Kit Review

Straight build

Size comparison with a cigarette pack.
As you can see, this thing is absolutely massive.

Zoid HMM Gojulas The Ogre - Newly added weapons for The Ogre version. (1/3)

Newly added weapons for The Ogre version.

With the additional weapons removed.

Zoid HMM Gojulas The Ogre - Gojulas body. (1/4)

Zoid HMM Gojulas The Ogre - Gojulas body. (2/4)

Gojulas body.

Zoid HMM Gojulas The Ogre - The weapons added in The Ogre version include the cannon set (also sold separately), a large stab

The weapons added in The Ogre version include the cannon set (also sold separately), a large stabilizer, an ammo belt, and backpack parts.

The Long Range Buster Cannon measures a whopping 35cm in length.

The rear section can be extended via a slide mechanism.

Pull out the magazine and you can see the individual rounds are sculpted inside.

The backup unit features a variety of moving parts.

The ammo belt is made up of a wire and 20 individual link parts, allowing it to flex freely.

Push the scope on the ammo belt mount forward and the 8-round missile pod automatically pops open.

Large stabilizer for keeping the body in position.

The handle on the 4-barrel shock cannon is articulated.

To attach the additional parts, you'll need to remove the existing parts as shown above.

Zoid HMM Gojulas The Ogre - The cockpit hatch opening and the tail weapon gimmick are the same as before. (1/3)

The cockpit hatch opening and the tail weapon gimmick are the same as before.

Leftover parts

Zoid HMM Gojulas The Ogre - Dynamic action poses. (1/8)

Zoid HMM Gojulas The Ogre - Dynamic action poses. (2/8)

Zoid HMM Gojulas The Ogre - Dynamic action poses. (3/8)

Zoid HMM Gojulas The Ogre - Dynamic action poses. (4/8)

Zoid HMM Gojulas The Ogre - Dynamic action poses. (5/8)

Zoid HMM Gojulas The Ogre - Dynamic action poses. (6/8)

Dynamic action poses.

Zoid HMM Gojulas The Ogre - Action pose 2 (1/8)

Zoid HMM Gojulas The Ogre - Action pose 2 (2/8)

Zoid HMM Gojulas The Ogre - Action pose 2 (3/8)

Zoid HMM Gojulas The Ogre - Action pose 2 (4/8)

Zoid HMM Gojulas The Ogre - Action pose 2 (5/8)

Zoid HMM Gojulas The Ogre - Action pose 2 (6/8)

Action pose 2

Zoid HMM Gojulas The Ogre - Comparison with the original Gojulas. The original was already impressive, but The Ogre version i

Comparison with the original Gojulas.
The original Gojulas was already incredible, but The Ogre version is a serious upgrade.

Gojulas the Ogre has arrived as a variation of Kotobukiya's HMM Zoids flagship kit, the Gojulas — and it's packing even more volume. The base Gojulas gets a desert color scheme, the previously separately-sold cannon set is now bundled in, and on top of that a large stabilizer, backup unit, and ammo belt parts have been added, bringing the price to a record-high ¥29,800.

And it's not just the price that's record-breaking — open up the box, which easily dwarfs any PG kit in size and weight, and a whopping 90 runners come tumbling out. (...) After spreading them all out across the floor for the runner shots and spending a good while counting parts, I came up with an absolutely staggering 1,486 pieces. @_@

On top of that, with so many runners to deal with, just hunting down the right parts during assembly is a feat in itself. Cleaning up and putting together all those pieces took me a solid ten days, including the Lunar New Year holiday. Even a PG can't hold a candle to this kit when it comes to assembly grind — there's really no other way to describe it than the most demanding kit ever made. I reckon the time it takes to build this one could get you two or three PG Bansheees, or maybe five or six MGs. That said, the assembly itself has a satisfying, breezy feel to it and the hands-on experience isn't bad at all, so I had a good time building it. ^^

After all that lengthy assembly, the finished result is just as jaw-dropping in size and presence. Between the 35cm Long Range Buster Cannon and the sheer bulk of the body, it's going to be a tight fit in most display cases. The original Gojulas was already flashy and complex enough, but piling on all these extra weapons makes the whole thing so imposing and awe-inspiring that it more than makes up for the grueling build time.

The good news is that the polycaps throughout are nice and tight, so there's virtually no looseness anywhere — it holds together great whether standing upright or posed in all sorts of positions. In particular, the tail support that used to pop off on the original Gojulas has been replaced by the massive stabilizer, which feels like an upgrade both in terms of part stability and overall pose stability. For a kit this big, heavy, and loaded with stuff hanging off it to be this sturdy is genuinely impressive — I'd give it a perfect score on that front alone.

The newly added cannon set, ammo belt, large stabilizer, and the rest all come with their own little gimmicks, and they fit in well with the original Gojulas while holding on securely and doing their job nicely. The ammo belt section in particular uses a wire-and-bead threading method where you string 20 individual links onto a wire, which lets it flex naturally — though the wire feels just a touch short, making it a bit of a tight squeeze when fitting the last link and finishing it off, which is a minor gripe.

Anyway, this kit really speaks for itself, so I'll let the photos do the talking. The sheer scale is hard to convey in pictures, but in person the volume is absolutely staggering. Personally, out of the thousands of plastic models I've built over the decades, this was the one with the most parts and the most complexity — so in many ways, it's a truly landmark kit for me. If you're a die-hard Zoids fan, I'd strongly encourage you to take on this historic build. :-)

Zoid HMM Gojulas The Ogre | 2016. 12 | ¥29,800

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.