RG Aile Strike Review (Part 2)

Part 2 of my review of RG aile strike, see part 1 here.

1. Aile striker pack and other weapons

The aile striker pack does everything it is supposed to do and is highly articulate. All 4 wing parts can move independently and the 2 beam sabers attached in front can move independently as well. I applied clear 2 decals on the top wings, left and right.

A top view.

A side view. There are 2 shades of red as seen from this pic, which is very impressive.  The yellow stripes on the side are actual yellow plastic parts, not stickers.

Full marks for details, but only gripe i have is regarding the darn small stickers. As u can see, the top 2 thrusters have shiny, silver, tiny stickers uunderneath. Those are a pain to get aligned and i lost 2 of the small stickers in the process. Luckily Bandai knew what was going on and they gave 2 extra.
I gave up after that and so the bottom 2 thrusters have no shiny stickers.

Weapons and accessories : we get the 2 armour schneiders as seen in part 1,the beam rifle, 2 extra manipulators , 2 beam sabers and 2 extra bases for the beam sabers in additional to the 2 on the aile striker pack.

The beam saber looks very good and detailed, but there is one problem. The extra base has this peg protruding out so that the model can hold it very well. But in order to switch that, there is this small white connector part (the one bellow the beam in pic above) that goes between the beam and the base. And they only gives 2 of this small white connector part when they have 4 bases? Troublesome to keep switching when changing poses.

The beam rifle is quite a looker, i painted the clear part in clear blue-hope that is accurate. Nicely detailed unlike its MG freedom counter part.

Seriously they give us stickers for the blue part?

However, not all is merry about the beam rifle. For the gundam to hold it, there is a small peg at the beam rifle's handle to be swiveled out and then plugged into the fist which has a dent just for it. But it is a thousand years of pain to get the peg it as the peg keeps wanting to swivel back into its original position. And since this is 1/144, it is very difficult to handle that tiny little bugger.

The shield is a winner though. Nicely detailed. Only used the decal in the middle. I am not too fond of the rg decals because they leave a clear edge when applied.

But what is even better is that even the behind of the shield is detailed. Plenty of lining to do. Also there are many gold sticker for u to stick all over the place. I only managed to stick a row of the stickers at the top before my patience run out. The shield attaches on the arm and the fist can hold it very securely.

2. Details and articulation

All put together, i suddenly do not feel that the strike is overly detailed anymore.  The aile strike pack makes the kit very back-heavy and hence action base 3 comes to the rescue.

The kit comes with the postcard.

The iconic launch scene. *Plays Invoke from TM Revolution*

The aile strike pack seems want to fall backwards in this pic as u can see the shoulder vulcans are not touching the shoulders anymore.

Beam saber on!

The beam saber is held on very securely and easy to equip.

Even without closing the fist, kira can hold the beam saber because he is kira.

                                            Some Slashing action.

                                                                Reminds me of impulse.

                                                                Aile strike full package.

Launching with the beam saber instead since the beam rifle is a pain to equip.

3. Sturdiness

Being a RG i do not expect this kit to be as sturdy as a NG or HG due to its many small moving parts.
In ascending order of annoyance.
1. The v-fins come off a couple of times but it can be put back easily so is still acceptable
2. Aile strike pack wants to lean backwards but do not come off entirely.
3. Beam rifle is insanely hard to equip but is still rather secure when done.
 4. Champion: The side skirt armor pops off. I put it back grumpily. Pops off again.

Which means in terms of sturdiness, only the legs are perfect.

4. Conclusion of Strike + aile striker pack
                                                               

One thing i have not mentioned in the entire review is the build process. The build process really impressed me with the engineering and design. It really is a treat to build the RG and see all the intricate details. On the other hand, the inherent issue will be that the nub marks are harder to clean off than usual HG or MG kits. This is because each part is very small and sanding has to be done carefully to prevent sanding off too much area. Parts do tend to want to go missing so do be extra careful.

The Awesomes:
1. Details and colour differentiation: mind=blown
2. Articulation is around MG standard
3. Stickers are only complimentary, only the eye sticker is a must-put unless u paint. People with clumsy hands like me can do away with them.
4. Plenty of decals to choose from.
5. So much goodness in only a 1/144 kit.
6. 2500 yen sounds reasonable to me

The Not-so-awesome
1. Falling parts.
2. Beam rifle:

                                                           Alleujah holds it better.
3. Stickers are small and hard to apply
4. Decals are not rub on and the clear edges are visible
5. Risk of missing parts.

After building this, i must say i am a fan of RG , despite my numerous complains. The details and engineering alone are worth the price. Some work is needed though to clean the small parts up but that is part of the whole idea of gunpla.

Details: 9.5/10 Will be perfect if only the decals are not stick-on
Articulation: 9.5/10 That side skirt armor hinders leg movement to the side.
Sturdiness: 6/10 HG and NG are the winners in the sturdiness department.
Poseability: 7/10 Some nice poses.

                                                                      My SEED family