Here's an unboxing review of the TTH MG Char's Zaku II 2.0 kit.
I have built a Bandai MG Zaku II before so I believe that I can review this kit objectively.
The earliest record about this kit that I can find in the internet is around 2011 so I'm going to assume this kit came out around that time.
Aside from the obvious test changes. The box design is a direct copy of the Bandai kit.
The manual is also copied from the Bandai kit with most of the test changed to Chinese(?) and "Engrish". At least the manual is printed clearly so it's still easy to follow.
Again, runner designs and layout are same with the Bandai kit. After checking the runners, luckily, all the parts are completely molded. Initial inspection of the runners will show the quality of this kit. And considering this to be an old bootleg kit, quality is quite bad.
I don't know if it's just because this kit is an old stock or if this is actually the quality of the TTHongli molds or both. But there are quite a few noticeable issues right out of the box.
Small pieces are badly molded, as seen from the pilot figures. But most of the details in the frame pieces look better.
Details and panel lines on the armor parts are good enough though they are a bit shallow. Also most parts specially the armor pieces have a rough, almost scratched texture.
So far most of the issues I've seen are cosmetic and I'm hoping this will affect build quality as minimal as possible.
The kit also comes with 1 sheet each of clear stickers and dry transfer decals. Due to the are of this kit. I'm not sure if the dry transfers are still usable.
Comparing this to the Bandai kit will show the obvious gap in quality between the kits compared to the recent bootleg kits. Based on my research, the Bandai MG Zaku II 2.0 is one of the best engineered kits of it's time. I believe it even rivals recent kits in terms of the amount of inner frame details and range of articulation.
As of this writing, this kits costs 1/3 the Bandai kits' price.
