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Mobile Suit Option Set 4 & Union Mobile Worker

A cheap worker robot and a big purple sword bundled together as a shrug of a value pack.

MechaGrade Score

2.9/5

Mobile Suit Option Set 4 & Union Mobile Worker · 1/144 · 2016

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2016

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is a kit of two very different halves, and only one of them earns its shelf space.

I like the Union Mobile Worker a lot, it is a scrappy little civilian bot with real personality straight out of the early Iron-Blooded Orphans episodes. The Kimaris booster and claymore sword, on the other hand, feel like the reason this set exists on paper but not in practice, since half their color comes from stickers instead of plastic. Buy this for the mobile worker, not for the accessories.

Best for: IBO completionists building the CGS/Tekkadan story arc, and Barbatos Kimaris owners who want its backpack filled out

The full review

What it is

This is one of Bandai's HGIBO option sets, a grab bag built around a small civilian Union Mobile Worker plus a Gundam Barbatos Kimaris booster pack and a big claymore style Battleblade. The Mobile Worker is the star for me. It is a squat, working-class little machine with a single camera eye and stubby proportions, and building it feels like putting together a piece of the show's world rather than another combat suit. It has just enough articulation to pose like it is actually doing manual labor, arms swinging, torso leaning forward, and that alone made the thirty minutes of assembly worth it.

The catch

The other half of the box is where the goodwill runs out. The Kimaris booster and Battleblade are molded in a single purple plastic and lean on foil stickers to fake the color separation you would get on the actual Kimaris kit, so up close the accent colors look flat and the stickers are exactly the kind that silver over time if you handle the piece much. Reddit and blog builders both flag the same thing, this booster looks and assembles almost identically to the version included with the standalone HG Kimaris kit, just with stickers standing in for molded parts, which makes the value case shaky if you already own that suit. The price for what amounts to one accessory arm and a small figure is hard to defend on its own.

Who it's for

If you are chasing the Iron-Blooded Orphans story kit by kit, or you specifically want a Union Mobile Worker sitting on a shelf next to your Gundam Barbatos build, this is worth tracking down and it will make you smile while you build it. If you already own the HG Kimaris and just want its backpack filled in, this technically does the job but you are paying option-set prices for one booster and a lot of stickers. Skip it if you are looking for a satisfying stand-alone build or a serious combat kit, because that is not what is in the box.

The build story

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

The Union Mobile Worker goes together fast with simple, forgiving parts, mostly monochrome plastic with a couple of stickers for the eye camera and warning markings. Gate placement is unremarkable but nothing needs heavy cleanup, and the small scale means seams are barely noticeable once it is standing. The Kimaris booster and Battleblade sword assemble just as easily, but the reliance on foil stickers to fake the purple and gold accents means the finished pieces look noticeably flatter than a properly color separated part would.

Articulation on the Mobile Worker is limited but well matched to what the character actually needs, shoulder and hip movement lets it hold basic working poses, and its stubby proportions give it real shelf presence next to the taller Gundam-type kits. The booster clips onto Kimaris-compatible backpacks cleanly and the sword has a reasonable hand grip, but neither accessory brings any engineering worth writing home about. Part count and accessory value are both light for the asking price, which is really the whole story of this set.

Lore & trivia

01The Union Mobile Worker is a civilian-grade descendant of the CGS Mobile Worker used by Tekkadan in the early episodes of Iron-Blooded Orphans, machines built for manual labor and basic defense rather than front-line combat.
02HGIBO was the first High Grade 1/144 line to build complete skeletal inner frames into its mobile suits, a feature previously reserved for Real Grade, Master Grade, and Perfect Grade kits.
03This option set's Kimaris booster and Battleblade claymore are designed to be functionally interchangeable with the backpack included in Bandai's standalone HG Gundam Barbatos Kimaris kit.