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EB-05s Gaelio's Schwalbe Graze

A Graze with wings and a wire claw, and it looks the part straight off the runners.

MechaGrade Score

3.9/5

Gaelio's Schwalbe Graze · 1/144 · 2016

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2016

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is one of the better-dressed budget kits I have put together from the Iron-Blooded Orphans line.

The color separation on the frame parts does most of the work for you, so a suit that reads as gunmetal and khaki and rust never needed a drop of paint to look finished. It is not a technical showcase, but for an HG at this price it punches well above its weight in shelf presence and gimmick variety.

Best for: IBO fans who want Gaelio's personal Graze looking sharp without picking up a brush

The full review

What it is

The Schwalbe Graze is Gjallarhorn's high-output, high-mobility trial machine built off the base Graze frame, and this kit gives Gaelio's personal unit its flight-capable backpack, wire claw, battle axe, and a lance that combines with a short rifle into a proper anti-armor spear-gun. Snapping it together, what struck me first was how little the finished model needed from me. The frame runners come in the right grays and browns already, so the joints and vents that show through the armor panels look intentional rather than left unpainted. For a kit that clips together in an evening, it has real character on the shelf.

The catch

The flight backpack and its boosters add a lot of ball joints, and a few of them feel a touch loose on my copy, common on IBO-era HG plastic that has had a few years to soften. The wire claw's discharged look is a parts swap rather than an actual extending action, so do not expect a play feature there. Skirt armor is on the chunky side and can bump into the legs during wider poses, and a handful of small details (camera eye, some panel accents) still lean on stickers rather than molded color. None of it derails the kit, but none of it is invisible either.

Who it's for

Grab this if you are building out the Gjallarhorn side of an IBO shelf or you specifically want Gaelio's scheme rather than the later McGillis recolor that reused this mold. It is a satisfying, quick build for anyone who wants a good-looking mech without committing to paint, and the weapon loadout gives you real posing variety for the price. Skip it if you want tack-sharp, no-play joints or you are chasing MG-level engineering, this kit is an HG through and through and its ambitions stop at looking great and being fun to fiddle with.

The build story

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

Assembly is fast and friendly, gates are placed where cleanup barely shows once the parts are on the model, and nothing here fights you the way some fiddlier HGs do. The frame-color runners are the real trick of the build, IBO's HG line leans on molded gunmetal and earth tones under the armor plates so the suit reads as a lived-in war machine straight off the sprues, which is exactly the aesthetic the show itself goes for.

Articulation covers double-jointed knees, a ball-socketed neck, pivoting torso, and skirt armor that is designed to swing out of the way of the legs, so poses land better than the bulk suggests once you push past the stock stance. The three-weapon loadout, wire claw, battle axe, and a lance that mates with a short rifle into a longer anti-armor spear, is a lot of accessory variety for the price band, and the flight backpack's boosters genuinely change the silhouette from the plain Graze this kit is built on.

Lore & trivia

01The Schwalbe Graze was designed in-universe as a sister machine to the standard Graze, built for commanders and ace pilots who needed higher output and mobility in a body Gjallarhorn's frontline forces already knew.
02Gaelio uses the wire claw to physically grab and try to drag down Mikazuki Augus's Gundam Barbatos in the show, the exact gimmick this kit lets you re-create with the part-swapped claw.
03This mold was later reissued as McGillis's Schwalbe Graze in a different color scheme and P-Bandai exclusive run, so the two kits share the same frame and backpack tooling.
04The kit was originally sold through Bandai's P-Bandai online shop rather than general retail, which is typical for IBO's character-specific custom-color variants.