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STH-05 Hyakuren

The budget IBO kit that quietly upgraded the whole line's articulation.

MechaGrade Score

3.6/5

Hyakuren · 1/144 · 2015

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2015

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is a cheap kit that outperforms its price tag on pure poseability.

The Hyakuren was the first HG Iron-Blooded Orphans release to run on the Teiwaz frame, and you feel the jump immediately in the hips and knees compared to earlier IBO kits. It is not a detail bomb and it will not turn heads on a shelf next to an MG, but as a fast, satisfying build for around fourteen dollars, it earns its keep.

Best for: Budget-conscious IBO fans who want a genuinely poseable Teiwaz-frame kit without spending MG money

The full review

What it is

The Hyakuren is Teiwaz's mass-production suit from Iron-Blooded Orphans, and this HG kit builds fast, usually in under an hour once you're through gate cleanup. What stood out to me is how much the Teiwaz frame changes the feel of the line. The double-jointed limbs and swiveling thighs give you a real range of motion, deep knee bends, decent hip rotation, none of the stiff plant-and-pose limitation I've hit on other budget IBO kits. The side skirt armor pivots out of the way before you kick a leg forward, which is a small thing but it means you're not constantly wrestling plastic to get a pose to work.

The catch

This is still an entry-price HG, so color separation leans on molded plastic plus a handful of stickers for the finer accents, and if you want the panel lines to pop you'll want to run a panel liner yourself since the kit doesn't do much of that work for you out of the box. Like a lot of IBO kits, there's some hollowness behind the torso and shoulder armor once you start posing aggressively, nothing that breaks the model, but it's not going to have the dense, packed feel of a modern HG. The single-edged blade and its sheath are simple pieces rather than a showcase accessory.

Who it's for

If you're building through the Iron-Blooded Orphans line kit by kit, or you just want a Teiwaz-colored suit that actually holds a dynamic pose without a fight, this is worth the fourteen dollars. It's also a solid pick for someone newer to the hobby who wants a step up from Entry Grade snap-fit without jumping straight to Master Grade complexity. Skip it if you're chasing maximum detail payoff or inner-frame theatrics, this kit isn't trying to be that, and there are flashier HG releases from the same era if presence is your priority.

The build story

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

Gate placement is standard HG fare, nothing hidden or awkward, and cleanup is quick since the part count stays modest. Fit between the frame and outer armor is snug without being a fight to snap together, and I didn't run into the loose-joint complaints that show up on some other budget IBO kits.

The engineering story here is really the Teiwaz frame itself. Double-jointed arms and legs plus swiveling thighs mean the Hyakuren can hit low crouches and wide stances that earlier HG IBO kits couldn't touch. Weapon loadout is a rifle cannon and a single-edged blade with sheath, plus the knuckle guard gimmick built into the side skirts, a nice bit of in-universe function translated into a simple part swap.

Lore & trivia

01The Hyakuren is Teiwaz's mass-production mobile suit in Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans, built around an internal frame developed from data on a Calamity War-era suit.
02This HG release was the first Iron-Blooded Orphans kit to use the Teiwaz frame, which brought double-jointed limbs and swiveling thighs to the line.
03The side skirt armor houses a pair of JEE-203 Knuckle Guards, letting the Hyakuren deliver electrically-charged punches in the show.
04Its primary ranged weapon is the JEE-201 100mm Rifle Cannon, designed short and light to keep it steady during high-speed maneuvers.