Kit Review

Straight build + Stickers + Panel lining

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

Upper body and head

Back and backpack section

Weapons and Arms

Legs

There are 3 hands in total, and the weapon parts are on the sparse side.

The head antenna, chest armor, and lower legs can be swapped out selectively.

With the parts swapped.

Optional swapping of head antenna and chest

HGUC Zaku-Mariner - The front shin armor lets you choose between the normal leg form and a version with additional armor laye

The front shin armor lets you choose between the normal leg form and
a version with additional armor layered on (right side).

HGUC Zaku-Mariner - You can remove the two round pieces on the shoulders, plug in the thruster section at the back, and assem

You can remove the two round pieces on the shoulders, plug in the thruster section at the back, and
assemble them as Zaku Rocket Missiles.

Articulation is just an honest 90 degrees..

HGUC Zaku-Mariner - Despite having a power cable at the waist, it's designed so the torso can still bend forward to a reasona

Despite having a power cable at the waist,
it's designed so the torso can still bend forward to a reasonable degree.

HGUC Zaku-Mariner - Spray Missile Gun (Zaku Rocket Gun) Action (1/4)

HGUC Zaku-Mariner - Spray Missile Gun (Zaku Rocket Gun) Action (2/4)

Spray Missile Gun (Zaku Rocket Gun) Action

HGUC Zaku-Mariner - Aerial poses using Action Base 2 (1/3)

Aerial poses using Action Base 2

HGUC Zaku-Mariner - Magnet Haken launch pose mounted on the left arm. It's less of an attack weapon and more of something you

Magnet Haken launch pose mounted on the left arm.
It's less of an attack weapon and more of something you latch onto things with to follow along..
You can recreate the launch scene using coated wire.

Together with the HGUC Zaku II.

Together with Ilyusha, who appears in the same era.

Straight build

Whether it's the Unicorn effect or not, HGUC releases of minor Universal Century units have kept on coming well into 2012. This time around the HGUC item is the Zaku-Mariner, which you could call an MSV of Double Zeta — and it's come out under the ZZ title rather than the Unicorn version. A Unicorn version will probably get released at some point, or maybe as a limited edition.

First off, the HGUC Zaku-Mariner lands somewhere in between — not super sleek and modern, but not old-school either. It's clearly a step up from the HGUC Zaku II, which is showing its age at this point, but compared to the high-quality Zeon kits we've been getting lately, it feels a bit plain. Joint strength is solid, but... the articulation is just that old-fashioned honest 90-degree level, and the molding isn't exactly what you'd call refined.

The molded colors are a bit of a letdown too — even setting aside the fact that the original design colors are what they are, there's a slight candy-toy vibe to it, which makes it hard to call it crisp and fresh for a new release. That said, it's a bit too good to just say "well, at least it came out."
It's just... ambiguous ^^;

Either way, for old-school fans it's definitely the kind of item that makes your ears perk up with a "wait, they made THIS too??" — and overall it came out pretty much at the level you'd reasonably expect. You can swap out the head antenna, chest, and front shin armor, the shoulder Zaku Rocket Missiles are recreated, and the left arm Magnet Haken launch is also included, so it does feel like they put some thought into covering the basic design features. The Spray Missile Gun (Zaku Rocket Gun) turned out fine, but the round front section — which should be red — comes out plain gray with no color separation, which is a little annoying.. and the color separation on the Zaku Rocket Missile tips on the shoulders is disappointing too. It's the kind of thing that could easily be fixed with just a little more effort.. hmm.

When you think about it, this is a minor item at the end of the day.. so unless you're a die-hard old-school fan, it might not be on your radar at all, and Bandai probably doesn't have the bandwidth to throw in premium gimmicks either. They're not going to invest enough to wow fans whose standards have gone up, and the vibe seems to be: use Unicorn as an excuse to put out old units that were hard to release before, at a reasonable quality level. To sum up my personal take — it's not a jaw-dropping kit, but it's the kind that makes you hope they keep digging up old units at least at this level going forward :-)

HGUC Zaku-Mariner | 2012.7 | ¥1,600

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.