HGPost Disaster

EB-06/tc Graze Custom

A scrapyard mech built from two dead Grazes, and somehow the best-posing HG in the whole IBO line.

MechaGrade Score

4.1/5

Graze Custom · 1/144 · 2015

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2015

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is the Graze I point people to first.

It takes the already-solid HGIBO frame and adds a huge back thruster and a slightly meaner face, and the result poses better than a budget 1/144 has any right to. The shoulders swing up past horizontal, the double-jointed knees and elbows actually bend past 90 degrees, and none of it feels like it is fighting you. For an entry-priced HG from 2015, the engineering underneath is the real story here.

Best for: builders who want a genuinely dynamic-posing HG without touching a paint booth

The full review

What it is

The Graze Custom is Tekkadan's field-repair job, Akihiro Altland's mount stitched together from Orlis Stenja's and Crank Zent's wrecked Grazes, and the kit leans into that with a massive dorsal thruster block bolted onto the standard Graze silhouette. I went in expecting a reskin and came out impressed by how much personality that one extra part adds to the profile. Snap it together and the frame underneath is the same skeletal inner structure Bandai built for the whole HGIBO line, which was a genuinely new idea for HG at the time. The rifle and battle axe from the standard Graze carry over, so you get a full loadout, not a stripped-down variant kit.

The catch

The frame is light on polycaps compared to what you would get on an RG or MG, and it shows at the joints most builders complain about, the shoulders can pop off with not much force and the wrist and gauntlet joints move a little too freely once the plastic breaks in. The waist connection is also a known weak point on this frame family, some builders reach for joint guards or a dab of glue to keep the torso from sagging under posing. Color separation is mostly handled by molded plastic rather than paint, but there are a handful of stickers for the sensor and trim details, and if you want the thruster's inner detailing to pop you are looking at panel lining, not an out-of-box job.

Who it's for

If you want an HG that can hold a genuine action pose on the shelf without you touching an airbrush, this is one of the better ones from the whole Iron-Blooded Orphans lineup, and its price band makes it an easy pickup even if you already own a standard Graze. Skip it if loose joints bother you more than average, the shoulder and wrist play is real and will need attention if you pose it often. It is also a nice pickup for IBO fans specifically since the in-universe backstory (two scrapped Grazes rebuilt into one) is baked into the kit's shape in a way that rewards knowing the show.

The build story

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

Assembly is quick and low-fuss, most parts are small enough that the molded color handles separation on its own rather than leaning on stickers, and the runners are laid out cleanly so gate marks land in places that are easy to hide. The extra thruster block is its own small sub-build rather than a single chunky piece, which keeps it from feeling like a reskinned add-on.

The standout here is the frame engineering: a double-sided ball-and-socket neck, a torso that pivots forward and back independently of the waist, and knees and elbows that bend well past a right angle. That range of motion on a budget HG is what sold me on it, even knowing the shoulder and wrist joints will loosen with repeated posing.

Lore & trivia

01In the show, Tekkadan's mechanics built the Graze Custom by combining salvaged parts from two captured Grazes belonging to Orlis Stenja and Crank Zent.
02The signature oversized dorsal thruster was added specifically to boost mobility beyond what a stock Graze could manage.
03This kit shares its GR-W01 120mm rifle and GR-H01 9.8m battle axe with the standard Graze kit, so owners of both get a shared weapons pool.
04It was the fourth release in Bandai's HGIBO numbered line, arriving in November 2015 alongside the show's first season.