Kit Review

Straight build + Stickers

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

The bare figure alone

Detachable Jet Scrander

With some of the armor removed

Frame shot

The Hover Pilder can be detached from the head.

Head with and without the Hover Pilder

Mechanic Collection Mazinger Z - Hover Pilder with propellers deployed. The propeller deployment section is fragile and easy

Hover Pilder with propellers deployed.
The propeller deployment section is fragile and easy to break, so be careful.

Two soft-material open hands and a separate right arm for the Rocket Punch are included.

The Rocket Punch is launched by a spring when you press the switch.

It actually flies quite a bit farther than the photo suggests.

Limb articulation is more ordinary than you'd expect

Forward/backward shoulder articulation

The waist is pretty flexible in all directions.

Mechanic Collection Mazinger Z - Various action poses (1/6)

Mechanic Collection Mazinger Z - Various action poses (2/6)

Mechanic Collection Mazinger Z - Various action poses (3/6)

Mechanic Collection Mazinger Z - Various action poses (4/6)

Various action poses

Flight pose

Together with the previous release, Big O.

This kit is the Mazinger Z released in June 2001 as part of the Mechanic Collection line. It was quite a talked-about kit at the time — a high-quality rendition of Mazinger Z, the icon of super robots, at a very affordable price. Unlike the previous Big O release, a straight build with just a few stickers gets you almost perfectly on-model colors. On top of that, it faithfully delivers a whole range of features like the Jet Scrander, Hover Pilder, Rocket Punch, and more.

Mazinger Z was the first kit to introduce the Mecha Collection frame — a shared runner that would go on to be reused across many subsequent kits. The frame runs throughout the entire body and doesn't have any mechanical detail to speak of, but it does its job as a poseable inner skeleton. Some of the joints can be tightened or loosened using screws to adjust joint strength, though the overall feel of the joints is a bit stiff.

The outer armor is pretty innovative in its own right — most of the major armor pieces on the torso and limbs are molded using slide molds, giving them a three-dimensional shape right out of the box. Thanks to that, the parts count is low and seam lines are almost nonexistent. Areas that need a lot of movement, like the torso, use soft-material parts, which gives the waist some nice, flexible range of motion.

That said, for a kit with both a poseable frame and soft armor parts, the articulation is more ordinary than you'd expect. Pulling off really dynamic poses is a bit of a stretch, but it handles all the classic Mazinger Z-style poses just fine. The joint strength is solid — bordering on stiff, actually — but I'd rather have that than loose joints.

Feature-wise, the Hover Pilder can be attached and detached from the head, which is a nice touch. Just be careful with the folding propeller section on the Hover Pilder — it's pretty delicate and can snap off easily. (I already broke mine and had to glue it back together T_T) There's also a separate right forearm included for the Rocket Punch, and using the spring gimmick and switch, you can actually launch it several dozen centimeters through the air.

Despite all that — the great looks, near-perfect color separation, virtually no seam lines, and all those fun features — the kit is only ¥1500, which makes it an absolute bang-for-your-buck purchase. Aside from the stiff joint feel, there's really not much to complain about, making this a highly recommended kit for any old-school fan with fond memories of Mazinger Z. :-)

Mechanic Collection Mazinger Z | 2001. 6 | ¥1,500

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.