Under Review: HG IBO Grimgerde

First review of the blog! The honor goes to none other than Choco-Char's (aka McGillis) Grimgerde. I'm not sure how I want to go about doing these reviews, because there are so many great resources out there: YouTube, dalong.net, and countless Gunpla blogs. I think I'll go ahead and skip the basic runner/unboxing part, because dalong.net is the place to go for these. Every reviewer will also pretty much go over basic articulation, so I can go ahead and skip that. But wait, what's actually left for me to talk about if I'm opting out because someone else already did it? My personal opinion and thoughts on the kit! Bear with me as I just dive into my first "review."

(Disclaimer: This was just snapped together with no stickers or panel lining!)

I'll just start with a "360" of the model:

Front View with all accessories

Front Left

Front Right

Back

Let me just start by saying that I love this kit! The design is amazing. The articulation is phenomenal. The color is 3 times as good. Top that off with dual wielding swords, and enough said. I was so excited to build it after seeing some great poses and custom jobs that I drove down to a hobby shop to buy one of these (as well as MG Char's Zaku II and MG Kampfer). Despite being this excited to build one, by the time I was finished and started posing it, I definitely had some gripes with the kit.

Attempted "Box Art" pose

I've already stated most of my pros up top and let's be honest here, most of us approve of this design. So it's time to dive right into the deep end and look at some of the gripes I had with this kit. Starting from the bottom up: the feet! Despite not having heels, the slim and narrow design of the feet create a bit of a problem when posing. Even with a highly articulate ankle joint, the fact is the feet are a tad too small to carry the weight of the kit. It's not impossible to make it stand, but it does take a bit more time than the Graze and Barbatos, especially with poses where the legs are more spread out:

Pretty much as far as the right leg can go out.

Both feet are flat on the floor. Took a bit of playing around to get it to not fall over.

This leads right into the next grip I have: the kit is slightly back heavy. If you're thinking, "there's no backpack. How can it be back heavy?" You're absolutely right. It's only slightly back heavy, and that's due to the relatively large back skirt and small feet. Of course, these become non-issues the moment you get it up on an action base.

Problem solved! With that out of the way, let's look at the next few issues: the side skirts! They are attached to the leg/thigh area via a ball joint. It offers great articulation, but the size of the side skirt combined with the great leg articulation and large back skirt actually leads to the parts colliding quite often. I had to just take off the side skirt, pose the leg, and reattach the skirt on in a desirable position. Leaving them meant running the risk of parts snapping and that's just not good. Not too big of an issue as a straight build, but if anyone was planning on painting it, be careful, because that paint is not going to last long.

These two pictures show the front skirt, side skirt and thigh armor snug next to each other .

 You probably noticed that I've mentioned the back skirts quite a few times throughout this review... I love the way they look, but they really get in the way, especially in those poses where you bend the leg a full 180. The foot gets caught if you're not careful. I promise that's the last gripe I have with the back skirts. The last set of things that bothered me are the shoulders, neck, and all the accessories. (Really starting to seem like I don't like this kit at all...)

While posing, I noticed that the collar piece and the chin bump into each other, which prevents the Grimgerde from looking anywhere other than the general "forward" direction. Definitely not a deal breaker, just something I haven't experienced in many other kits and thought it was worth mentioning, more so when I was trying to pose it with the rifle. Again, the rifle looks great and different from other IBO guns, but that stock really makes it unwieldy. Combine that with just having one holding hand means a weak wrist section or the stock just kind of going everywhere.

This is the furthest the head can turn.

The only way I managed to get him to use both hands.

And this is the perfect segue into the next gripe!

Trying to hit some of these poses really showed how cumbersome the shoulders are. They are huge and they restrict a lot of movement. The shoulder mechanics is different from the polycaps that swing forward, but even with that compensation, Grimgerde can't quite reach across his chest due to the shoulders. It's not just that though, they are wide. So wide that the arm shields actually rub up against them when they run straight up and down.

Both shields are right up on the shoulder. If painted, they will most likely scrape off the paint. 

Shoulders struggling to get arms across the body. Not bad, just not amazing.

Again, you can kind of see the shield right up on the shoulder.

And I believe this is the last set of grips: the swords! It's more of a personal preference. They are a bit short. I didn't really notice until I looked up some pictures of other kits dual wielding. For the kit and the shield they're mounted on, it's a great fit, which I suppose was the point when they designed a cohesive mobile suit,, but I am considering extending them.

I'd hate to end this review on a low note, so I'm going to just jump right into pictures highlighting the amazing aspects of this kit:

Neck can go up really far, as well as the waist.

Looking down is an easy task.

Jumping back. Shields are fine once you adjust the forearms.

Grimgerde Descends!

I would buy this kit because of this pose alone!

Phew! That was a grueling task. My first review of a kit and it turned out to be just a giant rant on the negatives. The positives speak for themselves in the pictures, but let me just add one quick pro to the list: the build process was easy and rewarding. Most of the nub placement was good, and fun fact, this kit only uses 5 polycaps. Most of the sheet/runner is still full, including some shoulder and ankle polycaps. Definitely saving those for future use.

I had an absolute blast building and posing this thing. Next up for this guy is probably some combination of plaplating details and scribing new panel lines. If anyone has any color schemes/suggestions on what/how to paint this, I'm more than happy to hear them out. Also, any comments or criticism regarding my opinions (for example, I built something wrong, something is "bad" because I'm not utilizing it properly, or there's a way to work around it more easily, etc.) please let me know. Always trying to improve and hear/see what other people have to say. But most of all, I'm just trying to have a good time so I'm going to keep goufing around!