Kit Review

Straight build + Stickers

Full kit contents

Various angles

Underside

The two side landing gears can be released by pushing them backward.

HG Tickbalang - All three landing gears can be folded away inside and the covers closed. Regardless of grade, kits like this

All three landing gears can be folded away inside and the covers closed.
Regardless of grade, kits like this have always used swappable landing gears,
but this kit has them designed as a clean fold-away mechanism instead.

Side and rear nozzle articulation

The handle folded into the underside can be deployed outward.

HG Tickbalang - Sliding the center panel on the underside reveals the stand mounting hole. Just so you know — judging by the

Sliding the center panel on the underside reveals the stand mounting hole.
Just so you know — judging by the hole size, Action Base 1 and 2 won't work directly,
and you'll need the joint parts included with Action Base 4 or 5 to mount it.

On both sides of the top panel, handles and footrests deploy as movable parts.

HG Tickbalang - HG Zowort placed on top. Ideally the foot of the kneeling left leg should rest on the rear footrest for a mor

HG Zowort placed on top.
Ideally the foot of the kneeling left leg should rest on the rear footrest for a more convincing look... but getting the pose right is trickier than expected.

HG Tickbalang - HG Zowort hanging underneath. Both kits are high quality so it's not too hard to pull off, though you do need

HG Zowort hanging underneath.
Both kits are high quality so it's not too hard to pull off,
though you do need to position the stand angle carefully.

This kit is the HG Tickbalang from Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury. It's a classic transport-type flying mech in the vein of the Base Jabber, and in the show it appears in Episode 4 during the riot suppression scene, with the Zowort riding aboard the Tickbalang.

First off, the overall quality feels like a step up compared to similar kits we've seen before. The color separation and molded colors are excellent as expected, and the assembly feels smooth and satisfying. You also get gimmicks like the deployable handles and footrests on top, movable nozzles on the sides and rear — and most notably, the landing gears actually fold away inside. Up until now it was pretty much a given that landing gears on kits like this would be swappable parts, but on the Tickbalang they rotate 180 degrees to stow inside, and the covers close over them.

That said, when rotating the two side landing gears, if you don't get the angle just right they can snag mid-rotation — though after a few tries you get the hang of it. Once the landing gears are deployed outward, they slide forward to lock in place securely, and it's because of this slide mechanism that you need to get the rotation angle right for everything to move smoothly. There's also an opening/closing gimmick for the handle on the underside, and the stand mounting hole is revealed by sliding open a cover.

HG Zowortcollaboration is easy to recreate as well, and since the HG Zowort is such a high-quality kit, the two go together really nicely. When placing it on top, you can extend the footrests to open up more space, and hanging it underneath is also pretty straightforward. Just keep in mind that you'll need Action Base 4 or 5 for the stand — the hole doesn't fit Action Base 1 or 2 directly, so those won't work right out of the box.

All in all, this is the best-quality flying mech kit we've seen so far, with the fold-away landing gears being the real highlight. Pair it with the top-tier HG Zowort and your satisfaction level is going to go through the roof. :-)

HG Tickbalang | 2023.2 | ¥1,300

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.