Kit Review

Straight build
+ panel lining

Size comparison with a cigarette pack. Even at 1/144, the sheer presence is great.

Upper body/head close-up. The head is really small;;

Panel section and arms.

Backpack and rear section. The detail feels pretty standard..

Those chunky legs.

Detail inside the skirt.

Detail inside the shoulder armor.

The sole detail is relatively intricate.

The verniers on the shoulders, skirt, and leg sections are all nicely reproduced.

Quite a generous weapons loadout, right?

Beam rifle and two extra hands.

A simple yet impressively three-dimensional shield.

The beam tomahawk storage function on the shield is well reproduced too.

Beam weapons.

The beam tomahawk comes with both a saber-form and a tomahawk-form beam parts.

The beam sabers can be locked onto a peg on the palm,
so they hold on really securely.

HGUC Sazabi - The beam sabers are normally stored in the wrist.. but probably due to the small scale, that storage function i

The beam sabers are normally stored in the wrist.. but probably due to the small scale,
the storage function isn't included.

A part with all six panels in their fully deployed state is also included.

HGUC Sazabi - The neck-raising gimmick is reproduced, and you can open the top hatch on the head to rotate the mono-eye as we

The neck-raising gimmick is reproduced, and you can open the top hatch on the head to rotate the mono-eye as well.

The panel storage section on the back has really nice detail.

To connect to an Action Base 2, you'll need to remove one of the vernier covers on the rear end.

HGUC Sazabi - The articulation is not bad for its size. The shoulders in particular swing forward a lot more than you'd expec

The articulation is not bad for its size.
The shoulders in particular swing forward a lot more than you'd expect.

Action poses. Ooh.. looking pretty cool!

Being a space-use mobile suit, a stand is a must!

Charging action.

Beam saber action using the beam tomahawk.

Thanks to the beam saber locking peg, it holds on nice and firm.

HGUC Sazabi - Beam tomahawk action (1/3)

Beam tomahawk action

Standard beam saber action.

Dual-wield action

Together with the HGUC Nu Gundam. Quality worthy of a premium set, as expected.

HGUC Sazabi - With the Sazabi, a total of five Char's Counterattack series HGUC kits have been released. It came out later th

With the Sazabi, a total of five Char's Counterattack series HGUC kits have been released.
It came out later than the others, but the quality is up to the latest standards.

HGUC Sazabi - Comparison with the MG Sazabi. The proportions are quite different — the head size ratio in particular is drast

Comparison with the MG Sazabi.
The proportions are quite different — the head size ratio in particular is drastically different..

As you can tell from the feet, the HGUC version has a sleeker look.

Bonus shot with the MG Sazabi metallic coating version.

Straight build

After what felt like a million years of waiting for the HGUC Nu Gundam, the HGUC Sazabi has now been released as well. The HGUC Nu Gundam was already a highly anticipated release, but honestly, I think even more people were waiting for the HGUC Sazabi. That's because the MG Nu Gundam was such a masterpiece that it satisfied fans' expectations well enough — but the MG Sazabi, despite being Char's final mobile suit, came out feeling a little underwhelming in terms of quality.

The biggest reason the MG Sazabi felt underwhelming was that the Sazabi's in-universe size was simply too large for a 1/100 scale kit. The sheer bulk restricted its articulation, the weight put a strain on joint strength, and yet the large size didn't come with a particularly detailed inner frame to compensate — it just felt like something was missing all around. So there was a real sense of anticipation that if the Sazabi were done at the more manageable 1/144 scale, it could turn out to be a much sharper, more satisfying kit.

Since recent HGUC kits have been maintaining top-tier quality, the HGUC Sazabi has also arrived as an "expected high-quality" release. It shows off refined proportions, a nice size (roughly similar to a slightly smaller MG), appropriate weight, and solid joint strength. The detail is a touch simpler than you might expect, but it has a similar feel to the HGUC Nu Gundam, which gives the two a nice sense of consistency.

One thing that sparked debate right from release is that the head came out noticeably too small. It really hits you when you compare it to the MG — and this is already a unique mobile suit that has its cockpit in the head, so making it excessively small does seem like a stretch. Sure, the current trend leans toward long legs and small heads, but no matter how you look at it, this one is genuinely quite small. That said, my personal feeling is that the small head doesn't ruin the overall look to a severe degree. It's definitely noticeably small, but not so much that it looks outright weird? This will probably come down to personal preference.

The overall quality has a clean, solid feel, and all of the Sazabi's signature weapons are reproduced. As a bonus, you can open the top hatch on the head and rotate the mono-eye, and the funnel launch sequence can be recreated to some extent. The locking gimmick between the palm and the beam saber — which might seem unnecessary at first glance — holds incredibly firmly, so you'll never drop a weapon. The articulation is also decent for its size, making action poses look quite natural, and compared to the stiff articulation of the MG, it feels like a massive leap forward. You could call it yet another case of "an HGUC that surpasses the MG."

Just before releasing the HGUC Nu Gundam and Sazabi, Bandai put out MG metallic coating versions of both the Nu Gundam and Sazabi out of nowhere. My gut feeling is that since the upcoming high-quality HGUC versions would make it hard to guarantee MG sales going forward, they wanted to squeeze one last run out of those molds while they still could.

There is one drawback worth mentioning — the hip joints pop out surprisingly easily during posing. It's a bit of an unexpected issue, since hip joint looseness is something you'd normally associate with older kits, not a brand-new release.. As long as you don't push the articulation too hard it's not a major problem, and the joints do hold firmly before they pop out, so that's at least something. :-)

For old-school fans, a 1/144 scale Sazabi might carry a few extra sentimental memories.. quite a few people probably built the old 1/144 Sazabi that was released domestically through Academy back in the day. Char's final mobile suit, with its very un-Gundam-like design and charismatic proportions.. the quality looks a bit rough by today's standards, but it was a popular kit at stationery shops back in the day. If you have memories of that old kit's stiff proportions and its failure to really capture the feel of the show, this is a kit you'll find genuinely exciting to build.

When a kit from your childhood memories is reborn like this with modern technology, you get this strange mix of nostalgia and quiet emotion. (For old-school fans only, of course..;) The HGUC Sazabi is one of the rare kits that gives old fans that feeling — so now that it's actually out, there's a slight sense of "well, now what?" It's kind of like how the anticipation before a trip is always more exciting than the trip itself.

Anyway, this is a really nice, clean, well-executed kit. Whether you're an old fan or a new one, it's clearly a fantastic item I'd highly recommend picking up as a set with the Nu Gundam... ^^

HGUC Sazabi | 2008. 6 | ¥3,000

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.