BB Senshi Sangokuden Bacho Blue Destiny Part 1

BB Senshi Mugenbine
Starting on a much smaller Gunpla after the completion of MG Force Impulse Gundam. ^^ The kit selected this time is BB Senshi Sangokuden Bacho Blue Destiny. ^^


Came out in 2009, Bacho Blue Destiny is the first release from the manga's second chapter "Battle of the War Gods" (三国伝 戦神決闘編). Seeking revenge for his homeland's destruction at the hands of Sohi and the army of Giga, Bacho Blue Destiny is depicted as a lone warrior who wander the lands, intervening in conflicts to stop Giga's expansion campaign. His great anguish and hatred towards Giga give him the "berserker mode" ability - an alternate form with tremendous strength for Bacho to deal massive damage to his target within a limited time.

The most significant feature of Bacho Blue Destiny in his "berserker mode" is the change of his eyes from normal expression to glowing red, which is a great reference to the actual MS the character is based on - GM Blue Destiny Unit 1 from "Mobile Suit Gundam: Blue Destiny". ^^

Bacho's adventure was in another two kits after it was released. The manga for Kochu Gundam and Joko Serpent showed how Bacho Blue Destiny interfered in the battle between Giga and Shu, and received part of the armors from Ryuubi Gundam's dragon at the most dire moment in combat, before agreeing to join Shu's army led by Koumei ReGZ. His allegiance completes Shu's of the Five Tiger Generals (五誇将), with the other four members being Kan-U Gundam, Chouhi Gundam, Chouun Gundam and Kochu Gundam.

As it turned out, Bacho is the only non-Gundam type among the Generals. ^^

In the TV anime version that ended quite some time ago, Bacho Blue Destiny made several appearances as a fugitive child following Ryubi Gundam before the latter gets his own land to rule. He was about the only recognizable GM among all other "civilian" types. ^^;


Screenshots from Episode 21.
Images are from this previous posting.
While each character in the overall story has his or her own unique features in terms of Gunpla design, Bacho Blue Destiny still stands out a lot in terms of gimmicks in my opinion. The ability to swap his eye expression without part swapping is unique in the series, and in terms of weaponry, the ability to assemble multiple parts into various weapons, or use them straightaway is noteworthy as well, as the number of combination possible is a lot - much more than most other kits from the same series that is. ^^



Introduction of the kit on the box sides.


Content.


Manual design.
A look at the different runners in this kit:


Runner A1


Very delicate details of the teeth on the dragon head parts.


(Left) A lot of details to paint and panel line on quite a lot of parts it seems, but at least they are in white, which makes the job somewhat easier. ^^
(Right) Light clear green part for the eye - goggles to be exact. ^^


Runner A2


(Left) One-piece part design for the hair pieces looks good. ^^
(Right) Very small chest armor part that requires a lot of work it seems. ^^;


Runner B


Thanks to Bacho's mode change gimmick for his eyes, the part design and assembly for the head is different from most other BB Senshi Sangokuden kits. ^^


The spear and sword parts need quite a bit of work to resemble their designated color scheme.


Foil sticker and polycap set.


Foil stickers for the two eye expressions. ^^


All parts are removed from their respective runners.
A bit of straight assembly to see how some components of the actual model kit will turn out to be. ^^



A huge dragon head on the helmet in "berserker mode". ^^


Separate pieces of the weapon.


Combo spear: Shiryuu Gokurensou (獅龍極煉槍)


19cm in length for Shiryuu Gokurensou!





The playability of this kit is extremely high as the weapon parts can be assembled into different forms, be used as they are or configured onto the kit itself. ^^


All the parts are organized using paper boxes, waiting to be "processed" XD
Hand painting on quite a number of parts will be covered in the next posting.