Kit Review

Straight build + Stickers

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

HG Gundam Barbatos Lupus Rex - Detail shots (1/4)

HG Gundam Barbatos Lupus Rex - Detail shots (2/4)

Detail shots

HG Gundam Barbatos Lupus Rex - Left armor removed, frame shots. Only the forearms got bigger — everything else is pretty much

Left armor removed, frame shots.
Only the forearms got bigger — everything else is pretty much the same as the original Barbatos.

HG Gundam Barbatos Lupus Rex - Two chunky hand variants are included, but annoyingly there's only one back-of-hand part, so y

Two chunky hand variants are included, but annoyingly there's only one back-of-hand part, so you have to swap it between the two.

The handle of the giant mace can be extended and retracted.

You can also mount it on the rear skirt using the joint parts.

The included wire parts let you suspend the tail blade in mid-air.

An extension joint part is used to mount it on a stand.

Sub-arm articulation on the back of the forearm.

Leftover parts

Articulation is quite good.

First, striking a pose..

HG Gundam Barbatos Lupus Rex - Dynamic overhead smash pose with the giant mace (1/3)

Dynamic overhead smash pose with the giant mace

HG Gundam Barbatos Lupus Rex - Aerial pose (1/3)

Aerial pose

HG Gundam Barbatos Lupus Rex - Aerial giant mace action pose (1/3)

Aerial giant mace action pose

HG Gundam Barbatos Lupus Rex - Together with the HG Gundam Barbatos Lupus. The overall look has changed here and there, but t

Together with the HG Gundam Barbatos Lupus.
The overall look has changed here and there, but the forearms in particular got massively bigger.

The Barbatos Lupus Rex — a rebuilt version of the Barbatos Lupus after it was half-destroyed in the battle against Hashmal — has been released as an HG kit. While it's technically a rebuilt unit, most of the exterior from the original Barbatos Lupus has been changed, and aside from the frame and part of the legs, nearly all the outer armor consists of new parts, making this essentially a near-entirely-new kit.

Lore-wise, the arms are enormously oversized, giving it a weird long-armed-ape kind of proportion, but thanks to that it feels like it's been reborn with a stronger, more powerful design. A tail blade modeled after Hashmal's super hardwire blade has also been added, and wire parts are included for it, letting you position it at any angle in mid-air.

On top of that, the sub-arms that used to be in the backpack have been moved to the forearms, and unlike before, they can now be deployed without swapping any parts — they're fully articulated. That said, this kit doesn't really come with any weapons that make great use of the sub-arms (the giant mace is just too heavy...), so you'd probably want to borrow some weapons from the MS Option Sets.

The frame structure aside from the forearms is the same as the existing HG Barbatos, so the structural characteristics carry over too — great articulation and solid joint strength. The forearms being bigger and the weapons being heavier does make the arm joints feel slightly less secure compared to previous releases, but they still hold up well enough.

Above all, the abnormally oversized forearms and the massive giant mace really amp up the dynamism of action poses, and with the tail blade on wire parts thrown into the mix, the posing possibilities get pretty spectacular.

Personally, this is my favorite kit in the Barbatos series — the proportions are a bit awkward, sure, but it gives off the most dynamic feel of the bunch. If you enjoyed watching Rex tear it up in the show, this is one I'd highly recommend. :-)

HG Gundam Barbatos Lupus Rex | 2017.2 | ¥1,700

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.