The Zeon Kämpfer (translated: Battler or Fighter) was a fast strike mobile suit with huge thrusters everywhere for high mobility (and limited operational time), as well as a massive loadout for maximum damage in the least time possible. It was featured in the OVA 'War in the Pocket' as a special operations mobile suit to find and destroy the prototype 'Alex' Gundam. Additionally its construction is compartmentalized and made to be relatively easily assembled, so the parts can be smuggled individually.
Aesthetics:
The kit comes in a green-blue, almost lilac grey, dark grey and orange-yellow.
The blue doesn't quite match the anime and is a little greener. All the thrusters are parts-separated and have their iconic yellow color which adds a lot to the model as the blue is almost monolithic and gives it an almost one-note appearance. Once you put all the included equipment on it, the color is more broken up and it looks much better. The eye comes in a clear piece with no color correction option, your best bet is to paint it with a pink marker or conventional paint.
There are vent holes on several covers on the arms, I recommend using a black panel liner to fill them in and for the blue parts of the gundam. For the grey parts, I'd use a grey panel liner.
There's not a lot to panel line, but it's also not completely bare. They've struck a nice balance of detail and in many ways the design reminds you of a mix between a supercar and a military vehicle. The "frog mouth" chest isn't for everyone, I happen to think it looks great.
The chest features a cloth tube with wire inside, that you have to cut to length.
Overall the appearance is mostly faithful and is definitely recognizable from the show, it's a unique looking Mobile Suit with tons of character.
The kit comes with one sheet of sticker decals (which don't look good on the dark plastic) and a sheet of dry transfers which are great, you get a nice bunch of options. The white stickers on the horn and shoulder spike look bad, they're too transparent - Much better to paint them.
Mechanics:
This kit is at the time of writing 21 years old, from 2001. To put it in perspective, PlayStation 2 was released the year before. The first Lord of The Rings came out in 2001. It's been a while and this kit shows its age too.
First of all it has screws and the tightness of the joints depend on how tightly you wind them, but there's a small window of where they're tight enough to stand on its own and not uncomfortable to bend the limbs (which have thin plastic pieces where all the stress is).
You create threads when you screw them in, so these joints WILL weaken quickly if you mess with the kit a lot and eventually the plastic will shred if you keep tightening them.
The articulation is well below average, the range of movement is very limited (you can barely bend the knees before the thruster on the back gets in the way) and the joints themselves don't have much give either.
The legs are ball-in-socket so they don't move out much.
The kit features sliding thrusters on the back of the legs, an opening hatch, a poorly moving chin cover and while you can turn the eye, it's not easy to get to.
The hands have a moving index finger and thumb, the remaining three swivel on one joint, they barely grip anything and there are no tabs to slot into weapons or the reverse - They barely hold on to things.
For some reason the toes bend downwards, which feels like an afterthought.
Equipment:
This is where the kit shines, it comes with:
2 pistol grip shotguns with a flip up sight and detachable stocks - you can mount one on the butt
2 bazookas mounted on the shoulders for storage
2 "Sturmfaust!" launchable grenade sticks (you can put fins on them instead of the sticks) mounted on each knee
2 Beam Saber hilts with nice yellow curved beam effect parts - The bottom of each hilt sticks into each thigh, however there's nowhere to store the other halves. Also it's near impossible to get them out of the thighs once you put them in, without disassembling them. Weird.
4 hands - 2 rubber open hands, 2 articulated plastic hands with rubber thumb/index fingers.
1 chain mine on bendable wires.
Conclusion:
It's a classic kit and while it IS outdated mechanically, it looks just fine next to the Alex 2.0, both of which are chunkier kits and they complement each other nicely, one dark and rounded, the other being bright and more hard edged.
You can recreate the classic scene with the included chain mine. While it could be better, visually it's almost spot on cool and imposing, especially with the large loadout.
