MGUniversal Century

RGM-79 GM (White Dingo Team Custom)

The workhorse Federation grunt suit, repainted in outback white and navy and given a Premium Bandai send off.

MechaGrade Score

3.7/5

GM (White Dingo Team Custom) · 1/100 · 2018

GradeMG

Scale1/100

Released2018

Runnersn/a

Check price on Amazon

Affiliate link. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

The verdict

This is the same excellent MG RGM-79 GM Ver 2.0 skeleton wearing a new coat of paint and a story I actually love, and both halves of that sentence matter.

If you already know the GM Ver 2.0 is a great build you know most of what you are getting here. What you are paying for is the White Dingo unit marks, the navy and grey scheme, and the extra hardware that came out of the Rise from the Ashes game rather than the original 0079 anime.

Best for: UC completionists and Rise from the Ashes fans who want the White Dingo GM specifically, not first time builders looking for the cheapest way into an MG

The full review

What it is

Strip away the White Dingo decals and this is the MG RGM-79 GM Ver 2.0, which means you are building on the same frame Bandai used for the MG RX-78-2 Gundam Ver 2.0. That is a compliment. The double jointed elbows and knees, the pull out shoulders, the ball jointed neck, all of it carries over, so the suit that always looked like a background extra suddenly holds a knee up in a real fighting stance. The White Dingo colorway (white, grey, navy) is genuinely sharp in hand, a lot cleaner than the plain federation green most people expect, and it comes with a stacked loadout: a middle shield, a ground use hyper bazooka, a long range beam rifle, a standard beam rifle, a 90mm bullpup machine gun, and beam sabers, plus a new water slide decal sheet with the unit's own insignia.

The catch

This was a Premium Bandai exclusive, so it never sat on a store shelf at MSRP and you are shopping the aftermarket now, where prices swing from reasonable to genuinely painful for what is, underneath the paint, a decade old mold. The molded colors on the White Dingo scheme do not cover everything, so you are still leaning on stickers and decals for some of the unit markings and small color breaks, and the water slide decals take patience most gunpla builders skip. It is also a Skill Level 2 kit, so plan on real gate cleanup, not snap and go, and a few builders note the waist and skirt joints can feel loose after repeated posing.

Who it's for

Buy this if you already love the Rise from the Ashes game or the White Dingo team specifically, or if you want an MG GM in a scheme that actually looks distinct on the shelf next to a dozen other UC kits. The engineering underneath is proven and the pose range is well above what a suit this humble usually gets. Skip it if you just want a GM in your collection and are not attached to this exact team, since the plain MG GM Ver 2.0 gets you the same build for a fraction of the aftermarket cost. Skip it too if hunting down a discontinued Premium Bandai release at a fair price sounds like more hassle than it is worth.

What works

Shares its inner frame with the MG RX-78-2 Ver 2.0, so the articulation punches way above what a grunt suit usually gets
Loaded accessory set: middle shield, hyper bazooka, long range beam rifle, beam rifle, bullpup machine gun, and beam sabers all included
The white, grey, and navy White Dingo scheme reads distinctly on a shelf full of federation green

Worth knowing

Premium Bandai exclusive, so current prices are aftermarket and inconsistent, sometimes well above what the base GM Ver 2.0 costs
Water slide decals for the unit markings take real patience and some color separation still relies on stickers
A handful of builders report looseness in the waist and skirt armor joints after repeated posing

Sold? Grab it.

Check price on Amazon

Affiliate link. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

The build story

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

Cleanup is the honest Skill Level 2 experience: twelve plus runners, real gates to clean with nippers and a hobby knife, no shortcuts. The frame assembly will feel familiar if you have built the RX-78-2 Ver 2.0 or the base GM Ver 2.0, since the engineering is shared, and that familiarity pays off in how solidly the joints click together during the build.

The payoff is a GM that can actually hold a two handed grip on the long range beam rifle or brace behind the shield without drooping, thanks to the double jointed elbows and knees and the pull out shoulder joints. The accessory count is the real value here, five weapons and a shield off one box, and the White Dingo decal sheet gives you unit specific markings you will not find on any other GM release.

Lore & trivia

01The White Dingo Team originates from Mobile Suit Gundam Side Story 0079: Rise from the Ashes, a Dreamcast game rather than the original 1979 TV anime, following an Earth Federation unit fighting in Australia during the One Year War.
02The team's leader in that story is Lieutenant Pierce Rayer, and the unit's climactic mission involves stopping a Zeon bioweapon codenamed Astaroth from being deployed out of Hughenden fortress.
03This kit shares its core inner frame engineering with the MG RX-78-2 Gundam Ver 2.0, one of Bandai's most reused and best regarded MG skeletons.
04The White Dingo GM was sold through Premium Bandai as a make to order exclusive, distinct from the also White Dingo themed MG RGM-79SP GM Sniper II release.