Kit Review

Straight build + Panel lining + Seals

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

Detail shots

Outer armor removed

Inner frame shots.

RG Sazabi - Inner frame detail shots (1/4)

RG Sazabi - Inner frame detail shots (2/4)

Inner frame detail shots

There's a frame inside the large rear skirt too.

There's even a bit of frame inside the backpack too.

Full frame rear view with the backpack and rear skirt frame attached

Articulation on the frame

The shoulders fold forward and back in two stages.

The torso can tilt side to side at the waist.

Poses on the frame

Cockpit hatch open gimmick — the top of the head cover lifts up and the mask lowers

RG Sazabi - Opening armor gimmicks are included on the shoulders, side/rear skirts, leg sides, and backpack. (1/5)

RG Sazabi - Opening armor gimmicks are included on the shoulders, side/rear skirts, leg sides, and backpack. (2/5)

RG Sazabi - Opening armor gimmicks are included on the shoulders, side/rear skirts, leg sides, and backpack. (3/5)

Opening armor gimmicks are included on the shoulders, side/rear skirts, leg sides, and backpack.

The funnel containers and funnel deployment are well-realized at MG level.

A total of 7 hands are included, and they're all fixed-pose hands.

RG Sazabi - All weapon-holding hands can be securely attached using pegs. Notably, the rifle hand's locking pin has been upgr

All weapon-holding hands can be securely attached using pegs.
Notably, the rifle hand's locking pin has been upgraded to a double-pin system.

The wrist section of the weapon-holding hands is articulated, which helps minimize interference with the forearm.

Rifle gimmicks

RG Sazabi - The beam tomahawk stored in the shield can be repositioned to the front of the shield, and the forearm mount slid

The beam tomahawk stored in the shield can be repositioned to the front of the shield,
and the forearm mount slides up and down slightly.

Various beam parts can be attached to the beam tomahawk.

RG Sazabi - The beam saber handles are stored inside the wrists — only the tips are fitted for storage, and the beam sabers t

The beam saber handles are stored inside the wrists —
only the tips are fitted for storage, and the beam sabers themselves are included separately.

RG Sazabi - The stand joint parts lock into the hip joint via a slide gimmick, but the connection isn't as secure as you'd ho

The stand joint parts lock into the hip joint via a slide gimmick,
but the connection isn't as secure as you'd hope, which is a bit of a letdown.

The bottom of the stand joint part has two different holes,
making it compatible with both Action Base 1 and 2.

1/144 Char figure.

RG Sazabi - The rotating plate that connects the shoulder to the torso can potentially pop out with repeated movement, but wh

The rotating plate that connects the shoulder to the torso can potentially pop out with repeated movement,
but when you attach the back armor, the inner locking pin presses down on the plate and keeps it from coming loose.
A lot of older kits had this shoulder dislocation problem, and the RG Sazabi solves it brilliantly.

RG Sazabi - On top of that, a clever gimmick has been added where the forearm armor grips above the shoulder locking pin duri

On top of that, a clever gimmick has been added where the forearm armor grips above the shoulder locking pin during movement,
preventing the arm and shoulder from popping apart.

3 leftover parts remain.

RG Sazabi - The limbs fold up insanely well — hard to believe it's a Sazabi

Hard to believe it's a Sazabi —
the limbs fold up insanely well

For the hip joint gimmick, you need to pull the lower vernier section down before it can move.

RG Sazabi - The lower vernier section locks the rotating plate in place, so you need to release it downward before the joint

The lower vernier section locks the rotating plate in place, so you need to release it downward before the joint can move —
and thanks to this locking gimmick, the plate stays put and doesn't shift around during posing.

There are movable cylinders on the forearms.

There are also movable cylinders on the inside of the knees.

Lifting the forearm cover lets you extend the forearm frame length just a little bit.

There's also a gimmick where you pull the back-of-hand cover to slide the wrist straight out.

RG Sazabi - Articulation comparison between the normal configuration (left) and with both the forearm and wrist fully extende

Articulation comparison between the normal configuration (left) and with both the forearm and wrist fully extended (right).
The base articulation is already so good that there isn't much of a difference...

RG Sazabi - The waist doesn't move much forward and back, but there's a gimmick where just the center section of the upper bo

The waist doesn't move much forward and back, but there's a gimmick where just the center section of the upper body moves up and down independently.

Forward/backward shoulder articulation

RG Sazabi - The entire plate that the front skirt and side skirts are fixed to can be spread out to the sides. Thanks to that

The entire plate that the front skirt and side skirts are fixed to can be spread out to the sides.
Thanks to that, the hip joints can be raised as high as you want with almost no interference from the skirts.

RG Sazabi - The foot articulates in 4 stages. Having so many moving parts actually feels like it gets in the way of ground co

The foot articulates in 4 stages.
Having so many moving parts actually feels like it gets in the way of ground contact though..

RG Sazabi - A Sazabi that can do a kneeling pose!!!! (1/4)

RG Sazabi - A Sazabi that can do a kneeling pose!!!! (2/4)

A Sazabi that can do a kneeling pose!!!!

Punching pose

Aerial firing pose

RG Sazabi - Two-handed shooting pose (1/2)

RG Sazabi - Two-handed shooting pose (2/2)

Two-handed firing pose

Beam tomahawk mounted on the shield pose

Beam tomahawk action.
J-just... look at that knee raise angle..

Beam tomahawk + beam saber action

Together with the HGUC Sazabi.
A whole different class in terms of proportions and detail.

RG Sazabi - Together with the RG Sinanju. The joint issues that were disappointing in the Sinanju have been completely fixed

Together with the RG Sinanju.
The joint issues that were disappointing in the Sinanju have been completely fixed here.

RG Sazabi - Together with the MG Sazabi Ver.Ka. Comparing it to the RG makes the MG look chunky.. The RG looks more refined i

Together with the MG Sazabi Ver.Ka.
Comparing it to the RG makes the MG look chunky..
The RG looks more refined in terms of proportions.

Together with the MG Char's Zaku II v2.0.
Just looking at the size and volume, it's on par with an MG.

Straight build

The 29th RG release is the Sazabi, which is easily one of the best kits of 2018. It's the first RG to come in a large box, and at ¥4500 it's priced at MG levels — and honestly, the finished size is pretty much MG-sized too.

The kit stays true to the established RG concept, but there are a few small changes worth noting. First, the one-piece frame that was a hallmark of RG has been minimized, and the articulated hands have been dropped as well. The articulated RG hands weren't well-received and had already fallen out of use a while back, and while the one-piece frame was technically impressive, it left something to be desired in terms of durability. The RG Sinanju in particular had a lot of problems from forcing a reuse of the one-piece frame — cramming a frame designed for a smaller kit into a larger one resulted in poor durability.

The RG Sazabi seems to have taken note of the Sinanju's failures, ditching the forced one-piece frame in favor of MG-style soft plastic joints. Multi-material injection parts similar to the one-piece frame are still included, but rather than serving as the main frame, they're used more as supplementary gimmick parts for the shoulders, arms, and skirt areas. Thanks to this, despite the large size, the overall joint strength feels tight and solid throughout, holding any pose perfectly.

The articulation is also surprisingly flexible regardless of the Sazabi's characteristically chunky build — the limbs fold up impressively well. The legs in particular combine a hip joint slide gimmick with skirts that spread out to the sides, allowing the thighs to raise all the way up to chest level. It's a level of articulation you'd never expect, enough to pull off a more stable kneeling pose than just about any other kit out there. On top of that, the skirts flex freely in all directions and never once fell off during the entire review shoot, and parts almost never pop off during posing either. (The lower side skirt armor is a little iffy when deployed)

On top of all that, there are several special locking gimmicks you don't often see. You can tell a lot of thought went into keeping joints from popping out during posing. For instance, the shoulder joints inside the torso can sometimes come apart with repeated movement, but on the RG Sazabi there's a mechanism inside the back armor that presses down on the shoulder rotation plate, preventing it from ever coming apart. The forearm can also separate from the shoulder during posing, and here too the forearm armor grips the shoulder joint pin to keep it in place. The thighs can sometimes separate from the hip joints during posing as well, but they're attached with a T-shaped pin so no matter how much you move the legs, they won't come out. The movable hip plate can also shift around unintentionally, but the vernier locking pin at the bottom lets you control when it moves and when it stays put. The connection between the hand and the rifle has also been upgraded with a double-lock system for a much more secure grip.

With top-tier articulation, solid joint strength, and all these anti-disassembly mechanisms working together, the posing experience is on a completely different level from any previous RG. Add in gimmicks like the subtle forearm and wrist extension, plus deployment gimmicks all over the body on top of the full inner frame, and it's absolutely packed with features in true RG fashion — the overall quality feel is simply outstanding.

That said, there are a few things worth pointing out. The connection between the stand joint parts and the hip joints uses a slide gimmick, but it feels a bit insecure. The joint parts themselves are cleverly designed to be compatible with both Action Base 1 and 2, but given how large and heavy the kit is, I wish the hip joint grip were a bit more solid. In particular, if you use the round locking pin on the stand to attach the joint parts, the weight of the kit puts you at risk of snapping the pin. (I snapped mine -_-)

Second, despite the large feet, the ground contact somehow feels oddly poor. If you shift the center of gravity forward it stands upright just fine, but it's hard to get that satisfying planted feeling with the 4-stage articulated feet. This is something you'd really need to handle yourself to understand what I mean — no matter how you set it down, it never quite feels like it's firmly planted on the ground, and it just sort of wobbles there. That said, the feet are large enough that it won't actually fall over, so it's still a hundred times better than the RG Sinanju which was so fragile it could barely stand at all...

Third — and this is more of an observation than a complaint — the assembly feel is quite different from traditional RG kits. It's probably because MG-style framing is used instead of the one-piece frame, but it kind of feels like building an MG RX-78-2/Zaku 2.0. Of course the size being MG-scale adds to that impression, but RG fans who enjoy the combination of small, precise parts might find it a bit of an unfamiliar experience. Flip side of that is there aren't many tiny parts, so it's actually easier to build than a typical RG.

Anyway, minor gripes aside, looking at the overall quality of the kit, it's very clear that the Bandai development team put in a serious effort to make this one great. As a large-scale RG kit, it completely addresses the issues of the RG Sinanju, and across the board — stunning visuals, articulation, joint strength, and stability — it feels like the developers gave it everything they had.

In particular, the jaw-dropping articulation you'd never expect from a Sazabi, combined with rock-solid joint strength and all those anti-disassembly gimmicks, makes this kit a joy to handle — it's not an exaggeration to say it's the best kit across all grades, not just among RGs. If someone asked me to recommend just one Gunpla kit from all of Gunpla history, I'd probably point them to the RG Sazabi. :-)

RG Sazabi | 2018. 8 | ¥4,800

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.