Let’s wrap up this build. Here, finally, is the High Grade Barbatos all built and ready to go:
Let’s dig in and see what this kit is all about.
First Form
Let’s get this out of the way and look at the Barbatos in its First Form:
It’s … whatever. I understand why it looks like this in the show, to convey the idea that the mobile suit was partially stripped for parts before being mothballed. It wasn’t, however, meant to look cool. I admit that the gauntlet-arm is pretty cool, but the lack of shoulder armor is a dealbreaker. It makes the Barbatos look far too slight and fragile.
All in all, I still cannot understand why Bandai insisted on replicating the First Form.
Articulation (lower body)
The articulation on this kit should be pretty good, what with the inner frame and all. Heck, we KNOW how good it is - but how exactly will it fare once all the armor is attached?
Ehhhh ….
This is the best knee bend I could manage. You can see how the leg thrusters are touching up against the thigh, thereby blocking any further motion (on a side note, it is able to easily do this pose without falling over).
Here is my best attempt at the splts:
Not even close.
I said in an earlier post that the lower torso looked too cramped and confining, and this proves it.
There is one saving grace - there is something about Barbatos’ monstrous/demonic design that lends it to unorthodox stances. For example:
Both legs are completely rotated out to the sides. This is impossible for a human to pull off. Not even all mobile suits can do it quite this easily (and even then, it doesn’t tend to look right). On Barbatos, however, it feels weirdly appropriate, and it turns out to be the key to compensating for the model’s otherwise limited articulation.
Articulation (upper body)
Like the legs, the articulation in the arms is limited in its range:
Granted, this is the gauntlet-arm, but the regular ones are hardly different.
Here’s another problem: If the armor on the upper arm is not pushed down all the way, it brushes up against the inner frame of the torso, blocking any further inward rotation:
It isn’t necessarily obvious that this is a fixable problem. The only reason I figured it out is because the other arm moved without impedance. If they both got caught, I may have assumed it was by design.
One advantage to this inner frame design is that the torso can rotate a full 360 degrees. It may not be useful to have it fully backwards like this, but having such a degree of movement is useful for some poses.
Needs More Hands
Just like with the Gundam Astaroth, the Barbatos only comes with a single pair of holding hands. There is no open palm hand. No trigger finger hand. No fully closed fist.
This is bad for two reasons. One, that means no spares, and no spare parts. You break one of these hands, and you’re hosed.
The other problem is that holding hands are not appropriate for all poses. For example, consider this pose that I did after borrowing an open palm hand from another kit:
Looks pretty cool, eh? Now let’s see that same pose with the stock holding hand:
It looks like it’s scratching its knuckles or something. A once cool pose now looks quite goofy.
Here is another minor aesthetic gripe. Not only are there just two hands, but they aren’t even all that well designed. They are literally made out half a hand, and a piece of white armor. A long gap runs along the hand from top to bottom, which is where the grips and handles of the weapons plug in. When holding one of those weapons, it looks fine enough, but when not holding anything …
… it looks like someone took a chunk out of it.
The other problem I have with this particular bit of cost cutting is that it hampers the model’s poseability. There are certain poses which simply do not look correct with a pair of holding hands. They don’t even work that well as a substitute for a true closed fist, as they look too relaxed.
To Be Continued
There is much more to go over, but let’s take a break for now. In the next post, we will look at some action poses, and see whether any of these gripes and limitations get in the way.