HG / GWITCH #18 – Gundam Lfrith Thorn

“A Gundam type mobile suit provided to the anti-Spacian organization Dawn of Fold. Like the Lfrith Ur, this unit is a heavily modified version of the Gundam Lfrith Pre-Production Model. Its peculiar design featuring long arms and short legs was implemented to allow the Lfrith Thorn to withstand the most intense combat situations and gives the unit a very stable center of gravity. The unit comes equipped with a Beam Diffuse Gun that excels at providing suppresive fire over a wide area. It exhibits qualities distinct from that of its sibling Lfrith Ur by primarily being used for backup roles.”

Gundam Equipment

Beam Diffuse Gun

A portable firearm that emits strong, scattershot beams and serves as the unit’s primary weapon. The gun is equipped with a high-capacity battery to allow for extended use, and features multiple high-efficiency exhaust mechanisms.

Phased Array Cannon

A large piece of equipment that is also equipped to the Lfrith Ur. When open, it can fire an extremely powerful, high directivity beam. In conjunction with GUND FORMAT, it allows for intuitive wide-range attacks. It supposedly has additional functions which can be unlocked with a high Permet score.

Beam Saber Unit

The Lfrith Thorn’s Beam Sabers are housed within its forearms. When the weapon is in use, its block unit rotates forward, and the energy blade extends directly from the unit’s output port.

Shell Unit

A control terminal that enables enormous data transfers between mobile suit and pilot. It emits light when GUND FORMAT operation reaches a certain level.

Kit Features

Suppressive Support for Spacian Slaughter

The armor in front of the legs has a unique design. It isn’t attached at the hip joint like typical skirt armor. Instead, the knee pivots out from underneath it.

The rear skirt armor is on a hinge joint and provides 3 thrusters.

Even though the arms are equipped with built-in **Beam Units**, the Shield still carries an two additional Beam Sabers.

Quinn’s Opinion

A Cursed Gundam for a Cursed Planet

Cheers:

+ I’m a big fan of the Beam Diffuse Gun’s design & wraparound sensor.
+ The flip out Beam Units are really cool, and I appreciate them being on the side of the arm instead of under the wrist.

Cons:

– Storing the Beam Sabers on the interior of the Shield prevents it from cleanly attaching to the arm.
– I feel like the mobility & articulation starts off great and gets worse the further down the model you go. The extra thicc thigh armor prevents the legs from being able to be at 90 degree angles to the hips, and the feet have very limited movement.
– The brown color used for the armor seems to easily mar/discolor from stress and it is very difficult to work the discoloration out afterwards.

Closing thoughts:

Overall I like the Lfrith Thorn, however I feel like it being translated into a model kit makes the quirkiness of the design more apparent. Animation & camera tricks can fib to sell a scene, but reality is less forgiving when bulky armor plated onto limbs with short proportions restrict freedom of movement. Despite these limitations the model looks great once posed and my Witch from Mercury collection would feel incomplete without Norea & her Gundam.