HGPost Disaster

Mobile Suit Option Set 2 & CGS Mobile Worker Space Type

The parts box that turns your Iron-Blooded Orphans shelf into an actual army.

MechaGrade Score

3.6/5

Mobile Suit Option Set 2 & CGS Mobile Worker Space Type · 1/144 · 2015

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2015

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

I'll say it straight, this is one of the more useful accessory sets Bandai ever put out for the IBO line.

You get a whole extra mobile suit (the space-use CGS Mobile Worker) plus a booster unit, a bazooka with shoulder rack, a revolving grenade launcher, and a four-tube rocket launcher that all clip onto your existing Graze and Hyakuri kits. For the price of a small HG you walk away with a second background mech and a pile of new loadouts for the kits you already own.

Best for: IBO builders who already have a Graze or Hyakuri on the shelf and want cheap variety without buying another full kit

The full review

What it is

This is Bandai's second Iron-Blooded Orphans option set, and it does double duty. Half the runners build the TK-53 CGS Mobile Worker in its space-use colorway, the beat-up civilian hauler-turned-combat unit Tekkadan actually uses in the show. The other half is a weapons cache: a booster pack and bazooka with a shoulder rack for the Graze family, and a revolving grenade launcher plus a rocket launcher sized for the Hyakuri and Hyakuren. Snapping the Mobile Worker together is quick and genuinely charming, it has that lumpy, working-class silhouette that makes IBO's mecha design so distinct from clean Universal Century suits.

The catch

This is not a mobile suit kit and you should not go in expecting one. The Mobile Worker itself is small, light on parts, and has limited articulation, mostly shoulder and elbow movement with a stiff waist, because it was never meant to be a posing centerpiece. Markings are foil stickers rather than molded color, so the CGS insignia and warning stripes need careful placement or they silver at the edges. The weapon parts are also kit-specific: the booster and bazooka only mount cleanly to Graze-family shoulders, and the launchers are sized for Hyakuri/Hyakuren, so if you do not already own those kits, half this set just sits in the spares box.

Who it's for

Buy this if you have at least one Graze or Hyakuri variant already built and you want to expand your IBO shelf without dropping full HG money again. It is also a fun, low-stakes weekend build if you like the CGS Mobile Worker's grimy, industrial look and don't need it to hold dynamic poses. Skip it if you are new to IBO and don't own the host kits yet, or if you build mainly for articulation and display posing, the Mobile Worker will disappoint you there. This is a supporting-cast kit, not a headliner, and it is honest about that from the box art onward.

The build story

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

The build itself is fast and low-friction. Everything is snap-fit with no glue required, gate marks are small and placed on flat panels that are easy to clean up, and the whole set goes together in well under an hour. The Mobile Worker's frame is simple, a torso, stubby limbs, and a cockpit block, so there is no inner frame to fuss over, which makes this a good palate-cleanser build between bigger kits.

Where the set earns its keep is the weapon selection. The booster unit and bazooka with shoulder rack snap onto Graze-variant shoulders for an instant loadout swap, and the revolving grenade launcher and four-tube rocket launcher do the same for Hyakuri and Hyakuren. Paired with a kit you already own, that is a meaningful visual upgrade and pose variety for cheap. On its own the Mobile Worker's articulation is limited to basic shoulder and elbow movement, it was designed as background scenery for the show, not a poseable star, and the kit is honest to that source material.

Lore & trivia

01The TK-53 CGS Mobile Worker started life as civilian construction and cargo-handling equipment before CGS and Tekkadan pressed it into combat duty, which is why it runs on a legally-operable hydrogen engine rather than a military reactor.
02Its standard armament is a pair of 30mm machine guns mounted on hardpoints, which can be swapped for 8-tube missile pods, weapons strong enough to hurt other Mobile Workers but nearly useless against a suit's Nanolaminate armor.
03This option set released in November 2015, the same year IBO aired, and was the second in Bandai's HGIBO option-set line following MS Option Set 1 & CGS Mobile Worker.
04The pilot interface uses a man-machine system with an implant in the operator's spine, letting even untrained CGS conscripts run the Mobile Worker without reading a manual, a detail straight from the show's grim child-soldier premise.