A gift from a friend: HGBF 1/144 Crossbone Gundam Maoh Build/Review

Hey Builders, 

I'm back again with another more formal look at an HG kit. 

I fell in love with the Crossbone Maoh after the final episode of Gundam Build Fighters. When Bandai first released images of the kit, I was underwhelmed. Sure it had some cool weapons, but Crossbone never got an anime (yet) and I never built any of the MG kits before. 

All of that changed, in that glorious scene (cue electric guitar) when the Crossbone Gundam Maoh comes bursting to the rescue at the GBF equivalent of the Battle of A Baoa Qu. It gave me chills how epic it was. And from that moment on, I knew I wanted this kit. (GG Bandai. Take all my money).

I actually wasn't intending to get this kit for awhile, as such it wasn't listed in my Upcoming Kits list. Instead, my friend who came back from Japan, picked up a gift for me, the SD Sinanju and also this one for himself. We decided on a trade, where I would trade him my RG Freedom for his HG Crossbone Maoh. The difference didn't matter to me because he gave me the SD as a gift. 

For this review, I'm going to try to actually format my thoughts, so they're not so random, and hopefully more helpful. Let me know if you think I should add anything, or if I missed anything. Thanks!

• General Overview
• Parts
• Weapons/Manipulators
• Size/Comparison
• Articulation
• Color/Quality
• Pros/Cons
• Verdict
• Additional Comments and Photos

Parts

The Crossbone Gundam Maoh comes with a lot of stickers, but none too difficult to put on. They are fairly essential to the kit itself, creating that shiny reflective blue/purple along the kit/backpack.

The kit itself does not come with a lot of runners. Yes, the runners go from A up to H with two saber runners, and the polycap runner, but as you can see, there are a few small runners. Runners C, D, E, and H are all small runners with only a few parts on each. This kit does not have a lot of parts to it, and can be built fairly quickly. 

Here is one of the signature parts of the Crossbone Gundam Maoh, the huge Skull head that opens up to the chest cannon. As you can see, at this point I almost used all of the blue C runner and yellow D runner. 

And here is the upper body finished, and at this point of the build, I could basically throw out both the C and D runners, because all the colors had been used (except for two pieces for the knees). With the small number of parts, this kit was a fairly simple build. You can really take your time with it, but it really is just an afternoon project. 

 Weapons/Manipulators

Here are all the weapons that come with the kit. 

From left to right/top to bottom: 

2x Foot daggers (see below left))

2x Heat Daggers 

2x Beam Sabers

1x Buster Gun

1x Beam Zanber 

2x Crossbone Gun/Sword both modes

2x Beam Sabers for Beam Saber/Beam Gun (see below right) 

You can combine the Buster Gun and the Beam Zanber to create the Zanbuster

Here are all the manipulators that come with the kit. 

2x Peace/Victory pose 

2x General Purpose 

2x Trigger Finger

1x Angled Wrist (for Zanbuster)

Size Comparison

Here is a shot of all the HGBF line that I own. The Crossbone is actually shorter than the shortest one I own, the Wing Gundam Fenice. It measures in at about 4.5" from the bottom of the foot to the top of the head, and about 5.75" to the top of the backpack. This is normal considering the height of the 

Crossbone X-1 is 15.9 meters and the Wing Gundam is 16.3

The GM Sniper II has a head height of 18 meters, the Strike Gundam and Kampfer, 17.7 which is why the Crossbone Maoh is about a head shorter than all of these guys. 

 Articulation

The Crossbone Maoh has double-jointed arms and legs, which means you can bend at either the forearm or the bicep end of the elbow joint, or the thigh end or shin end of the knee joint. It also has a separated ankle section, free from the shin/feet. The shoulder armor connects to the arm via polycap, and connects to the polycap in the chest via ball-joint. The head is on a double ball-joint. The legs connect to the waist via polycap. Overall the articulation is good. You can fully rotate the shoulders, if you avoid the backpack. You'll get a very good bend on the arms/legs via the double-joint. 

 Color/Quality

This kit is pretty plain when it comes to color. You're going to get two kinds of gray for the plastic: the darker gray for most of the body, and a lighter gray for the reflector mirror units on the backpack, and the skull satellite cannon. You're going to get a dark/navy blue for the chest/shoulder pieces, a little red for the feet, crotch piece, and chin, and finally yellow for vents across the body, the vulcans, and the v-fin. 

Besides the colored plastic, as you saw earlier, this kit comes with a ton of reflective seals that go across the body. These add more color dimension to a fairly plain kit. The reflector seals really makes it pop, and look much like its animated counterpart. Don't skip out on these seals, unless you plan on painting with something similar!

Though the color scheme is fairly plain, I really like it. Its not overly colorful, and its stark color combinations gives it a mean look. Apart from the color, this kit offers many panel lines for you to detail, which is great.

The quality of this kit is fairly decent for an HG. It follows the standard build, and isn't very flimsy or too heavy. I haven't had any problems with it standing upright, or on an action base. However, the only problem I had was with the mid-body connection. The top chest part tends to fall off the loose ball-joint located in the abdomen area. Besides that, the hands are great for holding the weapons, the arms and legs are sturdy, and the backpack isn't too heavy. 

 Pros and Cons

This kit has a lot going for it. It has a lot of weapons, various play/pose opportunities, and is fairly simple to build in and of itself. It's not too heavy, it can stand and also hold its weapons well. The colors might be plain, but work well for what the suit is supposed to look like. It offers a lot of detail for an HG kit, and looks great without a lot of effort. 

However, you can say that this kit is much too easy for you. You can also say that the colors are just too bland, and requires too many stickers to finish it off. It might have too many weapons and small parts that you won't use and have to find a place to store them. It has a lot of manipulators, but I can see myself not even using the Victory/Peace ones unless its for novelty, like playing rock paper scissors. Its also smaller than most HGBF kits. 

Scissors Cuts Paper. 

 Verdict

 In my own personal opinion, this kit is worth getting. I like the color scheme, and the accents that the reflector seals give. I also love the amount of poses I can create, and even though there are so many weapons/hands, having too many is better than having too few! It's an easy build that won't drive you crazy, and it won't break the bank. If you like the Crossbone Maoh or the Crossbone Gundams in general, this is a nice kit to add to your collection. It's also great for beginners just getting into the hobby. 

Now I wonder if they'll come out with an HG line for the Crossbone, or an anime...

Additional Comments/Photos

The backpack actually fits on the Fenice so you can create some funny kitbashes without too much effort. You can also take off the mirror reflectors from the pack. It connects via peg which may be compatible with other kits, (if its too short you can get the extension). You can also connect other packs to the Crossbone in the same way. 

Crossbone Maoh with his mini-me counterparts X-1 and X-2.

Here boy! Want a bone!?

 Until next time!