HGPost Disaster

Mobile Suit Option Set 9

The bits box that turns four IBO kits into the suits you actually remember from the show.

MechaGrade Score

3.4/5

Mobile Suit Option Set 9 · 1/144 · 2017

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2017

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is not a suit, it is a parts crate, and once you accept that it is a genuinely useful one.

You get twin rifles for the Gusion Rebake Full City, the leg swap that makes a Man Rodi into a Landman Rodi, hover feet and a backpack that turn a Graze into its Ground Type, a head and front skirt for Geirail Scharfrichter, and a shoulder and arm piece for Barbatos Lupus Rex. If you already own the base kits this set completes, it is close to essential. If you do not, it is dead weight in a plastic bag.

Best for: IBO completionists who already own the Gusion, Man Rodi, Graze, or Geirail and want their first-appearance loadouts

The full review

What it is

I picked this up specifically for the Landman Rodi conversion and the Gusion rifles, and on both counts it delivered exactly what it promised. The rifles are simple two-piece molds but they have real heft and the grip fits the Gusion's hand joint without any sanding. The Landman Rodi legs snap onto the Man Rodi's existing hip joints cleanly, no cutting required, and suddenly you have the suit as it first appeared on screen instead of the stock version. The Graze hover feet do the same trick, quick swap, immediate payoff. For an accessory set with no box art hero, that is a good feeling to get four times over.

The catch

The molded colors only really match the Gusion and Graze parts out of the box. The Landman Rodi legs and the Geirail Scharfrichter head and skirt come in a plain gray that does not match either suit's show colors, so if you want screen-accurate Landman or Scharfrichter you are painting those pieces yourself. Builders who wanted just one conversion often end up frustrated that Bandai spread the parts for a single suit across multiple option sets, so you may need Option Set 9 plus another set to finish the look you actually want. It is also genuinely tiny, a handful of runners in a bag, so the per-part cost stings if you only need one piece.

Who it's for

Buy this if you already have two or more of the Gusion Rebake Full City, Man Rodi, Graze, Geirail, or Barbatos Lupus Rex kits sitting in your queue and want them equipped the way they looked when they first showed up in Iron-Blooded Orphans. Skip it if you own none of those kits, or if you only want one specific conversion and painting gray resin parts to match isn't something you're willing to do. This is a value-add for an existing IBO shelf, not a starter purchase and not something worth building on its own.

The build story

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

There is no real assembly here in the HG sense, just runners of pre-cut accessory parts that snap onto existing joints on the base kits. Gate marks are minor and cleanup is quick since most pieces are simple shapes, guns, feet, a backpack, a head, and a couple of armor plates. Fit on the joints I tested, the Man Rodi hips and the Gusion hand, was tight and confident with no looseness.

The real engineering credit goes to the base kits' joints accepting these parts without complaint, which says good things about how consistently Bandai built the IBO HG line's connection points. Color separation is a mixed bag, the Gusion rifles and Graze feet are molded close to show-accurate, while the Landman and Scharfrichter pieces need paint. For the price band this sits in, value depends entirely on how many of the five conversions you actually want.

Lore & trivia

01The set is officially branded HGI-BA (Iron-Blooded Arms) rather than standard HGIBO, marking it as an accessory line rather than a mobile suit kit.
02It enables five separate on-screen loadouts across four different base kits: Gusion Rebake Full City's twin rifles, the Man Rodi to Landman Rodi leg conversion, the Graze to Ground Type conversion, the Geirail Scharfrichter head and skirt, and a shoulder or arm piece for Barbatos Lupus Rex.
03It released in March 2017, during the first-cour tail end of Iron-Blooded Orphans merchandise support, when Bandai was rapidly issuing option sets to keep pace with the show's frequent suit variants.