Kit Review

Straight build
+ panel lining

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

Upper body front and back

Arms and legs

Body detail

Even the verniers on the back of the legs — barely visible — have great color separation.

This kit also includes the FZ's distinctive German helmet-style head as an extra.

Two heads.

The weapons and accessories are pretty minimal.

The FZ's machine gun.

You can mount the heat hawk on the butt.

HGUC Zaku II FZ - Articulation is an honest 90 degrees. Nothing special, but this is the kind of kit that holds poses really

Articulation is an honest 90 degrees.
Nothing special in terms of articulation, but this is the kind of kit that holds poses really well.

HGUC Zaku II FZ - Like most recent kits, you can cut the middle of the front skirt to make each side move independently. The

Like most recent kits, you can cut the middle of the front skirt to make each side move independently.
The gap between the two skirts is a bit tighter than on other kits though, so after separating them you'll want to shave down the cut surfaces a little more.

HGUC Zaku II FZ - An amazing feature on this kit! For the first time in 1/144, an MG-style front-to-back sliding hip joint ha

An amazing feature on this kit!
For the first time in 1/144, an MG-style front-to-back sliding hip joint has been adopted.

HGUC Zaku II FZ - The separately articulated knee cover faithfully recreates the original design. Ankle articulation is also

The separately articulated knee cover faithfully recreates the original design.
Ankle articulation is also surprisingly good.

HGUC Zaku II FZ - Shoulder forward/back and up/down movement. The up/down motion is cleverly handled by an internal joint hid

Shoulder forward/back and up/down movement.
The up/down motion is cleverly handled by an internal joint hidden inside the torso.

HGUC Zaku II FZ - I tried sliding the hip joint forward and getting it into a kneeling pose... it's not all that stable. More

I tried sliding the hip joint forward and getting it into a kneeling pose... it's not all that stable.
More than that, it looks like the forward-sliding hip gimmick barely makes any difference in this pose.
It kind of works as a "picking up a coin" pose, but it's a far cry from the MG Zaku II 2.0.

HGUC Zaku II FZ - With the hip joint slid forward, I tried to get it into a deep squat like on the MG... but the knee joints

With the hip joint slid forward, I tried to get it into a deep squat like on the MG...
But the knee joints are just average, so that's about as far as it goes.

HGUC Zaku II FZ - Actually, this sliding hip joint gimmick is meant to recreate the scene from the show where the Zaku plops

Actually, this sliding hip joint gimmick is meant to recreate the scene from the show where the Zaku plops down into a sitting position.
With the hip joint slid forward, the sitting pose does look noticeably more natural.

Side view. You can clearly tell the hip joint has shifted forward.

HGUC Zaku II FZ - But no matter how I look at it... this pose looks awfully familiar — like something you'd see a lot at Seou

But no matter how I look at it... this pose looks awfully familiar — like something you'd see a lot at Seoul Station... ;

Action pose. Articulation is average, but it holds poses with great stability.

Drawing the heat hawk. The pose comes together naturally.

Federation scum! Feel the axe of Zeon!

Lumberjack pose

HGUC Zaku II FZ - Mounted on the Action Base 2. Since this unit mainly operated on the ground in the show... it doesn't reall

Mounted on the Action Base 2.
Since this unit mainly operated on the ground in the show... it doesn't really feel like a natural fit on a stand.

Together with the HGUC Alex (NT-1).

HGUC Zaku II FZ - Together with the original HGUC Zaku II. The proportions are completely different... but in terms of overal

Together with the original HGUC Zaku II.
The proportions are completely different... but in terms of overall quality, the newer kit FZ wins hands down!

HGUC Zaku II FZ - Together with the HGUC Hi-Zack, which has a strangely similar color scheme and overall feel. There's a whop

Together with the HGUC Hi-Zack, which has a strangely similar color scheme and overall feel.
There's a whopping 8-year gap between these two kits, and the difference in quality really shows.

HGUC Zaku II FZ - Straight build. The colors are on the darker side, so even without panel lining the straight build already

Straight-built state.
The colors are on the darker side, so even without panel lining the straight build already has great depth.

After the NT-1 came out in the summer of 2004, exactly 4 years later the Zaku FZ was released as the second
0080 HGUC kit. The showdown from "War in the Pocket" is finally complete.

The Zaku FZ was a unit that had built up quite a following thanks to Izubuchi's characteristically heavy, weighty design — yet it had never been released as either an MG or HGUC, leaving fans waiting for years. Unlike the standard Zaku, it has a much more solid, armored look with a real sense of mass, giving it a noticeably different feel from other Zakus. Fittingly, a lot of custom builds featuring the FZ have emphasized that signature "heaviness."

When the FZ was first announced as an HGUC, the reaction was overwhelmingly positive — but once the actual kit was revealed, the criticism started pouring in. The main complaint was the proportions, which looked somehow lacking in that sense of weight and came across as a bit too plain and normal. On top of that, the head looked noticeably too small, and there was quite a bit of dissatisfaction from a proportions standpoint. Honestly, even to me it does feel a bit different from the FZ I'd been used to seeing and expecting. I can almost hear people crying out "My FZ doesn't look like this!" from all corners...

But thinking about it more carefully, I wonder if the many custom builds of the FZ — which tend to give it an even more military hardware-like feel than a standard Zaku — have shaped the image of the FZ in the minds of Gunpla fans. Bulkier armor. A rougher surface texture. That battlefield weapon vibe. After seeing so much of that, I think everyone has developed their own preconceived notion of what the FZ "should" look like.

Taking a step back and looking at it objectively, the overall proportions faithfully follow the latest trends and give a pretty solid, well-balanced impression. It's really hard to call it a bad set of proportions... and it fits in well with the design direction of the current HGUC lineup.

On top of that, the kit quality feels a step above previous HGUC releases. It's like there's been a bit of an upgrade across the board.

The joints only bend to a standard 90 degrees, but the joint strength is excellent, making it very easy to hold poses. And thanks to those solid joints, poses stay stable once you set them. The color separation throughout the kit once again reminds you that HGUC is in a class of its own.

One thing worth highlighting in particular is the first-ever 1/144 implementation of a sliding front-to-back hip joint gimmick — this is a great example of higher-level technology gradually trickling down to lower-tier kits. The whole lineup is moving forward. The one downside, though, is that the knee articulation is only average, which means the hip gimmick can't be fully taken advantage of. As shown in the manual, it's mainly useful for recreating the scene where the FZ sits down in the forest. The practical applications are a bit limited, but the fact that the feature exists at all is worth something.

Beyond that, there are other neat touches: the shoulder joint moves up and down from inside the torso, the knee cover articulates separately while staying attached to the joint, and even the hidden verniers on the back of the legs are cleverly split into separate parts — all of which feel pretty fresh.

Overall, this is a kit that gives you a really satisfying, polished building experience — great color separation, solid joints, and a clean finish. Setting aside personal preferences about the proportions, I honestly think it feels fresher and "cleaner" than the previously released HGUC Nu Gundam. The Nu Gundam is great too, but a lot of that comes from the sheer charisma of its design and its long-standing popularity. This FZ, on the other hand, feels like a pleasant surprise.

If you can let go of any preconceptions about the proportions and just enjoy it for what it is, this is a truly excellent HGUC kit that deserves a Perfect score of 100 by MG standards. I understand why some people have been harsh on it, but that's probably because they judged it from photos alone without ever seeing it in person or actually building it. :-)

HGUC Zaku II FZ | 2008. 5 | ¥1,400

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.