I said before that this model had a surprising number of pieces, but apparently that hasn’t had any appreciable effect on the build. This one is going by at a rapid clip. I guess that tells me just how much of my time is spent on panel lining, decals, painting, etc, because I haven’t had to do much (or any) of that stuff.

Lower Torso

I decided to shade only the bottom of each skirt piece. It would look weird if I did it all around, since the Zaku’s skirt armor is meant to look flush.

Just like with the chest assembly, this is the fourth different kind of skirt assembly I’ve seen for a Zaku. On the Real Grade, there are these tiny flaps on tiny ball joints, which the side skirts plug into via two small and extremely shallow pegs. Meanwhile the Zaku I Sniper uses a traditional polycap joint, and the Zaku C6 uses a pair of large ball joints (both of which are much better).

The Revive Zaku takes an approach that is just as good, but much simpler - the side skirts simply plug into the rear skirt armor:

I’m a little worried that they may fall out, but I guess we’ll wait and see.

Assembling this section is so simply and straightforward that you can figure it out just by looking at the pile of parts.

This reminds me of another reason why the design of the Zaku is so lovely - the skirt armor brings to mind a roman gladiator or some similar ancient Eurasian soldier. It is the perfect complement to the Gundam and it’s “robot samurai” theming.

Feet

The feet are made out of just three simple parts:

Normally this is where I’d say that I wish Bandai gave it a toe bend or some other bit of articulation, but not this time. There’s no way they could do that without betraying the Revive Zaku’s retro look.

Legs

I don’t mean for this to sound weird, but I love the legs on a Zaku. I love how they curve in different directions, and how they flare outward at the bottom (and at the top too I guess). They help sell the idea of the Zaku as an armored soldier, and they stand in such contrast to the straight, clean lines of Earth Federation mecha.

I’m trying to think of what I can say about the build. It was fairly uneventful. I guess it has a pretty sick inner frame:

Oh, and somehow some of the clear coat on the upper leg has a weird sheen. On both legs. But overall, they came out just fine:

I’m impressed with how much of a difference it made to make up all the black pieces with metallic weathering compound. It really takes the edge off, so to speak, and makes the whole model look less plasticky.

Now we get to my one gripe - the cabling is attached by basically inserting it into two big holes:

There’s nothing that secures it into place, so it is liable to move around if you shake it. To be fair, this is exactly how it is done on the Zaku C6, but I didn’t like it then either.

Fun fact - the Zaku can stand on one leg:

Arms

A Zaku’s arms are both very simple and very complex. The shoulders are literally squares. That’s easy. The forearm, however, is curved, flat, and everything in between.

Every Zaku model I’ve ever built assembles them differently, and this one is no exception. Except this one was pleasantly simple and straightforward.

Here are all the components for the right arm:

There is something very wrong in this photo. Let’s zoom in on it:

The vintage, 1979 Zaku II does not have holes in its shield. So what are they doing here?

At first I assumed that Bandai reused some of the molds from the Origin Zakus, but this was easy to disprove:

There are very obvious differences in detail. Heck, they’re not even the same height:

But do they work the same? On the C6, the holes are there so you can clip on its extra bazooka ammo:

Does it work on the Revive?

Yes it does! So at least it is worth something.

So they aren’t the same parts, and if you think about it, that actually makes sense. These Revive models are meant to be new interpretations of classic mobile suits, so you’d expect them to use all new parts. But it still doesn’t make sense that Bandai would go through all this effort to recreate the Zaku’s classic look, and then torpedo it like this.

I am left with only two theories:

1. Bandai wanted the Revive Zaku to be compatible with the accessories from the Origin kits
2. Bandai intends to create new accessory packs for this particular Zaku some time in the future

Neither explanation fits well with me. It just seems so strange.

Oh well … oh, and before we wrap up, here’s the left arm:

Conclusion

In part 3 we’ll go over the weapons.