MSiA RX-139 Hambrabi

MSiA RX-139 Hambrabi

Height: 12cm to top of head in Mobile Suit Mode. 16cm long in Mobile Armor Mode.

Articulation: 33 total points of articulation: 8 points in arms- double-jointed shoulders, ball-jointed shoulder armor, pre-elbow swivels, triple-jointed elbow, ball-jointed wrists; ball-jointed waist; hinged Wing Binders; ball-jointed hip armor; 6 points in each leg - ball jointed hip, triple-jointed knee, double-jointed ankle. Various other joints to accomodate transformation.

Accessories: Feyadeen Rifle, "Sea Serpent" with optional extended handgrip, Dummy Balloon Canister, Beam Sabers with removable blades x2, Extra Hands x8, Stand.

Colors: Molded blue, dark blue, light gray/off-white, green, orange, dark gray, transparent yellow, and black. Painted blue, light gray, red, black, and pink (cameras).

Release Data: Released November 29th, 2005 in Japan at a price of ¥1700.

Gallery: 14 images.

Author: RAC



The Figure

Even more than the Qubeley, the Hambrabi is probably the strongest example of designer Mamoru Nagano's default style, featuring a slender frame, an odd-looking head, and pointy, pointy feet. A Titans Mobile Suit, the Hambrabi team was led by the vicious Yazan Gable. Faster than the Zeta Gundam in MA Mode and possessed of the Heat Rod-esque Sea Serpent weapon, the Hambrabi proves a formidable foe for the AEUG's pilots until the very end.



The Head

Conical, and covered with what I can't rightly call "Monoeyes" here- heck, even seeing the word as a plural is kind of funny. But there's a slew of them here and on the shoulders, so I'll stick with "cameras." No joints here- since Hambrabi has so many cameras its head doesn't need to move to see.

The Arms

The arms are mounted on long shoulder joints to accomodate the narrow torso, and the shoulder armor is attached to those extensions by ball-joint. The armor fits close to the torso, but the shoulder joint is flexible enough to allow for as much swivel as you need with a bit of careful positioning.

The arm itself is slender, with more than enough joints to do whatever you want. The blue fin above the elbow can swivel in a complete circle if you so desire, and there's a swivel just below the shoulder besides. Add in the ball-joint complementing the usual double-hinge elbow and you have an arm that is plenty flexible but sometimes needs re-aligning. The triple-joint is unusual to see in an arm on anything other than an EMiA, but it's justified here, as the original design seems to use something similar: in the animation, the claws on Hambrabi's forearm are shown as being on the back of the arm when stored, but on the front when in use. The elbow is excellent, and the forearm can lay flat against the shoulder armor. The wrists hold well, and have good range.

The Torso

The torso is quite slim compared to other MSiA but appears somewhat broader than it really is thanks to the wing binders and broad skirt plates. In addition to the wing binders, the Hambrabi's back also features a pair of Beam Guns and the double-hinged Tail Lance, which is used in the series as a weapon on at least one occasion. The Beam Guns are removeable, but there's no way to swing them forward to fire over the shoulder as seen in the animation.

The waist has pretty limited movement due to the Tail Lance being attached to the lower torso, managing only a bit of front-to-back tilt. This isn't helped by a pair of small green cables on the back which run from the lower torso to the Beam Guns on the upper torso. They're tiny and it doesn't take much to knock them loose. They're just about the only frustrating part of the figure. There are only two pieces of skirt armor, which are both mounted on ball joints and have no trouble staying out of the legs' way.

The Legs and Feet

The only impedence to the range of the hip is caused by the shape of the socket, which does limit the sideways movement a bit. Not as severely as the Asshimar's lower body, but it does have less range than I'd consider ideal. Front-to-back range is excellent, though, since the skirt armor doesn't interfere.

The knees are triple-jointed, which aids in the transformation nicely. They're a bit looser than I'd like, however, and occasionally it'll be tough for it to hold a pose. The ankles are double-jointed, combining a ball-joint and hinge, but the transformation mechanism limits its effective range pretty sharply.

Mobile Armor Mode

In Hambrabi, at last, we have a transformation free of parts removal. You may need to switch the hands out for the closed fists, but since those are usable in MS mode I don't think it's a big deal. Though the appearance is radically different, the transformation should be mostly familiar to any owners of Gundam Epyon Second Version: fold the feet and swing the legs up over the shoulders, fold the arms with claws facing outwards, unfold the tail, and you're done. One neat feature in the lower legs- a pair of extra verniers pop out when the feet are folded. The only difficulty I've had so far is that it can be hard to get the heels to pull back out of the lower legs.

Paint and Decoration

Outside of the torso, Hambrabi barely has any paint at all, with only a few minor details here and there. The cameras, both pink lens and black track, are painted cleanly, and you can make out the crosshairs that almost all Zeta cameras have. It's attractive, and the minimal paint is enough.

Articulation gets 8/10

Sculpt and Deco get 8/10

Mobile Armor Mode gets 10/10


Accessories

-Feyadeen Rifle

Originally used by the Gabthley, the Feyadeen Rifle is long and slender and powerful. Fortunately, the Rifle's made of a nice light plastic (looks like ABS to me) so its size won't have a negative impact on the Hambrabi's ability to pose with it. Also, the extra arm joints are really handy here, as the shape of the handgrip means the arm has to wrap around the rifle somewhat to hold it properly.

The stock folds, which allows the Hambrabi to use the emergency Beam Saber mounted on the butt of the Rifle in a pinch. The blades for Hambrabi's regular Saber fit nice and snugly, and the end result is essentially an imposing looking Beam Spear. Hambrabi has no trouble holding it in this position either. The only downside to the weapon is that there doesn't seem to be any way for Hambrabi to mount it in MA mode.

-Sea Serpent

The only new-mold weapon of the lot, not counting the back Beam Guns, the Sea Serpent does indeed look like some kind of sea creature with its fins. Used in the series both as an impact weapon and as a grappling/disrupting weapon, the Sea Serpent has a spare grip with cable extended so that you can show it in its stored form or in use. The "cable" is actually a piece of hard plastic of the same type that the Feyadeen Rifle is made of, so you'll be unable to actually wrap up the Zeta Gundam or Mark II. You'll have to settle for knocking Hyaku Shiki into the atmosphere.

The Serpent handgrip fits in the open hands well, and the orange plastic, also used on the next accessory, is of an ever-so-slightly better quality than was used on the Marasai...

-Dummy Baloon Canister

...which is kind of ironic. Let me explain:

In pursuit of the Argama, Hambrabi Team leader Yazan Gable employs "Dummies"- balloons designed to appear both to the eye and to radar as a mobile suit- to hide the true size of his forces. Each of these canisters splits in half, which this accessory can indeed do, and each half becomes a perfect copy of the RMS-108 Marasai, which obviously, this accessory can't do. So I do find it kind of amusing, in a sad way, that it's made of a slightly better plastic than the MSiA.

Now that I've explained the joke (such as it is) to death, I'll say it's a pretty neat thing to include. Special hands are included to carry the canister, and while they don't attach firmly, they will hold the thing up, though a bit of careful positioning may be needed. If there are any MSiA accessories more obscure than this, I can't think of them. (There's a screenshot from the animation on the back of the box- clearly Bandai doesn't expect fans to remember it very well either!)

-Beam Sabers

The same generic Saber found with the Hi-Zack and Galbaldy Beta. In the animation, the Hambrabi seems to store its Beam Sabers in its wrists, same as the Qubeley, and there is no freaking way that feature could be reproduced here. So I'm really glad they didn't try!

Not much else to say beyond that- it's a Beam Saber, and with everything from Destiny onwards Bandai has done those right- firm blades that stay in their grips when you want them to.

-Extra Hands

A total of ten hands! The standard "Rifle" and "Open/Saber" hands, the hands for the Dummy Canister, and a pair of angled open hands which work equally well for Beam Sabers and the Sea Serpent. I wish there were a way to convince Bandai to make such a pair of hands standard, because it seems like a much more natural way to wield a melee weapon.

-Stand

Making its fourth appearance so far, the stand is the same basic model that Asshimar, EMiA Zeta, and Gabthley use, with a new head. Unfortunately, it's the worst of the four stands in terms of stability. Designed to clamp onto the Hambrabi's hip joint from what would be underneath in Mobile Suit mode, we have a horizontal connection. If the connection were firm enough, this could work, but that's sadly not the case here- the barely-noticable bump that the clamp is supposed to grab isn't defined enough to hold it there. Combined with the plastic used for the stand heads, which is prone to splitting, gravity defeats this stand immediately and utterly once it's set down on the shelf.

Let me reiterate: on my figure, at least, the stand is completely non-functional, essentially there to fill packaging space.

Accessories get 8/10



Closing Remarks:

You'll notice that despite the stand the accessories still rated 8/10, and the MA Mode rates a rare 10/10. The fact of the matter is, that the stand is superfluous, and outside of that element and the two annoying-but-inconsequential little cables on the back, everything that Hambrabi does it does right. A simple transformation free of parts-swap, good articulation, and sharp deco.

I paid more than usual for Hambrabi in order to get the review done in a timely fashion- around $25 when usually I consider $18-20 ideal for all but the largest MSiA. Stand notwithstanding, I regret it not in the least. I don't know if I'll ever get the other two I'd need to complete a Hambrabi Team of my own, but it's actually tempting, and I rarely buy multiples of the same figure. It is Excellent, and unless you actively dislike the design the figure should satisfy.

-RAC, The Zeta Project II