Gunpla: The RX-121-1 Gundam TR-1 [Hazel Custom]

A key appeal of Gundam is a kind of Military-Industrial Techno-Porn. Its all about giant robots being treated with a level of seriousness otherwise found in model railways and armchair historians. Or maybe its more like reading one of those technical manuals they write for Star Trek. Gundam universes tend to be pretty good at treating their robots with consistent realism, or the appearance thereof. Probably the pinnacle of this is the manga/photo-comic/design-series Advance Of Zeta, an in-between series set just before Zeta Gundam. This features a bewildering number of prototypes and variants, some of which are named for the rabbits from Watership Down, AKA that cartoon/novel that traumatises British kids every bank holiday. Today's subject is the Gundam TR-1 [Hazel Custom], which as far as I can figure is a is a weird case of things coming full circle, design-wise.

This iteration of the Hazel, as mentioned there's many variants, is immediately notable for detail and chonk. It's got a fairly intricate design for a high grade, and this is largely achieved by plastic colours, with stickers being used in acceptable places like sensors and badges. This is nice. Said detail comes from the extensive upgrades the Hazel featured, bulging out from an otherwise slender frame, adding serious girth below the belt. It's a GM that got upgraded so much it became a Gundam again, like an attempt by computer enthusiasts to turbocharge an office PC into a bitcoin rig. While proportioned like a man wearing half a robot costume. The bottom half, mainly. For reference, here's a picture of the base machine, the GM Quel, as drawn by the same artist. 

This gives the Hazel what can only be called "a look", but not a bad one. The third thing you notice though are the assorted little details that have not been colour separated, and TBH, the original mecha designer was clearly self-indulgent in this area. No, we need not red finger tips. Nor thrusters in more than one contrasting colour. Said colour should also be burnt metal. Life is too damn short for such things. Even without that it's an involved build, with plenty in the way of seam lines and inconvenient places to cut parts from their runners. While certainly pleasing to the eye just assembled and stickers applied, paint would be mandatory for Hazel fans to do those details and hide a few sins. I am aware of the hypocrisy of saying all this after the Zaku 2 incident. Possibly this design is better suited to a larger price bracket, but being too ambitious is hardly a sin.

I'm much happier with the range of motion, though. There's double-jointed elbows, shoulders that tilt forward, and dramatic bends in the legs. The rest of the articulation is decent, and while nothing is exceptional, everything seems to be there and solid. Accessories certainly aren't bad either. The rifle comes with spare clips, if purely decorative ones, and while you get only the one beam saber, there's a dedicated hand for it. There is, surprisingly, two different shields. The logic behind this is seemingly one of Advance's technological "missing links" between regular mobile suits and the more unusual Titans prototypes, giving us a disposable shield with a rocket engine. Well, I say logic. Strapping a fuel canister to something that catches bullets seems somehow unsound to me. It is possible to mount this on the backpack though, so no harm done.

The tone of the write up is admittedly flippant at times, but don't let that fool you into thinking that I don't respect this model. I'm no expert, but I think Bandai brought its A game to this at the time, being great for 2005,  whichs adds up to pretty good for now. That said, I would not recommend this for a beginner, or for someone like myself whom wants a more casual time. I'm just not fond of fiddly detail at this scale. However, I'd like to come back to this when I'm confident that I can do it justice.