Gunpla Build - High Grade Strike Freedom (Final)

I don’t have any clever quip to kick this one off with. Let’s just get right to it.

I’m glad I went ahead and tried to do some cleanup work. Turns out the wings got really splotchy (you can see it in this photo, though not others). Serves me right for topcoating them outside on the one day the weather was nice (in my defense, it said the humidity was low). So far they’re looking better after dousing them in oil, but it remains to be seen if they’ll hold up long term.

I’ve hinted at this throughout the build, but let me now say it outright - I’m really impressed with the look of this thing. The colors are on point, and the wings are cool without being ridiculous. I don’t know why I feel this way about this particular design, and not other ones from Gundam SEED. There’s a part of my brain that says there’s nothing appreciably different about the Strike Freedom, and that this is an entirely arbitrary preference on my part. So be it.

Let’s check out the articulation.

Articulation

The head basically can’t move up. This little grey tray that rests below it gets in the way:

Downward motion is easy enough. Side to side rotation also works, though the tray creates a lot of friction:

Elbow bend is great, and the arm lift is average:

The cross body range is, unsurprisingly, not as good as it could be:

The back bend is impressive, while the front ab crunch is good enough:

The torso also rotates without any obstruction. Notice how we can really see the lack of traditional side skirting here:

The front leg kick is not that high, though it doesn’t feel like it’s the skirt armor getting in the way. Rather, it’s something about the way the leg is shaped:

The knee bend is fantastic, but again, the lack of a good leg lift minimizes its utility:

For some reason, there is a ton of space underneath the skirt armor. This, combined with the lack of real skirt armor, means the Strike Freedom can do a perfect split:

And since the back skirts move, this also means we can get the foot to stretch all the way up to the head:

Overall, I’d say the articulation ranges from average to slightly above average. For a model like this, where the placement of the wings is at least as important as the placement of the limbs, I’d say it is good enough.

Now let’s shoot for some poses.

Posing

I didn’t take nearly as many shots as I often do, but in this case I feel like it’s because I got everything I wanted right away. The Strike Freedom was a joy to pose. Aside from a loose left arm (which, in retrospect, I probably could have fixed by just tigthening it up), nothing fell off or got in the way. It did exactly what I wanted, and every shot looked good.

It helps to have akimbo guns. That’s a look that never goes out of style:

I took quite a few photos with the two guns combined into one. It took some practice to find good angles, where it doesn’t look like two guns glued together. For example, this is a bad angle:

But this one is better:

And this one is okay too:

As for the double bladed beam saber, unfortunately it doesn’t fit very tightly in the hand:

It works better in a basic resting position:

And while a single beam blade doesn’t technically fit any better, it also kind of does by virtue of being shorter:

The side skirt guns are cool in theory, but there’s no way for the Strike Freedom to hold onto them, so they kind of just … sit there.

Alongside Gundam Helios

This isn’t a comparison, perse. In addition to having a different body, the Helios’ wings are based on the Freedom, rather than the Strike Freedom. That means they aren’t really the same¹.

However, I thought it would be neat to place two models with big wings next to each other:

It’s interesting how the mere orientation of the wings does so much to inform the look of each model. Helios looks so much taller - and wider - just because of the position of its wings.

Conclusion

The Strike Freedom was an incredibly pleasant surprise. I wasn’t expecting to hate it, but I also wasn’t expecting to love it quite as much as I do.

It’s got a great color scheme, it’s built solidly, and it’s accessories are versatile. I can’t believe that something from Gundam SEED became a favorite, but there you go.