Kit Review

Straight build + panel lining + partial paint

Size comparison with a cigarette pack. Even at 1/550, it's quite a large kit.

Side view

Top view

Front/rear view

Underside

Container section close-up

The Stamen section.
I went back and forth on whether to paint the Stamen... but laziness won out ^^;

The rear section. The molding isn't super refined, but it's got a nice bold feel to it.

The I-Field generator section. All the gray areas have been partially painted.

The mega beam cannon section. Again, all the gray areas are partially painted.

The tail section

The verniers section. The red areas are also partially painted.

Claw arm mounting section

Underside detail

The I-Field generators can be assembled in either open or closed configuration.

The mega beam cannon's grip section can be swapped between open and closed.

HGM Dendrobium - But... maybe it's a scale issue, but no matter how far the Stamen stretches its arms, it doesn't look like i

But... maybe it's a scale issue,
no matter how far the Stamen stretches its arms, it doesn't look like it can reach the mega beam cannon's grip.
It works fine on the 1/144 HGUC Dendrobium... must just be a limitation of the scale.

Interior view with the container removed

HGM Dendrobium - The container's front cover isn't a hinged piece — you remove it and use a separate connector part to displa

The container's front cover isn't a hinged piece — you remove it and use a separate connector part to display it open.
The gray areas inside the container are also all partially painted.

Weapon container open

The claw arms also use swappable parts to switch between open and closed mode.

Beam sabers are stored inside the claw arms, and you can attach beam saber parts to them as well.

Full armament!

Full armament action with weapon container open / mega beam cannon loaded / claw arms deployed / beam sabers attached

Pretty impressive looking! That's the Dendrobium for you!

Claw arm deployment

The container open gimmick parts and the mega beam cannon grip can be stored underneath the stand.

This kit includes 2 MS figures at 1/550 scale.
Painting them is pretty much a must though... yikes;

The Stamen that docks inside the Dendrobium.
Small, but surprisingly detailed.

HGM Dendrobium - The included 1/550 Gerbera Tetra (1/3)

The included 1/550 Gerbera Tetra

Small but the detail is really great~
The kind of detail that gets hardcore modelers excited.

HGM Dendrobium - Comparison with the 1/144 HGUC Dendrobium. The sheer presence of the 1/144 version at nearly 1 meter long is

Comparison with the 1/144 HGUC Dendrobium.
The sheer presence of the 1/144 version at nearly 1 meter long is something else...

Looks like a son and his dad ^^

HGM Dendrobium - Straight build shot. The color separation is pretty mediocre, so without at least some partial painting it l

Straight build.
The color separation is pretty mediocre, so without at least some partial painting it looks pretty bare~

The HGM series was a lineup that briefly appeared in 2001, targeting large mecha from the Gundam universe at 1/550 scale.
In the end, only three MA-class units from 0083 Stardust Memory were ever released.

The first one out of the gate was the Dendrobium — one of the most iconic and imposing large-scale units in the Gundam universe. Even though 1/550 sounds like it'd come out pretty small, the unit itself is so massive in lore that it ends up being a decent size. The mega beam cannon makes the overall length feel close to 30cm, but the main body itself is a nice, not-too-big-not-too-small size.

The fact that the Dendrobium got an injection kit release at all is already a big deal in itself. The overall detail level is decent, but the color separation isn't particularly thorough, so a straight build gives it a pretty bare, empty feel. Adding partial painting in various spots like in the photos above really brings it to life — but there are more spots to paint than you'd expect, so honestly it might take about the same amount of time to just spray the whole thing white and paint over the gray areas for a full paint job.

The molding is decent enough, so I did go ahead and do panel lining to bring out the detail... but it came out a bit too dark and stands out a little too much; Either way, this feels like a kit you'd want to buy with painting in mind rather than a straight build. All the gray and red areas are partially painted here, and it looks decent enough with the colors filled in — but in straight build form it's just... not quite there.

Feature-wise, most of the gimmicks from the source material are represented — weapon container opening, mega beam cannon grip, claw arm deployment, and so on — but none of it is done with moving parts. Everything is handled through parts-swapping instead. It's more durable that way, but it's still a bit of a letdown.

Each HGM kit includes two small 1/550 MS figures, and this one comes with the GP03 Stamen (for docking inside the Dendrobium) and the Gerbera Tetra. They're molded entirely in a plain white soft plastic, so they definitely need painting — but the detail is pretty impressive for their size. For anyone who enjoys painting small figures, these are a really fun little bonus.

Honestly, the HGM series sits in a bit of an awkward spot — the line between it and the EX warship series is a little blurry. It's not as densely detailed as the EX line, and the HGM series has more of a standard injection kit feel to the detail... but on the flip side, it's significantly cheaper than EX. My personal guess is that sales weren't great for HGM, so units that would've fit the lineup ended up getting absorbed into the EX line or later released as Gundam Collection mecha series instead. EX is a more niche, collector-oriented lineup with higher prices partly because of lower sales volumes — so in terms of recouping tooling costs, EX might manage it somehow, but HGM probably had a pretty tough time breaking even. ^^;

Anyway, it's an interesting lineup, and the main appeal is being able to get comparable units cheaper than what's available in the EX line or other lineups. And above all else — it's the Dendrobium. ^^

HGM Dendrobium | 2001.7 | ¥1,500

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.