#galbaldy

[henshin-hero-blog]

For a novel this thing has cool art

[reversemoon255]

MHF-01DR Load Astray Double Rebake

This wasn’t one I was expecting. Well, I was expecting it to arrive; I did preorder it. What I mean is I wasn’t expecting this particular unit or gimmick to show up in Re:Rise. I get Tsukasa is a popular character, but even Riku only got a recolor with new weapons. I also wasn’t expecting the back-to-front gimmick. With all the Core-Types in this series, and seeing those feet hanging off the back of the unit in promotional footage, I was expecting this to be another Core with very detailed armor. I’m glad to be wrong on both accounts, as this is a cool unit, but it’s just strange how out-of-left-field it feels.

The Good: This is a fun build with some interesting construction. It’s not insanely complex, but it’s relatively straightforward and makes good use of its parts. There’s not as much deconstruction to get between its two modes as you’d think, either. A little bit in the shoulders, popping the wrists off, and removing the feet so you can make clearance for the new legs. And it’s a pretty stark contrast between modes. It gains an insane amount of height, and the redistribution of parts creates a very different robot than when you started.

There are a few oddities on this unit, like with the Wodom Pod. Not nearly as many, but an unused port on the back of the skirt, unused ports on the backs of the ankles. I wonder if there’s future plans for this unit, though as we only had a single episode of Divers Battlogue, I don’t know where it would come from.

The Bad: With both the Astray No Name and Galbaldy Rebake, its issues come down to posability. The shoulder cape gets in the way all the time when trying to pose the arms as Cuadro, and all the back bulk on the legs limits the range of the knees (it has great ankles, though).

Reverso, while cool looking, suffers from some of the issues you might expect from an alternate mode like this; no posability. Those legs are very tedious, are required to be fully bent to stand, and have trouble standing anyway. The arms have a bit more range than as Cuadro, but are still hindered by the shoulders. It’s a cool-looking mode that’s only meant to look cool.

The issues I have with the kit proper are the yellow Reverso chest pieces and white shoulder armor should have been plastic and not stickers. I understand why the shoulders weren’t, seeing as they were being sold as a separate set, but the chest feels pretty inexcusable considering they had a yellow insert for the belt buckle of all things, but not a much more prominent detail. It also stresses very easily. Granted, I was doing a few things I think I wasn’t supposed to, but even when I was trying to extend the handled on the rifles I ended up putting a little stress on those parts. Be careful.

The Details: I added my usual amount of black panel lining and detailing throughout the unit. Lots of vents and gaps here that could use it. I also replaced all the stickers. There were a number of metallic blue ones all over, some blue on the waist and hips which I managed to color match pretty well, a lot of minor face details, and the two parts I mentioned previously; the yellow chest vents and white shoulder plates. It’s not a lot of paint, but it’s light colors going on top of dark plastic, including the dreaded yellow.

Normally I shave off the added safety nubs on the horns, which I had to do 6 times on this guy, but I also cut the guard bar off the rifles. I know it’s canonically supposed to be there, but it blocks the barrels and I wanted it gone.

Overall, this is not a bad kit, it’s just one lacking posability and requires a lot of paint if you don’t want to sticker it. But with a little love and attention, you can get it to look great and put it in a decent pose that’ll look good on your display. This is one I’d actually say you might have more fun straight building rather than doing anything fancy, which I think is a first for me.

[rx-79bluedestiny]

1/100 Galbaldy - Custom Build

Modeler: Luca and Jong Min Kim

http://gundamguy.blogspot.com/2016/09/1100-galbaldy-custom-build.html?m=1

[masterofwolfe]

HGBD 1/144 Galbaldy Rebake

[fauxzone]

[gonesofaraway]

[reversemoon255]

RMS-117G11 Galbaldy Rebake

So there’s this fun little trivia bit from GBF S1 that I get a kick out of. It involves the rights to Gundam 00 being partially owned by a television channel, which is why Gunpla from 00 don’t appear until the last few episodes of the show when the contract concerning its first season expired. It’s a behind the scenes bit that explains why we don’t see representation from 00 until the end of the show, but why we only see things like the Exia and Virtue, and not something like the Gadessa or GN-X III.

Now 00 was a very popular series, which is why they wanted to include it, and you know what else was a popular series? Iron-Blooded Orphans. But the time lapse between the release of IBO and GBD is much shorter than that between 00 and GBF, so there was no hope of squeezing out a kit or two near the end of the run like last time this happened. So how do you capitalize on the IBO love when you’re unable to directly use any of its materials? Take an older unit and re-stylize it to fit the aesthetics of the series in question.

The Good: As much as I poke fun, I love this figure conceptually. Porting one Mobile Suit design to another timeline is a great idea, and I hope this Gunpla’s sheer existence inspires people to explore that idea more. As a kit it’s got a fair number of gimmicks and accessories. I especially like how the shoulders are designed to expand outward to give it more range of motion. Also, if you like the Galbaldy, but aren’t a fan of the Rebake, this is maybe the only GBF/GBD kit that comes with literally every part from its original kit. So if you’d rather build a light brown and grey Galbaldy, you’re welcome to do that.

The Bad: This guy is not very posable. It has poor balance due to a lack of ankle rotations and the Howitzer on its back. The waist has that issue that a lot of bulkier MS Gunpla seem to have where it pops apart there if you’re not holding it below the waist. The arm shield is a circular peg in a square hole. This is most likely to allow for better use as a custom part, but it doesn’t stop it from spinning around on this kit. Lastly, its elbows do not stay together. Simply bending them will force the pieces to come apart. Half-way through taking pictures of this guy I dismantled them and applied glue to the pegs to make them hold together better, which thankfully worked, but I feel it isn’t something I should feel forced to do.

The Details: I was very experimental with this guy. I applied a lot of black to its internal, recessed, and lower facing parts. This was to fulfill two ends: the first is that it creates a forced shading effect and the second was to make some of its parts appear smaller. This was done in response to a lot of complaints I saw when this guy was first revealed, saying that it didn’t look as great in physical than it did in the anime. Obviously if you’re literally converting a Galbaldy it isn’t going to have the same impact as one that has been drawn to mimic a different timeline’s animation style, so this was what I thought of to make it look a bit more IBO-ish, if that makes sense. I’d like to take a swing at something like this again, but I’m not sure when I’ll get the chance.

Overall, it’s not a great kit, but it is a pretty inspiring one for concept alone. I got it mostly because I’m trying to collect the full main team, but I was happy with the chance to experiment a bit with paint schemes.

[sthcollectiontimemachine]

Here we go!