OLD First Gundam 1/144 Zaku I

Release 1981.10

Price ¥300

BANDAI BANDAI Japan product info

Runners

Parts diagram

Manual

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

OLD 1/144 Zaku I - Internal joint structure of the limbs. Unlike the 1/144 Zaku II, this one has ankle joints that actually m

Internal structure of the arm and leg joints.
Unlike the 1/144 Zaku II, this one has articulated ankle joints, which is a nice difference.

There's even a joint added to the neck for height adjustment.

OLD 1/144 Zaku I - The shoulder attachment points are in the form of elongated pins, and both shoulders and the neck all conn

The shoulder attachment is a long pin-type design,
and both shoulders and the neck connect all at once to a hip-joint-shaped connector piece.
It's actually a pretty unique connection joint that you don't see in recent kits.

The hip joints are designed so each side can move independently.

In many ways, the internal joint structure is a step up from the Zaku II.

OLD 1/144 Zaku I - There is one issue though — the part where the round shoulder armor attaches on the left shoulder is a bit

But here's one thing — the part where you attach the round shoulder armor on the left side is a bit odd...
As you can see, the male pin is thin, but the female socket is way too loose, so it's super floppy.
It seems like a design oversight, and honestly it's pretty frustrating.

Both a fist hand and an open hand are included.

OLD 1/144 Zaku I - A heat hawk is included, which wasn't in the 1/144 Zaku II — and the sculpt and detail on it are pretty im

The Heat Hawk is included, which wasn't in the 1/144 Zaku II,
and the sculpting and detail are actually pretty solid.

For all the talk of improved joints, the articulation doesn't feel like a huge leap over the 1/144 Zaku II.

On the plus side, the legs can be spread out to this width.

Thanks to the unique shoulder joints, the shoulders can raise up quite high.

On top of that, this is the only old 1/144 kit where the shoulder joints can swing forward and backward!!

The ankle joints — absent on the Zaku II — turn out to be quite useful.

Recreating that mysterious pose shown in the manual.

OLD 1/144 Zaku I - Heat hawk action (1/3)

Heat hawk action

Heat hawk action pose with arms spread wide

Together with the HGUC Zaku I.

Together with the 1/144 mass production Zaku II.

This kit is the 1/144 Zaku I (old-type Zaku), released following the 1/144 mass production Zaku II and Char's Zaku II. In the HGUC line, the Zaku I was once released at a higher quality level than the Zaku II, and it turns out the same thing was happening way back in '81 as well. Since the Zaku II always comes out first, it's kind of inevitable that the Zaku I, coming later, ends up benefiting from the latest technology.

So here are the improvements compared to the 1/144 Zaku II:

- A joint for up-and-down movement added to the neck
- Shoulders improved from a fixed ring-and-glue attachment to a proper articulated joint
- Unique structure where the neck and both shoulders are all connected via a single joint part
- Advanced gimmick added allowing the shoulders to rotate forward and backward
- Joint gimmick added allowing the shoulders to raise up 90 degrees or more
- Split hip joint gimmick added so the legs can be spread left and right independently
- Ankle joints added

As you can see, there were some really significant structural improvements here — it almost feels like this was the kit where the developers were most fired up out of the entire 1/144 scale lineup. In particular, it's the only 1/144 kit with a gimmick that lets the shoulders swing forward and backward, which is honestly pretty impressive for something that came out in 1981.

That said, despite all these articulation improvements, it's not dramatically more flexible than the Zaku II. It was probably down to a lack of know-how in actually designing effective joint structures — the ambition was definitely there, but the experience wasn't quite, and I think that's just the result you get from that combination.

And instead of the Zaku machine gun, this one comes with a heat hawk. The detail and sculpt are sharp and look great — honestly not far behind the HGUC version at all.

All in all, this is a fantastic old kit that really shows off the passion and drive of the Bandai development team. The results may not quite match the effort, but it's a landmark old 1/144 kit that leaves quite an impression. :-) [ Updated at 2016.2.7 ]

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.