - Upper/lower body detail shots (2/4)

Upper/lower body detail shots

RG Sazabi [Mechanical Core Plating] - Closer detail shots. The molds inside the clear armor show up crisp and clear

Closer detail shots.
The molds inside the clear armor show up crisp and clear thanks to the inner plated surface.

RG Sazabi [Mechanical Core Plating] - Full hatch open shots (1/3)

Full hatch open shots

Accessories and articulation are the same as the standard release.

RG Sazabi [Mechanical Core Plating] - Rifle firing pose (1/3)

Rifle firing pose

RG Sazabi [Mechanical Core Plating] - Beam tomahawk poses (1/3)

Beam tomahawk poses

Beam saber + beam tomahawk poses

Alongside the standard release RG Sazabi.

Alongside the RG Sazabi [Special Coating] released through Club G.

This kit is the RG Sazabi [Mechanical Core Plating], a Gundam Base exclusive. Unlike a typical plated release, the coating is applied to the inside of the armor parts, which are molded in red clear plastic. It's a completely different approach from anything before, and the result is a pretty unique look.

First of all, the RG Sazabialready had hands-down the best inner frame detail of any RG kit. By coating the inside of the clear outer armor, all that detail that was previously hidden now shows through sharp and clear. It does look a bit darker than a standard plated version because of this, but get up close and you can really feel the intricacy of the detail — it's like getting 200% out of the RG Sazabi's hidden detailing.

The photos do come out looking a bit dark, but since the outer surface is clear, shooting any brighter causes reflections that wash out the detail, so there wasn't much I could do. Just keep in mind that the actual kit is brighter and sharper than it looks in the photos.

So with this unique coating method applied to an already excellent kit, the RG Sazabi has leveled up into something even more impressive. Personally, I think it looks even more striking than the RG Sazabi [Special Coating]that came out through Club G. That said, while the Special Coating was ¥10,000, this one comes in at a much steeper ¥19,000 — which is even more expensive than the MG Sazabi Ver.Ka Special Coating at ¥18,000.

Honestly, I couldn't wrap my head around why just flipping the coating direction from the outside to the inside would nearly double the price. So I asked a mold engineer who knows their stuff, and apparently applying the coating to only one side precisely is genuinely difficult. With standard coating, the paint is applied through vapor deposition and spraying, which means both sides inevitably get affected. Come to think of it, on regular plated parts, the coating only ends up on the outer surface, while the inside of the parts often has messy overspray marks left behind.

So even if you're only spraying the inside, there's no way to stop paint from getting onto the clear outer surface. The solution, apparently, is to make silicone jigs that press tightly against one half of the runner, then spray paint onto the exposed half — and that whole process requires skilled workers, which drives up labor costs, and can't be automated for small production runs. On top of that, this method produces a high defect rate, which pushes the per-unit cost even higher... so when you think about it, the price kind of makes sense. T_T

Anyway, the kit itself is genuinely unique and looks fantastic, but it's not really the kind of thing you'd buy if you're thinking about value for money. I went back and forth on it quite a few times before pulling the trigger myself — but at least I don't feel like I wasted my money, so... if you're feeling the pull, you might just have to go for it. :-)

RG Sazabi [Mechanical Core Plating] | 2024.12 | ¥19,000

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.