P-Bandai: HG 1/144 Doan's Zaku - Release Info

P-Bandai: HG 1/144 Doan's Zaku [REISSUE]

Release Date: April 2023 [3rd Batch Release: April 2024]

Price: 2,200 Yen

INITIAL RELEASE

Release Date: July 2022

Price: 2,200 Yen

The Zaku that Cucuruz Doan had been using as the Southern Cross Corps commander for the Principality of Zeon. He took components from his vanquished opponents' machines after his abandonment during the Earth invasion mission, and Doan used those parts to fix his own machine. Its armor has so been torn off in places, leaving several uneven sections.

He had concealed it to safeguard the island's life, but upon the arrival of foreign adversaries like the Earth Federation and the Principality of Zeon, he used it to intercept and render them helpless.

As announced during the reveal of the Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan's Island March 9, 2022 teaser trailer, and also to celebrate the Zaku day - Premium Bandai announces the release of the Zaku II that Doan will be using in the movie in the HGUC GunPla series lineup.

The kit is provided with newly molded parts portraying damaged armor plates of the Zaku, that is faithful to its movie version, including a newly molded head piece. Some of the inner joints and parts of this kit were shared from the Gundam THE ORIGIN Zaku II.

The kit is also completed with a heat axe as its main weapon and a newly designed water slide decal sheet exclusive for Doan's Zaku.

HISTORY

As the commander of the Southern Cross Corps, Doan piloted this Zaku at some point during the One Year War. The Southern Cross Corps killed numerous civilians when they battled their way through a city on one of their operations. Doan started to question his loyalty to Zeon when he observed a small child sobbing at the body of an adult inside the Zaku's cockpit. He ultimately left Zeon and took his Zaku with him.

Doan eventually made his way to Alegranza, a deserted island in the Canary Islands that was hiding a nuclear missile silo called Zeon. He constructed a covert residence for war orphans there after eliminating the last remaining Zeon operative and discarding their Zaku into the sea. Zeon thought their operative was still on Alegranza because Doan used his Zaku to eliminate numerous Federation Forces search parties in order to protect the children. Two of the Federation's new RGM-79 GM mobile suits came to Alegranza on a Gunperry to look for Doan after Zeon's unsuccessful attack on Jaburo. Still, Doan dispatched them with ease.

The White Base mobile suit team was given the order to resume searching for Doan the next day. Doan attacked Amuro Ray in the Zaku when he saw his footprints leading to a cliff and decided to break up with the others in his RX-78-02 Gundam. Doan nearly shoved Amuro off the cliff, taking him by surprise, but the Gundam pushed back his Zaku. The two fought each other in close quarters, with Doan holding his own against a far more sophisticated mobile suit. The Gundam unintentionally brought down the cliff during the conflict. Amuro lost consciousness when the Gundam plummeted down the cliff, but Doan's Zaku leaped to safety.

Then, in Point C.A., the covert Zeon base beneath the island, Doan concealed both the Gundam and his Zaku. Upon the arrival of the Southern Cross Corps on the island, Doan took out his Zaku to battle his old allies. He engaged the MS-06GD Zaku High Mobility (Surface Type) of Danan Rashica and destroyed it. Using a bazooka, Selma Livens fired at Doan, but Doan dodged all of her blasts, forcing her to fight close quarters before murdering her with a single strike.

In the volcanic crater, Egba Atler and Doan finally clashed in close combat. Doan appeared to have worn himself out in the earlier fights, as he started to lose ground. Doan lost control of his heat hawk when Egba severed his right arm off of him. Doan started tossing pebbles at Egba's Zaku out of desperation, but it didn't do any harm. But Amuro entered the Gundam and dismantled Egba's Zaku with ease.

Amuro told Doan as he prepared to depart the island that he was drawn to wars because of the lingering scent of war. Amuro raised the Zaku with the Gundam, offering to get rid of the scent, and threw it into the sea.