HG 1/144 Striker GN-X

This is the High Grade 1/144 Striker GN-X. This Gunpla is a heavily customized version of the GN-X (from Gundam 00) and comes from the Gundam Build Fighters Battlogue miniseries. Like all of the Gunpla in Gundam Build Fighters Battlogue so far, this one only appears in one mini episode. It has a very cool design and a really nice two-toned green paintjob. Most of the sticker decals are fairly easy to apply, however the articulation leaves a lot to be desired.
Like most kits in the Build Fighters line, this kit uses many of the pieces found in the Gunpla the kit was designed after. In this case, the GN-X. Because the GN-X came out years before this kit, this kit suffers from what I imagine are the same issues that the original GN-X does (I don’t have that kit yet, so I can’t be certain though). The head is on a balljoint, but because of the large piece goes around the back of the next, the articulation of the head is very limited. Almost nonexistent, it fact. The head can look forward and downward a little, but not upward, and can’t actually rotate at all. It can sort of move a teeny bit toward the left or right, but that’s it. I’m not kidding when I say that this kit has the worst head articulation I’ve ever seen. The arms can almost all the way, just a little over 270 degrees. The thrusters on the backpack block that missing range of movement. If you take the thrusters off the backpack, then you can get a full 360 degrees of rotation out of the arms. The arms can move a bit outward, but not much due to the bulky shoulder armor. If you take the helmet off of the head, the arms can move out a tiny bit more. The arms each get a half bend at the elbow, a full 360 degrees of rotation at the biceps, and the hands rotate a full 360 degrees, as well as pivot and swivel. For the waist, you get a full a full 360 degrees of rotation. The legs attach to the lower body on balljoints, limiting their outward move, and the forward and backward movement of the legs is limited by the armor around the waist, as well as by the bulky thighs. Both legs get a half bend at the knee, and while the feet are on balljoints, they can’t move backwards because of the design of the lower legs. They can, however, move forward quite a bit, and can also tilt side to side a little bit.
For accessories, you get a wide variety of armor parts to customize the appearance of the Striker GN-X, but you also get two beam swords, one GN Smart Gun, two articulated GN Defense Rods, one GN Discharger cannon that can peg into either shoulder, two shields that can be attached to the shoulders or arms, one set of hands for holding weapons, and one open left hand. You also get parts to make the original GN-X’s shield, and the original GN-X’s beam rifle attachment for the gun. The GN Smart Gun can separate into three sections, one of which is the original GN-X’s gun. Be very careful assembling and disassembling the GN Smart Gun, as the pegs can break if you try to separate the different sections incorrectly. I had to learn this the hard way when I accidentally broke mine. If one of the pegs breaks, you can use glue to glue the segments of the GN Smart Gun together, but keep in mind that once glued, you won’t be able to separate them again. So be careful and be sure to carefully read the instructions on how to separate the segments of the GN Smart Gun.
I’m not going to sugarcoat this. This kit has some issues that really disappointed me. For starters, the almost nonexistent articulation of the head. You can barely move it all. This is the 98th Gunpla I’ve built now, and I can say that it has by far the worst head articulation I’ve ever seen in a Gunpla. While I suppose the lack of movement in the head makes it look more sturdy, the bottom line is that it makes getting good poses with this kit much harder. The other problem I have is that while this kit’s armored design is very cool, it’s so heavily armored that the articulation suffers greatly. While I can appreciate Bandai using the parts from the original GN-X, at the same time, I really wish that they could have tried to improve on some of the articulation points to give this kit a better range of movement.
All in all, this kit is very cool looking, but is so heavily customized that a lot of articulation is sacrificed. I’m not saying that it’s a horrible kit. I do really like the look of it, and I like the accessories it comes with. While I don’t regret picking it up, I do wish that the articulation was better. The design is interesting, and building the kit is fun. If you don’t mind the poor articulation, then I would go ahead and recommend picking it up if you’re in the mood to build something fun.