LBX Proto I Mini Review

(Disclaimer: The I name of the model is the letter "i", not the number 1, I made that mistake as well)

I've always been aware of LBX, even before i've built Gunpla. As a kid, one of my favorite anime was the shonen soccer show Inazuma Eleven, and there were a few specials where there was a crossover between Danball Senki (the anime where LBX come from) and Inazuma Eleven. Although I always knew about them, I never knew about their kits until after I began to build Gunpla, and I must say that they do a very good job at targeting them at kids. Eventually, I wanted to try to build something different, but most things were quite pricey, except for the LBX. I looked around for a few minutes and I chose the one I thought looked the coolest, so I went back home with my LBX Proto I

Building the kit was a different experience compared to building Gunpla. If you couldn't tell, LBX are targeted at children, so they are made to be easy to build, look good, and can be built with your bare hands. LBX also all share a feature unique to this line which I will get to later.

In an LBX, no tools are required, so nippers are not a requirement on an LBX. All I used here were tweezers for the stickers and my trusty x-acto for the nubmarks. Due to how the gates are desgined, the parts can literally be pulled off the runner and it's probably the best i've ever seen nubs on the part. Also, LBX have large sticker sheets, although only a half are actually used on the LBX, they aren't close to as bad as Ex-Standards, but they are big compared to most HG's, but this is for simplicity and to make it easier to build for a child. Despite this however, they do miss quite a few color apps, and paint is a must for 100% anime accuracy. The polycap runners are also really big on this kit, and the polycaps even act like small bits of "frame" in the build, almost all of the joints in this kit are polycaps, including the elbows and knees. LBX runners can also be "broken" at certain points, with the parts for a certain limb or section (eg head, weapons, arms) all on a certain section. This could help with organising parts, and to tell the parts that a runner section has, there is a little sign that shows which runner contains which parts. These signs also have a use later.

Articulation wise, the Proto I is pretty good for an LBX. He's got double jointed elbows, 90˚ bends at the arms, nice feet movement, shoulders can go up and move around, and the had is pretty much unlimited, LBX do not have the same amounts of articulation as a normal HG Gundam. Also it's worthy to mention that while there are a lot of stickers, color separation is decently good in a few areas, and that's cool to mention.

As for the "gimmick" that all LBX's share that I hinted before. Well, LBX can actually be used in a sort of board game. The runner signs from the runner sections can be snapped off, and combined to create a 6 sided dice for the game. This is a really cool marketing gimmick, and will certainly appeal to kids, so I think Bandai did a really good job with the LBX line, considering their target audience.

Verdict:

The LBX Proto I is a kit that I thoroughly enjoyed building. This being my first and only LBX so far, I don't know how to precisely compare it to others, however I must say that this is one of the better engineered LBX from what I can see. Color separation is quite good, articulation is really nice by LBX standards, and it looks really awesome. I especially love the head sculpt, it just looks awesome with the scope and the microphone, not to mention the asymmetrical design of the head makes it seem all the more awesome. If there is one flaw with this kit though, it's that there are quite a bit of stickers, and they don't look the best. The required painting is also a bit of a shame, but I think it's decently presentable OOB. For being targeted at kids, this is a great model kit. It looks really sweet, has great looking weapons, is very poseable, and even comes with a little game that you can play with your friends if they have LBX. Definitely pick this up if you're interested, it's certainly a good kit, even by Gunpla standards!

Pros:

- No tools required to build. (!)

- Comes with game that you can play with friends who have other LBX. 

- Quite articulate for an LBX, even with Gunpla standards, it's quite good.

Cons:

- Will require paint for 100% color accuracy. (!)

- A little on the stickerheavy side.