OLD Z Gundam 1/144 Dijeh

Release 1986.2

Price ¥700

BANDAI BANDAI Japan product info

Box side view

Runners

Parts diagram

Manual

Straight build + waterslide decals

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

Comes with a beam naginata and dedicated hands.

Limb articulation is roughly like this..

The shoulders do move forward.

Firing pose

Beam naginata action

With the 1/144 Rick Dias

With the RE/100 Dijeh released in 2015.

The Dijeh is the last kit in the old 1/144 Zeta Gundam series. It's been released as a RE/100, but never as an HGUC, making it the only 1/144 scale kit of this mobile suit to date. (As of March 2017) It comes armed with a beam naginata, and at first glance the overall look makes it seem like a successor to the Gelgoog — but according to official lore, it's actually based on the Rick Dias. (There's quite a bit of debate around that official setting, though.)

First off, the color separation is surprisingly effective with just two molded colors, and the molded color tones themselves come out nicely without that cheap food-toy feel. The proportions are also on the better end for an old kit, so even with average articulation you can pull off some decent poses. The one downside is that the pipe at the back of the neck plugs into the body, which limits head rotation quite a bit. That said, plenty of old kits have the head completely fixed in place, so it's still better than those..

Of course, "pretty good" is relative — we're talking within the context of old kits, and since there's no HGUC to compare it to, there's really nothing else to stack it up against at 1/144 scale. By modern quality standards, an old kit is still an old kit, but at least among old kits, it holds up reasonably well in terms of molded colors, proportions, and various other aspects.

Either way, this kit carries a lot of significance simply for being the only 1/144 Dijeh out there. It's a solid old-kit recommendation even for folks who just want to do a quick straight build for nostalgia's sake. :-)
[ Updated at 2017.4.4 ]

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.