The torso design is faithful to the line-art but with shoddy inking. The black vents aren’t “blacked” properly and a bit of blue around the sides of the stomach ran into the whites. I would consider these forgivable. With the amount of colors found in this section and it being a mass-produced toy, it’s bound to run into this problem. A nice touch they added since the RX-78-2 Gundam 2nd Ver came out is the torso’s ability to bend and get decent rotation from the waist area. The lower torso also sports a better type of soft-plastic for the hip armors. This improves poseability a lot. It does lack a real side hip armor but the Xiphias 3 rail cannons/high-energy beam rifle covers that part up good. The gimmick of the area is that it has these four balls situated around the waist area that would serve as mounts for the Xiphias 3s and the high-energy beam rifle. They’re of a good fit and mobility isn’t sacrificed. It’s a good thing this figure came out with a manual. I wouldn’t have known that the Xiphias 3s can be mounted on the lower back.

On the backpack, I really like them wings. It gives it a divine feel but not too much like the Wing Gundam Zero. The molding of them are excellent and are made of a far more sturdy plastic than the ones found in the MSiA Freedom Gundam. It’s segregated into two pairs of wings. I bet fans would be disappointed with this but the DRAGOON wings does not deploy. Personally, I think it’s for the best. It makes the figure much sturdier. The verniers do get in the way with the Xiphias 3s mounted beam sabers when they’re situated at the back but fortunately the saber “holsters” can be adjusted. 

I’m not really familiar with the design with the anime itself but basing it with the line-art found at MAHQ, the arms and shoulders of the figure are pretty much faithful. The hand/fist sets are colored nicely with none of that gold stuff messing with the white backhand. Nothing much to say about the other parts except that the shoulders armor could’ve used a bit of panel linings. Poseability is pretty much standard with these 4th generation MSiAs with the double jointed elbows and the swing to and fro of the shoulders and the ball-and-socket attachment. Too bad the arms only go as far as a 45º sideward though. The separate shoulder armor piece is connected via clip which is quite sturdy. This is a big plus since there were a lot of 1st generation MSiAs which have them shoulder armor fall off easily. The arms also have the capability of being attached with a beam shield. Will go into that further later in the accessories section. 

Let’s start with the beam shield. This gave me a hard time trying to mount the thing to Strike Freedom’s forearm. I even managed to break the figure and lost its beam saber when I applied too much force attaching it (No problem folks! Was able to find the saber and MSiA limbs are re-attachable when separated.). It’s a good thing that these MSiAs can be disassembled. I’d suggest one takes the arm off and then mount the beam shield and re-attach the arm again. The “beam” is colored in violet… I wonder why it’s violet when the beam sabers are pink? Anyway, it’s molded in hard plastic and mounted on the beam shield hub via ball-and-socket. The attachment to the forearms a real snug fit which can be either a plus or a problem as stated above. 

The beam sabers are also made of much sturdier plastic. I guess Bandai has noticed that the old “beams” droops down when exposed to gravity for a long time. It is a major plus for me and adds value for display. They’re mounted on the Xiphias 3 rail cannons.

The Xiphias 3 rail cannons serve as the holsters for the beam sabers. Attached via clips, these holsters rotate the beam sabers’ handle however you see fit. I’m not sure if they’re faithful to the series in terms of design but they seem kinda small. At least deploying them won’t be a problem since one only has to spread them to opposite ends and they’re ready to fire! 

The high-energy beam rifles are amazing. I love that they’re able to merge and separate. Too bad they aren’t like the Buster Gundam that they can be interchangeable. Transformation’s fairly easy. Extend both of their barrels. Extend the stock of the right rifle and toggle left the left stock of the left rifle. Insert right rifle nozzle to the exposed stock of the left rifle. Swivel the left rifle handle up and there you go. high-energy beam rifle transformed. Sounds tedious but it’s easier than it seems.