HGPost Disaster

Mobile Armor Hashmal

A Calamity War relic that dwarfs your shelf for less than the price of most HGs.

MechaGrade Score

3.4/5

Mobile Armor Hashmal · 1/144 · 2016

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2016

Runnersn/a

Check price on Amazon

Affiliate link. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

The verdict

This kit sells you on scale and menace, not engineering, and it mostly delivers on that promise.

At roughly 20 centimeters tall it genuinely towers over a standard HG Barbatos, which is the whole point of owning it. The wire tail and opening claw gimmick are fun once, but the sparse runner count and reliance on a foil sticker for detail keep it from being a great kit on its own merits. I like having it on the shelf more than I liked building it.

Best for: IBO fans who want the Hashmal/Barbatos Lupus Rex diorama moment without paying mobile armor prices

The full review

What it is

This is the mobile armor Mikazuki fought at Chryse, scaled down into an HG that still manages to feel enormous next to a standard 1/144 suit. Bandai clearly built this as a display piece first. The flexible wire tail is the standout gimmick, it actually holds a curled or striking pose instead of flopping straight like most HG tails, and the claws open on simple hinges that read well from across the room. Assembly is fast and snap-fit, no glue needed, which makes it a relaxed weekend build rather than a project. I went in expecting a throwaway kit and came out genuinely happy to have it posed next to my Barbatos.

The catch

Bandai cut corners to hit this price point and it shows. The kit ships with a comparatively small handful of runners for something this large, meaning a lot of the bulk comes from simple, mostly flat shapes rather than layered detail. The claws and some of the head detailing lean on a single foil sticker instead of molded color, so paint or careful sticker work matters more here than on a typical HG. The Pluma support unit that comes packed in is nearly immobile, basically a posed accessory rather than a real second kit. Next to the other HG IBO mobile armor releases, builders consistently rank this one as the least generous on gimmicks and plastic for the money, even though it is the cheapest of the bunch.

Who it's for

Grab this if you want the Hashmal vs Barbatos Lupus Rex scene sitting on your shelf, or if you just want a big, cheap centerpiece kit to loom over a squad of standard HGs without spending mobile armor money. Skip it if you are chasing engineering complexity or heavy articulation, the Pluma add-on especially will disappoint anyone expecting a second poseable unit. It also is not a great pick if you dislike stickers, since the claws lean on foil rather than molded plastic. As a lore piece and a cheap way to add real scale to an IBO display, though, it earns its spot.

The build story

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

The build moves quickly. Gates are mostly on flat, simple panel shapes so cleanup is painless, and nothing here demands the fussy small-part wrangling you get on an RG or a detail-heavy HG. The wire tail assembly is the one step worth slowing down for, it needs to be seated correctly in its joint to hold poses later.

Articulation is a mixed bag. The arm and claw hinges open wide enough to look aggressive in a pose, and the tail is the real engineering win here, a proper wire core rather than a chain of ball joints. Where it falls short is the Pluma unit, which has almost no poseability, and the reliance on the included foil sticker for the claws and face detail rather than molded color separation.

Lore & trivia

01In the show, Hashmal is a Calamity War era mobile armor that was buried dormant in a field of half-metal on Mars before Tekkadan's excavation work stirred it awake.
02The mobile armor's climactic fight with Mikazuki's Gundam Barbatos Lupus takes place at Chryse, and Barbatos finishes it by driving the Valkyrja Buster Sword into Hashmal's core control unit.
03After the battle, Hashmal's tail is salvaged and grafted onto Barbatos, becoming the basis for its late season 2 upgrade into Gundam Barbatos Lupus Rex, which the wire tail on this kit is a direct reference to.