SD BB Senshi Zetaman

Release 1987.7

Price ¥300

Side box art

Group shot of BB Senshi #1–6 boxes — the kits that kicked off the SD Gundam series

Runners

Parts diagram

Included alongside the assembly manual are a series guide sheet and a character card.

Manual

Straight build + Stickers

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

Front view of straight build before stickers

SD Zetaman - After applying the seals (1/2)

SD Zetaman - After applying the seals (2/2)

After applying stickers

The body without weapons

A bazooka and shield are included as weapons.

28 blue BB pellets are included. You cock the trigger, then load a BB pellet into the hole on top of the bazooka.

Along with the main kit, 3 target units are included as well.

SD Zetaman - From left to right, you get target boards featuring Char's Zaku, the Hi-Zack, and the Zaku III Custom. The manual

From left to right, you get target boards featuring Char's Zaku, the Hi-Zack, and the Zaku III Custom. The manual recommends placing Char's Zaku in the center, but you can arrange them however you like.

Hit the first target with a BB pellet and the ones behind it topple over like dominoes.

A video I filmed myself showing the target action on all 6 early BB Senshi kits.

Bare-bones articulation — the neck and shoulders rotate, and the legs swing back and forth alternately

Some action poses

Shooting game pose using the targets

Together with BB Senshi Zetaman 2

--- General notes on the first 6 BB Senshi kits -----------------
In 1987, the very first 6 SD Gundam kits were released under the BB Senshi label. They were part of the "BB Senshi Snival Game" lineup — the idea being that you fire BB pellets from a spring-loaded bazooka to hit targets. They've got that cute super-deformed look with stubby proportions and a nice rounded, chubby volume to them. Color separation is nonexistent — everything is molded in a single color with just a few seals thrown in, and the articulation is kept as simple as possible.

The lineup consists of 6 kits in total: Gundaman, Zetaman 2, Dorakun, Zakun, Zetaman, and Don — and while the designs differ, they all share exactly the same package contents and structural features. The BB pellet firing mechanism actually has a decent kick to it — you can fire a pellet in a straight line for about a meter with a satisfying "ping." On top of that, each kit comes with targets that produce various hit effects when struck, so there's a real fun factor to shooting them with BB pellets. (See thevideo for reference.)

These 6 kits were later reused as the base bodies for the SD Gundam Musha Shichinin-shuu arc, and nowadays they've become top-tier rare items going for dozens of times their original price. That said, they're pretty much impossible to track down anyway, so it's perfectly fine to just sit back and appreciate them as a piece of history — "oh wow, something like this actually existed back then." ^^
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This kit is SD Zetaman, released as BB Senshi #5. It's based on the Zeta Gundam, and the included targets are Char's Zaku, the Hi-Zack, and the Zaku III Custom. Hit the first unit with a BB pellet and the ones behind it topple over in a domino effect.

Later on, the body was reused — minus the target parts — as the base for BB Senshi #31, Musha Kage ZetaIt holds the distinction of being the very first SD Zeta Gundam kit ever made, which makes it feel like a true ancestor of the SD line. :-)

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.