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Mobile Suit Option Set 5 & Tekkadan Mobile Worker

A weapons crate and a scrappy little forklift-mech, both built to make your Barbatos Lupus look like it actually belongs to a gang.

MechaGrade Score

3.3/5

Mobile Suit Option Set 5 & Tekkadan Mobile Worker · 1/144 · 2016

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2016

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This one is not a mobile suit review so much as an accessory review, and judged as an accessory set it does its job well.

You get a full arsenal for HG Barbatos Lupus (200mm cannons, twin maces, a long rifle, a buster sword) plus a genuinely charming little Mobile Worker on the side. I like it a lot more as a Barbatos upgrade pack than as a standalone build, because the Mobile Worker itself is simple to the point of being a bonus rather than a centerpiece.

Best for: HG Barbatos Lupus owners who want the full weapon loadout, and IBO fans who want the Mobile Worker as background dressing for a Tekkadan diorama

The full review

What it is

This is Bandai's option set for the second cour of Iron-Blooded Orphans, and it is really two products stapled together. First, an arms pack for Barbatos Lupus: extra hands, a long rifle, a buster sword, twin maces, and two 200mm caliber cannons that peg onto the shoulders like the show's mid-series loadout. Second, a small TK-53 Mobile Worker, the construction-mech-turned-cannon-fodder unit Tekkadan runs as everyday muscle. I went in mostly for the weapons and came out charmed by the Mobile Worker. Its wheeled undercarriage rotates on a peg-and-socket joint and it has a real presence next to a Gundam, like a work truck parked beside a fighter jet.

The catch

Everything in the box comes molded in one flat dark grey, which is a real letdown next to the box art. The Mobile Worker especially needs paint or at minimum Gundam Markers to read as anything other than a grey lump, since the color separation you'd expect from a proper HG frame just is not here. There are a couple of stickers for the rifle detailing and that is about it for out-of-box color. The Mobile Worker's articulation is also minimal, it is built for presence and posing on its wheels, not for dynamic combat poses. If you already own Barbatos Lupus and just want the weapons, you're paying option-set price for a whole extra unit you may only display once.

Who it's for

Buy this if you own or plan to own HG Barbatos Lupus and want its full second-cour arsenal, or if you are building an Iron-Blooded Orphans display and want the Mobile Worker as scenery alongside your Gundam frames. It rewards anyone willing to spend twenty minutes with paint or markers before it goes on the shelf. Skip it if you want a kit that pops with color and detail straight from the runners, or if you have no interest in IBO's mobile suits and just want a fun standalone build, the Mobile Worker alone is too simple to carry that job. As a paint project or a Barbatos companion piece it earns its spot.

The build story

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

Assembly across both the weapons and the Mobile Worker is quick and uncomplicated, this is not a fiddly build. Gate placement is standard HG fare and cleanup is painless since there is little visible detail to protect. The cannons and maces peg onto Barbatos Lupus cleanly using the same shoulder and hand attachment points the base kit expects, so fit against the mobile suit is solid.

The best engineering touch is the Mobile Worker's rotating wheel-and-socket undercarriage, which gives it a bit of posability despite the simple frame. Weapon variety is the real value here, five distinct armaments plus swap hands cover most of what you would want to arm a Barbatos with for a mid-series diorama. Color separation is the weak point, everything relies on paint to look like the show rather than the plastic doing the work.

Lore & trivia

01The TK-53 Mobile Worker is a repurposed civilian and construction unit, Tekkadan strips off its flatbed hauling attachment and arms it for combat duty rather than building purpose-made war machines.
02It runs on a hydrogen engine, which in the show's setting makes it legal for private ownership, unlike the nuclear-powered mobile suits restricted to militaries and PMCs.
03This option set released in October 2016 alongside HG Barbatos Lupus itself, timed to give the newly evolved Gundam its second-cour arsenal on day one.
04The weapon set intentionally mirrors the loadout Mikazuki Augus cycles through onscreen during Iron-Blooded Orphans' second cour, including the buster sword used in several of the season's mid-point fights.