Every once in a while I would give Sazabi a new weapon, or make him battle it out with the other toys on my shelves. But for the most part, he gathered dust. A silent guardian of my workspace, he would watch as I toiled away in my life as a web designer.

As I cull through the box of debris from my old office, I keep finding new and interesting treasures. The box is your average office copier paper box, but the contents are an interesting look into my toy buying history.

This MSIA Sazabi had been on the shelf in my office for years. I think I bought it at KayBee back when Gundam was winding down. I have always been a sucker for the Sazabi design, and this toy is actually rather large and bulky. It’s loaded with accessories and decently poseable. What’s not to like?

Every once in a while I would give Sazabi a new weapon, or make him battle it out with the other toys on my shelves. But for the most part, he gathered dust. A silent guardian of my workspace, he would watch as I toiled away in my life as a web designer.

Now that he is no longer at work I don’t know what to do with him. Most of my Gundam has been put away or sold. He would look odd amongst all the chogokin.

Sazabi comes with a slew of accessories, including various swords, guns, and small bombs called Fin Fannels. The holders for these open up and the individual pods are removable.  He’s made out of a hard rubber, and can move in all the right places.

He is really a nice figure, but I have moved beyond Gundam.

Do you want this figure? Leave a comment below and I will randomly pick one CollectionDX member to receive it!

The GP-03 Dendrobium is from the anime, Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory, and was designed by Katoki Hajime.

The GP-03 Dendrobium is from the anime, Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory, and was designed by Katoki Hajime. It's made up of two machines, the RX-78 GP03S codenamed "Dendrobium Stamen" and the RX-78 GP03 codenamed "Dendrobium Orchis." You can find out more from http://www.mahq.net/mecha/gundam/0083/rx-78gp03.htm and http://www.mahq.net/mecha/gundam/0083/rx-78gp03s.htm.

On to the toy review!

The very first thing noticeable about this toy, is it's BIG! The box alone measures a whopping 66 cm X 8 cm X 38.5 cm (l x w x h), and it's heavy to boot! It's a good thing that Bandai put in a plastic handle on the box, otherwise, I would have had to lug it around while shopping.

Upon opening, the inner compartment was divided into 4 sections. All of which contained the individual plastic bags (a total of 15 bags) that held the snap on parts for the Dendrobium, plus the plastic tray for the little GP-03S.

THE GP-03S STAMEN
The GP-03S Stamen is a fairly nice piece, with fine details, in spite of its' tiny 10 cm frame. It has a fair amount articulation, and accessories. He comes with a shield, beam rifle, bazooka, 2 beam sabers, 4 extra fists, booster pack, side skirts/boosters, and two replacement claw arms.

He can be posed with his Bazooka, Beam rifle, or his beam sabers, and can do some fairly decent action poses, but it does have a problem of falling over because of the weight on it's back.

The arm replacements are a nice add on, but easily fall apart like burned match sticks, anytime I try to attach them to the elbow joint of the GP-03S, and can become frustrating after several tries. The toy is also made of very GUMMY plastic. The bazooka is actually bent out of shape from the box, and feels like it'll melt in you hands if you hold it too tight.

The GP-03S will do as a stand alone figure, but too small and somewhat frail to really enjoy.

THE GP-03 ORCHIS
Now we come to the icing on the cake, the point on the exclamation, the bang in your buck; the GP-03 Orchis!

Once again, I just cannot emphasize how BIG this thing is!

While it may not be as big as the 1/144 HGUC kit, it's probably the biggest, and ONLY "toy" of it's kind.

The Orchis, technically, is already a built toy. You just have to snap the parts together to make it complete. It took me about 30 minutes or less putting it together, but it didn't take me that long to appreciate the quality, detail, and size of this thing.

The Orchis has an impressive total length of 75 cm with the Beam Cannon attached (43 cm without), 25.5 cm from the lowest tip of the claw fin, to the highest point of the weapon bay, and 31 cm wide.

The panels are intricately molded into the entire hull of the ship. A little weathering and light paneling will definitely bring out the best of this toy.

Other details include opening and closing panel covers for the weapons hold, a total of 6 deployable missile bays, movable thrusters, and retractable claw arms. The retractable claw arms are probably the best thing about this toy! The claw itself opens and closes without problems. The arm extends and retracts smoothly, and folds plush into the body of the platform! Even if the arm is using a very simple sliding mechanism/system, pulling and moving it feels like it's got hydraulics in it. It's extremely gratifying!

Sadly though, the Dendrobium is not without it's issues. The biggest gripe I have is the "mast" that holds up the weapons bay. It's a little on the weak side, and tends to wobble when the weapons hold is touched. It almost feels like it might break.

Other minor gripes include:

1. Non inclusion of beam saber blades for the Orchis Claw. The Beam Saber hilts are there, but no blade! I had to use the blades that came with the DX MSiA Wing Zero Custom just make the claw arms look cooler than they already are.
2. Harpo0n/Grappling Hook. I do recall an instance in the anime that the Orchis dished out some kind of Harthingy, or Grappling Hook. I've seen someone at (the now defunct) Gundam Asylum customize one for his DX MSiA Dendrobium. I don't think I've seen Bandai include this on the 1/144 HGUC either, but I could be wrong.
3. Lastly, a support base/stand for the Beam Cannon on the Orchis! Even if he materials for the Orchis are made of "sterner stuff" the weight, and other factors like weather and temperature, CAN make the Cannon Barrel droop! An acrylic support stand, included in the package would have been a real plus. But seeing as they didn't put one on the 1/144 kit, who am I to complain?

In the end, the DX MSiA Dendrobium is an excellent piece to own.., if you can still find one that is. It took me over a year to finally find and own this toy, and now that I have it, its a sense of achievement for me. I have found one of my Holy Grails!

Aside from the minor gripes that I have, the toy, overall, is an excellent one. It's a great display piece, and can easily get the attention of any mecha or "starship" fan that comes by for a visit! It's a rare find, and comes up on eBay every now and then, so get one when you have a chance! I DEFINITELY recommend it!

Char's Z'Gok features 14 points of articulation and 2 sets of claws. This is the Japanese release version, which has painted panel lines. It is about 4 1/2 inches tall.

MSM-07S Is the Char version of the Z'Gok Mobile Suit.

Char's Z'Gok features 14 points of articulation and 2 sets of claws. This is the Japanese release version, which has painted panel lines. It is about 4 1/2 inches tall.

These started showing up in US stores around 2000 - 2001 when Gundam was just beginning to hit. Specailty stores like EB Games and comic shops were importing them directly and selling them alongside their US counterparts.

Z'Gok comes from the Gundam Series "0079 One Year War".

The MSiA Gundam GP01 Full Vernier is a well detailed MSiA but it suffers from limited poseability and easily lost parts.

The figure includes 2 core fighters and 9 parts. (the core fighters are not shown here, my dog ate them). One of the best features of this figure is the moveable Verniers on its back. The Verniers assist the GP01 in space combat.

Review forthcoming

Wing Gundam comes with a sheild, rifle, beam saber, and variant hands.
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This is the Japan / HK Release of the MSIA RX-77 Guncannon. Guncannon comes from the Gundam series "1 Year War 0079".

Guncannon Features 2 different sets of shoulder cannons, a Beam Rifle, and 3 variant hands. The US release does not come with the extra hands, and does not feature panel lines.

The figure is made out of plastic. It features a lot of articulation, but is not very poseable due to its chunky design.

Asura Gundam is an odd concept. He's a 6 armed gundam, that can be transformed into a floating torso and 2 snake legs.

The first thing you notice is the three sets of arms. You can remove the arms so it is only the standard two. It comes with numerous sets of hands, including praying hands, and hands to hold a gun or saber (although this figure does not come with either.)

The detail on the figure is fantastic. Numerous points of articulation, although the extra arms are limited in the poses they can achieve.

The transformation is pretty simple. Remove the legs, and attach the arms to the top of them to make the snake - crab - scorpion things.

In all, it's not a very interesting transformation. If you are a fan of the crazy G Gundam designs, i'm sure you will like it. But for the casual Gundam fan, you may not find enough to keep you interested.

MSM-07 Z'Gok comes from the Gundam Series "0079 One Year War". Z'Gok features 14 points of articulation and 2 sets of claws. This is the Japanese release version, which has painted panel lines. It is about 4 1/2 inches tall.