LEGO Gundam: A Brick-Built Barbatos
/I love Gundam. Just like LEGO, these Japanese giant robots have a hardcore fanbase. It has a rich history of animated series and movies, mangas and of course the most important one, Gunpla (the plastic toys showcasing all the amazing robot creations). I love building those mobile suits myself—it’s relaxing and a very satisfying process, just like building LEGO sets. So obviously, combining Gundam and LEGO can result in fantastic MOCs, just like the Barbatos made by Ransom Fern.
The Barbatos, from the Iron Blooded Orphans series, stands out among the classic Gundams because it is sleeker and has an animalistic vibe to it with its claws and angular features. It has those classic colors too—white, red, blue and yellow. Despite standing out, the series and the Gundam itself are quite popular. So I get that Ransom Fern liked the idea of creating a LEGO version. And he has done a great job.
The large blue chest has all the right angles, and the broad shoulders with even more complex angles make it a pleasure to look at. The model is complete with almost werewolf-like legs and claws. Even the head, which is often the most difficult part, is recognizable. And on top of that, it’s posable as if it was a true Gunpla. How did this awesome beast of a Gundam come to be? I asked Ransom Fern himself.
Marco: You've been working on the Gundam for over a year—did you have previous versions build but thought that it could be done better? If so, do you have WIPs from previous versions? Also, when working on the Barbatos do you focus on this, or do you work on other mocs at the same time?
Randsom Fern: I do have WIP photos but there was never a point where it was complete. “Over a year” is a bit of an exaggeration, I have certainly thought about it for over a year and the first WIP photo was taken over a year ago but I didn’t start actively really working on it till January this year.
This picture was taken in March 2020. At the time I didn’t really know how to use BrickLink so I was prioritizing a couple of other projects before the Barbatos. It’s one of those things that I just kind of let stew at the back of my mind while I work on other things.
The bottleneck on the whole thing was the shoulders. From time to time I would have an idea for what to use for the spherical part of the shoulders. The screenshot below is from a file that was last modified in November 2020. I had decided to go with the wedge piece, but I was still struggling to find a way to attach it.
This next WIP photo was taken in January 2021. I had just finished my Reinhardt and working on that had got me thinking about part 4081b a lot (the 1x1 plate with a rounded “light attachment” according to BrickLink). I ended up not using it at all for the Reinhardt, but it did give me an idea on how to attach the wedge and still be able to bracket the biceps and shoulder joints.
Only at this point did I start really working on the Barbatos. Sort of. The limbs came together quite quickly but progress on the torso was an on and off process. A couple of smaller projects that I thought I could finish quickly were giving me a hard time (I have since abandoned them), and a couple of bigger projects were pulling my attention.
In retrospect, this turned out to be a good thing for me. The black 1x5 plate was released mere weeks before I needed it. And black 1 x 1 downward brackets would have been a lot harder to come by had I worked on this a year ago.
Marco: Was there a reason why you choose to build this Gundam? Fan of the show, or just that Gundam? The Barbatos knows a lot of forms throughout the series, so why did you go for this one?
Ransom Fern: I really love IBO! (Iron-Blooded Orphans) I watched it as it came out, so I also saw the variants one at a time as it appeared in the show. The 4th form is so perfectly elegant that I don’t think any other variants managed to top it.
A lot of my builds start with an idea for a brick use and then the rest of the build precipitate around that. In this case that was the chest plate. I’m actually kind of surprised that among the numerous LEGO Barbatos I saw completed in the year and a half between me taking that first WIP picture and finishing it that no one else thought to turn those shields diagonal.
Marco: And are you planning on modding it to show other versions, or is it just going to be this one?
Ransom Fern: On building other versions of the Barbatos and other suits from the shows, I wouldn’t say never but they are not a priority at the moment. It’s also a lot more work than you might think. I kind of built the Barbatos outside in, designing the structure to serve the sculpt so there isn’t that much I can reuse for the Lupus and Lupus Rex (the subtle differences of which I can’t ignore at the scale I chose). If I were, I’d redo the shoulders from one of the other seasons—which I don’t care for that much anyway—I don’t want to just re-plate it. I want to build it differently to give it more outward movement.
Marco: Looking at the photos and the video the Barbatos seem to be quite flexible. Is that something that also took a lot of time? And are there any weak spots that might need improving?
Ransom Fern: I made a video about some of the troubles I ran into building this but let me try to give you some stuff that didn’t make it into the video.
I think I’m actually quite boring when it comes to articulation. I don’t really feel the need to gribble them up or cover them, but I do want the joints that are there to be easy to use and hold poses.
I’d say that my Barbatos has all the “basic” articulation. No double-jointed knees and elbow but I try not to skip out on biceps and thigh swivels, and I do that just by orienting the joint in a certain way. At one point I did try for a complicated inner-shoulder joint (circled below) to give it a more outward movement but gave it up after finding out a way to move the shoulder joint further into the arm.
Marco: The model is also on Rebrickable—do you like to build digital or is that something you do after finishing a model.
Ransom Fern: I generally don’t like building digitally, for the usual reasons. (Many of which are outlined in this recent BrickNerd article.) Weight and joint strength management is a big part of building mechs and it’s difficult to get a sense of that digitally. I might try out certain arrangements to see how it would look if I don’t have the bricks on hand or test out the legality of dodgy parts. But usually, I build the digital model after I have a physical prototype. Part of it is that it helps me generate a parts list for me to order what I’m missing—part of it is to generate PDF instructions.
Marco: Thank you so much for your time, and I’m looking forward to seeing more awesome mechs in the future!
Are you inspired to make your own mech—I mean mobile suit!? Let us know in the comments below.
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