Saturday, August 01, 2009

J.Norad Reviews 1:6 scale ZACCA M202A1

Welcome back to the 4th installment of the ZACCA rockets'n'grenades-fest. Today, we have one of the lesser known rocket launchers, the M202A1. This grenade launcher is particularly fitting for the TF2 soldier due to the fact that it fires four rockets, much like the Soldier's rocket launcher. A bit of interest of this weapon is that it's also a flamethrower, by firing incendiary rockets. It seems to be rear loaded with a clip of four rockets at a time. Pretty awesome sounding weapon, eh?

This rocket is by far the worst rocket from series 1 I've reviewed.

First, let's look at the blatant problems.

The Japanese don't speak English for a reason.

Oh boy. I'm pretty stuck up when it comes to proper grammar and spelling. This thing infuriates me so much by existing.

"WARNING
IF TRGGER MALFUNCTION
REMOVE MECHANISM
PROTECTNE"

ZACCA is known for their model detail. Apparently, that's "physical" detail and not their decals. How hard can it be to copy letters off a stock image? Seems like the Japanese can't copy these odd blocky pictograms and squiggles correctly. What's with the "protectne"? Protecting Acne? Pyrotechnic?

The weapon is unusable.

There's a reason why I don't have more than one photograph of the Soldier using the M202A1. It's an absolute nightmare to pose any figure with it properly. First off, you absolutely need to glue the parts together if you must use this for actual posing. As a display model, it's not an issue. The front and rear covers come off fairly easily. Normally this is a problem, but the rear cover is the main culprit in making this grenade launcher terrible. It obstructs your figure's arm from being able to hold the firing handle with his right hand, and limits the ability of your figure to hold the foregrip with the left.

Why is that a problem? Why can't you have your figure hold the M202A1 with one hand?

The model is virtually a giant box of plastic. The handles are thin and unless your figure has spring loaded hands, it will fall out of his hand quickly. You'll have problems trying to pose your figures with this. Only figures I can possibly make this work with is the Scout/Shia Lebeouf and the girls.

The upsides

This is perhaps the only model out there of the M202A1 in 1:6 scale. In terms of workmanship, it's fairly good. There's no cheaply done weathering or odd paint schemes/problems on it this time. If you can ignore the bad decals, it's a good model. Maybe some of you with good painting skills can touch up that problem and make it tolerable. Or alternatively, add wear that conveniently obscures the typos. For $5, it's reasonable to not expect too much from it.

Anyways, as is the tradition with these reviews, time to feature more "Let's attack blue things with rockets".

The Soldier looks to find out where BLU is hiding the intel for their new secret weapon.

We must scour every possible hiding place for the new weapon. They may have put it in places where you'd never think. Like in...HERE!

Negatory! They have not hidden the intelligence inside this blue vehicle.

I do recall them saying that the new weapon was located around here somewhere.

Oh.

I do believe I have found the weapon. Yes, I HAVE found the weapon. Or has the weapon found me?

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