1/144 Vardant Review

Pretty disappointing kit for Great Mecha design


Last week i finished working on 1/144 Vardant from Kurogane no Linebarrel mecha series, honestly i am pretty unhappy that Kotobukiya messed up this kits lineups pretty bad. Kurogane no Linebarrel was a mecha series that started from Manga then later got an Anime Adaptation( a terrible one). The series had great potential but the anime seal pretty much of its fate. i would recommend to read the manga for anyone who has not read it yet since it is pretty good.

Vardant is a One Eyed Blue machina piloted by "Factor" Reiji Moritsugu who works for organization called Judah.The reason why Vardant only has one eye is because Reiji destroyed one of the eye during his first encounter of this Machina. Reiji Moritsugu is an Ace pilot who is calm and collected, he usually act as the team leader in Judah. He is my favorite character since he pretty badass compared to the main protagonist who is emo freak early on the series.

Vardant itself is also one of my favorite mecha since the design is elegant (the tail is out of the place for me though) , it is sad that Gonzo messed up the anime adaptation for this series pretty bad. Vardant is equipped with 10 Shield binders that has multi purposes as weapon container, shield and boost up movement from what i know.

When this kit is finished it is as big as 1/144 gundam which i consider it to be small, one of the reason that this kit is bad that the kit unable to stand on the ground by itself since the feet design is slender and the shield binder is pretty heavy therefore it need support from the action base provided in the kit.

The other thing that i am dissapointed with the kit is that the shield binders and the weapons come unpainted which is terrible considering its price tag, in the end i painted them which makes the shield binder has different color compared to kit. I accidentally bust up the left shoulder armor when i try to reopen the shoulder joint which result in opening gaps.

Vardant is a close range type mecha, therefore its weapons are katanas only and it has plenty of them, Vardant can wield the katanas one on each hand or wield two of them like long claw(Masamune Date style). This kit only provide 4 equippable katana while the rest of it is just decoration.

Probably one of the main selling point of this mecha is the shield binders which give distinct looks which remind me of Thanatos from Persona 3. If i remember correctly, Vardant has a technique where it Trap the enemy with the shield binder and stab it from every directions that resemble Iron Maiden.

Each Shield binders contain two katanas which is just a decoration in this kit, the shield is in fixed Position so you can't move it at all, the shields are pretty heavy since if the number of the shield on each side are unbalanced, the kit is easily fall over from the base.

One of the reason why Reiji Moritsugu is badass is because he is able to fight Linebarrel which is the mecha belong to  the protagonist on equal ground despite how OP is the Linebarrel(It has Energy Sword that is bigger than Raiser Sword seriously) and manage to defeat it more than once.

Linebarrel kits is definitely the worst lineup that Kotobukiya has ever produced( SRW is 2nd Worst) since the quality of the kit simply does not met the expectation from its expensive price tag(this kit cost 4200 yen where you can get some decent MG already). I dont recommend anyone to get the kits unless you are a die-hard fan of the Linebarrel series( I do). If i had opportunity i will try to get 1/144 Linebarrel Overdrive to complete my collection from this lineup.