MG FA-010-A FAZZ REVIEW
by Nima   2008-05-06 21:31:58.0

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See Also Related Reviews: .|. MG FA-010-A Fazz by Vincent .|. MG RX-93 v Gundam by Nima .|. MG FA-010S Full Armor ZZ Gundam by RedRacer .|. MG MSZ-010 ZZ Gundam by James E Doyle .|. Non Graded S-Gundam 1/144 MSA-0011 by vincent

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Ahhhh, the FAZZ. 70 feet of massively brutal Gundam glory. And Bandai put out an impressive Master Grade kit to match!

This FAZZ model is the FA-010-A "Sentinel Version", the Earth Federation-modified test production version of the FAZZ that appeared in the GUNDAM SENTINEL graphic novel. Only published in Japan - and NEVER seen onscreen - this was the story of an elite Federation counterinsurgency unit known as Taskforce Alpha, deployed in the aftermath of the Gryps War, to defeat the rebel movement known as the New Desides. The bulk of Taskforce Alpha's long-range support was provided by the FAZZ, equipped with tons of missiles and the prototype Hyper Mega Cannon, which packed as much firepower as an entire Magellan Class battleship.

Three of these remarkable units were produced. Though originally designed to test the Gundam ZZ's full armor capability before the final parts for the FA-010-S arrived at the Argama, the three FA-010-A units were rushed into battle to defeat the New Desides. Firing their huge cannons in alternation to compensate for recharge times, these three potent units dealt enormous amounts of damage to the New Desides rebel base on the asteroid Pezun. Their long-range arsenal, however, proved ineffective against the fast close-range attacks of Pezun's secret weapon - the Gundam Mk-V.

Though initially it was a testbed for the new armor and Hyper Mega Cannon developed by Anaheim Electronics, the Federation had contracted them to make EVERY weapon used on the AEUG's FA-010-S operational on the FA-010-A - including an UPGRADE on the high mega cannon in the forehead. With this in mind, Bandai released this master grade with equal or better beam weapons than the FA-010-S, as fully rendered nozzles - not as the dummy weapons originally cited by Mark Simmons and the plethora of other shameless FAZZ-bashers.

This kit is the FAZZ as it was INTENDED to look. As far as Gundams go, it is unmatched in power - and this kit does not disappoint. Sentinel was the best Gundam Side Story, as well as Hajime Katoki's debut as a master mecha designer. The FAZZ is where he got his bright start, way before his bout with 'upturned feet syndrome' and this is arguably the best Gundam that never appeared onscreen. And if you are an advanced modeler looking for a challenge - this IS one, in so many mind-blowing ways. And if you're tired of the same old red, white 'n blue Gundam kits, the Sentinel FAZZ is one mean, down-to-business military mech that takes no prisoners! Suit up - to the MAX!

The head of the Sentinel FAZZ is completely new - none of the parts were carried over from the ZZ or the FA-010-S (well, except the polycap, but every HG and MG kit has that!)

The two halves of the outer skull, as well as the cheek-vent pieces and face-plate, are molded in this weird waxy sort of plastic - almost like vinyl. They are easy enough to detail with a micron pen, but it's hard to get the ink to stay on due to the slick surface. I painted the face light blue instead of gray because I thought this looks better on the FAZZ, this was the only change I made to the original color scheme. The paint provided a better surface for the ink to stick to. The only other part of the head that needs painting is the cheek vents (which should be silver). Easily done.

The long antennas are the only yellow part in this kit (has it's own unusually thick runner!) and are easy to detail. The fact that they are so long is a bit of a thorny issue when mounting the Hyper Mega Cannon over the shoulder, but they are WAY sexier than the stubby antennas on the FA-010-S.

The High Mega Cannon on the forehead is significantly larger and deeper than the old ZZ version, and even has a bigger center nozzle. The details inside are also far more well-engraved. They are also wide enough that I was able to ink them in with the micron pen and then scrape away the middle of the line with a tack, resulting in DOUBLE panel lines all around the inside of the cannon. So much detail in such a tiny piece. Pure genius! Though it fits so tightly that this makes it impossible to take the head apart!

The beard is perfectly molded and has no issues.
The eyes are good, I actually did the unthinkable and used the stickers eyes because they were shinier than on most kits, but beware as they are shaped very strangely on the FA-010-A. It might take a while to get them to fit properly on the eyes piece.

The head is elongated compared to the ZZ, so that it has a long, boxy, almost Sperm-whale look to it (lol, it's also in the logo for this website! Great choice guys!) A very futuristic design considering the lineart is 20 years old!

Overall the head is very good quality, the only frustrating part is the slippery vinyl-like surface and the impossibility of taking apart the head if you want to put in an LED and don't use the sticker eyes.

And a little-known fact: the tiny bumpy details on either side of the forehead are actually vulcans! Yes, they are THAT tiny.

The body unit (the TORSO) is basically a black-and-blue ZZ frame with the massive chest armor on top.

At the center is the core fighter/core block (you get both with this kit!) This is identical to the ZZ's core fighter except for the colors. It also can transform and be fitted with wheels if you plan to display it separately and use the core block in the Gundam.

Around the core block/fighter there is a strip of waist armor that wraps all the way. It has two small tabs in front to plug into the chest armor. Above the fighter, you have the chest canopy, which hinges up and down just like on the ZZ. Only now the cockpit hatch is blue, and the canopy will be covered by the FAZZ's chest armor. The square turbo thrusters on top of the chest are slightly different from those on the ZZ (they're molded in that weird gray vinyl plastic, and here it's VERY annoying to both paint it and get all the details in).

The CHEST ARMOR - this looks beautiful when assembled and detailed, but it has one fatal flaw - it's held in place by nothing more than two tiny tabs on the strip of waist armor that embraces the core fighter. AS a result, it tends to get loose and fall off a lot, especially when you mount the hyper mega cannon, which rests on the armor.

I remedied this problem by taping a pair of hardrubber twist ties (the kind that is used to wrap the wires of electronic products when they are packaged) and bending the ends into hooks. The hooks fit into the little gaps below the square turbo thrusters, and go beneath the ZZ frame's black chest piece. This holds the chest armor firmly in place. (I tried about 5 other strategies before I got this to work).

The chest armor features excellent "computer-chip" detail on the center piece, and the left and right chest have removable plates that hide some very well-detailed blue missiles (two types, micro and ballistic).

Also, the hip-groin unit is very complicated, it is the same as the ZZ except the rear spinal pylons that anchor the backpack are a different shape especially for this kit. The front "apron" piece, which includes the round Mega Particle cannon, attaches to the crotch via a polycap hardpoint which is hidden by a small armor piece on the ZZ. The apron also has a hardpoint at the top where the chest armor hooks in. The mesh hoses which attach the front apron to the "rear skirt" piece contain a thin wire, and have short white endcaps at the rear. The ends of the mesh tube should be glued into the endcaps, otherwise they may come loose while posing the FAZZ. The Rear Skirt also has a plug-in point for the end of the ammo belt of the Hyper Mega cannon.

Behind the front apron, you can partially see the front skirt plates of the gray ZZ frame. These have longer bottom studs than the ones on the ZZ, but for some reason the studs are still molded in white in this kit. Sand lightly, paint them gray to match the rest of their plates, and glue them in place (otherwise they might get loose if you try to pose the plates by pushing the studs).

WHEW. It seems everything on this ginormous kit is connected together! Be VERY careful when assembling this stuff, it's not for beginners to say the least.

The Arm Units of this kit (and here am including the shoulders as part of them) are 80% the same as the ZZ. The shoulder fins have been replaced by the bulkier, non-transformable FAZZ version fins, and the arm fins have been removed entirely to make room for extra armor. The arm armor encases the entire lower arm.

The gundam is asymmetric in its arms. The left arm has a missile pod which contains 3 individually molded missiles (paint the inside of the chamber black for maximum effect) as well as sporting some nice vent detail. The right arm has thicker armor on the elbow plate, and two tabs that hook into the Double Beam Rifle (which is identical to the one provided with the ZZ). The side armor of the arms has blue guard plates that fit over the square elbow bushings of the inner ZZ frame. The white parts have very fine panel lines, be careful even if you use a micron pen.

The shoulders have an additional layer of armor that mostly covers the original shoulders of the ZZ frame. They are a bit tricky to assemble, but have lots of interesting vents and other details. They also have those vertical "tower thruster" units that attach to the front of the shoulder, and have a 6-tube missile launcher at the top (these are supposed to be much smaller missiles than in the chest armor, so they don't come molded in the kit - you just get 6 holes). The shoulders also have wide flank armors that cover much of the upper arm. Needless to say, posing the upper arms with all that armor in the way isn't going to be easy.

The shoulders connect to the torso via pegs that plug into hinged polycaps. The pegs are tiny compared to the shoulder, and it makes me wonder if this is TRULY what Katoki had in mind. I thought the FAZZ would have heftier joints than this! These connections do tend to sag over time due to the weight of the arms, so it is a good idea to fill the polycap's hinges with glue, etc. to make it more stable. Unfortunately, they are buried deep in the ZZ torso frame, and disassembly is nearly impossible.

So instead I wound dental floss around and through these polycaps, to artificially "thicken" them and prevent them from sagging in the 0.3 mm torso gap beneath them. This ultimately allows the shoulders to sit upright without any sagging.

The elbows use the same heavy polycaps as in the ZZ. The elbows as well as the upper arms have full sideways articulation, which is only impeded by the Full Armor.

The hands are identical to those on the ZZ and the FA-010-S, only the top armor is gray, not white (as is the case with most of this kit's ZZ components). There is only one set of hands - the gripping type included in all Master Grade kits. They're the only kind of Gundam hands I generally build anyway, since I always want my kits to hold at least some of their weapons.

Overall the arms are quite sturdy, and only the shoulder-to-torso joints need any modding.

The Leg Units of the Sentinel FAZZ are identical to the FA-010-S other than the shape of the feet, and some minor differences in the outer thrusters.

The hip armor is annoying as it tends to fall off due to its strangely short polycaps. I replaced these with a extra pair of long rectangular ones stolen from my Master Grade Gundam NT-1 Alex. These long polycaps work much better and hold the hip armors in place, so get both kits if you want to save yourself the headache (or if you just love heavy armored Gundams). The little verniers on the hip armors need to be painted black.

The internal legs are gray, covered with white armor on the lower legs, which plugs into polycaps that are normally hidden by armor caps on the ZZ kit. The leg thrusters are black, though the rear ones need to be painted black. The armor closely follows the curves of the ZZ, and even the thin vents on either side of the knees are roughly in the same position as the ZZ's. Most of the ZZ's rear leg vents are covered up by the white armor.

The legs are fully transformable without the FAZZ armor, and like any version of the ZZ, they contain screws. Grind away the inside of the tubes slightly and use a small screwdriver (heh, I got mine overseas but you can surely find them here) so you AVOID stripping the screws.

The feet are practically transformable themselves, they have something like 23 pieces and can be posed zillions of different ways if you choose to mount this beast on a stand. Not that it needs one, but it would be a cool idea, to mimic its flight through space. The thrusters on the sides of the foot are fully articulated.

The front parts of the feet are very elongated (i.e. the "dinosaur foot"), this looks way better than the FA-010-S and also is much more stable at balancing so much weight. The rear feet have long spikes at the base to help balance the FAZZ from the rear. The ZZ Gundam always had a tough time balancing with its backwards-sloping heels, and FAZZ's spikes remedy this issue much better than the ZZ's short heel stubs.

The bottom of the foot is highly detailed. The only issue with the feet is that they are a bit loosely hinged, and they were originally meant to hold the weight of the ZZ Gundam. The fully equipped FAZZ is almost twice as heavy, so posing the feet can seriously affect balance if it's not done properly. Be careful how you pose the legs and feet - this Gundam is massive and sharp, and could probably kill your cat if it took a shelf dive.

Ahh, the weapons and other crazy features. This is what makes this kit so wonderful.

The Hyper Mega Cannon - the main weapon of the FAZZ. This monster of a weapon is longer than the height of the FAZZ itself! (only the Zeta Gundam and ZetaPlus C1 share this title with the FAZZ!) It attaches to the backpack in place of the right missile pod, and contains more large vents than some mobile suits! It has a dorsal sensor, as well as a small secondary beam cannon on top of the main nozzle (Lord knows what it's for, the main cannon is vicious enough!) The cannon includes rubber tubes that sit on the chest, as well as plastic tubes that attach to an array of parts. There is a canister-shaped device on one side of it, and the cannon has a folding handle with a guard plate. There is a slit along the rear half to make room for the FAZZ's long forehead antenna. There is also the long ammo belt, which consists of a cable ribbon and 30 segments that slide onto it. If you've ever built those annoying cables on a Zaku, this is WAAAY easier. But it's a literal pain in the butt to plug in the other end to the rear skirt armor. Overall, the cannon is well-built and has few seams, but it's hard to pose. I rate it a 7.

Double Beam Rifle - secondary beam weapon of the FAZZ. Identical to the one included with the ZZ, aside from the colors. Large folding sensor (lens needs painting), opening fore doors, clear canopy with pilot (don't need a pilot here since this suit doesn't transform!) and long, pivoting twin barrels. The barrels come molded in midnight blue like the rest of the gun, so you need to paint them gray (I also did a cool smoke effect with the barrels on mine, to make it look like it's been fired lots of times - this looks GREAT on the Sentinel FAZZ). The handle doesn't swivel back far enough, IMO, but is not used here anyway since the FAZZ mounts this thing on the side of its arm - there are two arm tabs that plug into polycap hardpoints on the underside of the gun (on the ZZ, the tabs under the cockpit hatch would plug in here for the transformation). I rate this gun an 8.

Backpack Missile pods - huge blocky missile launchers with 16 detailed blue ballistic missiles in each one. The missiles come cast as a single piece for either pod, so have fun painting the crazy flat areas around them black. They plug into the pod. Pods feature huge opening hatches. They plug into the top of the backpack. I rate them an 8.

Backpack Particle cannons - this is where those beam sabers went! Except they are not beam sabers anymore. Here they have been replaced by two massively long particle cannons (the ZZ's beam sabers also had particle cannons at the rear end). The FAZZ's cannons can't be detached and used as sabers. But they do rotate considerably further than the ZZ's beam sabers. Easy to assemble, almost no painting needed. I rate them a 9.

THE BACKPACK: This is where you get a large part of the FAZZ's bulk. You got t-shaped hardpoints for the missile pods/hyper mega cannon to attach to on top, and two twin vernier units on the bottom.
The verniers are some of the biggest I've ever seen! And they have serious internal detail. This isn't just a simple two-piece affair either. The verniers have "tubing" around their polycaps, and they plug onto big, heavily detailed blocks that go deep into the backpack. Just be VERY careful when fitting them and assembling the backpack. The halves are very big and have lots of pegs and slits that could get incorrectly placed. I did this once with the vernier blocks, and it took HOURS to take the backpack apart and place them in their correct position before re-assembling it. The verniers are fully articulated and are protected by long rectangular guard plates (these are also articulated, like everything else on the kit).

Beneath the verniers there are two huge folding wings. They easily dwarf the backpack wings on the FA-010-S, though why they are so much bigger is a mystery as the FA-010-A does not transform. They are "foldable" with an extra "sleeve" segment (and thus another articulated joint) that the backpack wings on the FA-010-S lack. They are also highly detailed and have little "blister" sensors on the ends. They sort of look like huge coat tails on this gentleman of destruction.

The backpack attaches to both the sacrum and the rear torso through a complex system of girdings and pylons that locks into place with ABS plastic latches - which in turn plug into a polycap in the Gundam's back. This is easily the most frustrating part of assembling this kit. Everything must go right, and with the size and width of the backpack obscuring all the rails and latches from view, getting all the connections to line up properly can take a good 15 minutes of adrenaline-pumping anxiety - all this while trying to keep the kit balanced with its loose ankle joints. Some of the pieces in the backpack are very fragile, IMO. I give the backpack a 7.6 (it would have been higher were it easier to assemble).


In addition to all the cool features of the FAZZ, this kit also features an incidental twist you don't usually see in Bandai kits: it comes with tons of extra recasted parts from the FA-010-S that don't get used in this kit, like the different head parts and slightly different versions of the leg vents, cast in white instead of black. This is great if you want to do any crazy conversions (which I myself may do in the future if I find the time...) It's a good thing Bandai got lazy here and decided not to modify all the runners and cut out the extra parts just to save plastic and cut costs. The result is a lot more fun for Gunpla-saavy modelers.

For my FAZZ: I painted it as close to the stock colors in the manual photos as possible (with the exception of the faceplate). I did not highlight the inside of the verniers, as this would look very un-Sentinel and more like ZZ series. I detailed all the panel lines and painted everything that needed painting. I also sanded and painted the gray parts of the feet to get rid of the seam lines. Aside from all the crazy thrusters and vents, painting is minimal on this kit. Unlike the FA-010-S, the coloring of the cannon and backpack is dead-on. If you paint the weapons, all you need is some yellow for a few small surface details, white for some parts of the big cannon [only in sentinel version], black and a clear gloss coat for the big cannon's plastic hoses, and gray for the barrels of the twin beam rifle (and of course some gunmetal and black for crazy smoke effects!!!). I kept modding to a minimum, though this kit NEEDED some. Especially with the hips and shoulders.

FINAL VERDICT: the Sentinel FAZZ is one of the finest Master Grades out there, even in today's "post-Version 2.0" Master Grade scene, it still commands attention as one of the few kits that give you maximum Gundam for your dollar. Make no mistake about this one - it has its flaws and takes some mad detailing and painting skills to look its best, but it's well worth the effort, and most Gundam fans have NEVER seen anything like it.

It's a truly imposing presence on anyone's top shelf. Gundam Wing kits, be afraid. Be VERY afraid. I rate it an 8 overall.

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See Also Related Reviews: .|. MG FA-010-A Fazz by Vincent .|. MG RX-93 v Gundam by Nima .|. MG FA-010S Full Armor ZZ Gundam by RedRacer .|. MG MSZ-010 ZZ Gundam by James E Doyle .|. Non Graded S-Gundam 1/144 MSA-0011 by vincent

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