Let’s build another Haropla - but not just of any Haro, but a MOBILEHAro:
About Mobileharo
Mobileharo is part of the Haropla line that was born from Gundam Build Divers, and if you’re wondering if it actually appears in the show, the answer is “yes”, albeit extremely briefly.
Episode 19 is a late-show filler episode in which a fashion company(?) sponsors a women’s only virtual marathon within GBN. The company’s chairman shows up as a Mobileharo in order to MC the event:
Boxart
When it came time to come up with some box art for the original Mobileharo, Bandai couldn't just show a picture of the chairman waving around in a stadium. So instead they came up with this retro-tinged Sci Fi art, in which Mobileharos are busy working on the surface of Mars:
This is probably an homage to some old school Gunpla's cover art, but for the life of me I can't figure out which one.
About the Build
This kit is basically a combination of a standard Haropla with some extra runners for the body.
While the outside of the model is made in the Gundam Base’s blue and white colors, I find it interesting that the interior is colored red. I feel like grey would have gone better; maybe they just really wanted it to have red eyes?
Well I want grey eyes, so I’m gonna paint them. Red eyes would make the model look too much like the American flag.
Now, if you’ve read my previous Haropla builds, you’ll know that there are at least two different kinds of Haropla. One is split down the middle vertically, allowing you to pull the front half off to reveal a bunch of circuitry inside:
The other is split down the middle horizontally, allowing you to flip the top half open to reveal a keyboard:
The Haro Zakrello and the Clear Green Haro are the former type, while the Hello Kitty Haro, as well as this Mobileharo, are the latter. I’m not really sure how they decide which one is going to be which, but there you have it.
The Chassis
I was curious as to how exactly Haro fits into the chassis and stays in place. As it turns out, there’s a peg on the inside of the chassis that it plugs into, and a lip around the top which flips down to further secure it into place.
It’s an extremely secure fit, though there is still enough give that you can still rotate Haro left and right if you want to.
Not only is the chassis quite detailed, but it specifically has a very strong steampunk vibe. That probably explains a lot of the custom builds I’ve seen online, like this one:
While I didn’t go that far, I did do some panel lining in order to highlight the rivets and other details.
Limbs
The limbs have very simple joints that nevertheless have excellent range. They also have a lot of detail, being made to look as if they’re assembled from gears and pipes and the like. I went a little too far trying to add color and detail, such that a lot of the paint is going to scrape off if I move the joints too much. Lesson learned for next time.
Finished
Let’s plug Haro in and take it for a spin:
As expected, it’s very cute, but what exactly can it do? On it’s own, not very much I’m afraid:
That’s because Mobileharo comes with no additional accessories. This despite the fact that its body is littered with holes so that you can plug in various Option Sets:
It also comes with only a single set of closed fist hands. That means you can’t even have it hold any weapons you might have lying around.
This is a classic Bandai ploy in action; they come up with something cool but in complete in hopes that it will entice you to buy some accessory packs.
In this case, their ploy didn’t quite work, but it also kinda did. Technically speaking I didn’t buy any accessories specifically for use with this Mobileharo. However, I did coincidentally get some weapons backs from the Gundam Base Tour, so in the end they still got me.
Anyway, for now, let’s just try out some accessories I already have lying around.
Backpack
Mobileharo uses a standard two-peg connector for its backpack, meaning most (though certainly not all) High Grade backpacks will work with it. The only problem is that the connector sits fairly low on its back, so some accessories look better or worse than others. I’ll let you be the judge:
Next, it has some holes on the side of its backpack, to which I attached the missile launchers from the Command Gundam and the Command Quan[T]:
I feel like you have to have some pretty specialized accessories to fit into these slots, but they’re pretty great if you do.
Next up we have some holes in the arms that can accept all sorts of stuff:
In my estimation these are the most useful of the bunch, as they allow you to use certain handheld (or handheld-adjacent) gear even without proper holding hands.
Finally, there are four holes in the front, which were by far the hardest to use. I don’t think I have any accessories that plug in from this direction, so I had to get creative:
Conclusion
Am I disappointed in the lack of accessories? Yes, if for no other reason than the principle of it.
Was it fun to plug in different accessories to see how they look? Yes, but only for a little while. Most of the gear I have just doesn’t really look good on this particular model, possibly due to the clash in color schemes. If this were the original Haropla (which is in a much more neutral grey), things might have been different, but as it stands that Gundam Base color scheme doesn’t really play nicely with others.
So in the end, am I happy enough to have this thing stand on the shelf as-is? Absolutely. It still looks weird and cool to see a Haro with a body, and again, and while the color scheme may not play well with others, it’s still incredibly sharp on its own.