OLD Gundam ZZ 1/144 Bawoo

Release 1986.8

Price ¥600

BANDAI BANDAI Japan product info

Box side view

Runners

Waterslide decals

Parts diagram

Manual

Straight build

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

waterslide decals on the skirt armor.

Being a transforming unit, the articulation is a bit awkward. The legs especially feel pretty restrictive.

The shoulder cover for the transformation really limits shoulder articulation quite a bit.

OLD 1/144 Bawoo - That said, you can force the shoulder cover open and rotate the shoulder, so you can still pull off poses a

That said, you can force the shoulder cover open and rotate the shoulder, so you can still pull off poses at roughly this level.

To transform, start by separating the upper and lower body.

Lower the shoulder armor, then rotate the arms 90 degrees down toward the underside of the body.

Spread the wings and attach the rifle and shield — Bawoo Attacker complete!

Bawoo Attacker

Underside

OLD 1/144 Bawoo - For the lower body, just spread out the side skirts and rotate the legs 90 degrees to position them — the t

For the lower body, just spread out the side skirts and rotate the legs 90 degrees to position them — the transformation is pretty straightforward.

Bawoo Nutter

The transformation gimmick into the Bawoo Attacker and Bawoo Nutter is decent enough to pass muster.

Together with the 1/144 ZZ Gundam.

Together with the HGUC Bawoo released in 2000.

The 11th kit in the old-style ZZ Gundam lineup is the transforming 1/144 Bawoo. It's personally my favorite mech from ZZ, and even though it's an old-school kit from the '80s, the two-stage transformation gimmick is pulled off pretty convincingly.

The overall proportions are classic old-kit style — big and beefy. To capture the prototype colors rather than the mass-production scheme, they've attempted some color separation using yellow and orange, though the molded colors feel a little food-toy-ish, so a paint job would probably be needed. On the plus side, the kanji design on the front skirt is nicely rendered with wet decals and makes for a great accent. For the record, those characters might look at first glance like two kanji — 龍飛 (ryūhi) — but they're actually a single compound kanji used in Japan, pronounced "Bawoo."

Overall joint strength is decent thanks to polycaps, but the shoulder area in particular feels noticeably loose — probably due to the transformation gimmick. The cover structure on top of the shoulder blocks shoulder rotation, so in MS mode you have to forcibly lift that cover to rotate the arm, which is a bit of a hassle. Since this kit is clearly focused on the transformation gimmick, you probably shouldn't expect much in terms of articulation or posing in MS mode.

The transformation gimmick itself is faithfully reproduced, but the stability after transforming feels a bit lacking. The Bawoo Nutter doesn't have much going on so it's not really a problem there, but with the Bawoo Attacker, the loose shoulder joints make it tricky to properly position the arms underneath.

All in all, I'd love to give it high marks for faithfully recreating that signature transformation gimmick, but in terms of molded colors, overall looks, and proportions, the quality gap compared to the HGUC is pretty glaring. It's hard to recommend unless you're specifically into the chunky old-kit proportions — this one's really more for folks who enjoy painting and customizing. :-)
[ Updated at 2017.7.20 ]

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.