1/400 HGUC NZ-333 Alpha Azieru
This is 1/400 HGUC Alpha Azieru (NZ-333) from the anime film of Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counter Attack.
All of the GunPlaMo Kits from Bandai are produced in Bandai's own factory in Japan but this one is made in China because of the special "paint" treatment given by Bandai on this particular model... amazing... I'm not sure how many of them were produced in China and get the special "paint" treatment but amongst others that I guess also were made in China are 1/400 Quin-Mantha (probably the testbed of Kshatriya) and 1/400 Big Zam. I'm not sure about 1/400 Gundam GP03 vs Neue Ziel though...
The extra painting job will cost money (labor charges, material cost, machinery cost etc.) and evidently, it is much cheaper to have it in China rather than in Japan - of course it will be OK as long as strict quality control procedure is adhered by the relevant personnel.
This gigantic Alpha Azieru was piloted by the young and naive Quess Praya, a spoiled daughter of the Earth Federation Minister Adenaur Paraya, but eventually defects to Char Aznable's Neo Zeon movement.
During a Federation battle after Char revealed that he was lying about his disarmament plans at Sweetwater, Quess unknowingly kills her father, whom was overseeing the disarmament proceedings and immediately got drawn into the battle. He was a few moments away from getting into an escape pod when Quess destroyed the bridge of the ship, causing the explosion.
After the battle, Quess displayed a high amount of natural Newtype powers, and is eventually assigned to the NZ-333 Alpha Azieru Mobile Armor. However, the development of her powers also causes Quess to become highly unstable, as her immature mind is forced to deal with the realities of war.
During the final battle where Char is sending the asteroid base Axis to the Earth and forcing it into a new ice age, Hathaway steals a Mobile Suit and attempts to find Quess and get her to turn back on her misguided ways. Hathaway finds Quess, but Quess's Newtype power has gone amok, and turned the unstable Quess into a wreck. After talking with Quess, Hathaway is unable to turn her, but in the process, finds out his hidden Newtype powers.
Chan Agi, Amuro's girlfriend, accidentally fires a missile in the direction of the two younger pilots, but Quess jumps in front of Hathaway and takes the hit, dying as her Alpha Azieru explodes. Enraged, Hathaway fires back and kills Chan.
The Alpha Azieru itself is an experimental mobile armor developed by Neo Zeon's Newtype Research Labs, the NZ-333 Alpha Azieru was one of the largest and most powerful mobile weapons ever constructed at its time.
Intended for use by Newtype pilots, the Alpha Azieru was equipped with a psycommu (short for "PSYchic COMMUnicator") system for controlling its nine large-sized funnel remote weapons.
In addition to being able to conduct all-range attacks at great distances with its funnels, the a Azieru could also conduct additional all-range attacks in close quarters with its pair of wire-guided "mega arms", each of which mounted five fire-linked beam guns, which could be fired in a machine gun fashion.
For raw, heavy firepower, this mobile armor also mounted a high-output mega particle gun in its head, capable of destroying several enemy mobile suits with one shot.
In the hands of the temperamental yet powerful Newtype girl Quess Paraya, the a Azieru was a truly devastating weapon, laying waste to many Londo Bell mobile suits during the Second Neo Zeon War.
Sources: Wikipedia and MechaHQ
Nonetheless, enough with reading... let's have a look at this model...
The box...
Honestly I don't really know how to review this item.... it's a Mobile Armor (MA) not Mobile Suit (MS) so I just take random photos from various angle...
This is how it looks like from underneath...
You can open this part to show the inner details... but actually nothing great to see in there... nice to have it though...
The "paint job" is quite good...
Some mechanism on these small legs...
You can then transform this into MS kind of species.... the transformation process is very easy and quite straight forward... no parts removal or swapping is needed...
The head is hidden inside that cover...
They also give you this nice display based... it is really nice in my opinion, I like it a lot...
So this how it looks like after transformation...
The arms movement range...
The arms have decent articulation as well...
The beam guns on both side...
The deadly 9 units of large funnels with power rated at 20.4 MW stored in rear skirt armor...
Yes of coz you can take it out... all of them... if you want to...
Comes with 1/400 scale painted fix posed figures of Nu Gundam (without fin funnel) and Sazabi. I throw away the Nu Gundam figure apparently....
Sazabi being one of the big size MS in UC era is apparently quite small if compared to this Alpha Azieru, the photo below is accurate size comparison between the 2 models...
So I guess I still need the Jagd Doga, GM III, Jegan and the Re-GZ to complete the Char's Counter Attack series collection.... long way to go...
For 5,000 yen (about SGD 77.00) before adding shipment charges, this Alpha Azieru is not cheap but Bandai justify the price by having it fully painted from the factory in China and I personally think the painting job is quite nice - considering the fact that I have no skills and the time to invest in painting job).
For advance or serious modeler they might even have the willingness to further change the color or modify the looks but as for lazy people like me... I am happy the way as it is... yeah, of coz I wish I could do something to make it better but I'm just lazy...
If you like Char's Counter Attack and wish to have a complete collection of all the MS in that movie, then you will probably craving for this one as well.
For sure, apart from the simple transformation and the nice little diorama kind of display base, this model cannot do any action pose, it is good for a static display, something different if compared with all the Gundam related items you already have in your collection.... so if you can live with just looking at it and admiring the coolness of Neo Zeon technology, then probably you will like this item.
You can still get this item from HLJ or your local toy shop now (if they happen to have it).
All of the GunPlaMo Kits from Bandai are produced in Bandai's own factory in Japan but this one is made in China because of the special "paint" treatment given by Bandai on this particular model... amazing... I'm not sure how many of them were produced in China and get the special "paint" treatment but amongst others that I guess also were made in China are 1/400 Quin-Mantha (probably the testbed of Kshatriya) and 1/400 Big Zam. I'm not sure about 1/400 Gundam GP03 vs Neue Ziel though...
The extra painting job will cost money (labor charges, material cost, machinery cost etc.) and evidently, it is much cheaper to have it in China rather than in Japan - of course it will be OK as long as strict quality control procedure is adhered by the relevant personnel.
This gigantic Alpha Azieru was piloted by the young and naive Quess Praya, a spoiled daughter of the Earth Federation Minister Adenaur Paraya, but eventually defects to Char Aznable's Neo Zeon movement.
During a Federation battle after Char revealed that he was lying about his disarmament plans at Sweetwater, Quess unknowingly kills her father, whom was overseeing the disarmament proceedings and immediately got drawn into the battle. He was a few moments away from getting into an escape pod when Quess destroyed the bridge of the ship, causing the explosion.
After the battle, Quess displayed a high amount of natural Newtype powers, and is eventually assigned to the NZ-333 Alpha Azieru Mobile Armor. However, the development of her powers also causes Quess to become highly unstable, as her immature mind is forced to deal with the realities of war.
During the final battle where Char is sending the asteroid base Axis to the Earth and forcing it into a new ice age, Hathaway steals a Mobile Suit and attempts to find Quess and get her to turn back on her misguided ways. Hathaway finds Quess, but Quess's Newtype power has gone amok, and turned the unstable Quess into a wreck. After talking with Quess, Hathaway is unable to turn her, but in the process, finds out his hidden Newtype powers.
Chan Agi, Amuro's girlfriend, accidentally fires a missile in the direction of the two younger pilots, but Quess jumps in front of Hathaway and takes the hit, dying as her Alpha Azieru explodes. Enraged, Hathaway fires back and kills Chan.
The Alpha Azieru itself is an experimental mobile armor developed by Neo Zeon's Newtype Research Labs, the NZ-333 Alpha Azieru was one of the largest and most powerful mobile weapons ever constructed at its time.
Intended for use by Newtype pilots, the Alpha Azieru was equipped with a psycommu (short for "PSYchic COMMUnicator") system for controlling its nine large-sized funnel remote weapons.
In addition to being able to conduct all-range attacks at great distances with its funnels, the a Azieru could also conduct additional all-range attacks in close quarters with its pair of wire-guided "mega arms", each of which mounted five fire-linked beam guns, which could be fired in a machine gun fashion.
For raw, heavy firepower, this mobile armor also mounted a high-output mega particle gun in its head, capable of destroying several enemy mobile suits with one shot.
In the hands of the temperamental yet powerful Newtype girl Quess Paraya, the a Azieru was a truly devastating weapon, laying waste to many Londo Bell mobile suits during the Second Neo Zeon War.
Sources: Wikipedia and MechaHQ
Nonetheless, enough with reading... let's have a look at this model...
The box...
Honestly I don't really know how to review this item.... it's a Mobile Armor (MA) not Mobile Suit (MS) so I just take random photos from various angle...
This is how it looks like from underneath...
You can open this part to show the inner details... but actually nothing great to see in there... nice to have it though...
The "paint job" is quite good...
Some mechanism on these small legs...
You can then transform this into MS kind of species.... the transformation process is very easy and quite straight forward... no parts removal or swapping is needed...
The head is hidden inside that cover...
They also give you this nice display based... it is really nice in my opinion, I like it a lot...
So this how it looks like after transformation...
The arms movement range...
The arms have decent articulation as well...
The beam guns on both side...
The deadly 9 units of large funnels with power rated at 20.4 MW stored in rear skirt armor...
Yes of coz you can take it out... all of them... if you want to...
Comes with 1/400 scale painted fix posed figures of Nu Gundam (without fin funnel) and Sazabi. I throw away the Nu Gundam figure apparently....
Sazabi being one of the big size MS in UC era is apparently quite small if compared to this Alpha Azieru, the photo below is accurate size comparison between the 2 models...
So I guess I still need the Jagd Doga, GM III, Jegan and the Re-GZ to complete the Char's Counter Attack series collection.... long way to go...
For 5,000 yen (about SGD 77.00) before adding shipment charges, this Alpha Azieru is not cheap but Bandai justify the price by having it fully painted from the factory in China and I personally think the painting job is quite nice - considering the fact that I have no skills and the time to invest in painting job).
For advance or serious modeler they might even have the willingness to further change the color or modify the looks but as for lazy people like me... I am happy the way as it is... yeah, of coz I wish I could do something to make it better but I'm just lazy...
If you like Char's Counter Attack and wish to have a complete collection of all the MS in that movie, then you will probably craving for this one as well.
For sure, apart from the simple transformation and the nice little diorama kind of display base, this model cannot do any action pose, it is good for a static display, something different if compared with all the Gundam related items you already have in your collection.... so if you can live with just looking at it and admiring the coolness of Neo Zeon technology, then probably you will like this item.
You can still get this item from HLJ or your local toy shop now (if they happen to have it).
Woah lovely :D I didn't know this set comes prepainted!!! Just one nice spray of a flat coat will make it nicer ^^
ReplyDeleteThe quality seems great even it is pre-painted. But this is not a famous MA so I'm surprised that you bought this kit.
ReplyDeletewoah it even come with diorama stand O_O
ReplyDeleteDang, this thing was on sale for HLJ for the longest time a while before. Still, I'm glad you reviewed it -- I barely see anything about this kit.
ReplyDeleteFor the design and paint, it is worth what you are paying for. :)
ReplyDeleteWow, the paint job is nice...^^
ReplyDelete