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HGUC GM Striker
General and Technical Data:
Series: Harmony of Gundam*
Title: 1/144 HGUC GM Striker
Release Date: December 2006
Suggested Price: ¥ 1200
No. of Parts: 132
Plastic Colors: Transparent Red, Transparent Blue, Light Green, Dark Green, Light Gray and Dark Gray.
Gimmicks: None
Introduction:
I've heard a lot of people berate the "Harmony of Gundam" line, but after building the GM Striker I have to say that a lot of those complaints are superfluous, if not wholly unwarranted. The GM Striker might be the hellish spawn of Bandai's indiscriminate desire to sell more and more gunpla, unto the breaking of the world—but the GM Striker is still a great model. It's posable, it's detailed, and it looks incredible. Buy it. Now. It's awesome, and it's got some great accessories.
Head:
The GM Striker's head is typical GM fare. You've got the two parts of the skull, the faceplate, and the visor. The visor is molded in clear plastic, which makes it look very nice. There are a few areas to ink-in with a marker to add definition to the head, which makes it look very nice. The weird part about the head is that the rear is light blue and the front is dark green, evenly divided down the middle. It looks pretty odd, even if that's how it's supposed to look. Now, technically the dark green is supposed to be extra armor on top of the pale blue GM head, but because we don't get an extra part, we have a solid green front. It's a shame, really. To get the face to look right, you have to use paint.
In terms of mobility, the GM Striker's head is nothing special. You can put it at pretty much any angle, and the ball-joint the head is mounted on is fairly stiff, so you won't ever have to worry about it falling out of place.
Torso:
The Striker's torso is pretty cool, if only because it's essentially a giant chunk of armor. You've got bright yellow plastic for the chest vents and neckline, as well as a red foil sticker for the cockpit hatch—but everything else is dark green. The dark green armor has tons of indented panels for inking, which really makes the model look impressive once done. The backpack is pretty standard as well, just a chunk of dark gray with a few yellow thrusters to pop in. There's also a pale green beam saber hilt, but given how cool the Striker's other weapons are, I doubt you'll do much with it. The torso can rotate from side-to-side a full 360 degrees, but, sadly, there is no up or down movement.
Arms:
The arms are standard. They're molded in a few more colors than usual, which is nice, and the double-jointed elbows allow you to move them pretty much however you please. The forearms and shoulder armor also have a LOT of areas to panel-line, which is always a major plus. The tiny specks of yellow on the forearms are foil stickers, which is too bad, so you'll have to be careful to put them on straight and try to prevent them from peeling off.
Legs:
The legs are nice. While the newer Gundam 00 high-grade models are utilizing a pelvic-axel, the GM Striker achieves a similar (though inferior) level of pelvic mobility by recessing the inner calves, allowing for better positioning of the legs. Coupled with the double jointed knees and the wide-range of movement for the ankles, you end up with a very posable model that can shift its weight from side to side with ease.
Weapons and Accessories:
First, the boring. There's a machine gun and a beam saber. The beam saber comes with two clear-pink blades and three hilts. The machine gun has a wire butt that swivels back, but mainly seems designed for one-handed use. But don't kid yourself; you don't be doing a thing with the beam sabers or the machine gun. When it comes to the GM Striker, it's ALL about the beam trident. Basically, you have a pole with two rotating fixtures at the end. Each fixture can hold a beam saber, into which you can place an active beam blade. Very cool. What's more, the beam sabers at the edge of the trident can move a full 130 degrees! And the two blades are linked together, so moving one of them will move the other—so both blades are always at the same angle. It's wicked, it's awesome, and it's big. You could not ask for a more intimidating weapon—especially on a grunt.
Finally, there's the shield. It's got every color of plastic on it except yellow, and looks pretty dam cool for it. There aren't many places to do panel-lines, but it's nice nonetheless. The cool part of the shield is the twin pile-driver at the bottom. Very spiffy.
Conclusion:
The GM Striker is little more than a standard model, in virtually every way. The legs are a bit above-average in terms of mobility, but virtually everything else is mediocre. The accessories are pretty damn cool, you have to admit, but is that alone what makes the GM Striker awesome? Nope. Not at all. What makes the GM striker so cool is a very simple, mundane thing. It is well-molded. There are lots of indented lines all over the dark green armored parts, and the moment you ink them in the GM Striker attains a remarkable level of depth and detail. That, coupled with the cool accessories, makes for a very, very nice model. It's not a must-have, but if you're looking for a good, out-of-the-ordinary design, you definitely ought to give the GM Striker a look.
Rating: 4/5
