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ASW-G-08 Gundam Barbatos Lupus Rex

The mace-swinging final form of Mikazuki's Gundam, and one of the best-posing HGs in the whole IBO line.

MechaGrade Score

4.2/5

Barbatos · 1/144 · 2017

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2017

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is the HG line at its most confident, taking everything that worked about the earlier Barbatos kits and pushing the frame further without breaking it.

The elbows bend further than they have any right to at this price point, the shoulders swing wide and forward, and that huge mace stays up in the hand without a support arm doing the work for it. I ran into the same sticker headaches everyone else reports, but they never got in the way of how much fun this kit is to pose.

Best for: Iron-Blooded Orphans fans and HG builders who want a kit that rewards dynamic mace-swinging poses straight out of the box

The full review

What it is

Barbatos Lupus Rex is Mikazuki's Gundam pushed to its final upgrade, and the HG kit captures that late-series bulk without losing the frame's snap. It goes together fast, somewhere around an hour if you are just clipping and building, and every joint feels purposeful rather than filler. The forearm sub-arms that fold open to grip extra weapons are a clever touch I did not expect from a kit at this price, and the retractable mace storage on the rear skirt means the giant weapon actually has somewhere to live when you are not swinging it. Handing this suit its mace and watching it hold a two-handed stance unassisted is the moment the kit sells itself.

The catch

The stickers are the real friction point here. The yellow claw accents on the feet and the foil pieces on the tail blade are fiddly to place straight, and getting them lined up on small curved surfaces takes patience I was not expecting to need. The waist joint also has some play in it, enough that I noticed it shifting under the weight of bigger poses. Neither issue ruins the kit, but if you want painted claws or a rock-solid waist you will be doing extra work Bandai did not do for you at this price.

Who it's for

If you liked the earlier Barbatos or Barbatos Lupus HGs and want the payoff form, this is the one to grab, and it is also a strong pick for anyone new to Gunpla who wants a kit that looks dramatic in a finished pose without a huge part count. Skip it if sticker application is a dealbreaker for you or you specifically want a tank-tight waist joint out of the box, since neither of those are this kit's strength. For everyone else chasing that mace-in-hand hero pose, it delivers.

The build story

What the build is actually like, and the engineering worth knowing about.

This is a Skill Level 2 kit, so expect standard runner-clipping and light gate cleanup rather than anything advanced. The bigger socket joints used for the enlarged arms (instead of simple polycaps) give the connections a noticeably solid, deliberate fit as you build, which is part of why the finished kit poses so confidently.

The standout engineering is in the arms: the sub-arm gimmick that opens the forearms to grip additional weapons is a genuinely clever mechanism for an HG, and the elbow and shoulder range make full use of it. You get two holding hands, a long wire-armature tail blade, and the oversized mace as the headline accessories, which is a strong accessory count for the price band even before you factor in the storage gimmick on the rear skirt.

Lore & trivia

01Barbatos Lupus Rex is the final and most powerful configuration of the Gundam Frame ASW-G-08, piloted by Mikazuki Augus in the second season of Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans.
02Unlike the earlier Barbatos Lupus, which carries arm-mounted guns, the Lupus Rex trades those for mechanical sub-arms built into the forearms, letting it wield extra weapons alongside its main mace.
03The HGIBO kit released in February 2017 as entry #033 in the HGIBO line, arriving alongside the suit's debut in the anime.