Previously on Musha Munitions...
Originally I wanted my introduction to the HiRM line to be the Astray Red Frame for the purpose of comparing it to the Real Grade (nah, it was because I like the gerbera straight!), but the God Gundam is pretty much its equal, given that it lands within my top five favourite mobile suits of all time. Perhaps I'll gradually reveal what the rest of those favourites are...
And now a mere one month later, he's immediately revealing his favourite of all time. Ha! What a silly billy!
Big thanks to the bodacious broskis at Banzai Hobby for selling me this kit (and EMS for being worth the price for safe shipping all the way from Japan to the UK). This article isn't sponsored, but I have to give them massive kudos for finally squashing my wariness of importing directly from Japan and thus having to potentially deal with customs fees. I also appreciate that they included a little info sheet with their site's Instagram tag. Make no mistake, I won't be forgetting to tag them once this kit is complete.
This is natural given how relatively young this blog is, but there's a pair of firsts to get out of the way with this kit. As the disclaimer indicates, it's the first kit I ever imported directly from Japan (and thankfully no, I wasn't hit with customs, so the UK's garbage fire customs laws are spared my ire for now). Admittedly, it did take 9 days from Banzai Hobby posting the kit for it to arrive, but given what they told me about the reduced number of flights in this world of global pandemics and how their estimated arrival time was a matter of 2-3 weeks, I think they did a fantastic job getting it to me in good time, all things considered.
The second of the two firsts is one I noticed while doing the initial tagging for this article - this is the first Universal Century kit I've ever done a Build Diary on. Oh, I've built them many times before - in fact as I alluded to in my last article, I've built an absolutely gorgeous Real Grade kit of the Nu Gundam (hmm, another mobile suit from Char's Counterattack...). But I've never gone into great detail on my experience with building one before. So for those of you feeling like I've been sleeping on the Universal Century on this blog, this one's for you.
If the cold open wasn't enough of an indicator, yeah, I'll make it explicit - the Sazabi is a solid pick for my favourite mobile suit of all time. The striking shade of red, the samurai-helmet head, the bulky armour around the ankles, the BEAM TOMAHAWK...yeah, solid pick for my absolute favourite. Granted, I've yet to see Char's Counterattack (in fact, I've only recently finished the movie trilogy version of 0079), but hey - that didn't stop me from putting the Nu Gundam together. Or making some space right next to it for this kit. (Sorry, MG Barbatos!)
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| Ah yes, Char and Amuro - those characters that famously make for good neighbours. Just ask Lalah! |
You didn't show up for me waffling on about firsts and all that, though. You wanna make like Brad Pitt in Seven and see what's in the box.
I mean, there's a lot of blood red, but it ain't the head of Gwyneth Paltrow, that's for sure!
Leg Units
Fitting that the first parts the manual brings up are the telltale bulky feet.
The basic shape of the sole is coming together, and good lord this is a large foot. From heel to toe, this is the same length as your average 1/144 scale gundam from head to crotch.
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| You know what they say about big feet, Quatre? |
The sticker on the front that makes the foil parts stand out was a little awkward, since it's one of those situations where the stickers for both feet are right next to each other on the sheet. They did indeed both come off at once, but it wasn't hard for me to get them separate and in place. Thank god for tweezers.
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| My brown panel marker is gonna get quite the workout with this kit. |
Now to do the legs. This should be where more of that armour comes in.
Ok, moment of truth, let's get those panels on.
Once you've lined it up correctly, there needs to be a bit of pressure to get it to line up with everything right. When the heel panel I just attached lines up with the grey hexagon on the heel, that's when it's in the right position.
Cooooooooool! And now the other one.
And now that those are done (with me having to slightly dismantle the left leg thanks to me forgetting a part along the way), I'm gonna take a brief break. After that, we can move on to...
Waist Unit
Looking at step 04-5, there's an instruction that says, "Insert slowly to keep the parts from collapsing". Welp, here goes everything.
Yep, gently pushing them onto the hinge in the orientation the manual suggests works fine. Of note is that there's only a slight click when attaching them - as long as they're on secure and you're careful, they'll be fine.
When attaching the rear part of the skirt to the waist, the instructions say to put it on vertically then rotate it down.It'll get into the right position if you keep gently pushing the part up as you rotate it. When it's at the angle in the above picture, it's on right.
That was a weirdly elaborate part, but I like the look of it. Particularly when you open the sides out and reveal the foil stickers on the inside.
Blimey, that's looking pretty nice so far.
Now onto...
Chest Unit
Ugh, I wasn't looking forward to this part. Multiple sources I've looked up on this kit say that the shoulder joint is really fragile. And the part they're referring to is literally the second part assembled in the Chest Unit section of the manual.
sigh
As long as I'm careful and don't treat the manual as open to interpretation...
Hmm, interesting. I'm assuming the top grey/black part is part of some kind of ab crunch articulation.
Now for...ugh...the shoulder joints. PLEASE DON'T BREAK...
Ok, good. As long as the hole and the peg are lined up right (since the hole is keyhole-shaped), it rotates normally once pushed in all the way.
Phew, here's hoping they're on right. I'm at least glad that's out of the way.
God, this thing already looks gorgeous. Still got the arms, head, backpack and weapons to go and I'm already loving the look of it. In fact, let's get another size comparison going- HOLY BALLS
Even without the head, it's almost as tall as the Nu Gundam is from head to toe! And I must remind you that yes, these are both 1/144 scale.
Well. Now I really can't wait to see the finished kit!
Arm Units
As the nature of the B runner might indicate, B2 comes pre-assembled on the runner and requires a hinged part to be moved into position immediately after clipping off (similar to the inner frame you get on most Real Grade kits or the MG The Origin RX-78-2's articulated hands).
Thankfully the individual arm units don't have much to assemble beyond the repeated parts of the manual. So outside of the shoulder units, there's not long to go before these are done.
Back to the B runner to get the shoulder units going.
Apart from some awkward angles I had to get the parts into so they'd easily fit, I'm quite happy with what we have. Time to bring the basics together with the...
Head Unit
Normally when working on a Real Grade (and most 1/144 kits, to be fair), I tend to dread fitting the eye sticker on properly. The Sazabi has the advantage of an eye sticker that is both larger than I expected and rotationally symmetrical, so fitting it correctly should be no problem at all.
We may not be done yet, but this on its own looks fantastic. This is hard to tell on the camera, but there's actually two subtly different shades of red used throughout the kit on certain armour panels, but even if that wasn't a factor, it'd be a wonderful standout on my shelf.
But we've still got more to do...
Backpack Unit
So you know how I always point out how the legs and arms require repetition by nature? Yeah, I've got six funnel units to start this section with. That's at least one thing this has in common with the Nu Gundam besides coming from the same movie.
The top part has a flat side viewable from above (as the manual points out), and what's less clear from the manual is that this flat side needs to be facing the opposite to the vertical notch on one side of the base of each funnel.
Be warned that even when put together, opening the funnel launchers does run the risk of making the entire launcher come apart, so be careful when posing the Sazabi like that.
The black parts on the sides near the end of the backpack construction are a little awkward, and the manual does not explain it well. You're supposed to slot it in with the connecting part horizontal, then turn it so that the part lines up with the side of the backpack that it's on.
It seems to work, but I feel like I'm about to snap the connector of those parts, but all it really means is that there's a specific way that connector slots into the backpack. Push it onto the backpack as far as it'll go then gently move it down like the manual says and it should work.
And that's the actual figure looking as mighty fine as I've been hoping all these months! One more section to go.
Weapons
The first part of the beam shot rifle has a very nice foil sticker that mostly gets covered by the pump. I love foil details that fit into the dark recesses of these models, and this kit has been really good with them thus far. And yes, the pump is movable.
I'm glad there's storage space at least for the beam tomahawk on the back of the shield, but for now I'll be attaching the beam effects because DAAAMN, these are some cool effects.
We also can't have the shield looking all boring and blank, so I threw on all the transparent stickers.
And while I'm here, let's get as many of the transparent stickers on everywhere else that I can tolerate before putting the shield on and wrapping this build diary up. It's a Real Grade, so naturally there's a lot of them.
And thus I have now finished the RG Sazabi. A kit I've been waiting to build since what feels like the start of the year. Does it live up to the hype?
DEAR LORD YES.
An absolutely striking standout for any experienced Gunpla builder's shelf, loaded with detail, balance and superb engineering. The only real complaint I have is that the side skirt parts are a little too awkward to keep on and some of the smaller foil stickers are so difficult to attach I simply didn't bother with them (but then, that's Real Grades for you). And if you want me to really nitpick, I'm very mildly disappointed that the beam tomahawk is the only storeable part on this kit, and not the beam shot rifle or either of the beam sabers.
But those complaints are utterly irrelevant in the context of a kit this fantastic. If you're a seasoned Real Grade builder who hasn't yet built this kit, then I shall cement this kit's place in the S-tier by asking a simple two-word question: why not?
Stay safe and keep clipping, folks!
The Good
+ Tons of articulation
+ Imposing size for its scale
+ Interesting set of accessories, including the fantastic beam tomahawk
+ Look, I just really like this mobile suit, ok?
The Bad
- It feels a bit forward-heavy when having it standing on your shelf
- Side skirts don't attach too well
- The funnels don't fit in their compartments all that securely
- No storage place for the beam tomahawk
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