The Geara Doga is, with some steps in between, the Zaku II all grown up, for the Char's Counterattack movie.
The name is another Japanified mishmash of 'gear' and Doga likely being a reference to the German word 'Dogge' which means a hound, or a mastiff.
It might not seem very intuitive, but 'Gear Hound' is what they're trying to impart onto you, another way of saying 'mechanized grunt'.
Aesthetics:
The Geara Doga is a spiritual successor to the Zaku II, recognizable by its green color scheme, cabling, right shoulder shield and left shoulder spikes, forgoing the scuba head for the more German looking Stahlhelm (which is further refined later for the Geara Zulu successor).
Has some amount of panel lines and good color separation. The yellow tubing is all rubber.
The Geara Doga is not just bulkier, but taller at nearly 21cm, nearly as tall as the Nu Gundam and the Unicorn Gundam (in Destroy Mode), both of which are considered some of the largest Gundams in UC (not counting the Psychos or Hathaway variants).
The kit comes with a foil sticker sheet, a decal sticker sheet with a semi-transparent eye sticker and a dry transfer decal sheet.
Mechanics:
The overall articulation is very good with a wide range of movement, though with limited movement in the abdomen.
Due to the bulk and the small turning peg on the hip joint, it can feel just a little sloppy and will become loose with time. The hips are made for aerial poses, as it is a space mobile suit.
The cockpit has a double hatch, the eye can turn and there are opening ammo containers on the side skirts for spare magazines. The collar and head detaches to fit a Bandai LED (not included) under it and make the eye light up.
Nothing fancy, just a stout grunt.
Equipment:
1 Beam Machine Gun - Bullpup style rifle with detachable curved magazine
1 Commander Type Beam Machine Gun - Larger rifle with detachable diagonal magazine, turning support handle and extendable buttstock
2 Extra Magazines - one of each kind, two of each total
1 Folding Shield - Mountable on either forearm, can tip the top half 90 degrees forwards
4 Panzer Faust disposable rocket launchers - Mounted on the inside of the shield
2 Beam Hilts - Short one for storage and beam saber mode, long one for beam axe or beam pick mode
3 Beam Effect Parts - one long beam, one axe and one pick
2 Hands with 6 Swappable fingers - two trigger, two fists and two holding
2 Hands with articulated fingers - for dramatic posing - not suitable to hold anything
1 Commander fin/top head alternative
1 Base Adapter
1 1/100 standing minifig
Conclusion:
I should note that the backpack is notable in that it is made for space mobility, so it's bulky with lots of thrusters.
Despite the deep grooves on the trigger fingers to hold the rifles, it's not a good fit and the rifles pop out easily.
Not only is the articulation good, but it generally doesn't get in the way of itself, so you can do high kicks, deep lunges and pose the arms easily.
The biggest downside is easily the rubber tubing, which all have annoying mold lines and can't be colored or detailed easily.
I recommend using a pink highlighter for the eye lens, rather than the annoying sticker. Alternatively, just paint it with acrylic, it will still light up just fine, if you put an LED inside. The dry transfers are pretty cool with numbers, logos and 'Neo Zeon' in various fonts, while the sticker decal sheet is the usual fare, but no color correction.
Overall, big recommend. Bandai makes nice Master Grade grunt suits and you rarely go wrong with them.
