Kit Review

Straight build + Panel lining + Stickers

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

Detail shots

RE/100 Zaku II FZ - The arms and legs do have a bit of a skeleton-style frame inside. (1/3)

The arms and legs do have a bit of a skeleton-style frame inside.

The legs are basically sculpted in a slightly bent-knee stance.

Sole detail

There's no cockpit interior sculpt, but the cover does open slightly.

RE/100 Zaku II FZ - When mounting the Heat Hawk on the rear skirt, you need to swap in the shorter handle — and the fit betwe

When mounting the Heat Hawk on the rear skirt, you need to swap in the shorter handle —
and the fit between the axe head and handle parts isn't great.

A magazine is stored inside the left skirt.

The right skirt has 3 hand grenades,
and after detaching them you can plug in a small handle to use them.

There are 4 hand types in total, but they cheaped out and only included 2 hand back covers.

The weapon's peg fits snugly inside the hand, so the grip is rock solid.

You can choose from 3 different head hatch styles.

You can open the hatch and rotate the mono-eye.

A joint part for an action base is included, with decent holding strength.

Only 2 leftover parts

Excellent limb articulation

There's also a hip slide mechanism.

Not just the shoulder joints — even the chest armor tilts forward a bit.

The neck goes up quite a lot.

Waist articulation

RE/100 Zaku II FZ - The lower rear leg cover is articulated, and the ankles are fairly flexible, so the ground contact is exc

The lower rear leg cover is articulated, and the ankles are fairly flexible, so the ground contact is excellent.

Action poses

Together with the HGUC Zaku II FZ.

Together with the MG Gundam NT-1 Ver. 2.0.

Together with the RE/100 Efreet Kai.

Straight build.

The Zaku II FZ from Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket has been released as the 13th RE/100 kit. Personally, I'd been waiting for an MG release of this unit, so it's a little disappointing that it came out as RE/100 instead. Its rival, the MG Gundam NT-1, even got upgraded to a Ver. 2.0 — they were probably planned together, but in the end the Zaku II FZ ended up as a RE/100.

Since it's not an MG, there's not much in the way of an inner frame or detailed gimmicks, but the exterior looks really clean and sharp — not far off from an MG at all. That's the RE/100 concept, of course, and the upside is that the build process is nice and easy. On top of that, even the small verniers all over the body have individual color separation, and the Heat Hawk blade is also split into separate parts, giving it a fantastic straight build appearance. As for the proportions, it feels like a blend of retro style and modern trends — though notably, the legs don't extend straight but come with a slight bend at the knee. That can be a bit of an eyesore when posing, and it's definitely going to be a love-it-or-hate-it thing.

There's a very welcome structural change here — the awful polycaps used in previous RE/100 kits are gone, replaced by soft-plastic friction joints like those on the MG Zaku Ver. 2.0. As a result, the joints feel smoother to move and noticeably more stable. It seems like they made the switch in response to all the complaints about the RE/100 polycaps losing their hold, and it really does feel like a step up in quality over previous RE/100 kits. The ankle range of motion has also been maximized by design, giving it the best ground contact of any 1/100 Zaku out there.

Gimmick-wise, there's a mono-eye rotation feature and a cockpit hatch opening mechanism, and you can swap the Heat Hawk's handle to mount it on the rear skirt. However, the fit between the replacement handle and the axe head part is poor, so it keeps falling apart. The hands also come in 2 sculpted types, but they cheaped out by only including one hand back part per type, so you're constantly swapping them in and out — pretty annoying.

All in all, the biggest thing I like about this kit is that by ditching those terrible polycaps, the structural stability has come close to MG level. That said, compared to the latest MGs it still feels ever so slightly behind in quality — like they deliberately dialed it back to match the grade. Either way, I'm sure plenty of people will be happy that the Zaku II FZ has finally made it to 1/100 in style :-)

RE/100 Zaku II FZ | 2019. 7 | ¥3,900

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.