TT Hongli ZGMF-X20A Strike Freedom Gundam Review

Front Box Art

What we have here this weekend is the TT Hongli ZGMF-X20A “Strike Freedom” Gundam model kit. Or shall I call it, Kira Yamato’s sweet baby. As you can see here, the Strike Freedom Gundam is a mobile suit that debuted on Gundam Seed Destiny, and piloted by the God himself, Kira Yamato. It is the ZAFT’s magnum opus because they designed it for Kira’s capabilities, and with those wings called the Super Dragoon, we might have ourselves a feast. But then please remember, this is only a bootleg, so don’t expect it to be godlike.

Right and Left Side

Front Side and Backside

From the box art alone, it does not differ from the authentic Bandai model kit. It has mostly the same art except, of course, for the Bandai logo, high grade stamp, and the name of the show where it debuted because of obvious copyright reasons. I do like this box art, but it came out like this when I first got it. The box is dented and a bit smeared. But even with that, I think this is still an acceptable thing, since this is the delivery guy’s fault.

 

Let's dive into the runners of this model kit!

Runner A1

Runner A2

Runner B

Runner C

Runner D

Runner E, PC Parts, and Foil Stickers

 

 Let's take them off the parts and assemble them! 

 

From the left, we have the base of the Super Dragoon, Head, Arms, Torso, The wings of the Super Dragoon, Legs, Skirt, and the side guns. The only thing left to do now is combine the parts together!

 

And here’s the finished product out of the box! The first thing that I noticed is that it’s strangely beautiful to look at. The head sculpt is a bit off, and I lost the red part to secure the v-fin, but it’s beautiful to look at bootleg-wise. It has good color separation and uses fewer stickers. (I only used one for the eyes because this is my brother’s kit, he probably threw it.) The backside of the stickers is that there are way too many color inaccuracies, it would be a good thing if they added more parts, but I guess the only good way of bringing this guy to life is by painting. The sculpting is just pure off in this figure, which I guess in TT Hongli’s defense, was some of their first times making bootleg model kits. I do admire the hard work, just like the other figure I reviewed last time, the GAT-X105E Strike Noir. Please check out that review for me, thanks :)

 

 

You also get a stand with this, like every TT Hongli model kit, but it’s more of a requirement in order to pose this guy. With the wing backpack, this guy can fall off easily with just a blow of wind.

Arm Seam Lines

Leg Seam Lines

Another issue I found is that these seam lines are turning me off. They are pretty seen at every edge, and it’s pretty ugly. The only thing you can do to fix these is by plastic cement or others.

 

Last issue is that the figure is not durable. It will collapse and even shatter the plastic if you drop it at a certain point. You also have loose joints which you can fix with some superglue, but then there are detachable parts that will detach without your attention. So be careful whenever posing this figure, just like other bootlegs.

 

Now, you might notice these long sticks in the side of the skirts, and then bam! These are the MMI-M15E “Xiphias 3” Rail guns! To get these rail guns going, you only need to flip the stick forward and then the stock. And it’s ready to shoot the Destiny Gundam out of its way! You can really bring these to life with some effect parts which I do not have, but it’s a cool minor feature in the mobile suit. You can also see this in the Freedom Gundam, although these guns are more powerful. So decide which one is your go to!

 

 

The part that holds the rail guns also holds the MA-M02G “Super Lacerta” Beam Saber. For you to get the holder, just slightly push it off, which makes it so easy to lose. To put it back, just tab it back in the hole.

 

After that, get the blue transparent beam (supposedly pink but you paint it yourself), and attach it to the holder and now you have the famous close-combat weapon’s beam sabers. You get two, so dual wielding is possible. In the show, you can combine these holders and become one big beam saber stick, but I don’t see any indention in the holder that will attach them, but you can always improvise.

 

 

With beam sabers, we know we need a shield to make the full look. We have here a transparent beam shield called the MX2200 Beam Shield. It comes from these arm plates, specifically the red part of the plate.

Hole for the Beam shield's peg to go through

Put the red part back but this time, above the shield to create the shield look!

This beam shield is pretty unique because most of the shields are made of special metals, but this mobile suit’s shield is fully made of particles which blocks beam attacks and many more! It looks superb along with the beam saber, brings me back to the RX-78-2 stance (Oh my, is this foreshadowing for the next review?)

 

This kit also comes with hands:

The hands are in a ball joint

Closed Fists

Open Hands

With these hands, the mobile suit can hold it's beam guns! These are the MA-M21KF Energy Beam Rifle! 

We have two guns, both have their designated sides for the mobile suit’s arms. The right gun is a long beam rifle with some sleek mechanical designs. You can get the handle by flipping it out, and putting it in the right hand.

The left beam rifle is a unique gun. It has two attachments; a short and a long one. The short one makes it look similar to the right beam rifle, but the problem is that the attachment is loose, so I couldn’t get a photo without super-gluing it, (which I did not do.)

The beam rifles are quite a fun idea to make action poses, but the way it acts might be hard to pose when using the guns. They are very loose in the hands, and will not stay in a position. The only way you can do this without dying is to be gentle, not to make big movements when posing the Strike Freedom with the guns.

There is another gimmick of these beam rifles, you can combine the two to make a long range beam rifle, or just a really long rifle.

 

There is a hole on the left beam rifle which you can access by flipping the stock

 

 

A really long gun, and with the floppy articulation, it might get tedious just trying to pose this guy down. But in the end, it can really look badass.

For weapon storage, you can put the beam rifles in the side skirts like I did. You can store them by keeping these rail guns in the back of the mobile suit. There is a hole for the guns, and the pegs are in the sides of the guns, which you can tell which gun goes through which side. The only problem now is that you cannot put the rail guns back. So might as well just throw it back in the box.

 

There are pegs for the rail guns, but you can't connect them both at the same time, it will only flop

It looks okay, I prefer the rail guns acting as the side skirts, but weapon storage will always be appreciated. 

And for the last accessory, the butt plug.

The strike noir also had a butt plug if you were wondering...

 

Now that's done and the review is getting a bit too long now, we have the vocal point of the mobile suit. The EQFU-3x SUPER DRAGOON system or the wings similar to the Freedom Gundam.

This looks majestic, but turning it's wings is kind of a suicide job, the wings will pop out easily but then again you don't need to raise them so high. It also has some color inaccuracies like the gold and red highlights, but it has the feature where most SEED fans wet their bed just thinking about it. The Super Dragoon Funnels launch something. (I don't know the name, I'm sorry.)

Take off the funnels of both the second wing.

Attach these clear effects to the wing base.

Attach the funnels again but this time, insert it into the tab of the effect part

And now we have it's Super Dragoon Mode. This looks awesome, the effects really bring life to those funnels! The only backside is that it will kinda sadden down and you need some big room to show this off in this pose. But nevertheless, it's so gorgeous and wish I had room for this pose.

 

 That's pretty much it for it's accessories and mechanisms. You have a big selection so posing was really fun except for the floppy joints. Let's head on to the articulation with a fast forward video!

 

The articulation is standard. It's not much except that it's a bootleg, so some joints are compromised. But so far, it's been able to do poses from the anime and other references.

For size comparisons, I only have the Strike Noir for scale so here you go!

Conclusion:

This kit is pretty awesome. It's very easy to build, not much to expect for a bootleg but if you're just beginning with bootleg kits, the Strike Freedom of TT Hongli should be your first. It has the aesthetics, a perfect canvas due to the lack of details, and articulation is impressive and will not explode on you unless you handle it like a gorilla. You also have lots of accessories and mechanisms to play with, so taking pictures of this guy was a superb blast! Compared to the Strike Noir, this guy is the superior in terms of beginners. I give this kit a 6/10. 

Now that we are done with the review, let's have a photoshoot craze!

Thank you guys for reading my review! I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did, and please follow me for more bootleg and authentic plamo reviews! This is Churros, saying goodbye for another week of happiness! Happy Building!