The Gundam Base Tour had quite an impressive list of Haros. Well, in theory it did; in practice, they only had one at the tour stop I visited. Thankfully it was one of the ones I wanted:
It’s a standard, basic green Haro, but this time it’s clear!
About Clear Kits
Bandai loves making limited edition Gunpla out of clear plastic. And if you poke around the Western Gundam Fan Discourse, you’ll find that a lot of folks consider them ugly, and don’t understand the appeal. I myself have been in this camp for many years, so I poked around to find some sort of explanation. As you might expect, there’s more than one reason why these exist.
- I’ve read unverified claims that these are perhaps more popular in Japan than they are elsewhere. That alone might explain everything.
- I don’t quite “get” it, but a lot of rare/exclusive/high status fashion is deliberately made to be ugly and offputting, in what seems to be a bizarre attempt at signaling that high status and rarity (just look at a lot of the stuff that comes from Supreme). I’ve read some theories that this is the same logic that drives the creation of clear kits.
- Some people do think at least some clear kits look good, specifically Master Grade kits where you can see the full inner frame underneath. I’m hoping that this means this Haropla will also look good, since it has a big solid computer core you’ll be able to see beneath its clear round shell.
But whatever the reasons for their popularity, clear kits don’t seem to be going away anytime soon, and I’ve decided I need to buy a few so I can form my own opinion on them with my own two eyes.
What is a “Limited Item”?
If you look closely at the box for this Haro, you’ll see the words “Limited Item”.
It’s on the boxes of several of the kits I got from the Gundam Base Tour, which is interesting, because I’ve previously never seen it before. So what exactly does it mean? Aren’t all these items limited?
Yes, but according to this Reddit post, it actually has a somewhat specific meaning. Basically, a “Limited Item” Gunpla is one that is not sold at retail (which is why it is still limited), but is also not exclusive to Premium Bandai or The Gundam Base. Instead, it might be sold at either of those stores, or at other special events. As the Reddit post describes it, “Limited Items” are the most widely available limited edition products, at least relatively speaking.
The Build
This is a super simple, super basic Haropla. It doesn’t have ears or a bow like the Hello Kitty Haro, nor does it have all the extra body parts of the Haropla Zakrello. But that’s fine by me.
Also, it looks like they just reprinted the instruction manual from the original green Haropla:
Again, that’s perfectly fine by me. No need to make a special manual.
The assembly process is no different than for the Zakrello version (aside from the lack of Zakrello parts), so go read that post if you want to learn more.
One last note - I did a tiny bit of color correction. The eyes were originally grey, and I painted them to be red like they’re supposed to be.
The Model
Here it is:
So yeah, you can see the inner “guts” of the Haro through the clear green plastic, and I think that looks pretty neat. And that’s really all I have to say! I’m glad that my first clear kit was worthwhile.
Other Thoughts
If you look at the box art and manuals of most Haropla, you’ll see the logo for Gundam Build Divers. And you might be wondering why they’re associated with that particular show, despite the fact that Haros have been a part of Gundam since the very beginning.
The answer is simple - in Build Divers, anyone who logs into the virtual world of GBN without creating an avatar will show up in the virtual world as a Haro. The fact that the show had so many of them roaming around - in different colors no less - meant that the release of Build Divers was the perfect excuse to launch the entire Haropla line.