It's been 6ish years since I started modelling and writing about Gunpla on a frequent basis on this blog. It's never been a regular thing, but it always was a thing, especially if we count the 30 Minutes Missions stuff. And as with Transformers of late, I find myself a little bored. So, I thought, fuck it, try a cheap Master Grade as a change of pace. Inflation has meant that the value proposition has actually started to change in relation to the newest High Grades, and hopefully the larger scale makes for a different build experience. Was it? And was it any good? Ummmm.... Well, let me waffle about the design a bit before talking about the actual model.
I gave a reasonable summary of the Hi-Zack way back when I talked about the HG, and my opinion hasn't changed much in the time since. There's no compelling in universe reason why the Federation and especially the Titans, should be using this machine, and doubly so in these colours. I do like the Hi-Zack though, and for much the same reasons as I like the GM III. It looks like an aggressively overbuilt bombtruck of a thing, a design upgraded and upgunned beyond it's original specifications. I find it's flaws interesting, and it's daft place in the canon to be compelling. It's space fascism repackaged and upgraded for a new generation to fight. Possibly the most self-reverential choice a sequel could make at the time, in what would become typical for the franchise. Every Gundam series gets it's Zaku clone in it's starter kit, it's scènes à faire. And those that don't have actual Zakus instead. The Hi-Zack is the first from that template. It's just that it's got a lot of the same components. It's machine gun is literally the same as the old one, maybe not the best choice TBH, but it's been modernised with a new sensor. The heat hawk returns, but bigger, and the leg missile pods have been upgraded and moved to a waist mount. More Freddie design elements have came in via a beam rifle, beam saber, chest vents, and a forearm shield with storage for energy packs. This also leads to the most baffling thing about the Hi-Zack, it's inability to wield two beam weapons at once. That really should not have been a problem, and there's been various attempts to smooth that one out over the years, with a lot more GMs and such carrying machine guns, a better pre-production version, etc. But you have options there. There are circumstances where you don't want beam weapons, a big axe has the advantage of being a big axe, and so on.
Now, I built this kit over several weeks. Its big, fancy, and probably not worth rushing. I'd build a limb or two over a week, as while not necessarily intricate, it was time-consuming. If only due to it's bulk. As such, I've been rather back & forth and up & down with this kit, as I encountered the bits that have aged poorly. And made some dumbass mistakes. This has a 2004 copyright and feels like a big polycap High Grade, with some very HG flaws. I did not expect stickers to colour correct the toes, the right plastic colour for it is right there. Nor a waterslide decal for the monoeye. I was not pleased to see the axe was moulded in one colour only, but at least its an ignorable grey. The plastic in general is prone to cut marks, being suspiciously similar to older HGs, and I had trouble with basically everywhere. Maybe I should swallow my pride and try sanding sticks? Moving onto the more luxurious elements worthy of the title Mastergrade: the distinctive yellow cabling. These are made with rubbery bits, with individual plastic rings, and are generally a ball ache. I lost two rings because I am a muppet, but even if there were spares, these are inherently a nuisance to prepare. Meanwhile, the articulated fingers are nice, but have the inevitable issue with actually holding things. On the positive side, I did like how the legs go together, and the accessory count, even with that there's some awkwardness with the implementation. If you want to stow the axe for example, you have to use the missile pods, while the machine gun lacks a spare drum, but the beam rifle has three energy packs. It's not bad. And it's entirely possible for a kit to be rough around the edges and still be fun, especially if it's got a lotta guns. See the Zaku I. But this honestly this was more tiresome than therapeutic a lot of the time. The kit, much like the Hi-Zack itself, is simply outdated.
Having completed the kit, and still not having found the missing rings, I opted for a weathering job to downplay my mistakes, like an actual glue mishap on the left hand. I also painted the monoeye, which moves incidentally. Normally this is the point where I start to feel better about a troubled project, but then realised another component had gone astray, and I wasn't having a great day in the first place. Its was a bit of cabling for the upper thigh, and not immediately obvious, but another annoyance atop of a series of annoyances. Soooo, I don't think I'm a fan of Mastergrades, at least of this vintage. Not for relaxation or therapeutic purposes.
That's a downer.
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