As I mentioned yesterday, my local Target recently started selling Gundam model kits, and I picked up two of them to show my support. I decided to begin by building the High Grade Gundam Barbatos.
Before I begin documenting the build, here are some thoughts about the design of the Barbatos, the show it came from, as well as some additional thoughts about the entire Iron Blooded Orphans model kit line.
About Iron Blooded Orphans
2015 saw the release of Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans, a new Gundam show set in its own alternate universe/timeline. As is common whenever for the franchise, the show’s creators took this as license to create new, unique mobile suit designs. The mecha of IBO look and feel unlike anything in any other Gundam story. Great emphasis is placed on the inner frame of the mobile suit, which is said to be largely responsible for its power and ability. To emphasize this point, almost every mobile suit in the show exposes its inner frame to one degree or another. This gives them a look that feels both more robotic and more organic (or at least more skeletal) than more traditional Gundam designs.
Furthermore, the mecha of IBO tend to fight with melee weapons over guns and ranged attacks. And when I say melee weapons, I’m not talking about beam sabers and the like, but real, physical weapons that are meant to slice and bash their way through a target. The show’s battle scenes are far more visceral than usual, as each attack sees metal crashing against metal. All told, these mobile suits were a welcome breath of fresh air for the franchise.
Or at least, they would be, if they were part of a better show. I tried watching Iron Blooded Orphans many years ago, but I could not get very far through it. Suffice to say that it has some … problems. One such problem is that despite the reliance on melee weapons, and despite the visceral nature of the combat, the protagonists of the show somehow manage to not lose a single mobile suit pilot throughout the entire first season. That’s a level of plot armor that shouldn’t exist in any Gundam show, and especially not in one that portrays itself as being so brutal.
But I digress. While the show may squander its potential, the mecha designs are still interesting, including that of the Gundam Barbatos. The Barbatos is the first and best mobile suit acquired by the show’s protagonists, and is essentially the show’s mascot. If you have seen any sort of promotional material for IBO, then you’ve probably seen it. It is not my favorite design in the series, but it is still one of the best. When I saw the High Grade Barbatos model kit at Target, I figured it was time to give it a go.
About IBO Mecha
According to IBO lore, there was once a near-apocalyptic conflict called the Calamity War, in which AI-driven Mobile Armors went haywire and nearly destroyed all of humanity. The only thing that eventually stopped them was the creation of mobile suits, specifically those that used the powerful Gundam-type frame.
72 of these frames were built by the end of the war, but production ceased with the end of the conflict. While powerful, the Gundam frames were also expensive and difficult to make, and they could only be piloted using a special interface that took a great mental and physical toll on pilots. In short, once the war was over and military forces switched to peacekeeping missions, there was simply no need for such powerful hardware. The Gundams were abandoned, mothballed, or simply lost to time.
About the Barbatos
The Gundam Barbatos is one of those 72 Gundams. It was found on the planet Mars by the owner of a Private Military Company, who used it not to fight, but as a power plant (all Gundam frames use a pair of powerful “Ahab Reactors”, which I guess provide a lot of juice). At the start of the show, the PMC’s child soldiers/slaves launch a successful rebellion against their bosses, in part by using the Barbatos (which the kids were repairing in secret). After taking over the company’s base and resources, they form their own PMC/gang, with the Barbatos as their flagship weapon.
At first, the Barbatos is missing some of its armor and weapons (though it is still capable of combat). Over time, its new owners patch it up with a variety of spare parts and components taken from defeated mobile suits. Eventually, a friendly organization helps to recreate its original, missing pieces, thus restoring it to its “original” state. However, it doesn’t last in this state forever, as the Barbatos continues to receive additional tweaks and repairs. All in all, the Barbatos has six different “forms” throughout the first season.
In season two, it goes through additional, more dramatic changes, starting off as the Barbatos Lupus and eventually becoming the Barbatos Lupus Rex.
Thoughts on the Design
The Barbatos has a feral, animalistic quality to it, what with its clawed feet and sharp edges. Yet it still manages to evoke some of the poise and, for lack of a better word, “classiness” that one expects from a lead Gundam. It looks like the boss of the battlefield.
As you can see in the photo, the Barbatos’ main weapon is a giant mace. It is quite unique among Gundam armaments, not only due to its massive size, but also due to being a blunt weapon, rather than a blade of some sort. It certainly sells the idea of combat in IBO being rough and tumble, and I honestly cannot imagine the Barbatos without it (or something similarly large and lethal).
Thoughts on the IBO Model Kit Line
The Iron Blooded Orphans line of model kits is kinda skeevy. The Barbatos, for example, had three differen High Grade kits during its 25-episode first season:
On top of that, they made nine different accessory packs across the show’s two seasons. These “Iron Blooded Arms” contained a mix of major and minor weapons used by the show’s various mobile suits. For instance, the first of the packs contained the Smooth Bore Gun, which is Barbatos’ only long range weapon for the first half of the show. It doesn’t come in any of the kits - you have to buy it separately.
On top of all that, the HGIBO line was intentionally designed so that kits can easily swap parts between each other. This, I believe, was done solely to encourage fans to build the Barbatos’ other forms, since doing so means buying more kits. For example, say you buy the original High Grade Barbatos kit (which is the one I’m building). You can build the first and fourth forms straight out of the box. But what if you want to build the second and third forms? You can, thanks to the parts system, but it is going to cost you.
Namely, to build the second form, you will have to buy a whole High Grade Graze kit, and steal (and paint) its shoulder armor.
To build the third form, you will need to buy a Graze kit for the shoulders, and also a High Grade Schwalbe Graze kit to steal its Wire Claw. The box for the HG Barbatos even encourages you to do this!
Sooooooo yeah. In general the IBO line went out of its way to encourage you to buy extra stuff just to make a single kit as fully functional as possible. One could possibly argue that Bandai did this in order to bring down the costs of the base kits, but I’m sure it didn’t hurt their bottom line to have people buying multiple kits and accessory packs. The whole thing feels kind of dirty.
Predictions on the Build
I don’t expect any surprises with this build. Having already built the Gundam Astaroth, I know what to expect from assembling the inner frame of an IBO kit (it isn’t the same as the frames in more advanced kits). Having said that, I plan on painting and detailing the frame, and that could take some time.
I’ve also come to learn that there are at least a few sections which need to be painted. Depending on whether or not there are additional spots that need painting, this kit could take longer still.
All in all, it shouldn’t be a complicated build, but it might become a true test of my patience.
Other Thoughts
- Speaking of the Gundam Astaroth, guess who came home after spending years standing guard over multiple different office desks at work:
I’ve fallen even more in love with this guy after seeing it every workday for so long, but I decided to bring him home to serve as a point of comparison for the Barbatos. Just at a glance, there appear to be a lot of similarities between the two kits, and it will be interesting to see how they stack up.