I only ever ruined a model kit once. It was back in 2017, and it was due to a serious, full body case of clearcoat fog, which I attempted to fix with more and more layers of topcoat. Unfortunately, outdoor conditions were such that this only made the problem worse. By the time it was all done, the paint was a goopy, sticky mess even well after it dried. I was so upset with myself that I threw the finished model in the trash1.
The model in question was Char Aznable’s Zaku I from Gundam: The Origin. The only traces of it I have left are some spare parts in a bag. Call me dramatic, but I very nearly quit building model kits after this fiasco. At the very least it has haunted me ever since.
Now it is time for some of closure. My next build is the Zaku I Sniper Type:
Origins of the Mobile Suit
I’m not really sure how this mobile suit came to be. It is not for a lack of information, but a lack of context. According to the Gundam Wiki, it debuted as part of Harmony of Gundam, which itself is described on the Wiki as:
Harmony of Gundam (ハーモニー・オブ・ガンダム?) is a collaboration project by Sunrise, Bandai, Banpresto, and Namco Bandai to jointly create official Universal Century mobile suit designs for video-games and models. Originally released in November 2006, mechanical designs were done by Hajime Katoki.
All this tells us for sure is that it doesn’t come from a TV show, OVA, or film. It doesn’t really explain what Harmony of Gundam was. Was it a book? If not a book then what? How were the designs revealed? Was it all at once? Were the designs made preemptively for potential future games, or for specific games that were in the works?
The only context I could find is this quote from an article at CBR:
The Harmony of Gundam design series was done to create new designs for a bunch of video games in production around 2006 that would focus on the period around the One Year War.
That sounds like a reasonable explanation. The only thing that makes me question it is that according to my research, it ended up being a while before the Zaku I Sniper Type ever showed up in a game. According to the Gundam wiki, the Zaku I Sniper’s first appearance in a piece of media was in the 2010 OVA Mobile Suit Gunpla Builders: Beginning G (a sort of precursor to Gundam Build Fighters).
It’s second - and by far most famous - appearance was in Episode 4 of the Gundam Unicorn OVA, where it was used by the field commander of an Earth-based Zeon Remnant faction:
As it turns out, the mobile suit wouldn’t show up in a video game until 2012’s Gundam Battle Operation - 6 years after Harmony of Gundam - followed by 2014’s Missing Link. While I have no doubt that the Zaku I Sniper was designed for use some sort of game, I doubt it was originally slated for either of these two games. My guess, then, is that the design lingered for a while until they could find a use for it.
Regardless, they did still manage to release a High Grade model kit in 2006, presumably to coincide with Harmony of Gundam. That is the one I have in my possession. Another High Grade model was released in 2012 as part of the Gundam Unicorn line:
About the Mobile Suit
The Zaku I Sniper Type is the Zeon equivalent to the original GM Sniper I. It is a grunt suit equipped with a big old beam sniper rifle. Both mobile suits have various tweaks and enhancements in order to aid them in their specialized roles. In the case of the Zaku, that means an enhanced monoeye with extra sensors, and vulcan cannons in the head for protection at close range.
The main difference between the two is how they go about powering their weapons. The GM Sniper I’s E-Cap-based rifle can only fire so many shots, and each one takes several minutes to charge up. As an alternative, it can be plugged in to a generator, which gives it more powerful shots and unlimited ammo, but forces it into a fixed position.
The Zaku I Sniper uses a backpack-mounted power generator that generates almost as much juice as the mobile suit itself. This means it can go anywhere, and fire as much as it needs to. At least, that’s true in theory. The actual reality is that its gun and generator are experimental, and quite frankly, not very good. The heat of the beam energy causes the gun’s barrel to warp and break after a few shots, forcing the pilot to replace it during combat.
At first I thought this mobile suit design was too ridiculous, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that it makes a lot of sense. It makes sense that the Zeon would use a slow, outdated design like the Zaku I in a long distance support role where it wouldn’t have to move around. It makes sense that the gun and the generator are half baked and unreliable, as the technology was almost certainly rushed out in an unfinished state at the end of the war by a desperate Zeon military. What you have to remember is that the Zaku I Sniper is not some high powered killing machine like the GM Sniper II. It is a rushed, last minute hack job that likely had a highly questionable rate of reliability. It looks cool, and it can be powerful, but it could also just as likely fail (or become a tinder box if its backpack went kaput).
Having said all of that, if we assess the design on the basis of sheer cool factor, then the Zaku I Sniper Type is fantastic. I love the gun, the weird looking head, the kickstand, and I love the desert paint job. It is a design that is both familiar and yet ever so slightly unique. I can’t wait to see how it comes out.
Other Thoughts
- This model is begging to be weathered, and I plan to go all out (in a careful, thoughtful way of course).
- If you’re wondering what the difference is between the original 2006 model kit, and the 2012 Unicorn one, the answer is “not much”. The new one has a Zaku Commander fin on the head, and a few extra accessories. It also has a slightly different color scheme that’s more “green on tan” than “brown on tan”. Personally, I don’t quite like the color scheme as much, and the accessories are negligible, so I’m happy with the one I have.
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I mentioned in a recent post how Bandai can and does reprint old model kits. This kit is my first definitive proof that this is true. On the left side of the box, we see the original date of its release:
However, on the right side of the box, we see a blue Bandai logo:
The blue logo is the result of some corporate restructuring within Bandai. From about 2018 onward, all model kits now get printed with the blue logo. That means that this specific box was manufactured sometime since then. There you have it folks - a real, genuine reprint of a Gunpla.
- In retrospect this was a stupid thing to do. I could have spent some time trying harder to salvage it, or simply let it dry longer to see if it started to look better. [return]
