Otaku Surf

MG Sazabi Mark I – Metallic Version

Posted on 30. Aug, 2009 by admin in Gundam/Mecha

Bandai's MG Sazabi Metallic Coating. Although the Sazabi's red armor is metallic I did have to spray paint the joints, hands and weapons.

     Some time ago I decided to try the mid-1980′s series Zeta Gundam, since I wanted to get a grasp of the earlier Gundam Universe series. In my effort to get acquainted with the earlier series I ran into the movie Char’s Counterattack. What struck me the most about this movie, aside from its very dramatic and bitter sweet storyline, was Char’s mobile suit, the intimidating Sazabi, which I recently put together.

    This version of the Sazabi has a metallic paint job already done on the armor which looks really stunning on the giant mecha. Everything else I spray painted using Tamiya spray paint cans.

     With this model I decided to use similar photography techniques that I did with the Sinanju using dark lighting and shadows to bring a more ominous look to the model. 

MG Sazabi with rifle and gigantic shield.

     Aside from the PG Strike Gundam, this has to be the largest and widest plastic model I’ve ever put together. The Sazabi is massive! So massive in fact that there are going to be some poses you can’t do because of it’s massive size and also it’s inner frame.

    From what I understand this Sazabi has the same inner frame (and everything else barring the metallic coating) as the one that was produced in 2000. Nevertheless, it still has a good deal of poseability especially in its arms and hands. 

    Where it struggles the most is it’s waist, where it does have the ability to swivel all the way around…if you don’t put the waist ball in all the way and even then you’ve got to be careful that the whole upper body doesn’t come crashing down.

     Suffice to say that the Sazabi wasn’t built to be an acrobatic type of mecha, but  kind of a “bull dog” mobile suit that can take a lot of punishment as well as dish it out. 

Sazabi with beam twin blades. There's no way to attach the blade grips to the hand so you have to try your luck with the fingers and thumbs to get a sold grip.

Sazabi with beam rifle and shield. Sazabi's shield is the size of a regular sized MG Gundam.

Sazabi with beam tomahawk.

Side profile of Sazabi with beam rifle.

     The Sazabi kit was pretty easy to put together even though it is a pretty large kit. I would have liked it to have more mobility, but I hold the Sazabi in the same regards as the GFF Kampfer. In that the heavy duty armor hinders movement of the mecha but gives it a heavy duty look that makes up for it’s lack of poseability when compared to others. 

    The design is one of my favorites, since the Sinanju, my favorite design, has it’s origins in the Sazabi. I never thought about getting a pre-painted metallic gundam, but it fits fine with the Sazabi and saves me so much time in painting, hopefully the other metallic MG gundams are just as good. 

Sazabi standing tall with his beam rifle.

Sazabi charging into battle.

Side view of Sazabi

MG Sazabi