OLD Gundam ZZ 1/144 Dwadge

Release 1986.8

Price ¥700

BANDAI BANDAI Japan product info

Box side view

Runners

Parts diagram

Manual

Straight build

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

Built as Rommel's unit.

The verniers look pretty impressive from underneath.

OLD 1/144 Dwadge - You can swap in the normal Dom-type shoulders to build it as Pola's unit, but since the molded color is ba

You can swap in the normal Dom-type shoulders to build it as Pola's unit, but since the molded color is based on Rommel's version, I just built it as the Rommel variant.

Two weapons are included: a beam cannon for Rommel's unit and a giant bazooka for Pola's unit.

The heat saber can be stored on the rear of the left shoulder.

Articulated fingers are included.

Some of the original 1/144 Dom parts are left over as leftover parts.

The limb articulation is identical to the 1/144 Dom.

Giant bazooka action.

Beam cannon action

Heat saber action

Together with the 1/144 Dom it's based on.

Together with the 1/144 ZZ Gundam.

The 1/144 Dwadge is the 9th kit in the old ZZ Gundam series. Up through the 8th kit they were all original new ZZ designs, but after this one, a lot of variation kits based on existing First Gundam and Z Gundam kits started coming out. True to its in-universe setting as the final production model of the MS-09 Dom line, the Dwadge is based on the First Gundam's 1/144 Rick Dom.

Recent variation kits are typically done by adding new runners on top of reused runners from the original kit. In the case of the 1/144 Dwadge, however, the molds of the original 1/144 Rick Dom were actually modified directly. For example, the runner layout and parts arrangement are the same as the original Rick Dom, but the details on a few new parts were slightly changed while the rest were molded as-is.

It seems like back in the early days they preferred reworking existing molds like this, but since modifying molds isn't exactly easy, it looks like they later switched to the approach of just making separate new runners for any additional parts.

The issue is that there was a five-year gap between the release of the ZZ Gundam and First Gundam model kits, and it was a period when Gunpla was evolving rapidly. Even within the ZZ Gundam lineup, polycap joints and more efficient parts breakdown were just starting to appear, so the Dwadge — based on the 1/144 Rick Dom released back in 1981 — does feel noticeably lower in quality compared to other ZZ kits.

Anyway, that's why the Dwadge ended up in the ZZ lineup without any polycaps. Fortunately, it seems like they made some minor improvements to the tolerances while reworking the molds, because the joint strength is surprisingly not bad. That said, the overall proportions and detail still can't help but give off that old First Gundam era model kit vibe ^^;

Still, compared to the 1/144 Rick Dom, the verniers inside the body are much more detailed, and the hands were swapped out for ones with articulated fingers — so there are quite a few upgrades here and there. On top of that, as of 2017 it's still the only Dwadge model kit out there, which is a big plus in itself. If you're a fan of the Dom-type mobile suits, this is definitely an old kit worth picking up for a fun painting project :-)
[ Updated at 2017.7.16 ]

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.