HGAd Stella

MSJ-R122 Demi Barding

A cheerful little training suit that strapped on a backpack and decided it wanted to fight.

MechaGrade Score

3.6/5

Demi Barding · 1/144 · 2023

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2023

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 like the Demi Barding a lot more than I expected to for a sub 25 dollar kit built around a school trainer suit.

The Baori Pack is the reason to own this one, a big detachable backpack with its own articulated beam cannons that actually earns its size instead of just sitting there as dead weight. It will not blow you away as engineering, but it is fast, cheap, and genuinely fun to pose. This is a kit that overdelivers relative to what it costs.

Best for: builders who want a fast, cheap weekend build with a genuinely fun accessory gimmick, not a display centerpiece

The full review

What it is

The Demi Barding takes the humble Demi Trainer body from Asticassia's school fleet and bolts on the Baori Pack, a chunky backpack with its own beam cannons that swing up over the shoulder or drop down under the arm. I went in expecting a background suit and came away liking how much personality that pack gives the kit. It snaps together in under two hours, no cement or paint required, and the pack detaches cleanly if you want to pose it apart from the suit or hand it to another mobile suit as an attached weapon. For a kit clearly designed to be an easy, affordable entry into the Witch from Mercury lineup, it does its one job, the pack gimmick, really well.

The catch

This is a budget HG and it looks like one up close. Bandai leans on stickers rather than molded color for a chunk of the detailing, so the box art shine only shows up if you are willing to hit panel lines with markers or paint, which the kit itself openly recommends. The body underneath the pack is plain, the Demi Trainer frame was never built to turn heads on its own, and once you take the Baori Pack off there is not a lot of suit left to look at. Part count is light even by HG standards, so if you want a dense, detailed build this will feel over quickly.

Who it's for

Grab this one if you want a quick, low pressure build, if you are collecting the Ad Stella school suits, or if you specifically want that oversized beam cannon backpack for photos and posing. It is also a genuinely good pick for a newer builder since there is no cement or paint required and the whole thing goes together in an evening. Skip it if you are chasing shelf presence or fine detail work, the plain frame under the pack will not reward that kind of attention, and there are pricier HGs in the same line that give you more suit for your money.

The build story

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

This is a snap kit in the truest sense, no cement, no paint required, and I had it done well within a couple hours including cleanup. Gates are placed reasonably for an HG at this price and nothing about the runners feels like an afterthought, but do not expect the tight, thoughtful gate placement of a pricier line. The head sits on a simple ball and socket swivel and the Baori Pack's sensor unit rotates independently on its own peg joint, small touches that make the kit feel more considered than its price tag suggests.

The real engineering story here is the pack itself. It separates cleanly from the back, its beam cannons articulate through multiple firing poses, and Bandai clearly designed the whole kit around making that gimmick work rather than around the suit underneath. Articulation on the body is standard HG fare, serviceable but not deep, so most of your posing fun comes from working the pack rather than the legs or torso. Value for money is genuinely good at this price band if the pack gimmick is what you are after, less so if you want raw detail across the whole figure.

Lore & trivia

01The Demi Barding is a heavier, combat oriented variant of the Demi Trainer, the mass produced training suit used by students at Asticassia School of Technology in The Witch from Mercury.
02In the story, the unit was originally brought to the school for testing but was pressed into real combat use by Secelia Dote and Rouji Chante after Norea Du Noc's rampage destroyed Chuatury Panlunch's own mobile suit, and Chuatury later piloted it again during the attack on Quiet Zero.
03The Baori Pack, exclusive to the Demi Barding, can detach from the suit and be used independently via a connector wire, effectively functioning as its own attack drone.
04The kit released in June 2023 as entry number 23 in the HGTWFM (High Grade the Witch from Mercury) line.