Since this kit reuses runners from both Astaroth and Astaroth Origin, it ends up having way more parts than it actually needs:
In fact, this is exactly how many spare parts you’ll wind up with:
I suppose that if you really wanted to, you could use these parts to create an even more customized, asymmetrical design, but I’m just going to stick with what’s in the instructions.
Head
So this is basically just Astaroth’s head, but the left side of the V-Fin has been replaced with a nasty, knife-looking thing:
This is the kind of change that runs the risk of being a little too edgelord-y, but I think it just manages to work in this case. The only other option would have been to give it an identical head to either Astaroth or Astaroth Origin, and that would have been far less interesting.
Torso (Lower and Upper)
Not much to say here. The entire torso is exactly the same as Origin’s, albeit in a different color:
Backpack
It’s one piece, and fairly simple, but it’s also fairly large:
This makes sense, since it lacks the large thrusters that were built into Origin’s tailwing, as well as the weird hip thrusters equipped on Astaroth. It needs a big backpack to pick up the slack.
Feet
There are those weird suction cup/thruster thingies again:
I do find it a bit silly how it only has the front half of Astaroth Origin’s feet, but not the heel. How is the foot not kept as a complete set?
Legs
These were the most fun to build, because they have the most new parts. The fronts are entirely brand new:
Meanwhile, on the backside, we have the Astaroth Origin’s thruster on the left leg (which once again needs to be color corrected), as well as a completely new thruster on the right, once that looks like it came off of the Gundam F91 or something. It also needs to be color corrected, though thankfully it isn’t that hard.
Right Arm
The arm itself is fairly boring. The shoulder is the same as on the Astaroth Origin, though the arm itself seems to be new (though not very interesting):
On the other hand, the Shield Arm is pretty cool. Here it is all folded up:
And here it is unfurled:
It’s got quite a lot of articulation, as well as quite a lot of range.
Let’s zoom in on the grip at the end of the arm:
It’s basically an extra large, extra thick holding hand, which is perfect. It just looks and feels so much better than the flimsy little arms that come out of the Barbatos Lupus:
Left Arm
The arm and shoulder are exactly the same as on Astaroth, so let’s just focus on that new shield:
It’s much bigger than the original sub knuckle on Astaroth, and I like it a lot more. As you can see, this is the only place on the model where I used a waterslide decal, and sadly I messed it up a bit, and had to cover up my mistake with some white paint. I think I might have used a bit too much Mark Setter …
Weapons
Here are the original Astaroth weapons:
I think it was the right call to take a light touch with these, as they came out looking great. Some of the seamlines were a bit too tough to remove, but thankfully they’re not terribly visible.
Here are the knives. I don’t really intend to use these much, but I figured I might as well give them a nice chrome finish:
Now here is the Bastard Chopper:
Out of all the melee weapons used by all three forms of Astaroth, this might be my favorite. It’s big and chunky, but not too big, and most importantly I just really like the shape.
Finished!
When I first bought this kit in 2023, I was overwhelmed by how much work it seemed to need. But compared to Astaroth Origin, this was actually a breeze. I’m glad I was finally able to knock it off the backlog, and perhaps now I can take a much needed break from High Grade IBO kits.
As for how well the model came out, we’ll talk about that in the next post …