Kit Review

Straight build + panel lining + partial painting

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

Cigarette pack comparison shot of the Meteor unit alone.
It's a massive thing, coming in at nearly 50cm long.

Meteor unit alone

HG Meteor unit - Detail close-up shots. There are so many panel lining spots that the workload is roughly equivalent to two M

Detail close-up shots.
There are so many panel lining spots that the workload is roughly equivalent to two MG kits.

Underside view

Bottom detail close-up shots

Detaching the two units that were fixed to the nose section...

HG Meteor unit - To mount Freedom Gundam, the top and bottom of the nose section can be spread open and rotated 180 degrees b

To mount Freedom Gundam,
the top and bottom of the nose section can be spread open and rotated 180 degrees back, as shown.

Nose section opened up

The side bars on both sides can be slid forward and the handles pulled out.

The vertical stabilizer-style nose section and vernier covers move as shown.

This kit also includes one HG Freedom kit.

HG Meteor unit - Alongside the original HG Freedom Gundam. Look closely and you can tell the molded colors are subtly differe

Alongside the original HG Freedom Gundam.
Look closely and you can tell the molded colors are subtly different from the standard release.
The white parts have gotten a bit darker...

HG Meteor unit - The blue molded color has also gotten deeper and more vivid. (The black areas are all hand-painted in these

The blue molded color has also gotten deeper and more vivid.
(The black areas are all hand-painted in these photos.)

A dedicated stand for the Meteor unit is included.

Freedom Gundam's weapons can be stored on both sides of the stand base.

HG Meteor unit - Freedom mounted on the Meteor unit. The body itself doesn't lock in very securely — it's more like the hands

Freedom mounted on the Meteor unit.
The body itself doesn't lock in very securely — it's more like the hands are just hooked onto the handles.

HG Meteor unit - Meteor unit with Freedom Gundam mounted. (1/5)

HG Meteor unit - Meteor unit with Freedom Gundam mounted. (2/5)

HG Meteor unit - Meteor unit with Freedom Gundam mounted. (3/5)

Meteor unit with Freedom Gundam mounted.

HG Meteor unit - The weapon bays across the body open up. (1/3)

The weapon bays across the body open up.

Everything opened up at once

HG Meteor unit - Full-open action shots (1/4)

HG Meteor unit - Full-open action shots (2/4)

Full-open action shots

This kit includes a massive beam saber, and as you can see, it's just way too big.. ;;

HG Meteor unit - With the beam saber attached, the whole thing feels like it's about 1m long.. It's a size that's genuinely h

With the beam saber attached, the whole thing feels like it's about 1m long..
It's a size that's genuinely hard to photograph properly. Yikes.

HG Meteor unit - You can also mount the separately sold HG Justice Gundam on it. Technically, since it's secured by the handl

You can also mount the separately sold HG Justice Gundam on it.
Technically, since it's secured by the handles, you could probably mount just about any kit on it.

Meteor unit + Justice Gundam

HG Meteor unit - Together with the 1/400 Gundam Collection Meteor unit. (1/3)

Together with the 1/400 Gundam Collection Meteor unit.

HG Meteor unit - Straight build shots (1/3)

Straight build

This kit is the HG Meteor unit, one of the more unusual (?) entries in the Gundam model lineup. As you can see, it's a massive mech coming in at nearly 50cm — a pretty rare sight in the Gunpla world. I never thought something like this would get the HG treatment, but Bandai went for it. Respect. lol

Anyway, since the thing is just enormous by design, even at 1/144 scale it ends up being an intimidatingly large kit. With big kits like this, photos really don't do the size justice — you've got to see and hold it in person to really feel it. ^^

The panel line detail is pretty densely engraved for a kit this size, so just doing panel lining really doubles the sense of precision. On the flip side, without panel lining it can look a bit bare. Since this is quite a substantial kit and leaving it bare would be a shame, I went ahead and did the panel lining as an exception — but the workload was way more than I expected, easily on par with 2–3 regular MGs. That said, once all the panel lining is done, it definitely looks like the effort paid off.

Functionally, all the various action gimmicks you'd expect from the Meteor Unit are well reproduced — the weapon bay hatches on each section open up, the nose section detaches and rotates, and the vernier covers are articulated. The kit also includes one HG Freedom Gundam, with the molded colors slightly changed compared to the standard release.

One thing that threw me off a bit when attaching Freedom Gundam to the Meteor Unit — the back section barely locks in at all and just kind of rests there, and it's actually the handles on both hands that serve as the real attachment points. Fortunately the hold isn't bad, but it seems like they deliberately avoided making a Freedom-specific mount, probably to keep compatibility with similar units like Justice Gundam.

Finally, the HG Meteor Unit also includes a massive beam saber part — attach it to the front of the Meteor Unit and the total length hits around 1 meter, which is just absurdly huge. That makes it really hard to photograph, and it's just pointlessly long, so I doubt anyone actually displays it that way. Honestly, it doesn't even look that great either... ^^;

All in all, it's an interesting kit in many ways — not exactly great value for money, but if you've got a thing for oversized kits, it's definitely one of those rare must-haves. A straight build alone won't do it justice, so ideally you'd want to paint it, or at least do panel lining at the minimum — though keep in mind the panel lining workload is pretty substantial. Either way, it's a niche kit, but for those who are into that sort of thing, it'd make a great gift. :-)

HG Meteor unit | 2004. 5 | ¥8,000

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.