Gundam Model Kits

Torso

Again, the simplicity of design and build make for a finely detailed set of parts. However, the size factor here makes a great difference. It allows for cockpit, with opening hatch, and modified arm pivots, so you can hit those nice poses. It comes with a bit more detail as well, in order to minimize painting. Mobility is still limited; since it’s not a PG or even a MG, it can only swivel its hips. The waist/hips themselves offer your typical abilities, with movable, opening side skirts containing the Armor Schneider knives folded and tucked inside. However, this is where my gripes come in. The way the Strike is designed, the actual mecha design, leads to an issue with the opening cockpit. The way the cockpit hatch is recessed, and stuck in between the gray“walls” on the front of the chest make it almost impossible to open the doors without a tool of some sort. On the hips/waist, the front skirt is movable, but the rear skirt is not. It’s one solid piece of plastic. This fixed skirt can inhibit the leg poseability, since its blocking most of the rearward movement.

This is a case where simplicity messes everything up. Shoulder-wise, everything is fine. Good solid sturdy construction, that allows for moderate mobility. In fact, the hands are well done too, with semi-jointed fingers, and holes in the palm to facilitate pegs from the weaponry to hold them tightly. The arm itself however is a different story. The simple design of the arm construction, to allow it to be easier to build SERIOUSLY inhibits arm movement. The elbow joint only allows for 90 degrees of movement up and down, and zero left to right movement. All left to right movement is done up top, near the shoulder. This type of design is found more in BASIC 1/144 kits, and smacks of poor thinking by Bandai when designing a 1/60 kit. The detail is decent however, and the construction is easy. They hold almost every weapon quite well, and quite sturdily.

Where the arms lack, the legs semi-make up for. Again, very simple construction, consisting of two halves and a polycap for the thigh/upper leg for example. However, they allowed for greater mobility and range of motion. The ankles for example are double jointed, at the top and bottom, so the feet have a remarkable range of mobility. The knees allow for decent poseability, without sacrificing strength. And the overall detail is decent. The only time the legs show any weakness is with the Aile pack. But minor posing alleviates that.

Weapons and Accessories

The weapons are this kit’s shining jewel, not to mention the only reason it exists! It comes with all three complete Weapons Systems seen in the series. So I’ll break it down that way.Strike- The basic 1/60 Strike Gundam kit came with the beam rifle and shield, however, I do not include them as part of the bare Strike pack. It’s more commonly seen with the Aile Booster system, so that’s where I’ll lump it. So all that really leaves you is the Armor Schneiders. These neato pocket daggers fold up and fit into the Strike’s hip skirt. They’re simply 3 pieces of plastic, 2 sides, and the blade. The Strike DOES look pretty hip holding them, but there’s really not much you can do with them, other than recreate some of the really early battle scenes.Aile- The Weapons System used through most of the series, the Aile is a beautiful add-on. Combined with the shield, and beam rifle, it’s a damn pretty sight to behold, and pretty fun to play with. The rifle is given decent detail, simple construction, and like the other big weapons in the set, a swinging plastic tab. This tab slides into the palm slit in the hand, effectively locking the gun into the hand. These tabs are also on the beam saber hilts, in the Aile’s backpack. It comes with the standard two clear-ish pink blades to go into the hilts. The only disappointing feature of the Aile is that the backpack’s wings don’t fold down like the Master Grade’s. A known feature of the backpack, easily implementable in a kit this size, seemed to have been overlooked. However, the actual thruster portions are movable, and help physically balance the kit while in Aile mode. The shield is broken down assembly wise so there’s no painting required, and it looks good. There is an attachment bracket for the shield, to allow for two different placements of the shield on the arm, as well as allowing it to be placed on either arm. The actual shield handle comes off, so you can have the Strike holding two weapons, while keeping the shield in place.
Sword- My favorite. ^_^ Another simple bit of construction, as there’s really not a whole lot to the last two weapons systems. The backpack is there to store the gargantuan sword, nothing less. The shoulder mount is actually 3 separate pieces, a front, middle and back, that clamp onto the Strike’s shoulder very securely. It also contains the Beam Boomerang, which like the Sword itself, features the swinging plastic tab, so you can lock them pretty tightly into either hand. My only gripe is that the plastic tab on the Sword itself is flimsy and prone to breaking, as mine did. Nothing short of a replacement tab will fix it either, as the plastic is simply too thin to glue or “weld” back together. The Sword also has the most translucent “beam” parts, with 2 for the Sword (blade and bottom tip), and one for the Boomerang blade. The Sword looks plain as well, until you give it at least a once over with the detail pen, to bring out the fine recesses and panel lines in the Sword itself.Launcher- Last but not least, the BIG GUN. And that’s exactly what you’re getting folks, a big damn gun. The gun’s assembly is part intensive, but definitely not difficult. Plenty of crevices and line to detail. The backpack attachment is simply the holding mechanism for the gun itself. It’s one long arm, replete with polycaps. The polycaps keep it stiff, while retaining its mobility. However, due to the Strike’s overall mobility problems, getting super awesome poses out of the Launcher set simply aren’t possible. The shoulder mount attaches much like the Sword, with 3 pieces, front, middle and back all coming together to lock onto the shoulder rails. Decent amount of detail is to be found in the shoulder Gatling, but definitely could use more.

In my honest opinion, it’s a great kit for the retail price. Decent mobility, lots of room for those modelers who like to change and things to go nuts, but yet simple enough and good looking enough for the basic modeler to get a large size representation of all 3 modes of the main SEED mecha. However, with my aforementioned gripes, the number one being mobility, I feel Bandai could have done better. I own many other 1/60 non-PG kits, and they don’t lack the mobility this one does. And what’s the point of having a big Gundam kit if you can’t put it in awesome poses?!
If you’re a big SEED fan, get it. If you’re a moderate SEED fan, and find one for near the Japanese retail ($60-$70), get it. If you’re just a Gunpla fan overall, then you can probably skip this, as it’s probably too simple for you. (Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 stars)

Contributor: Annastasia “Mylene” Culpepper

General and Technical Data
Series: 1/60 Scale Release Date: 03/2003 Price: ¥ 7000