HGMobile Suit Crossbone Gundam: Steel Seven (manga)

Dictus (Callisto of Shadow Custom)

A high gloss oddity that turns into a giant hand, built for people who love Gunpla's weirder corners.

MechaGrade Score

3.6/5

Dictus (Callisto of Shadow Custom) · 1/144 · 2021

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2021

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This one earns its place by being genuinely strange in a good way.

I built it expecting a forgettable P-Bandai reissue and came away won over by the transformation gimmick alone, the head becomes a thumb and the arms fold into fingers, and it actually reads as a hand once its together. The molded gloss finish is the real star, it looks lacquered right out of the runners with zero painting. It is not a kit chasing perfect articulation or engineering depth, it is chasing a specific weird idea and it lands that idea well.

Best for: Crossbone Gundam fans and collectors who want a display piece with a genuine gimmick rather than another standard humanoid HG

The full review

What it is

Dictus is one of two mirror image mobile suits from Crossbone Gundam: Steel Seven, and the Shadow Custom is the right hand half of that pair, piloted by Callisto's cloned double. The headline feature is the swap into mobile armor mode, where the head becomes a thumb and the dominant arm combines with a sub arm to form an index finger while the remaining limbs curl into the other three fingers and the beam axe hangs off the wrist. It sounds gimmicky on paper and it is, but building it and watching the parts actually resolve into a hand shape is a genuinely fun payoff that most HG kits do not attempt.

The catch

This is a P-Bandai exclusive, so it comes at exclusive pricing and limited stock, it has gone in and out of availability since its 2021 release and resale can run well above a standard HG. The gloss injected armor looks fantastic but that same glossy plastic shows fingerprints and scuffs more readily than matte HG plastic, and it is less friendly to anyone who wants to repaint or panel line without prepping the surface first. Because the kit's engineering budget went into the transformation gimmick, do not expect showpiece articulation, the pose range is closer to a standard early 2020s HG than to anything built for dynamic action shots.

Who it's for

If you already like Crossbone Gundam or you collect the stranger transforming kits in the Gunpla catalog, this is worth tracking down, it is one of the only entries from that manga's antagonist roster to get a kit at all. If you are chasing display grade articulation or want your first HG to be a straightforward posable Gundam, look elsewhere, the Dictus is a conversation piece and a gimmick kit first, and a poseable action figure a distant second. I would tell a builder new to P-Bandai exclusives to go in expecting a fun afternoon build and a great shelf story rather than a technical showcase.

The build story

What the build is actually like, and the engineering worth knowing about.

The build itself runs like a standard HG in terms of runner count and part complexity, nothing overly fiddly, but the gloss finish means gate marks and nub stress show more than usual so a careful clip and light sand pays off more here than on a matte kit. The parts that do the mode swap are the ones to handle with patience, they are keyed to lock into either configuration and forcing them the wrong way is the easiest way to stress a joint.

The best engineering is the transformation itself, watching the face fold to become a thumb while the arm and a sub arm combine into an index finger is legitimately clever for a kit at this price point and grade. The beam axe and four beam effect claw parts round out a small but purposeful accessory set, enough to pose it in mobile suit mode with a weapon or drop into the hand shaped mobile armor mode with the beam claws fanned out.

Lore & trivia

01Dictus is the only enemy mobile suit from the Crossbone Gundam manga line to receive an official Gunpla kit.
02The Dictus exists as a mirror image pair, the Iurisdis Sinistra Dictus (left hand) piloted by Callisto's Light and the Libertas Dextra Dictus (right hand) piloted by Callisto's Shadow, a bio engineered clone.
03The kit's Latin derived names translate roughly to Left Hand of Judgment and Right Hand of Freedom.
04In mobile armor mode the suit's head becomes the thumb while the dominant arm and a sub arm combine to form the index finger, with the remaining limbs becoming the other three fingers.