With the Barbatos Lupus finished, there’s only one logical place to go next as we continue Garbage Time 2023:
This, of course, is the High Grade Barbatos Lupus Rex, which is also from Season 2 of Iron Blooded Orphans.
About the Mobile Suit
Spoiler Preface!!!
This post contains some spoilers for the ending of Iron Blooded Orphans
I haven’t seen any episodes of IBO featuring the Lupus Rex, so everything I know about it comes from reading stuff and looking at screenshots.
So … at some point in Season 2, Barbatos Lupus gets into a fight with an evil, ancient Mobile Armor named Hasmal. It wins, but it gets wrecked in the process, so it gets rebuilt into the Lupus Rex.
The idea is that both the mobile suit and its pilot were becoming increasingly aggressive and animalistic, so the Lupus Rex leans into those tendencies. It has big claws on its feet and its hands, and even comes equipped with Hashmal’s tail. And that’s in addition to its more traditional weapons.
I’m sure it continues to run roughshod over all of its enemies, though I do know it eventually gets destroyed - by an orbital bombardment …
Which gets to one of my bugbears about the Lupus Rex (really, about all the Barbatos variants). They’re depicted as being ridiculously powerful relative to their opponents, even relative to other Gundams. It got boring watching it run around smashing everything that gets in its way. It’s one of many reasons why I quit watching the show.
Weapons and Stuff
In addition to its claws and tail, the Lupus Rex has a bunch of other, more traditional weapons at its disposal. One of them is a new mace, which is Significantly Larger than the one used by the original Barbatos. I can’t find a good screenshot of it in action, but you’ll see it during the build. Trust me when I say that it’s so large as to be comical.
Additionally, it has a set of cannons built into its arms:
Finally, it has a pair of subarms inside of its regular arms, which can hold onto additional weapons:
Which …. yeah … I think that’s f-ing stupid.
About the Build
The Lupus Rex comes with a piece of wire that you can attach the tail to. Unfortunately I lost it when I first got the kit and opened the bags. I rigged up a solution using the wire from my now-broken Master Grade Epyon. It should work well enough for simple standing poses.