Thursday, January 19, 2017

SD Ex-Standard Gundam Barbatos Review

It seems like every Gunpla builder and their father has a Gundam Barbatos in some form, be it one of the two forms in either HG or NG or both. Okay, i'm going to come clean, i've never built a Barbatos kit, not until now at least. This guy was on sale for like $4, and despite all the problems with the Ex-Standard line, I decided to pick him up so I could finally join everyone and their Barbatos love.


Box:



The boxart is average Ex-Standard boxart. You get a 3D glossy CGI image of the Barbatos in front of a steel grey background. He also has mace-chan in his hand.


Parts:



Part count is very small, you get a white runner...




...a grey runner...




...and two small runners in red and blue.



Lastly, you get the polycap sheet. You may be wondering, "aren't there more yellow parts on the Barbatos? Also where are the red parts?." Well this is an Ex-Standard, and that means...




...the sticker sheet is HUGE. Even worse, it's still large even when compared to most other Ex-Standard kits. It seems color separation is a huge problem on the Ex-Standard Barbatos, even more so than regular Ex-Standard kits, which is a huge shame.

Manual:





Since Ex-Standard kits are targeted at audiences outside Japan, the manual actually has english translations for most of the text. In the manual, you have instructions, part count, some shots of the painted kit and lastly the color guide. Since the manual is translated, you can actually see the colors you need to use if you want to paint it, which is a good idea since this kit is an Ex-Standard.


Completed Product:



I have to say, it looks decent once all the stickers are on. However the foil sheen of the stickers really doesn't look the best, and the fact that half of the kit is a foil sticker does make for some inconsistencies in the looks. A lot of the stickers are on curved surfaces as well, so expect some to peel over time or just not hug the surfaces very well. A brand of semi-gloss or matte topcoat will probably help, I personally don't topcoat, but I don't mind very much anyways. Just be careful not to scratch any stickers, and you're good to go.


Articulation:



The neck joint actually has two ball joints, one in the head, and the other in the torso, giving his head quite a decent amount of head articulation, especially for an SD. Although, it is EX-Standard after all, and better articulation is too be expected.




The shoulders only go up that far. They can go further, but the shoulderpads just bump into the head. If you've noticed, his hands are molded entirely in grey, yet the handguard is supposed to be white. Eh, it's an SD, what would I expect.




Due to a certain polycap, the shoulders can also move out quite far for an SD.




The elbow is at a 90˚ bend, again quite good for an SD., as well as swivel under the shoulder.




The frontskirts are actually one giant part that is connected to the waist by a single ball joint. This gives it minor articulation, but still not much.




His legs can only go out about that far. No knee joint whatsoever, but it can swivel at the thigh.




His feet are on ball joints, and given the design, he's got the potential for good poses, but the front skirts limit him. You can really stretch his legs for an SD though, and the good ankle rockers do allow you to use that to your advantage.




Sadly, since this is an Ex-Standard, hollow parts are very numerous. I wouldn't of minded these at all if they didn't have holes in them, or at least if they were covered up by something. This is really bad engineering Bandai, are you trying to lower costs by using slightly less plastic? I would've happily paid the extra price if it meant getting those holes filled in with wonderful Polystyrene plastic, or at least have a part to cover it. Anyways, first there are holes in both of the inner biceps, but these are the smallest ones.




The most noticeable ones are the holes at the back of the entire leg, which are a real eyesore when you look at this guy from the back. You'll probably want to cover these up with some putty.




He also has holes in the shoulderpad, which I would've never expected him to have, but he does.




The least noticeable ones are on the feet, so unless you're putting him on an action base, these will be covered up by the ground. If you do want to put him on a base though, you'll probably want to cover these up.


Accessories:



You only get what the Barbatos uses during it's 4th form and nothing more, but since this kit is reused for the BB Senshi as well (WHY BANDAI?), you could always buy that instead to get the entire arsenal.



First up is the mace. You would never believe it, but it has holes as well. You see those gaps near the lager spikes? Those are meant to be filled in. They aren't a real bother, still it would've been nice to not have them.




On the bright side, he holds his mace pretty well. Although, getting him in dynamic two-handed poses without his arms popping out is going to be hard and actually a bit hard due to SD limtations, which is a shame as he usually uses the mace with two hands.




It's much more simpler to do single handed poses, which look okay I guess. Oh well.




Next we have his Long Sword, which is quite self explanatory.





It looks good, and you can do slashing poses with it.




Finally we have the Smoothbore Gun, which is a unique weapon to say the least.




He actually holds it parallel to his arm via a peg on the side. Due to this, he can only hold the weapon correctly using his right hand.





It looks decent, if only a bit flat.




The kit has these holes in the elbows.



The pegs on the mace and smoothbore gun fit perfectly into them.




Therefore, you can store them there!




The backpack has holes as well, unlike how the other Barbatos work though, the smoothbore gun does not fold to fit onto this (for obvious reasons), and the long sword cannot be stored here, the mace can instead however.





He's carrying a lot of weight.


Gimmicks:



Being an Ex-Standard, his weapons can be used with HG kits, so that's a thing. Unlike most other Ex-Standards, he doesn't kitbash that much with his weapons to make absurd unrealistic weapons, but he does have two combinations he can do. The first one includes the smoothbore gun, and the mace. You just put the peg on the top of the smoothbore gun, and put it into the hole of the mace.






This is cool, he can shoot at one side and bash anything that tries to sneak up behind him or vice versa.




The next combination requires his v-fin.




You simply put it into the hole of the sword.




Then, voilá, his sword has a larger hilt.




I do admit, it looks quite cool, however his head looks quite bare without his v-fin, which is too be expected. Also, the weapon only looks good on one side. Looking from the other side ruins the whole "giant sword hilt" illusion.




FAIGHT WIFH DA HONAR!


Verdict:

Overall, I think this is a great SD if you can get past the main issues of the Ex-Standard line. It's quite articulate, even for an Ex-Standard kit, and rivals the Ex-Standard RX-78-2 in terms of poseability. One thing you need to note about this though is that you don't have to buy the Ex-Standard version to get this kit. The BB Senshi comes with exactly everything this kit has, and a lot more. This is because Bandai completely reuses the mold of the Ex-Standard for the BB Senshi. It's a bit lazy for Bandai to reuse a mold of a kit from another line, especially one that really needs some work to look good to begin with, but the fact still stands that the BB Senshi version is the exact same kit with more stuff. A reason you could get this even if you have the BB Senshi, could be if you just want another Barbatos so you can display another form alongside with whatever form you're displaying the BB Senshi in, and this kit would work perfectly for that. Overall, it's a cheap kit that highly exceeds compared to other SD's, but has obvious and annoying issues that could instantly turn people off from this kit. I'd only recommend this kit to kids, newbies to the hobby, and people who want to challenge themselves by trying to "fix" this kit. Still, it's pretty good for an SD, so if you don't mind the sticker hell, and love IBO, i'd recommend this to you as well.

Pros:

- Good articulation for an SD. Sub-par articulation overall. [!]
- Surprisingly nice surface detailing for any painters.

Cons:

- STICKERS. SO. MANY. STICKERS. [!]
- Numerous hollow parts with holes in them.
- Surface detailing is rendered useless by stickers.

Neutral:

- Has the potential to look really good if you paint your kits and fill in the holes.

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