Gunpla Builds - Garbage Time 2023

Last year, I engaged in what I called Garbage Time. For those who want the TL:DR version - I bought a couple of kits from Target, mainly to support the very idea of Gunpla being sold at a big box store.

But since I wasn’t super interested in the mobile suits themselves, the kits lingered on the backlog. The idea of Garbage Time was to knock them out during a brief and unexpected bout of motivation.

I’m currently feeling a very similar bout of motivation, so I decided to kick off another round of Garbage Time for 2023. The rules are the same as before: build a few kits that have been lingering on the backlog for a while, and which I no longer have - or never really had - a ton of interest in.

This time, there’s a bit of a theme. Can you guess what it is?

The Problem with IBO Kits

Yes, I know I just built an Iron Blooded Orphans kit, and I know I had a lot of nice things to say about it. So why are all of these other IBO kits a part of Garbage Time? After having so much fun with the Schwalbe Graze, you’d think I’d be thrilled to build more kits from the same line.

Here’s the thing - the Schwalbe Graze feels like an exception, rather than the rule. It’s the only IBO kit I own that hasn’t left me feeling wanting. All of the other ones - including these ones I haven’t built yet - have been disappointing in some way.

So what exactly is wrong with High Grade IBO kits? Let’s go over the list.

The Inner Frames

All High Grade IBO kits have an inner frame. This was considered a huge deal at the time, as High Grades didn’t traditionally have any sort of framing. This felt like a huge upgrade - and perhaps a bold new direction for the Grade.

Unfortunately, the truth is far less sexy. While these kits technically have inner frames, they lack the intricacy and quality you typically get in the frame of a Real Grade or Master Grade. One consequence of this lack of quality is that the joints are very loose and floppy.

At least, that’s the case some of the time. So far the frame on the Schwalbe Graze seems pretty good. But keep in mind that it uses a different kind of frame than the ones used in Gundam-type mobile suits.

In my experience so far, there’s something about the Gundam Frame that makes it particularly rickety. And when you consider that all three of the kits I’ve picked for Garbage Time 2023 are Gundams, you can imagine why I’m less than excited about the prospect of more loose joints.

Lack of Color Correction

We know that IBO High Grades have full inner frames. On top of that, for some reason a lot of IBO High Grades were sold for as cheap as possible. Case in point - between all the IBO kits I own, only one of them cost me more than $20.

So we have low cost kits that, due to their design, have to devote a lot of their parts count to their inner frames. This seems to have forced Bandai’s engineers to make various compromises regarding the quality of the outer armor.

If you haven’t read my build of the High Grade Gundam Barbatos (or if it’s just been a while), I suggest you do so. That kit required an astounding amount of color correction for a High Grade that’s still less than ten years old.

Then there’s the Gundam Astaroth. While I still like this kit a lot, it has a lot of unfortunate color correcting decals that don’t really look all that good. Furthermore, some of the plastic has a cheap look and feel that not even a layer of clear coat can hide.

Having done some preliminary research, I already know that all three of the unbuilt IBO kits also require color correction. I’m not sure exactly how much, but if it’s anything like the work I had to do on Barbatos, it’s going to be a pain in the ass.

Lack of Accessories

There are other ways to keep costs down beyond limiting the complexity of parts. You can also try to simply omit certain parts. This is something that IBO kits also do, in the form of omitting various accessories:

• Gundam Astaroth is missing an anti-materiel rifle, despite the fact that it uses this gun the manga.

  

  As for the traditional looking rifle that the model comes with, I don't actually recall if it shows up in the manga.
• Barbatos is missing its Smooth Bore Gun, desipte the fact that it shows up heavily during the early parts of the show. Also, while it does come with its katana, it is the super simple version of the blade that (if I recall correctly) only shows up in a single episode of the show, before it gets upgraded with a blade guard and a better handle.
• Barbatos Lupus only comes with a single weapon, the Sword Mace. Now, I haven't finished watching Season 2 of IBO (more on that later), but from what I've seen, it only uses the Sword Made in the _first_ episode of Season 2, before switching to a variety of other wepaons.

As a result, all three of these kits feel like they’re missing something. I’d have rather paid a few bucks more for the kit if it meant getting some more accessories to mess around with.

Accessory Packs

IBO is not the first show whose line of Gunpla features accessory packs, but it may be the worst example of the practice.

I talked about this recently, but to reiterate - other accessory packs from other shows fall into one of two categories:

• They contain a grab bag of fun parts that you can use with a variety of models
• They contain very specific parts to use with a single, specific model

The IBO accessory packs combine the worst of these two worlds. They contain a grab bag of parts meant for use with multiple specific models.

Now, technically speaking, the various accessories are only intended for use with specific models. Due to the compatibility between IBO kits, they can be used with pretty much any IBO mobile suit if you really want to.

But just because you can doesn’t mean you should. There’s a notable difference in aesthetics between the mobile suits of the different factions in IBO. A weapon intended for a Graze-type MS may not look right in the hands of a Gundam.

All of which is to say that the packs are a sneaky way to try and convince you to buy additional kits. While it may be true that all accessory packs are meant to try and get you to buy more stuff, it feels particularly blatant here.

Low Quality of the Accessory Packs

If you thought the color accuracy was bad on some of these kits, they’ve got nothing on the accessory packs. Most of the accessories require some degree of hand painting to make them color accurate, which is a roundabout way of saying that Bandai couldn’t even be arsed to include a sufficiently large sheet of color correcting stickers (despite the fact that there’s no way doing so would add significantly to the final cost).

Not Really Loving IBO

The main reason why I haven’t yet built these kits is because of all their flaws. But there’s a secondary reason that’s still very important. I haven’t finished watching the second season of IBO, and quite frankly, I’m not sure I want to.

That means that I don’t have any strong connection to either the Barbatos Lupus or the Lupus Rex. That in and of itself is not necessarily a deal breaker. There are definitely times where I’ve built a kit solely becuase I thought it looked cool.

But I’m not even sure that I think they look all that cool anymore, which is why my motivation to build these kits eventually plummeted to nearly zero.

So Why Build Now?

I’m feeling a hankering to build, and after doing the Schwalbe Graze, I also feel like I’ve worked out the rust when it comes to certain particular painting and weathering techniques. These are techniques I’ll undoubtedly use on these three other IBO kits.

The other reason is that the Barbatos Lupus and Lupus Rex have been on my backlog longer than any other kits. So much so, in fact, that they had already been lingering for quite a while back when I did Garbage Time in 2022. They just need to be done and finished with.