Review: HGUC Gaza C Haman Custom

By Loran

In the Zeta Gundam movies, only one new mobile suit was really recognized. Sure, we got the occasional custom-colored GM Custom or GM Cannon, but those were really just brief cameos. Heck, even the rarely-seen blue Hizack from the series got a ton of appearances, but my guess is that’s because Bandai wanted to push the new HGUC kit they just released. Only one fully-new got considerable screentime, and because of the pilot, it got a kit-I’m talking about Haman Khan’s Gaza-C.

The Gaza-C is a really odd suit that I could never quite figure out. It’s ugly, that’s for sure, but it’s got a certain charm to it. I guess it looks that way because Axis didn’t have the resources to make nice-looking suits so they just made a ton of ugly ones. Haman made her debut in the series piloting one of these, but hers was the same color as all of the other units. For the movies, they changed it to her Qubeley’s lighter pink color scheme, probably to give her a more suitable mobile suit, but we know the real reason was just to sell more toys.

The head and body of this kit are all one unit, due to both the design and the transformation gimmick. Unfortunately, neither of them have any side-to-side movement as a result. The backpack (if you could call it that) is really tall and has a large fin sticking out of the back which makes displaying this thing pretty annoying, and getting it all to fold down all the way is a pain. Also, the mass of tubes on this kit have a tendency to pop out a lot. However, it’s always nice to see clear green parts and they’re used pretty damn well here on the monoeye and… other camera thing.

The arms are pretty cool, because they manage to keep the look of the design perfectly but still pull off a lot of poseability, especially in the shoulders, but there’s a slight problem with the connection because it likes to move up and down when you move the shoulder, another transformation-based flaw. The rest is pretty nice, though.

The legs are pretty cool, too, with a nice double joint and lots of flexibility. The best part has to be the feet, which are able to fully change into the claw feet. It’s pretty awesome. Thankfully, the tubes in the legs don’t suffer from the same problem the torso tubes have.

The waist is a bit messy, though, with its huge amount of panels. It’s not too bad but a lot of them just feel unneeded, specifically the back ones.

The transformation, well, it’s kind of a mess. I never really saw the appeal of this mode, it’s just kind of silly. In fact I don’t even see WHY it transforms in the first place-probably just to transport materials in its claws or something. Thankfully, there’s not part-swapping aside from the hands, but the whole transformation is just stiff and hard to pull off because it uses the harder PVC plastic instead of polycap plastic. This does make it more stable but doing the actual transformation is just irritating.

Overall this kit is… well, it’s a kit. I’m not too keen on it because of how fiddly and finicky it is but I find the Gaza to but more of a curiosity piece than anything else. If you want anything from Haman I’d suggest tracking down her Qubeley over all else. But, if you like this design or like transforming suits, check our shelves for one! There’s also the mass-production colors version, which is all pink and comes with a nice little stand, so take your pick!