BANDAIHobby - Gundam SEED Destiny - #14 RG Strike Freedom, Bandai Spirits 1/144 Model Kit

If you love tedious, flimsy, pain-in-the-arse models kits, then look no further than this one. I'm being sarcastic, because this kit was a real chore.The Strike Freedom is the first RG kit I've put together. I have the Burnern, Justice, Skygrasper, Aile Strike, Strike Rouge, Exia, and a special edition yellow/orange Destiny that is taking forever to get here from Amazon. Out of all of them, I went with the Strike Freedom to build first.First off, it friggin looks spectacular once it's finished. The chrome gold parts, the decals, colors, and overall finished look are great as long as you're an experienced modeler. I wouldn't recommend this for anyone who hasn't mastered a hobby knife, files, and/or sandpaper. You really have to have excellent finishing skills, and a nice selection of Gundam paint markers to make this look halfway professional.Other reviewers claim this is easy to put together. Don't listen to them. No, it isn't easy at all. For an experienced modeler like me, it tested my patience at times, but I managed to build it without any major problems. The issues I did have with this kit were mainly keeping the shoulder guards to stay on, and keeping it from falling off an action base is a chore. The kit does come with an action base adapter, but it's worthless. It doesn't snap only the groin tightly. Yes, that sounds painful, but it's true. LOL. I had to use a different adapter from spare action base parts I have. I'll probably try a Bandai action figure base at some point as it MIGHT provide better stability than an Action Base 2.At times, the instructions were not very clear. There was one part where the waist section assembly wasn't explained properly. It is unclear as to whether the waist section needs to be slid up, or pulled apart. I gave up, and moved on. There are videos on Youtube that address this, so at least I know it's not just me having problems. Unfortunately, the idiots who say they'll make a video to show how to read that step properly, and show how to do what the instructions say to do never do actually do that. Oh, well.So, would I recommend this kit? No. Why do I give it five stars? Because it's still an excellent kit for people like me who can build a professional looking model. I also didn't pay 40 bucks for it, so that's probably why I'm fine with it. To say it's not worth 40 dollars is not fair, but it is only when the crappy building and decal instructions are taken into account that you can maybe make that claim. The difficulty of this model surpasses any MG I've ever put together. 1/144 scale is just too small for this level of detail, but the end result is impressive.

Nice rg gundam model kit, it seems a little better than some other rg kits I've assembled and the only complaint I have would be the arm joints are a bit weak and loose but that's an engineering flaw. It can hold all of its weapons fairly well, and all other joints are nice and snug. Fun to build, easy instructions. Nice kit.

For those of you looking for 1/144th model kits and for those that are gundam seed fans buy this immediately because this is the most perfect strike gundam Real Grade thats 1/144th. Its a bit more challenging to actually put together but if you've built many High Grades and you've built a MG then you should be fine! (I highly recommend not to buy this as your first gunpla model kit) The wings are golden chrome colored and so is the body main frame in the inside of the armor. You may have to do a bit of articulation testing when its fully built because it will seem like the joints and arms, legs are still but they aren't (Be careful when doing the articulation test). Of course the strike freedom real grade comes with all the weapons shown in the show which is absolutely amazing! Also Warning about the stickers on this model kit, Of course its optional to put the stickers on but the eyes and head stickers are literally near impossible to simply put on with your fingers or standard tweezers so you might want to get specialized gunpla model kit tweezers that can pick up tiny parts and stickers. This is way better than the High Grade Strike freedom 1/144 model kit. I highly recommend that all gundam seed fans pick this up immediately! (For beginners pick this up after you build 8 different types of High Grades or at least have built a Master Grade model kit) And for those that did not know about this but there are special effect parts that come sold separately for the Strike Freedom Real Grade and there is one for the Real Grade Destiny Gundam. They are exclusive and I'm not entirely sure but I think its a Bandai exclusive or a non Bandai exclusive. I bought both and will review it on my alternate account.

Great product

Pros:Incredible joint system, blows HG out of the water. Overall look and articulation are incredible, good poseability, sweet decals that won't lose their stick if you have to reapply them. I really like the fact that the railguns can move aside for a hidden appendage to pop up and hold the beam rifles; the kit is full of wild little details like that.Cons:This thing does NOT balance without looking ridiculous, and does not come with the little gooch-hole that most hguc kits have for stands. Go figure. Many of the pieces are fragile, and I actually broke C-17 (a relatively minor jetpack detail) cutting it out, so watch out for that. Also, as has been pointed out by many others, most of the "gold" in the kit looks like poop. Metallic Rustoleum and Liquid Gold Deco-Colors solved that for me, but I'm sure there are many solutions.This is definitely a runway-model gunpla; incredibly beautiful and intricate, but fragile and finicky as all get-out. 100% worth it if you have the patience though; this thing is more or less the crown jewel of my collection.

The media could not be loaded. This is a very detailed model. If you are looking for a build that does not require a lot of attention, this is not the one for you however. Leave any ridges or numbs at your peril. Halfway through the build, I started getting a little lax on cleaning up the parts and noticed immediately them not fitting together as easily and/or tightly. Having said that cleaning up the nubs, it snapped together beautifully. Beautifully! I built it in a day but definitely had to go back and tweak and straighten a lot of things. This was an extremely enjoyable build.And I would very much recommend that you give it a try. The details and accuracy are amazing.