The PG lineup had been strutting around like it was going to line up all the major Universal Century suits, and then out of nowhere, W-Gundam Zero Custom (Wing Zero Custom, or "Wing Zechs" as I'll call it) showed up as a representative of the non-Universal Century side. When you think back to the year 2000, when even MG was reluctant to touch non-UC suits, it really caught a lot of people off guard. Part of it was probably the intention to release it before the Wing Gundam hype died down, and there's also the theory that it was aimed at the American market, riding the wave of the Wing anime's successful launch there.
Anyway, one way or another... the PG W-Gundam Zero Custom has a pretty different character compared to the PGs that came before and after it. First off, the heart of this kit is the inner frame's gimmicks and articulation. Things like the thigh armor sliding separately front and back, the 4-joint knees, the cleverly engineered 5-axis shoulder joints — this kit saw an unprecedented level of investment in articulation. Thanks to that, when it debuted it earned praise as the most poseable Gunpla ever made at the time. That said, when it comes to these ambitions, the verdict is ultimately... "half a success."
To support those large wings on its back, the PG W-Gundam Zero Custom uses no fewer than 18 die-cast metal parts throughout the body. When you consider that even special kits typically used only 2 or 3, it's a pretty radical choice. These die-cast parts are concentrated in the areas that bear the most load — the body-to-leg connections and the knees. Each of these joints is tightened using special leaf-spring screws, so you can adjust how stiff the joints are depending on how much you tighten the screwdriver. Being able to tune the joint strength to your liking like this is a really great idea. (This concept would later carry over into the 1/60 HY2M Glorious series as well.)
PG
Another one of the W-Gundam Zero Custom's defining features is, of course, its wings. Two large wings measuring about 30cm each, plus two more that automatically spread open via a spring mechanism, are all mounted on its back. The sheer volume of these things is impressive — when fully spread out in open mode, the impact is genuinely stunning. At roughly 70cm wide, the overall presence creates a spectacle you simply won't find in any other Gunpla. The small wings that automatically snap open with a spring-and-switch mechanism are the same kind used extensively in the PG Zeta, which gives it a nice sense of familiarity. The feather sections on the large wings also have long metal pins inside covered with a rubber material on the outside, so you can bend and hold them in shape just like bending wire — letting you create a more natural, organic look.
You might think the kit would topple backwards just from standing there with those big wings, but thankfully the wings themselves touch the ground and act as support, so it doesn't just fall flat on its back. On the flip side, if you position the wings cleverly, you can actually lock in some pretty wild action poses with tricky centers of gravity.
But... unfortunately, for a number of reasons, the PG W-Gundam Zero Custom is a kit where the drawbacks outweigh the strengths. I've listed the complaints worth pointing out below. Yeah, there's quite a few... ^^;
1.
No Hatch Open !
There's zero hatch-open functionality. It doesn't seem like a structural limitation — it looks like a deliberate design choice, probably because they wanted to focus on articulation. But the hatch-open feature was one of the biggest appeals of PG kits, and having absolutely none of it, not even in one spot, is honestly a pretty big letdown.
2. Parts That Don't Hold Securely
So if they skipped the hatch-open feature, you'd assume it was to keep the armor locked on tight for all kinds of dynamic poses, right? Unfortunately, that benefit doesn't really come through. The armor on the arms in particular looks a bit precarious even after you attach it, and sure enough, as you move the arms around, pieces just pop off on their own all the time. The ankle cover joints are also a bit iffy in terms of how they hold, making them another thing that tends to fall off easily. If there's no hatch-open, the least the armor could do is stay on firmly — which makes this all the more disappointing.
One part that gets called out a lot is the yellow head antenna — the hold is just way too weak. You can't even tell if it's actually clipped in or just resting there. Sure, you could glue it, but then you'd have to give up on removing the head armor altogether. T_T And then there's the front part of the foot sole... it's supposed to hinge forward to improve articulation, but the problem is that this section keeps popping out from the inner foot frame. Once it comes off, you have to remove the foot armor to push it back in, so it looks like another spot that needs gluing.
3. Difficulty Removing Armor
Trying to remove the outer armor to see the inner frame is a real pain in a lot of places. The leg armor is manageable, but the torso and arms are put together in a way that's hard to make sense of, and in some cases the armor just can't be removed at all. The forearm clearly has an inner frame in there, but to actually get the armor off, you have to remove two screws at the elbow and completely disassemble the hand parts. (SeeArm section review for reference.)
The torso is the same story — to remove the chest armor, you have to detach the neck connection point and the shoulder weapons, and that's a surprisingly awkward process. On top of that, the frame inside the hip skirt looks great, but it ends up being assembled in a way that makes it practically impossible to remove, so it just stays hidden. And since the backpack and torso are connected by wiring, once you've assembled it, the rear upper body armor becomes completely impossible to remove. (SeeBody section review for reference.) With all these limitations, removing the armor is far more of a hassle than on other PG kits.
4. Bland Frame
The overall frame is pulled off reasonably well, but the detail feels flat compared to other PG kits across the board. It seems like the focus on articulation came at the cost of mechanical visual interest. It honestly feels like it's only on par with a well-done recent MG in terms of detail. And the hip frame, which is actually done pretty nicely, is completely hidden away where you can't even see it. -_-;
5. Articulation Limitations
The articulation at the frame stage is excellent, but once you put the armor on, there are spots where the range of motion drops off significantly. The shoulders and ankles, which boast five-axis joints, are prime examples. The shoulder joint combines 5–6 joints on each side to achieve an impressively wide range of motion... but once the armor goes on, it's reduced to a plain ~45-degree forward bend. That's a level of movement you could achieve without building such a complex shoulder joint in the first place. It's also a bit of a bummer that the shoulders can't move upward at all.
With the ankle joints, it makes sense structurally that the armor limits forward and backward movement a bit... but the side-to-side range of motion drops off quite a lot between the bare frame stage and the armored stage. At the frame stage, it's pulled off pretty well using the armor separation design, but the ankle guard armor is completely fixed with no articulation of its own, which ends up blocking all that range of motion from the frame stage. Personally, I found this pretty baffling.
6. Difficulty Posing
Separate from the articulation limitations, this kit is also just genuinely hard to pose in a number of ways. For one, a lot of joints use tightening screws, so the joints themselves aren't stiff or loose by default — you can adjust them, which is fine in theory. The problem is that because of the wings, you basically have to tighten the joints down hard... and once you do that, actually moving the joints takes a lot of effort. Creak... creak... On top of that, the wings get in the way quite a bit while posing, making it tricky to find a good spot to work. Every single pose in the photos above was a struggle to get into. (-o-) It's kind of an unavoidable trade-off given the size and the stiff joints.
7. The Wings... The Wings...
The wings might be the W-Gundam Zero Custom's biggest appeal, but they might also be its biggest flaw. It's obvious to anyone that the sheer size makes posing a challenge... but beyond that, there are some structural issues too.
First, the small wings that are supposed to automatically spread open using the spring-and-switch mechanism... (seeWing section review for reference) — the mechanism is so complex that it breaks pretty easily The most common failure point is when the internal part that pushes the wing-locking piece gets misaligned and twisted. Once it goes out of alignment, it moves outside the range the spring can control, and the spread wings won't close back up — they just keep popping open. You can disassemble and reassemble to fix it, but keep fiddling with it and the internal pins will eventually slip out of place again... grumble grumble... On top of that, the wings often don't come out smoothly and keep catching and snagging. The concept is great, but this really needed more careful engineering.
The large wings have 7 feathers made of soft rubber with metal plates inside, and they're secured with screws tightened to the right tension. The problem is, the more you move the feathers around, the more those screws loosen up, and some of them just won't hold anymore. Once they loosen... there's no real fix. T_T All you can do is tighten them as much as possible and hope they don't become completely useless. On top of that, the feather material feels almost like an eraser (?) — it doesn't take panel lining well and is a pain to paint. A real nuisance.
8. The Missing Stand
The excellent articulation makes all kinds of action poses possible, but most of them aren't really stable enough to leave on display. In cases like this — especially with this PG W-Gundam Zero Custom — I'm probably not the only one who wishes a dedicated stand had been included. I've seen a lot of people just hang it from the ceiling with wire (the so-called "wire action" display)... It's a shame. ^^
9.
No Sticker
The PG W-Gundam Zero Custom comes with no dry decals, no clear-type markings, no seals — nothing to apply at all.
Not including any decorative seals whatsoever is just a bit...
From the perspective of 2000, when the PG W-Gundam Zero Custom was released, the PG Wing's articulation was genuinely groundbreaking and impressive. But from the perspective of 2004, when this review is being written... MG kits with comparable articulation (or even better in some respects) are coming out one after another, so looking back from a few years later, the articulation advantage of the PG Wing alone really doesn't hold up anymore. And even that supposedly impressive articulation, when you compare it carefully to other PG kits, isn't particularly outstanding within the PG lineup either. The PG RX-78-2 and Mk-II both have solid articulation — the W-Gundam Zero Custom just has a slimmer, more elegant proportion, which makes it feel a bit more dynamic. That's about it. Which makes the PG W-Gundam Zero Custom's place in the lineup feel all the more uncertain.
After listing all those flaws, it might seem like a completely terrible kit... ^^; but it's not quite that bad. It is a PG after all — I do think it has plenty of strengths. The issue is that it was released under the PG label. If this W-Gundam Zero Custom had come out without any grade designation, it probably would've been praised as an exceptional product. But when you look at it through the lens of PG — Bandai's supposed top-tier lineup — there are just too many disappointing aspects for it to really live up to that title.
It's a bit of an odd one out in the PG lineup, but the presence that PG kits have... the presence after completion is genuinely decent. It's the shortest of the PGs, but the volume of the wings takes up a lot of space (-_-;;) and gives it a rich, full feeling overall. In particular, thanks to the die-cast parts, the kit itself feels like the heaviest of all the PGs.
Considering the strengths — the sleek proportions, excellent articulation, and the sheer impact of the wings — it's a reasonably recommendable PG for fans of Wing Gundam and the W-Gundam Zero Custom. But when you factor in all the un-PG-like shortcomings... it's not a kit I'd recommend to someone who isn't already a Wing Gundam fan. And if you're a beginner looking to get into PG kits, this is an absolute do-not-buy. For anyone new to PG, I'd recommend the true PG classics: the RX-78-2, Mk-II, and Zeta — the big three of the lineup. ^^
(So in the end, the conclusion is that other kits are better, huh!)
PG W-Gundam Zero Custom | 2000.11 | ¥15,000
AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.
