HGUC Zeta Gundam Build-Up review

Okay, finished this bad boy (except for some painting.)

Head - Usual set up, front and back half with another peice for the face,
yellow part for the V-fin, and a red part for the center of the V-fin.
Stickers are provided for the head cameras.  Nothing special, but the
sculting is spot-on, a pretty good representation.

Arms - Construction is a little different, if only for the suit's
non-standard desing.  Shoulder armor is made of four blue peices.  Two
front/back halves, and two hinged peices, one covering the upper shoulder,
and one covering the lower shoulder and upper arm.  These peices swing up
and out.  Stickers are provided for the small yellow striping, but the
yellow in the shoulder "thruster" will have to be painted.  Shoulders are
the usual front/back halves with a
poly-cap for the shoulder joint.  A single hollow peice is provided for the
upper arm armor.  Elbow joints are poly-cap with a gray peice to cover the
joint.  Forearms consist of two gray halves that form the inner part of the
arm, plus a three sided blue peice that slips onto the forearm from the
back.  There is an addition blue peice that attaches to the elbow and serves
as elbow armor, these insert into polycaps in the forearm.  One can be
removed to insert the shield.  Fairly good detailing on the arms.  The hands
(BOOO!) are old-school two halves jobs.  One half in gray that forms the
fingers and thumb, one half in white that serves as the armor for the back
of the hand and top of the thumb.  Only two hands are provided, fists only.
Wrist joints are ball and socket, polycap socket in the fore arm, and ball
on the back of the gray half of the hand.

Torso - Pretty cool.  The chest portion can flip up or down for the
transformation, but you have to remove the neck assembly before you can
flip.  This serves to lock the chest down in MS mode, but can also wear out
the neck joint.  The Neck joint is two peices, a yellow flat peice and a
gray peice that provides the ball for the ball and socket neck joint.  The
hinges for the chest peice to swing up or down are ABS, with a top and
bottom half for the chest and two yellow inserts for the chest vents.  The
cockpit is also hinged, with two gray ABS peices serving as the hing, and
two red halves front and back that serve as the cockpit.  The hips are
standard, one hinge for the front skirt armor, two separate peices for the
side armor, and an immoble rear skirt armor.  The rear skirt has tiny little
gray inserts to serve as the thrusters, but these are molded in ABS (as are
all of the gray peices) and may be a little difficult to paint.

Legs - Okay, I have mixed feelings about these.  The thighs are standard,
two halves, plus a socket polycap for the hip joints.  The lower legs are a
little different.  Here, Bandai attempted to mold these legs with the
standard HGUC modeler in mind (non-painter).  They molded the legs with
separate white and blue parts.  In addition, they needed to include a
specialized knee joint that can serve the transformation process (i.e.
double jointed.)  In execution, however, I think it is overly complicated.
What you basically have is a knee joint that is two halves, left and right.
These two halves, once assembled, are sandwiched between two blue halves
that serve as the blue area around the knee as well as some inner structure
for the leg.  This assembly is then sandwiched between the two white halves
of the leg.  The end result is an assembly that does not fit together AT
ALL.
I had to rubber band these together to get them to "squench" together, and
I'll still have to putty and sand them to get rid of the seam line.  It
seems like they didn't take into account the inner blue halves when
constructing the two outer white halves.  The two blue halves prevent the
two white peices from fitting together well.  For the small amount of the
lower leg that is actually blue, I would rather have had a leg that fits
together
well, and just had the blue part to paint in.  Back to the model.  The feet
are what has become the standard for HGUC kits, two red peices for the lower
foot (top and bottom) and a white peice for the top of the foot.  The heel,
since it has to collapse for the transformation, is two peices.  A red lower
peice and a white upper peice.  The front part of the foot is hinged on this
assembly, and the front foot is the peice that actually folds down for
transformation.  The polycap socket for the ankle is in the "heel" assembly.
There are two yellow inserts for each leg, these are for the thrusters on
the outer leg.  The inner leg thruster will have to be painted (I think its
yellow, the old HG kit line art showed them as yellow)  There are separate
white peices for the knee "armor" and the armor for the back of the lower
leg.

Thats it for the body, here's the low down on "accessories."
Backpack.  This isn't really a back pack in the traditional sense, the parts
that form the back pack actually serve as the "tail" and the wings for the
MS in Wave Rider form.  The "tail" of three peices.  Two black peices, and a
white peice for the "cockpit" looking thing on top.  You will have to paint
the little red area at the bottom, stickers are not privded.  The wings are
made from five peices.  There is a red inner peice that forms the little
wing stub that swings up and out, this is sandwiched between two black
halves that also swing down and out.  This is again sandwiched between two
halves that serve as the main housing for the wings when they are retracted.
Stickers are not provided for the red striping along the outer edge of the
wings, so you'll have to paint that, and paint black onto the red "winglets"
as well.  These are attached to the body with a U-shaped peices of ABS with
two poles on either side that are inserted into polycaps in the wing
assemblies and tail assemble.

The sheild is three peices.  Two red halves make up the long, skinny
portion, and a black peice that makes up the rounded portion at the end.
This attaches to a polycap in the lower arm, and one of the blue elbow armor
peices must be removed first to attach the shield.

Weapons.  Zeta comes with three weapons, two beam rifles and a beam saber.
The standard beam rifle is four parts.  Two parts are the left and right
halves, and a third part provides the "barrel" and "muzzle."  This peice can
extend and retract.  The handle is an ABS peice which can rotate down or up.
Not bad, but it isn't quite as long as the gun that came with the HG kit.
The "Hyper Mega Laucher" is also pretty standard.  The main assembly is just
two halves.  There are three grips, one on the bottom and one on either
side.  The grips are also ABS, and there are hinged blue peices that cover
the handles when retracted, and act as hand protection when extended.  The
"muzzle" is also a gray ABS peice.  This gun is HUGE, it stand two inches
higher than the figure and makes for some cool poses.
The beam saber is disappointing.  It isn't molded in clear plastic like most
recent HGUC kits.  It doesn't even come separate.  The hilt and a third
"hand" are molded into one peice (think Endless Waltz Atlong), all white, so
you'll have to paint the fingers, blade and hilt (which is black, I
believe.)

Stickers.  I never use them, but I for those who do, I rate a kit on how
many parts that are not molded in the right color are provided with
stickers.  I don't take off points for parts that are difficult to be molded
separately (like thrusters, eyes, etc.)  This kit is provided with stickers
for the eyes, head cameras, and some of the yellow striping on the shoulders
and sheild.  However, the thrusters on the shoulders and inner legs must be
painted yellow, and the wings will have to be painted with red and black to
make them look correct.

In all, the HGUC Zeta is closer to the original design than the old HG kit.
I still like the old kit (except for the mint green plastic) so I don't
really see this kit as a "Godsend."  That being said, this kit is pretty
good.  There are a few things I don't like about this kit, and a few things
that I liked about it.  The only thing that is keeping me from just raving
about this kit is the fact that it doesn't have any features that just make
me say "WOW!"  I don't know if this is limited by the design of the actual
mobile suit, or what.  I personally feel that the HGUC The O is the gold
standard by which all HGUC kits should be measured as far as detailing and
the way the peices are molded and designed to go together.  It is as Zen as
a HGUC kit will get.  Sure, the The O is one of my favorite, if not THE
favorite, MS, but the Zeta is my absolutely my favorite Gundam design.  I
wasn't quite as impressed with this kit as I was with, say, the Zaku III,
Quebeley, or even Char's Zaku and the original Gundam.  It is a nice kit,
though.  Zeta fans won't be disappointed.  HGUC fans may be a little
disappointed at first, if only because of extremely high expectations raised
by other recent HGUC kits, but you should be pleased with the finished
product.