Almost a year ago, back in August, I bought a bunch of waterslide decal sheets. One of them was, basically, a “Zeta Gundam” sheet, filled with decals and markings to use on mobile suits from that particular show. Of course that meant that it had a whole bunch of Titans logos, which was a bit of a problem for me.
Aside from my old, Real Grade Gundam Mk II, I had no Titans model kits. And since that kit was already built, and is very old, and is already loaded up with decals, I couldn’t really go back and use waterslides on it.
That meant I that if I wanted to use these Titans decals, I needed to buy a new Zeta Gundam kit. The good news was that at the time, Bandai had gone on a bit of spree, reprinting numerous Zeta-era kits during the late summer and fall. The bad news is that I had already blown through my model kit budget. It wasn’t until October that I had any spending money, and by then most of those Zeta kits were sold out.
But as luck would have it, I found one left at the local hobby store (literally, it was the last one on the shelf). And hey, I’ll take what I can get:
This here is the High Grade Barzam, and yes, it was an impulse purchase made out of pure desperation.
I know this because recently I’ve had a tendency to build new kits as soon as I get them, rather than take care of pruning the backlog (with some exceptions). This almost became true of the Barzam - I got it in early October 2022, and started the build around late November. But I got bored with it almost immediately and shelved it. Clearly my heart wasn’t in it.
This happens to me a lot, in which I start a kit, only to change my mind and swap it out for another. Usually I just pack up the first kit in its box, all safe and sound. But for some reason I didn’t (fully) do this with the Barzam. Instead, it’s beam sabers have been hanging out on my workbench for the last seven months:
I could just box them up and move on to the next thing I want to build, but I see this as a sign that’s its time to put this kit to rest. So lets’ build the Barzam and get it out of the way.
About the Barzam
The Barzam is the mass production, grunt version of th - OH MY GOD LOOK AT THAT GOOFY BASTARD!!:
That can’t be what it looks like, right? I mean, it’s been a while since I’ve watched Zeta Gundam, but I don’t entirely recall:
Okay, so that looks a lot better. So does this:
And this:
Okay, so we’ll dive deeper into the visual design later. But no, the Barzam isn’t that much of a freakshow.
Anyway, back to where we left off. The Barzam is the Titans’ mass produced, grunt version of the Gundam Mk II.
Yes, that’s right. Somehow this:
Translated into this for mass production:
Yeah, I’ve got nothing.
The Barzam was intended to replace the GM II and the Hizack as the Titans’ mainline mobile suit, but ultimately it saw only limited production. According to the Gundam Wiki, allegedly this is due to the Titans being disowned by the Earth Federation, which seemingly cut them off from the resources they would need to make more of them.
Weapons
The Barzam’s main weapon is a unique beam rifle that is mounted to the right arm, and which is connected directly to the mobile suit’s generator to draw power (as opposed to using swappable energy packs, which was still the common approach for most MS).
It’s only other piece of standard issue equipment are its Beam Sabers, which are stored inside the wrist, rather than on the backpack.
Now technically, according to lore, the Barzam is able to use all of the same weapons as the Hizack and the Marasai, as well as the same head mounted vulcan pods used by the Gundam Mk II. However, I don’t recall whether we actually see it use any of this gear in Zeta Gundam.
All of which is to say that without a shield as standard equipment, without a particularly large or cool looking rifle, and without a transformation gimmick, the Barzam looks a bit underpowered and unprotected. That feels like another knock against it, and another reason why it’s probably for the best that it didn’t become a true next generation grunt unit.
Is the Beam Rifle also a Melee Weapon?
The Barzam’s rifle has two pointy bits sticking out of it.
I'm not entirely sure whether these are meant for melee combat, they certainly look like they could be.
Appearances/Performance
I don’t know exactly how many episodes of Zeta Gundam the Barzam appears in. It’s been a long while since I watched the show, and I don’t recall it ever doing anything noteworthy.
According to some research, it first shows up in Episode 35, so I fired up my DVD and found it. Apologies for the low quality of these screens. This is what the old DVD quality transfer of Zeta Gundam looks on a 4K screen:
While it does sortie in episode 35, it doens’t do all that much, so I scanned for appearances in later episodes. I came across another apperance in the next ep. that took place in outer space:
After seeing such a pathetic sight, I gave up on looking any further. The Barzam is a grunt suit through and through …
About the Visual Design
The Barzam is unique in its construction. It’s waist and backpack unit are integrated directly into its upper torso.
It’s lack of a true lower torso - coupled with the large size of its upper torso - makes the Barzam look short and fat. Yet it actually stacks up well against its contemporaries. For example, the height of its head comes in at about 19.4 meters, versus the Hizack, which clocks in at only 18 meters. And that’s not including the length of the giant horn on its head, which brings its total height to over 24 meters!
That being said … it still looks kind of short and fat. It also looks unusually regal, what with the horn and the trim patterns along its chest. It feels like a ceremonial unit - like some sort of royal knight - more than a rough and tumble grunt unit.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing though. In fact, I’d argue that that is perfectly fitting for the Titans, who were clearly obsessed with themselves and their image. “Regal Knight” feels like the kind of image they’d like to project.
I’d also argue that the Barzam design is fairly unique among Zeta era mobile suits. Consider the following:
- It doesn’t look like a One Year War-era design that’s been remixed and/or reheated (see the Hizack, Marasai, the GM Quel, and the Nemo). Granted, it does have a monoeye, but that’s really the only thing it carries over
- It doesn’t look like a movie monster (see the Hambrabi, Palace Athene, the Bolinoak Sammahn, the Dijeh, the Byarlant, or the Gabthley)
- It doesn’t look like a weird knock off of the Zeta Gundam (see the Gaplant)
- It doesn’t look like a Mamoru Nagano design (see the Galbady or the Rick Dias)
- It doesn’t look like a shitty UFO robot like the Asshimar (full disclosure - I like the Asshimar a lot, but I can still admit that it’s a bad design)
It just looks like itself. It really is in a class of its own. And it also uses the Titans’ actual color scheme, which is weirdly rare for Titans mobile suits.
From a certain perspective, one could reasonably argue that the Barzam is the perfect grunt suit for the Zeta era. It truly looks new, with a new style of weapon and a new (and relevant) color scheme. In fact, part of me wishes I could see a version of Zeta Gundam in which the Barzam is given a little more firepower (or at least a shield), and replaces the Hizack and the GM as the show’s primary grunt suit. Just to see what it would have been like …
About the Model Kit
I’ve watched and read some reviews of this one, and I think it should be decent. Almost no one who reviewed it could claim to love or even like the Barzam’s design, yet the kit itself is so well made that they couldn’t help but admire it. Very little of the color separation is achieved through stickers, and the articulation is said to be very good. It’s also a very different kind of build than your typical Zaku or GM-style mobile suit, so it should be a fun and original experience.
Fun Facts
The box art for the High Grade Barzam kit shows up in Build Fighters Try:
Except, that isn’t actually the box art, because the model kit didn’t exist at that time. The box was meant to be a gag, but when they finally got around to making this kit, they used that gag art as the basis for the official box art.