Review- HGBF Build Strike Full Package

From the Gunpla Build Fighter series and obviously planting the seeds of gunpla kit poisons interest, the Build Strike Full Package.

Dropping down, raining destruction from above.

It may look like the previous HG 1/144 Strike kit, but its’ quite different really.

Views

Front 3/4 profile

The Build Strike is Sei’s custom modification to the Strike Gundam in Gunpla Build Fighters series. Obviously the weapons, shield and backpack is very new.

Rear 3/4 profile

The backpack gives the Build Strike its massiveness and with some nice features. Sadly thou, it is made out entirely of blue runner parts. The white trims you see are… decal/seals/stickers. I may paint it white in the coming future.

Rear profile

And that, if you look closely at the middle, seems to be like something of a nose-section from a fighter, the backpack…

Front profile

From this angle, you might thinking, isn’t that something like Freedom Gundam? Well, the shoulder design taken cue from that unit and the full span of the wings may also resemble it…

Details

Upper torso detail

As you can see, the detail is quite crisp on the head, torso and shoulder when compared to the original Strike. You might also noticed it uses the new elbow joint for the new HG series. The yellow bit on the shoulder is painted.

Mid torso detail

The torso is separated into two segments with a ball joint in the middle, unlike the older Strike HG kit. And I forgot to attach back the beam sabers to the side skirt armours.

Lower body detail

The knees are double-joint and gives a good range of bend but the blue part for the front of the knee are decals/seals/sticker. And yes, the thigh is very similar to the older HG Strike. BTW, the gray bits for the ankle armour are done by paint.

Close-up of the backpack

The wings on the backpack can be folded and rotated for better performance in combat, painting is a must for this as its entirely blue the parts.

Without the backpack

Yes, exactly the same design as the old HG Strike, with better colour separation as the gray is actually gray plastic and NOT decals/seals/stickers used in the old kit.

Inner shoulder

The inner gray parts gives it an inner frame look.

Front profile sans backpack

Without the backpack, Build Strike looks quite slim but capable.

Articulation

Motion range of the arms

The arm is connected via a ball-joint to the torso so it could go slightly higher than 90° and could swing slightly forward and back. The elbow offers a good 180° bend, while in comparison the older HG Strike’s elbow can do a 90° bend.

Arm to torso joint

It uses a ball-joint than the straight peg and socket of the HG Strike.

Torso bend

Since it separates the torso pieces by a ball-joint it could slightly bend forward and back. Note, the red on the side skirts are decals/seals/stickers.

Leg splits

Even with the side skirts rotated back, the legs could go this much.

Leg bends

As you can see, the knees are a big improvement, note that the thighs could rotate to the sides.

Foot bend

The foot has a good range of motion and the ankle armour isn’t much of an obstruction, too.

Weapons

No, this NOT a James Bond MS…

Build Strike offers a good range of weapon selection, first off, the beam gun. Looks rather small but has a good amount of detail to it.

Beam gun

Notice that finger guard of the trigger is not closed. With this, you could just simply put in or take out the weapon without dismantling the hands.

Hunting capable

Now the beam rifle, which is a standard fare for most MS when comes to range combat. As with the beam gun, details are quite good and uses the same handle design for the trigger.

Beam rifle

Simple yet dependable.

Now a bigger gun

When you absolutely want a bigger bang for the buck, the Improved Beam Rifle comes to play. Personally, this is more of a beam launcher really.

It. Is. Big

In the earlier part of the series, Sei haven’t yet painted the weapon hence it is gray. Fully painted it should be for the most part white and bits of gray, red and green.

Beam vulcan

One of the hardly used weapon, the wrist beam vulcan shoots out rapid low powered (when compared to the gun others) shots, very similar to the head vulcans.

Chombam armour shield

The shield has good colour seperation of red, gray and yellow. The whites are done by, you’ve guessed it, decals/seals/stickers, sadly.

The Full Package backpack

In flight mode

Yes, the backpack can be an independent combat unit.

VTOL capable

Since the main thrusters are rotatable, it allows the unit to perform sharp turns and hover over the combat area.

Connector

The connector part has two sides, one (which is this one) is the normal HG peg design and the other is the slot-like connector for the RG Aile Strike kit. Which give RG Strike owners an excuse the motivation in getting this. Not to worry, Bandai released the backpack only version of the kit. Cleaver.

COMMENCE DOCKING!

Lets make this into a more complete unit.

To the skies

Very dynamic, this.

Not forgetting, beam sabers

The meat and potato of melee combat.

Beam launchers

Very F91/Freedom/Strike Freedom like, the deployment.

Poses

Saber charge

Double saber action, anyone?

Dynamic saber finishing pose

Just to show the kneeling ability, this. Ahhaha~

Gun dance

It takes two (guns) to tango in combat.

Split shot

The sides all covered.

Gun akimbo style

Dual-wield gives many MS the awesome look.

*insert Invoke song by T.M. Revolution*

Attempting to do the pose from the first opening of Gundam SEED. Close enough.

The head sculpt is very fine and distinct from Strike

Now…

DOUBLE STRIKE

The originator and the spinoff.

Just for kicks, this

Nothing like a bit of Photoshopping to add in some effects, yes?