Perfect Strike Gundam
Review by Dkun
Since it's been ten years since Gundam SEED aired, Bandai has taken this opportunity to release Gundam SEED HD Remaster. Along with remastering the show, a few new scenes and mechanical designs were included in the show to encourage people to watch. One of the new designs included was the Perfect Strike Gundam.
Now, the Perfect Strike Gundam is nothing new in concept. A lot of fans of the series have equipped their models of the Strike Gundam with all three weapon packs before, but this is the first time it has actually happened in the fiction, which makes it pretty interesting. It actually adds a little bit more, by redesigning the backpack and including a set of giant battery fins along the back. Since Tamashii Nations already released on new Robot Spirits Strike Gundam toy, it only makes sense to do the new exciting version too.
There's a lot to cover in this toy since it comes with a huge whack of stuff, so we'll start with the base toy first. The first thing you'll notice when you look at this toy is that the proportions look a little bit funny. This may be in part due to the fact that specifically with Gunda releases in the Robot Spirits line, they seem to want to make them look a bit more like the animation model. Because of that, Strike's face isn't as sharp as the lineart or the model kit, and its torso section is a bit long. The colors are also bit brighter and more saturated than they have appeared previously. Despite that, it does still look pretty crisp and spot on.
The articulation on this guy is pretty excellent. The Strike's clean design allows for a great range of motion on all of the toys. The torso joint seems like it wants to move, but instead it just kind of wiggles uselessly.
Strike Gundam comes with quite a few standard weapons, like the shield and beam rifle. I have to say I downright hate how the Strike's shield pegs into the arm. It's a peg on a super thing piece of plastic that requires you to bend it in order to remove it. Every time I take the shield off, I'm scared I'm going to break the toy.
Strike also comes with the Armor Schneider knives. They don't fold up or store in the skirt armor, but they're there.
A new accessory is the bazooka. It's big and oomfy, and surprisingly articulated, with moveable hands and adjustable grips on the side as well. All of the magazines on the back can be removed as well.
The meat and potatoes of this toy though is the Perfect Weapon option, which pegs right into Strike Gundam's back. It truly is a gigantic piece of plastic and makes the toy very unwieldy, making a normal standing pose very difficult. Add some additional shoulder armor for the Launcher and Sword weaponry, and Strike Gundam becomes a walking anti-ship-cutting beam-cannon-shooting monster.
The gunpod shoulder armor doesn't do much unfortunately due to its limited functions in toy form. But the Sword shoulder armor is much more useful and fun, featuring a removable beam boomerang along with an anchor in the shield which can be attached to a poseable wire.
The big part of the Perfect weapons pack though are the two giant weapons. First being the giant beam cannon known as the Agni. The gun is attached to the backpack using a set of balljointed arms. These easily pop off though so it's better just to get the gun in Strike's hands, and then attach the arm. Or you could just forget about it too.
It's big, impressive, and can be held with both hands easily thanks to Strike's articulation.
Also included is the Schwert Gewehr anti-ship sword. Think about that phrase for a second. Unfortunately the stock sword is a little bit small in size compared to its powerful name.
Thankfully, Tamashii Nations has you covered and allows you to go all Masami Obari on this toy! A second sword is included that is near 50% larger than the original. It's much more stylized and very great for that one Masami Obari pose.
You know, that one pose.
Strike Gundam also comes with the standard ridiculous starburst stand that all of the SEED releases have included so far. Considering how heavy the toy is, Perfect Strike Gundam really needs it.
Perfect Strike Gundam is great. It comes with so many accessories and display options its downright ludicrous at times. For Gundam SEED fans, this one's a no brainer and highly recommended. The only reason I could see someone not wanting this, is if you really hate having to deal with a whole bunch of spare parts. But hey, that's what Glyos baggies are for.
Comments
13 comments postedThe stylish look helps, but the Perfect Strike Package is pretty overbearing in this scale as is with the 1;144 scale model. The Master Grade RM version tries to work but it still feels pretty clumsy. This on the other hand actually seems just fine.
I think that this is one of those designs that will always look a little silly and ridiculous due to how many weapons are on it. It works, yeah but man is it cluttered.
Don't get my hatred for the SEED/Destiny TV series wrong because I love the Astray manga, but the designs from the first quarter of the series were great. I like the Strike Gundam and its weapon gimmick, but it really only works one at a time.
Nah I'm right there with you, Destiny Astray and X Astray are great. I still want a Dreadnought H kit!
Nothing beats Astray R, the most GAAAR! of the Astray series.
I'm with you on disappointment in Bandai's mishandling of Astray so far, like the Online Exclusive Red Frame MG with its original backpack and weapon set. The Kai is great, but it still feels like a deliberate recycling of the Blue Frame model even though it's a canon variation.
It took the SEED HD collection to finally get Red Frame with its M1 flight pack, I'm just waiting for what act of LoLTomino it's going to take to get a Powered Red!
Stretched-out and disproportionate limbs, and the inability to make the separate Striker Packs is why I turned this down. Besides, I've got an SD Strike SWS kit that does what I want (including the Perfect set-up), but with cuter proportions. ;)
The sad thing is, they created brand new animation of the Perfect Strike for "Gundam SEED Remaster", but only ever used it once. Same thing with the Strike Rouge Ootori for "SEED Destiny Remaster"; it never fired a shot, yet was prominently featured several times. What a waste.
Oh...OH! I JUST NOW noticed that the Agni and Schwert are actually mounted on the Aile pack itself. Are those mounting arms and battery packs removable or are they permanently stuck on the Aile pack?
Man that killed any desire I had to nab this at some point, especially when the missing pieces were already in the web limited Sword/Launcher parts set.
They're on small gray arms that are on little ball joints that attach to the Striker pack, so you can remove the weapons without any trouble themselves.
It's so Topheavy and backheavy that unless the Joints were replaced with friggin New Alloy Z Alpha, there is no Plausable way the Perfect Strike should be able to stand, nevermind MOVE under all of that Kibble!
also...what's with that dull spot on the Sword? yanno. between the beam blade and the stabby bit?
*facepalm* Sorry...never been a fan of this MS...it just seems...too implausible for it to work at all....
The Perfect Strike Gundam was designed only for the SD Strike Gundam, which included all three Striker Packs. Because Bandai loves to include little gimmicks with their SD models, they created the Perfect Strike as a way of containing all of the figure's accessories on it.
Because of how ridiculous the concept was, many fans of the design created customs of it such as in Master Grade form or High Grade.
Skip to a few years later, Bandai began to officialize the Perfect Strike through their HG Remaster line and the MG (if you had the original Sword-Launcher Strike or the online exclusive RM Sword-Launcher Striker packs for usage with the RM Aile Strike), to this Robot Damashii figure. To make the design plausible, Bandai added multiple energy packs to the Aile Striker pack so that it has a lengthened flight time. So, MS is constantly in the air while battling (like the Destiny Gundam).
Long story short, it's a ridiculous concept that's been redesigned to actually be usable. It wouldn't be fighting on the ground (where the top heaviness would bring it down) if it had the Aile Striker pack in the first place, remedied by the extra energy packs.
The problem I have is that there is no way the Aile thrusters alone would be able to support that much weight and still be combat effective.
Secondly, the Agni is a Two-Handed weapon because of its ridiculous Recoil and weight. the arm should snap or the MS should be sent falling on its ass the moment it pulls the Trigger.
Thirdly, the Anti-Ship-Sword is too large and unweildly to be used One-handed alongside the Agni.
That's why the IWSP pack was made using simplified variations of each of the Striker Packs main weapons AND did so with AMMO based weapons to prolong operation time. Yes it's still big and clunky, but the IWSP was designed around its weapons and can actually maneuver to an extent.
the Perfect strike? Yes it has a long Operation time, but that's kind of useless when your weapons are so big they're effectively useless other than throwing you around like a Ragdoll.
As one of the resident Gundam fans, I have to say that I agree with your analysis. The PERFECT Strike is one of those examples of how the SEED universe jumped the Phaseshift Shark with its mobile suit designs, from simple, clean designs to machines that are so overloaded they still forgot to install a cup holder in the cockpit.
Though not a bad concept, it just doesn't work for the design. The Strike was a multipurpose model, best suited for one striker pack at a time, and it goes with what I said earlier (scroll up, first comments) that some of the best MS designs for SEED were the original five Gundams and the Astrays because they had no overbearing features other than what they were built with.
The Perfect Strike did see some action in the Remastered series, and they did go out of their way to try and show how it could work (seeing the battery packs being used and discharged when drained, etc), but as the show came to a close again they scaled it back to using individual striker packs.
It's not the worst case of seeing something based on a one episode, concept design or personal variations from SEED like the "TM Revolution lead singer's character" customs, or like the Master Grade "Version RM" Strike Rouge and its Phoenix pack (which was more of scaled back, amped up Perfect Strike pack) with more gimmicks that it didn't use.
On Bandai's side, it prints money, on the modeler/toy collector side, its just an overloaded feature that stops the Strike from being able to move above the waist even though this figure does do a decent job of making it look more appealing and likable.
Overall, the Perfect Strike was one of those concepts that really worked better for the SD model (because, why not! Everything works when you're in Super Deform), than the regular proportion design.
I've got that SD Strike Gundam S.W.S. kit, so I can get away with making a true Perfect Strike arrangement and not have it look OP. ;P
EDIT: By the way, did anyone else notice that not only did Mwu used the Perfect Strike only once, but it was the very first time he piloted an MS in combat and he somehow managed to come out without a scratch?