OLD First Gundam 1/144 Zogok

Release 1982.11

Price ¥400

BANDAI BANDAI Japan product info

Runners

Parts diagram

Manual

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

OLD 1/144 Zogok - The 10 boomerang cutters on top of the head are all different sizes, so you'll want to carefully check the

The 10 boomerang cutters on top of the head are all different sizes, so you'll want to carefully check the part numbers in the manual and attach them one by one to get a nice arrangement. In my case, I detached them all from the runners first and trimmed the gates before assembling, so I lost track of the order and ended up with everything looking a bit crooked T_T

The internal structure of the legs. Armor is attached over an unusually shaped joint skeleton.

The internal structure of the arms.

The wrist section can extend and retract with a slide mechanism.

The hold isn't great, so if you just leave it standing, the wrist keeps sliding down T_T

OLD 1/144 Zogok - The shoulders and hip joints use a T-bar style connection that plugs straight in. Fitting for the last 1/14

The shoulders and hip joints use a T-bar style connection that plugs straight in. Fitting for the last 1/144 kit in the line, they didn't go with that weird ring-and-hook glue-together joint ^^;

OLD 1/144 Zogok - Articulation is pretty poor, as expected... There are joints at the elbows and knees, but they barely move

Articulation is pretty poor, as expected... There are joints at the elbows and knees, but they barely move at all.

The elbow joint range of motion is maybe around 5 degrees..??

The hip joints only rotate, so you can't really get any decent poses out of them.

At least you can spread the legs forward and back to this extent.

OLD 1/144 Zogok - Arm punch pose with the arms extended (1/3)

Arm punch pose with the arms extended

Dual arm punch pose.

Together with the HGUC Zogok Unicorn version released 31 years later.

OLD 1/144 Zogok - Together with the 1/144 Char's Zaku and Guncannon, all in the same red color. The shades are all quite diff

Together with the 1/144 Char's Zaku and Guncannon, all in the same red color. The shades are all quite different from each other.

Together with the 1/144 mass production type Z'Gok.

Together with the 1/144 First Gundam.

The last of the 1/144 old-kit Gunpla lineup is the Zogok. It's a unique Zeon mobile suit design with a fixed head embedded in the torso and 10 claw-like protrusions on top. Compared to other grotesque Zeon mechs, it actually has a somewhat tame (?) appearance.

First off, the 10 boomerang cutters on top of the head are all different sizes, so you really need to check the numbers in the manual carefully and attach them one at a time to get the shape looking right. In my case, I have a habit of removing all the parts from the runners at once and trimming them in bulk, so I had a bit of a rough time during assembly. They all look similar in size so it's hard to tell them apart, but once you stick them on, something feels off and jumbled. Either way, these are parts where you really need to sort and organize carefully before assembling. T_T

Perhaps because it's the last kit in the original 1/144 lineup, the shoulders and hip joints use T-bar ring joints instead of that flimsy ring-and-hook glue-together style. That said, the elbow and knee articulation is pretty much hopeless. There is an internal skeleton-style joint structure, but the range of motion is only about 5 degrees — basically fixed in place. Still, since the shoulders and hips rotate well enough, you can pull off key poses like the arm punch. There's even a slide gimmick that lets the hands extend and retract to recreate that arm punch... but the slide lock is loose, so the hands tend to slowly slip downward when the kit is just standing there ;;

Overall, between the very cheap-looking red molded color, all those molded-in claw details, and the inefficient joints, this kit feels like it sits at the very bottom of the old-kit lineup in terms of quality. The HGUC Zogok Unicorn version is absolutely fantastic, but if you find it a bit too slick and polished to feel attached to, this old kit might be worth a look :-) [ Updated at 2016.2.17 ]

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.