DISCOUNT DOUBLE REVIEW: HGIBO...HGIO... HG Iron Blooded Orphans 1/144 Barbatos & HG Iron Blooded Arms CGS Mobile Worker Option Set #1

Take a quick breather, because that title is a mouthful.

Good?

Awesome, because today I am doing a rare double review of the HG Barbatos and the Iron Blooded Arms (didn't know that's what it was called) CGS Mobile Worker Option set. If you couldn't already tell from the title that is...

If you're a fan of Gundam, you probably recall that teaser months ago that slowly revealed different aspects of a new Gundam week after week. I, like many of you, was very interested in this new unique design. After the full unveiling, however, I was left a little unsure. A fairly primitive looking mobile suit, unfinished in design with a giant mace and a... whoa snap, hold the phones it has a katana!

Is it too early to make some comparisons to the oh-so-popular Astray designs from Gundam SEED, with the physical weapons and exposed frames? Maybe

After watching following the series upon its release, I started to fall in love with the Barbatos because of what it embodied. Sure, some suits have design quirks and aesthetic draws, but for the Barbatos, it represents that primitive grit that I mentioned before. It's supposed to look unfinished, because its supposed to have more and more added on from the spoils of its victims. It's supposed to have those primitive bludgeoning weapons and not be technologically advanced. Its a war relic being used by child soldiers fighting a desperate battle that children shouldn't be in, and the Barbatos captures that beautifully. 

But does this kit?

Parts

As you can see, this kit doesn't come with that many runners. This is mainly a product of the fact that this kit is very skinny, for lack of a better term, and supposed to look fairly incomplete. It comes with two A runners, A1 and A2 which are grey. It comes with a B runner in white, a C runner in yellow, a D runner in red, and an E runner in blue. Finally a polycap runner and foil sticker sheet round out whats in this box. 

The CGS mobile workers option set also comes with two runners, both in grey. (not pictured)

Size Comparison

I thought that the Barbatos seemed kinda short and skinny, but compared with the Build Strike, they're about the same height. The Barbatos seems a bit beefier in its chest and shoulders, knees and waist, but its limbs are skinny. 

Weapons and Manipulators

From left to right: 

Mace - included with Barbatos kit

Long sword - included with Barbatos kit

Lance - CGS option set

300mm Smooth bore gun - CGS option set

Submachine Gun - CGS option set

Shield - CGS option set

Mobile worker - CGS option set

All these weapons are molded in grey, and look pretty darn bland. The only extra color is on the smooth bore gun, where you can add stickers. 

I'm a little disappointed that they didn't include any open hands for this kit. I think they would have complemented the weapons very well for posing purposes. 

I really like the mobile worker, though it is so tiny! I want to give it a nice desert paint job. Maybe I'll call upon Gundariumsmith again... 

Gundariumsmith did a great job on my SD Loto, which to this date has been the smallest "kit" I own. In actuality, it was included with the SD Kshatriya. 

Articulation

The arms on this kit can reach out past 180 degrees, because of the orientation of the polycap in the torso. Instead of having the polycap rotate forward and back so that the arm can be brought forward more, the polycap is oriented so that it rotates upward and downward so the arms can be brought higher. 

The shoulder armor is set on its own joint connected to the top of the shoulder, and can shift freely from the rest of the arm. However, this doesn't really do much, as the arm cannot rotate up as high as the armor can shift anyways. 

The arm rotates from the shoulder to the bicep. Also, you don't get a full bend on the elbow, as the forearm design won't allow it. Even if you decide to build the asymmetrical design with the gauntlet, you get pretty much the same amount of bend. 

The upper chest can pivot slightly on the rest of the exposed torso. This is interesting, but I don't think it provides enough movement to actually do any drastic poses. Maybe it will help shift some weight around?

The skirt armor comes up, but still gets in the way of the leg, so you won't be able to bring it up for a full kick. The knee does have a nice double joint, for a good bend, but its a little wonky when you try to put it back into place. Also the front section of the foot bends freely, so you can move that around for some better stability in ground poses. 

Color and Quality

Above, you can see the Barbatos with the original C runner molded in yellow, and the foil sticker sheet. I knew going into it that this kit was going to have some cartoonish yellows and a whole ton of seals. Instead of using that, I decided to paint up the yellow parts with gold, and paint the sections that required seals. 

As you can see, I painted the red markings, and also painted the vents and V-fin gold. I also decided to add a little more color to the exposed sections of the frame, by painting the pipings gold, and also adding color to the pistons. 

Even the weapons suffer from lack of color. The gauntlet, sword and mace are all a bland dark grey. To alleviate some of this, I decided to dry brush them with steel colored paint, to give it a scratched metal look. All in all, I was happy with the results. 

In terms of quality, I'd say the construction is pretty good for a kit that has an exposed torso. The kit has some semblance of a frame inside it, which allows you to pop on the armor pieces without popping in polycaps everywhere. It stands firm, but there are some areas that don't work too well in the arms. The shoulder joint tends to pop out, and the shoulder itself sometimes separates the two round pieces that make it up. 

CGS Option Parts

The shield is supposedly for use on the Graze and not the Barbatos. It is also supposed to be green, but alas it is all grey. What else is there to say? Its a shield. It doesn't really make me want to paint it a different color either...

The Submachine Gun is also for the Graze, but it's pretty cool. I think the Barbatos has enough large outlandish weapons, and should have a smaller, low-profile weapon...

...which ultimately can combine with the lance, which is also for the Graze. The lance is cool too, another atypical Gundam weapon. This one I might actually consider painting in white, and adding some details to, because how often are you going to have a lance!?

The Smooth-bore gun is interesting. This one is actually for the Barbatos. Its big, its cumbersome, and its meant to be held by one hand apparently...

Thankfully the Barbatos comes with a separate arm mechanism which connects to the backpack and the gun for added support. 

When not in use, you can take apart the gun and "fold" it, and attach it to the backpack. Along with this, you can interchange these claws to hold the mace and the long sword on the back as well. 

Finally, this little guy. The mobile worker is awesome. Its so simple, and I absolutely loved the mobile workers battle against Gjallarhorn. Definitely going to paint this guy up, but its a very simple design.

Fear me!

Verdict

This kit is really interesting. I think I have a soft spot for it now, because of the effort I put in. This is a great kit for beginners, as you could probably put it together in 1-2 hours, and still have a really nice looking kit (albeit with stickers). For more advanced builders, you could take this as a challenge to really make those weapons pop, paint on those details, and make it look great. The same goes for the option parts. Its really simple, but unfortunately will take some work to make it look great. I'm not sure I would've loved the kit if I just built it out of the box and left it as is. 

Some nice things about this kit are that it gives you extra parts to build a symmetrical arm, so that you can have it resemble the fourth form in the anime, where it looks more complete. I opted to keep the gauntlet and add the shoulder armor. I really dig that asymmetrical look. 

Currently, I have another CGS option set, but I'm not sure what to do with it. I actually got the kits for this review from my Secret Santa, but I had bought a CGS option set with the Schwalbe Graze so that it could have the lance. Do I just keep both and have a second awesome mobile worker, but then also have redundant weapons? 

Either way, I'm definitely looking forward to building the Graze, and also definitely looking into the new 1/100 models for the IBO line. 

Until next time,

Happy Gunpla-mas!

Review: HGUC 1/144 RX-121-2A Gundam TR-1 [Advanced Hazel]

Hello Builders, 

I've got an interesting kit for you today, and one that I especially know very little about! Today we're going to look at the Advanced Hazel released in 2005. 

It was a warm Saturday morning that had been long awaited by my friends and I, in our gunpla group. Finally, the day had come for us to embark on a trip to the fabled "Comic Store" located in New Hampshire. Upon arriving, it was down to business. Our group opened the door and made our way to the fateful aisle of Gunpla, and there it was.: a wall, lined with kits from a multitude of series. We were like kids in a candy shop, no, we were as close to Gunpla heaven as we could get. 

The day was filled with the seven of us perusing the aisle, enjoying the process of physically shopping for kits. Each of us would pick up a stack of kits, and then exchange them for others as the internal conflict in our hearts and minds (and wallets) shook us to our very core. Which kit do I want, which can I afford, how many can I get, is it worth it? 

At the end of the day, I escaped the store with 3 new kits, and some option parts. The HG Age-1 which I had the Razor parts for, the HG Cherudim, and the HG Advanced Hazel which we will be talking about today.

This High Grade kit comes from Advance of Zeta which takes place before the events of the anime series Mobile Suit Gundam Zeta. Again, I know very little about this series and its suits, however the interesting design of the suit really drew me in. 

In terms of a little background, what I gathered from reading a little bit about this suit, was that it was a Titans prototype mobile suit, based upon the GM Quel. Basically, it was a Quel with a Gundam style head, and various armaments. 

Parts

This kit comes with a polycap runner which is interestingly in a letter system, instead of a numerical system which I hadn't seen in awhile. It also comes with a foil sticker sheet, and a set of decal stickers, for Titans markings and logos

The A runner comes with yellow, red, and black plastic. It also includes the pink transparent beam saber. 

The B runner contains blue plastic pieces, including the two shields. 

The C runner includes blue plastic, and features a lot of the leg parts. 

The D runner includes the light grey plastic that makes up the joints and inner parts. 

The E runner is split into E1 and E2. E1 actually comes molded in 3 colors of plastic as well, which I hadn't seen before. 

Size Comparison

I decided to compare the suit with the Jesta Cannon and GM Sniper K9. The Advanced Hazel has a taller head height than both, but with the cannons extended, the Jesta has a height advantage. As you can see, however, I stripped the Hazel of most of its armaments. With the shield boosters, it gains significant height, and weight. 

Weapons and Manipulators

This kit comes with 3 shields. One standard shield, and two shield boosters. It also comes with one beam saber handle, and a beam rifle with a detachable magazine. The two additional magazines are only for show, as they only clip to the side skirts. 

The kit only comes with three hands. For the right hand, you can either have the standard holding hand, for the beam saber, or the trigger finger for the rifle. The standard holding hand is actually fairly different from other kits I've built, as the fingers are at an angle, so the saber will actually tilt forward in the hand. The trigger finger is also different in that it does not have a slot for the rifle to plug into. 

With the shields, you can see an interesting gimmick they included. The kit only comes with one hard-point connector for the shields. Instead of the connector plugging into each shield, each shield has a small grey piece that you can slide into connection piece. 

The Hazel can realistically have either shield connected to its arm, but only one at a time

Articulation

I feel that I've been spoiled with articulation lately, so this kit actually has been very disappointing in that area. It's so bulky with its armor and additional armaments that it really doesn't articulate all that well. 

I'll give it a little bit of credit though. With those bulky legs, you'd figure you wouldn't get a good bend, but they designed it in a way that it's not a brick at least...

Color and Quality

This kit is baffling to me in this area. For a 2005 kit, you don't really anticipate the same plastic quality as more recent kits, and this is no different. You're going to get that lighter feeling plastic that almost feels brittle.

This is a Titans suit. If you've ever built an HG you'll know that color separation is hit or miss, and with a dark colored mobile suit, especially from the Titans, you almost fear the worst. However, as you can see, there are some bright spots where the yellow and red really shine through the black and blue (which at times can be almost indistinguishable). Along with this, you're given some very nice decals which brighten up the kit as a whole. Adding these decals breaks up the monotony, and add a dimension not usually found in HG kits. 

Even more baffling was the foil seals. As you can see, the kit decides to use seals on the lower shins, and the top of the head (of which, only the back part will actually show). Areas that don't use seals include the enhanced sensor (shown below) and the beam rifle. 

For both those areas, I decided to use a hobby knife, and measure out a section of the leftover green to create my own makeshift seals. I was very happy with the outcome. 

Pros and Cons

If you couldn't already guess, you can go kick yourself for not expecting this. I love this kit for how unique it is. If you didn't see it before, I didn't really mention it. The shields are asymmetrical for the booster, and damn does it look cool. That shield booster is such a cool gimmick. The enhanced sensor gives it that cool "recon" look, and you're not going to get just another Gundam looking figure. Its bulky legs, covered in thrusters are really interesting as well. 

A kit with this color scheme most likely will look pretty boring, but including seals in the right areas, and decals in addition to a good amount of different colored plastic really breaks that up and makes it look great. The kit also comes with some cool additional armaments which I will talk about towards the end of the review. 

This kit however, feels fragile at times. When putting it together, there are areas which call for snapping parts into each other, which locks them into place. However, these points are all plastic connections into plastic slots. I fear that if you put too much force into it, those connection points will snap. I also found the hardpoints for the shields to be fairly loose in the area where the shield connects to the backpack, and the arm. Both still stay fairly well, but don't give you a snug fit that makes it feel more secure. 

The kit is fairly back heavy, and it doesn't come with a lot of manipulators or weapons, which is kind of sad. It's also a very bulky kit. 

BONUS: CLAWS!

This kit comes with a front pack that has folding claws. This section slides into the suits already ginormous crotch, to give it a fanny pack of grabby goodness. 

These claws have folding "fingers" which can grip an assortment of weapons. Here you can see it with some knives from the Zee Zulu

Need more fire power? No problem. The claws can grab your favorite HG Customize Campaign parts, like the gatling gun and grenade launcher!

Verdict

I am so on the fence for this kit. There is so much that I was disappointed with, but also so much I was impressed and amused by. I would have to say that this kit was very fun to build (aside from the stresses of maybe breaking a piece while building it). It is a very unique kit, and don't be afraid of the Titans color scheme. You'll find that this kit isn't average at all. Almost every section has a surprise in addition to its standard build. If this kit fits your definition of cool looking, I would say grab it just for the experience. I can't say this kit is for everyone though. 

Until next time!