The Gundam franchise is for the most part a series of war dramas, but from day 1 it had elements of cute. Built by original protagonist Amuro Ray, Haro was essentially comic relief and kid appeal. It was an adorable pet, rather than a R2D2. Verbal, but not treated as having agency. Haro is of course ignored whenever people have "serious" discussions about Gundam, but Bandai rarely leaves a marketable concept alone for long, so Haro returned and multiplied. And became the Sunrise studio mascot. The most recent of these is the Haropla, a line of nonscale kits designed to be simple, attractive, and hugely collectable. Today's subject, for reasons which should be self-evident, is my first dalliance with the line.
As a build project, its a kit of two halves. The first is the globular Haro itself, which features a stand. This is simple to the point where actual tools may not be required, but the plastic and colours are almost perfect. Notably, the stand features storage for the optional limb parts, a nice touch. There's also a number of concealed ports for other bits, playing into a theme of customisation which I'll shortly becoming back to. If you ever wanted a Haro in plastic form, this is pretty good, bar some hollow bits. So, scaling for cost, I'm pleasantly surprised by the actual Haro.
Now for the actual reason I got this: the Mobile Suit bit. This is a large body for the Haro to sit in, which is similarly adorable, but in a super robot kinda way. It's got maybe a bit of the Boss Borat about it, with a big cylindrical body, stubby limbs, but an impressive rocket pack. Its great. And I'm pleased to report no real omissions with respects to articulation either, as it moves as well as something shaped like this could, with the arms being a highlight. Shame about the hollow bits again, notably in the feet. I had some difficulty getting the chest modules to go together. Still, not a bad way to spend a couple of hours.
The MobileHaro lacks accessories, it's hands being closed, but the instructions make reference to compatibility with other kits. This can be achieved via hand swaps, one example being with the GM/GM, which I had purchased at the same time by pure coincidence. Also the many small ports are compatible with Bandai option parts, such as from the 30 Minute Missions. You could properly tool this little dude up, although he poses well enough by himself.
In sort: this was fun. Enough to make me consider doing more.
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