OLD IROPLA 1/250 Zaku

Release 1983.7

Price ¥200

It's a small, thin box with a slide-out opening on the side.

OLD 1/250 Zaku - Iropla 4-kit group box shot (1/4)

OLD 1/250 Zaku - Iropla 4-kit group box shot (2/4)

Iropla 4-kit group box shot

Runners

Comes with a black-and-white manual along with an Iropla flyer.

OLD 1/250 Zaku - There's a packet of glue included, sealed in a little plastic pouch just like instant ramen seasoning. You s

There's a packet of glue included, sealed in a little plastic pouch just like instant ramen seasoning. You snip off one end to use it — now that's seriously ol~d school.

Parts diagram

Manual

Iropla idea submission flyer

Straight build

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

The only weapon is a single Zaku Machine Gun.

One commander-type head antenna is left over as a leftover part.

OLD 1/250 Zaku - The articulation is identical to the 1/250 Char's Zaku, and the hip joint range of motion is still pretty li

The articulation is identical to the 1/250 Char's Zaku, and the hip joint range of motion is still pretty limited.

Action pose

Together with the old 1/144 Mass Production Zaku.

Together with the Iropla 1/250 Char's Zaku.

Comparison with other small injection-molded Zakus like Cup Pla and Gunpla Collection.

--- Iropla — General Overview -----------------
Iropla is a lineup of four 1/250 mini Gunpla kits released experimentally in 1983, and they were the very first kits to use system injection molding. Tiny as they are, each kit was molded in multiple colors on a single runner, which caused quite a sensation at the time. They were later discontinued and dropped from Bandai's official catalog — a lineup that now belongs to history.

The four released kits were Gundam, Zaku, Char's Zaku, and Gouf. Then in 1984, a fifth Iropla kit — the 1/250 G-Armor — was released, and that one alone got a reprint and remains listed in the official catalog. As you can see, the color separation achieved at such a tiny size was genuinely impressive for the time, but being old-school kits, the proportions and detail are pretty rough. Articulation is decent enough given the scale, but the joints are extremely stiff — stiff enough that you'd worry about breaking something while posing them.

Inside the box you'll also find that charmingly vintage glue packet in a plastic pouch — you snip one end and squeeze it out. Given the era, every single part has to be glued together, making this about as old-school as old-school gets.
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This kit is the 1/250 Mass Production Zaku, released as Iropla No. 3. As usual, it's essentially a color variant of the 1/250 Char's Zaku (No. 2). The only difference from that kit is that one head antenna ends up as a leftover part, which is only fitting for a mass production type — everything else is identical.

It still has somewhat better proportions than the 1/250 Gundam, though the hip joint range of motion is frustratingly limited and the joints are stiff. That said, it looks great displayed as a pair alongside the 1/250 Char's Zaku :-)
[ Updated at 2021.12.3 ]

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.