Sazabi

The Sazabi is an iconic mobile suit from the movie Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack. This red robot was piloted by none other than the Red Comet himself, Char Aznable. The Sazabi is a custom-made Mobile Suit designed to compliment Char’s pilot skills and Newtype Abilities. The end result is a mobile suit fitting of the leader of Neo Zeon: regal, red and imposing.

The Robot Spirits incarnation of this Mobile Suit looks pretty decent. However, lacks some of the sharpness of this robots design. Some Robot Spirits releases can do just fine without panel line, while others need them to help the design look good and faithful to the anime. The Sazabi is one of the latter.

Besides the absence of the much-needed panel lines, the toy design also edges that are more round than the ones on the design of the mecha in the movie. So the end result is that this toy looks a bit more like a plastic mass than like the robot that it represents.

Articulation is amazing, especially when you consider the complexity of this mechas design.

The Sazabi has double jointed knees, two swivels and a ball joint on each thigh. Besides this, the front and side skirts are on ball joints, they can move out of the legs’ way if need be. So you can get an amazing amount of movement out of the lower half of this toy.

The feet are also jointed to allow the front part to extend forward and down from the back piece.

The elbows are double jointed, the hands are on ball joints.

The shoulders are nice multi-jointed system that is attached to a panel, which hinges forward.

The thrusters on the shoulder are hinges that can move up and down.

The big base of the neck is on a ball joint. Plus there is another ball joint and a hinge at the rear of the neck, which allows a lot of movement. Just don’t tilt the head back too far, for this will create a gap between the top and bottom neck pieces.

At the rear, the external propellant tanks are on ball joints.

The pods above the propellant tanks are on a hinge and swivel that allows them to move laterally and vertically.

At the base of the waist there is a ball joint that is attached to a long stem at the top of the hips. This is the weakest of the joints, which results in some waist-wobbling from the figure. The loose joint in the midsection combined with the back-heavy design of the toy can sometimes make a chore out of keeping this toy upright.

On the midsection, the Sazabi has a Scattering Mega Particle Gun. Which is only this Mobile Suits weapons. But that is not the only weapon in the Sazabi’s arsenal.

Of course, the Sazabi comes with two beam sabers.

It also comes with three Beam Tomahawks, in various states.

Plain Tomahawk

Tomahawk with some beam energy.

And finally, the Beam Tomahawk at full power, making it more of a Beam Sword than anything.

The Sazabi also wields a custom shield.

The shield attaches to a separate forearm panel that has two attachment ball joints.

On the underside of the shield are a couple of missiles.

The shield also serves as storage space for the Tomahawk.

The Sazabi also comes with its very own boom-stick, a Beam Shotrifle.

Hidden in two storage pods on the back of the Sazabi are funnels.

Unfortunately, there is no accessory included to display these are cool little red cylinders in mid-flight. The Nu Gundam came with clear plastic arms, which attached to the back of the toy, that were used to display the fin funnels around the Nu Gundam. You can kind of make your own display using some clear stands, but the end results are not as good looking or as clean as the display of the Nu Gundam with its Fin Funnels.  

For all your posing and holding needs, the Nu Gundam comes 4 pairs of hands.

Finally, the Sazabi also comes with a clip that attaches to the underside of the toy’s frame. This is to attach the robot to a display stage. (Display stage sold separately)

When compared to the Nu Gundam, it immediately becomes apparent just how much bigger and beefier the Sazabi is.

This explains why there are so many thrusters all over the mecha. Char needs every last one of them to keep up with Amuro’s leaner Nu Gundam.

The Sazabi has a ton of articulation and extras.However, the top-heavy design and the somewhat-loose joint in the midsection can make it take longer to pose the Sazabi. But the time spent getting a pose just right is pretty well worth it; the Sazabi displays very nicely with its rival mecha, the Nu Gundam.

So if you can overlook its flaws, this is a pretty good action figure.

Some of the lovely pictures for this review were provided by Prometheum5. Thanks Ben!