Series: Mobile Suit in Action!! (MSiA)
Title: MSN-04 Sazabi
Release Date: 2001
Suggested Price: ¥ 1500
No. of Parts: 1 Sazabi figure + 14 parts
Plastic colors: red, yellow, black, gray, green
Gimmicks: beam rifle, shield, beam saber handle, beam saber blade, tomahawk w/removable beam blade, regular tomahawk, tomahawk w/unremovable beam blade, open funnel (3), closed funnel (3)

Introduction

Contributor: Wagner
Date: December 6, 2006

The return of Neo Zeon led by Char Aznable in UC 0093 proved to be a serious threat to the Earth. Using research on the psycoframe technology, this mobile suit was developed to be used in conjunction with Char Aznable's Newtype abilities, this being utilizing funnels.

Box art- The box art follows that of the original US packaging, save for the
back, which is devoted to CCA MSiA.

Colors- The MSiA comes in a tolerable shade of red which is slightly lighter than that in the movie itself. The MSiA itself stands about a head taller than most other MSiA.

Head

The head is solid and has 360 degrees of horizontal movement and about 5 degrees of vertical movement. It has three "antennae" in total, all molded in the constant soft plastic Bandai uses. It has a green rectangle where the main antenna ends (like a GM's green rectangle), and is painted with a black visor and green monoeye.

Torso

The torso is solid and heavy. Due to its design (and the mega particle
cannon in the waist in the front), the torso can only twist about 20 degrees
to each side. You could probably force it further, but I'd rather not try my
luck. The mega particle cannon in it's waist is painted yellow with a black
circle. The cooling tubes are painted yellow.

The backpack is secured to the back with two wide pegs that plug into slots on the back, the backpack has two black single joint funnel boxes that can flip up over the shoulders and can swivel around. It also has propellant tanks which are secured with ball joints.

Arms

The shoulders are attached with the old format of sliding in between the arm and the torso, however, this lets them fit securely, and are sturdy. The shoulders each have a set of two verniers that can come down to press against the upper arm and back up. They have two yellow verniers each. The arms themselves are version one arms, with only 90 degrees of forward elbow movement and peg in hole for hands. However, all of these are thick and solid, so there's no worries here. The hands are molded in gray, and only feature a saber hand and a trigger hand, no interchangeable hands.

Legs

The legs are rather stiff as far as poseability goes. Only having version 1
knees and upper legs, It's rather limited. However, the ankles have superb
poseability due to ball joints, so even with the average poseability with the
knees and upper legs, the ankles make up for it. The skirt armor is a
standard affair - leave it in one position too long, it'll warp. All in all,
the legs are thick, sturdy, and keep this figure grounded. with ease.

Weapons and Accessories

Beam rifle- This beam rifle is thick, and molded in black with red portions
on it. Faithful to the design.


Beam saber- The handle cannot be stored in the wrist like the movie, which is a shame, since that was one of the cooler things about the Sazabi. The handle is the same red that the figure is, with the same soft plastic for the blade, in a translucent yellow.


Tomahawk- You get two of these, one has no beam blades coming from it, and can be stored in the shield.


Tomahawk (massive blade)- The massive blade on this other tomahawk is
removable, which brings me to the question - why didn't Bandai just throw in this blade and just one tomahawk? Either way, this weapon is awesome, and is molded in red and gray with a translucent yellow blade.


Tomahawk (single blade)- This version of the tomahawk has one side regular, and the other side enveloped by a translucent yellow blade. This one is not removable, however, as the blade also covers the gray part of the tomahawk.


Shield- The shield can be placed on a peg in either forearm. In the black
portion on the back, you can slide the handle of the tomahawk in as storage. At the bottom tip, there are three gray missile cylinders. This shield is THICK and the peg that mounts into the forearm can be rotated. It has a yellow Neo Zeon symbol painted on the black of the shield.


Funnels- This figure came with three closed funnels separate (which fit into the funnel rack that's empty) and three open funnels. The open funnels don't plug into the figure anywhere, but you could make something out of wire for an open funnel display.

Mega particle cannon- This isn't really an accessory, as it's built into the figure, but it's still a weapon.

Conclusion

This was one of the better looking suits that came out of Char's Counterattack. Though it suffers from some poseability problems, it shouldn't detract your interest in this figure. I recommend this figure to all Gundam fans. Here's hoping they release an updated version of this MSiA!

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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