Zer0's Guide: How to Become Ash Ketchum

If you're reading this, chances are you are one of many people walking around in the middle of nowhere with a phone and a power bank in your hands.

And if you wanted to become a super ultra mega powerful poke master, you've come to the right place as a fellow geek will make a geek out of you too.  But I won't teach you how to plus plus your poke experience using ehem... ehem... hack... ehem.. tools but some more official ones.

I won't go through the basics of the game like how to do this, how to gym and bla bla bla cause there's plenty of other guides teaching you on those kind of stuff.

Number 1: Never underestimate the power of dumb people in large group.
Choosing between teams of different colors is totally up to you.  But please take note that you might want to ask your buddies to decide which color to go for.  Once you have 4 or 5 people on the same color, taking over and holding gyms will be much easier.  Go all out, counter strike style.

I tried going solo, but fighting the same few guys at all the gyms in the vicinity is not that fun.



Number 2: Only hotspots, no camping out in random locations

If you live in an area without poke stops, you can consider moving to another area or just give up the game entirely.  Here's a few super hotspot in Penang.  If you're not in Penang, try checking the local community or just locate campers at your nearest park.

a) Georgetown heritage area.
My favorite spot now.  Lots and lots of poke stops but are scattered around.  Good for hunters who're on the foot all the time.  Here's some locations not to be missed.  Esplanade (Dewan Sri Pinang and Mee Sotong), LGE eating noodle place, boy on chair street art (Lebuh Cannon), Kung Fu minion + all along jetty, kids on bicycle, and many more locations of street arts.  Touristy and fun.

b) Karpal Singh Drive.
Particularly this junction.  I was there during last weekend and had a huge loot.  But words of mouth spreads too quickly and now it's flooded with poke catchers.  Come here if you choose to camp at the junction of 5 poke stops.

c) Shopping malls e.g. Queensbay, Paragon and Sunway Carnival.

Number 3: Use a supplementary map 
There's a lot of mapping service online that provides details on what pokemon are available around you such as pokemonradargo.  But Niantic is actively taking down these sites because it indirectly making the hunt easier. So use it while you still can.

Number 4: Do not ignore Magickarps
Never ignore magickarps.  Penang is blessed with a lot of water and surrounded by sea thus aplenty of magickarps to catch.  Magickarps evolves into Gyarados, one of the stronger, more attainable pokemon.  I caught around 20 karps per day and now I have a 1700+ CP Gyarados (brag!).  Hunting karps are fun and easy.

Number 5: CP is not everything, IV is.
Now the most serious part.  Ever wonder why your 2000+ CP pokemon lost to a 1500+ CP pokemon?  This is where the fine line of casual player vs ultimate geek takes effect.  CP is derived from a complicated formula of pokemon's IV.  To be exact, CP = (Base Atk + Atk IV) * (Base Def + Def IV)^0.5 * (Base Stam + Stam IV)^0.5 * Lvl(CPScalar)^2 / 10.

So what is IV.  IV is the individual value of the pokemon, i.e. the attack, defense and stamina, in the scale of 0 to 15.  IV's can't be changed, just like my IV is very much different from Shaquille O'neal.  IV's are not published in the game and will need a bit of research to find out the IV of a pokemon.

You can use IV calculator from pokeassistant to find out the IV of your pokemon.  Pick a pokemon with the best IV to evolve.  Ideally, all 3 stats should be greater than 10.  Never mind the low CP cause CPs can be built, and a strong foundation is genetic.

I chose the one with highest CP to evolve.  Which is totally wrong and ended up with a 800 CP tofu pokemon with 0 defense and 0 stamina who fainted almost instantly at gym fights.  RTFM bro!

Number 6: Go to gym
Finally, go to gym.  Not poke gym, but the real gym.  Cause a f**king ratatta already weighs 5 f***king KG.

Zer0's Talk: The Awesome 80's and 90's TV That You Probably Grew up with

If you're growing up in the 80's and the 90's, you probably had an awesome childhood unlike iphone infested kids nowadays,  We had all the awesome toys; guli, gasing, layang-layang, you name it, we had it.  The richer kids had Gameboy and Micro Genius, and almost all neighborhood boys had their BMX bikes.

At that time, our access to the fat box in the middle of the living room called TV is limited.  TV channels starts at noon and ends at midnight.  And TV channels are limited too.  Back in the days, there are only RTM1, RTM2 and TV3.  Only the more fortunate who lived in urbans gets metro.  And kids in Johor gets to enjoy wider varieties of Singapore TV channels.

And for the rest of us who're stuck with 1, 2 or 3, we'll watch all the sh*t the TV channels throw at us.  We'll open the newspaper early in the morning, looked at the TV programs for the day and booked our time slot for our favorite shows on TV.

And true enough, lots and lots of TV programs, commercials and whatever sri pentas and angkasapuri is throwing at our face is a bloody brainwash that everyone remembers until today.

Here's the list of TV stuff that you just can't get rid of from your brain.

1. The limited TV broadcast schedule



Remember switching on a TV and saw this?  It's a signal either for you to go out and play or off to bed.

2. Brainwash advertisement


If you're reading this, you probably know where I'm going.  Ubat batuk cap ibu dan anak.  One of a few advert that definitely burned a hole in your brain.


And McDonalds and KFC ads, very-very catchy.

"Masa riang..., rasa hebat..."
"KFC, idaman ku selalu..."

And the "Ibu... ibu... engkaulah ratu hatiku..." of fernleaf.

3. Catchy Patriotic Music Videos
Back in the days, everyone loves Dr M and loves the country.  Unlike all the bullshit 1Malaysia, janji dicapati and GST music videos, songs are much more patriotic and easy on your hearts and brains.


You'll definitely remember setia.


And how about the 5 ladies of Sejahtera Malaysia?  Definitely miles better than those crappy music jibby and co managed today.  Best of all, these songs made it to schools where teachers and kids gave their full devotion singing the tunes.

4. Aedes and AIDS are natural born enemies
There are Aedes and AIDS documentaries almost every hour on the TV.  We know our enemies. Not jibby and FLOM but dengue fever and AIDS.

But best of all, the broadcaster even managed put in brainwash music to educate people on the danger of these diseases.  No kangkung bullshit, just pure music.


To top that, there's even dikir barat.

"A. I. D. S. berbahaya, aedes pula mengancam manusia..."

Bloody brainwash tune.

5. 4pm to 5pm is not playtime
4pm to 5pm every weekdays.  There won't be any kids running in the neighborhood.  Because Baja Hitam and Gaban is being showed on TV back to back.




Well, there are more and more Japanese super sentai series and super robot series like choushinsei flashman, tosho daimos, grandizer and voltron, flooding the TV flooding the TV afterwards.  But nothing is as iconic as baja hitam and gaban.

If you grew up with these and many more, then your childhood is definitely AWESOME!

Hobby Talk: Model Kit Review, MG MS-06F Zaku II ver 2.0

Link to revised review here.

One of the most recognizable icon of Gundam.  The mono eye.  The bad guy's grunt.

Why this kit
I was looking to complete my collection with the MS that started the Gundam franchise.  The Zaku and the grand daddy Gundam.  The latter was kind of hard to get.  Plus, I can't go wrong with the most popular green MS of the entire Gundam series.

Kit Details
The Zaku II 2.0 kit was released in March 2008, a A2 box kit with 13 runners and 300 parts. You get 1 sheet of stickers and 1 sheet of dry transfer decals .  This kit is priced at RM 125.

Build / Difficulty
(Score: Neutral)
The build for this kit is on the easy side.  A departure from regular gundam-type of build is definitely refreshing.  You get lots of rounded parts.  Plus the green is definitely easy on your eyes.

Lots of detailing and panel lining is needed.  Stickers and decals alone just don't bring much out details.  The kit is going to look like a plain green mushroom without the extra effort.

The highlight of building this kit is probably these m***erf***ers.  The idea behind these pipes for the Zaku II is good.  Just cut off the small pipes and transfer it over to the main pipe right?

Partially right.  Except the whole process of doing this difficult because of the very small parts and it's a pain in the butt to cross over the small parts cause the pipes are super tight like a virgin.  You'll end up with a very sore hands.  Do this as the last item of the day, put your hands on ice and continue tomorrow.

Looks / Details
(Score: +1)
The zaku looks fantastic.  Its simplistic looks plus the details of a 2.0 kit.  Thumbs up.  I went for the basic F-green model.  There is of course other models like the J, S or R.  Or you can even go zaku crazy and collect all the different colors.  Gotta catch them all right?

Accessories
(Score: Neutral)
You get a quite plain looking machine gun, a bazooka and a heat hawk.  Not an impressive arsenal of weapons.

Articulation / Pose ability
(Score: +1)
You can expect the great pose-ability of a 2.0 kit.  Being a simplistic kit, it can get into almost any pose without wings or armor or shield getting in the way.  No problem moving at all.

Plus this kit also has some pretty cool gimmicks e.g. the moving mono eye, retractable shoulder and waist armor, 2.0 manipulators etc.

However... no kits are perfect.  The feet are wide but the kit doesn't seems well planted to the ground.  The ankle joints are a bit loose.  The major weak point?  The lower abs.  The hinge that holds the upper chest and the nuclear abs are just weak.  It's a big sacrifice just to get the nuclear sticker onto the reactor.

Being a rock solid kit with some minor flaw, it's impressive nonetheless.  Some 2014/015 kit can even beat this old timer.  Looking at you wing fe-ni-ce.

Shelf presence
(Score: +1)
If you ever watch or heard about Gundam, you'll most probably recognize this green beast at first glance.  A Zaku is not that hard to spot on your shelf despite the kit being a bit dwarf in comparison with other taller and larger kits.

Bonus
(Score: +2)
The Zaku II is by far the most popular kit.  It has tons of variants and it's greatly popular with kit modders.  It has tons of add on accessories.  The armor has plenty of room for weathering and battle effects to be applied.  Plus it's a very cost effective kit to start gunpla modding.

Summary and Rating
(Total Score: +5)
The base kit provides enough entertainment for builders.  It is solid and a very good looking, very pose-able kit.  The strong point of this kit, or rather with the whole Zaku phenomenon is how Zaku crazy you can get.  Collect all the variants, colors, modding, modding, modding...

Being a bad guy, it might not attract beginners to start with this kit.  Hell, this is my number 9 MG kit.  But once you caught the Zaku fever, the possibilities are limitless.  For me, I wish I had more display space.

Gundam: Zaku II F
Code: MS-06F
Series: Mobile Suit Gundam
Faction: Neo Zeon
Weapons: Zaku Machine Gun, Zaku Bazooka, Heat Hawk
Release: March 2008
Box: A2
Runner: 13
Parts: 300
Price: 3500 yen

Pundit: Highly recommended.  A good place to start your Zaku pokemon collection.

Variants
There are too many variants for the Zaku.  Just listing out a few.
1) Zaku II 2.0 S Mats (2008) - white variant
2) Zaku II 2.0 J Ridden (2008) - red variant
3) Zaku Cannon (2008) - tan variant
4) Zaku II 2.0 J (2008) - different design + rockets
5) Zaku II Minelayer (2008) - with mine laying accessories
6) Zaku II 2.0 Black (2008) - you know it, black variant
7) Zaku II 2.0 Char (2007) - Char's pink
8) Gegloog 2.0 (2008) - plus other variants
9) Hi Zack (2004)
10) Rickdom (2003)
11) Gouf + variants (2000)
12) Marasai (2012)
13) Geara Dooga (2013)

And.... many more.

Dalong's Review
Dalong's Score: 108

Up Next: Sinanju Anime ver

Hobby Talk: Model Kit Review, MG MSN-00100 Hyaku Shiki ver 2.0

Link to revised review here.

I was never a fan of the Hyaku Shiki before this.  Well, at least once in the Super Robot Wars (SRW) 4, this MS has a very good map weapon.  Hyaku Shiki kind of being over shadowed by the more popular Z Gundam and the Gundam MKII.  This 2.0 kit is the best redemption for this MS.

Why this kit
I was looking to add more colors to my display cabinet.  I already had red of Aegis, blue of 00 and strike, green of fenice and awesomeness of unicorn and nu.  One of the best gunpla kit of 2015 will make a perfect choice.

Kit Details
The Hyaku Shiki 2.0 kit was released in May 2015, a D0 box kit with 14 runners and 342 parts. You get 1 sheet of stickers and 1 sheet of dry transfer decals .  This kit is priced at RM 240.  A very huge price tag for a kit with only 3 gold runners.

Build / Difficulty
(Score: +1)
The build for this kit is easy.  Being a 2.0 kit, there's a lot of small parts for detailing.  Watch out for small parts from especially from the A plate.

But the highlight of the build is the gold parts.  You can feel how good the gold is going to look by just opening the box.  Almost all gold parts are undercut, which hides away all the nub marks and greatly improves the look.

But there are some really tiny scratch looking lines on the gold parts.  I initially thought I accidentally scratched the gold runners but when I searched online, the marks seems consistent and almost everyone who built the Hyaku Shiki 2.0 also mentioned it.  In-perfection in the coating process I guess.  Not that obvious but once seen, it cannot be unseen.

While building is easy, handling of the gold parts is not.  When removing the nubs, take care of the edges.  Although it's undercut, mistake is still deadly.  When doing the panel lining, do it slowly and hold your grip.  If you mess up, it's really hard to clean.  And the gold is really sensitive to cleaning agent.  I ended up with some surface less gold than others.

Just remember, the more money you spend on a kit, the more time you should spend building it.  This one is no exception.  Take your time on the gold parts.

I took 3 weeks building this kit.  Not my best effort as I kind of rush through the decals.  And the panel lining is not as clean as I would have hoped.

Looks / Details
(Score: +2)
The glory of the gold.  This kit looks amazing!  Some of you may like the original 1.0 chromatic gold look but for me, this shade of gold makes the kit shines brighter.  And a lot cleaner look too. P.S. No longer a fingerprint magnet.

And this kit is never short of details.  Yes, the gold armor may not cover the whole body of this kit but the exposed parts have excellent details.  Take an example of the exposed legs/ankle area.  The silver plastic for the piston + silver/red armor lining make up for the non gold area.



Although the gold parts are literally flawless from nubs, the rest aren't that kind.  Nub marks are quite bad on the blue torso and red foot.  But the gold cleverly takes the attention away.  Unless you're eyeing for flaws, the nubs can be forgiven.

Probably another bummer could be the stickers.  The stickers doesn't look that good on the gold.  The square of the sticker is too g-d d--n obvious on the gold plates.  The dry transfer looks top notch good, but the stickers is really a let down.

Accessories
(Score: Neutral)
There's nothing to brag about the accessories department.  You get a rather plain looking beam rifle and clay bazooka.  There are some color options on these 2 weapons but nothing fancy.

You also get 2 really cool light saber looking beam saber.  Possibly the coolest beam saber I have seen so far.  But despite that, this kit is kind of thin on the accessories.


Articulation / Pose ability
(Score: +1)
This kit will do what a 2.0 can do.  Double bending elbow and knee gives a 180 bend, but agin, another thigh bending kit similar to the 00.

There are lots of other gimmicks that allows additional pose ability e.g. moving the shoulder out of it's socket and move-able hip joints.

All the joints are generally tight and requires some effort to move the limbs into a pose.  But some joints feels a bit looser than the rest e.g. waist and shoulder joint.

This kit is a little back heavy, just a little.  It has no problem standing on its own without needing a lot of weight compensation.  On ground or on air, this kit is very pose-able.

Shelf presence
(Score: +2)
Gold is the attraction magnet.  Enough said.

Bonus
(Score: Neutral)
The Hyaku Shiki 2.0 already looks good as it is.  Since the Hyaku Shiki does not have commonality with other kits, there's no valuable add on available.  Oh, except for the ballute system from the old Hyaku Shiki kit.  But trust me, don't.  Cause the ballute system is not particularly good looking, and you'll ended up with another yellow shiki which doesn't even look good.

Summary and Rating
(Total Score: +6)
A superb looking kit.  Simple but the lack of accessories might be troubling for some fans.  This kit appears 10 years after the series protagonist gets his version 2.0.  But that 10 years is worth the wait.

A very fun build, very good pose-ability and a simple kit.  Drawbacks include requirements for lots of attention to details so definitely not for beginners, and the price tag is very steep for a kit with almost similar contents as the Aile Strike ver RM.  The latter cost Rm 100 less.

Gundam: Hyaku Shiki
Code: MSN-00100
Series: Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ
Pilot: Quattro Bajeena
Faction: Anti Earth Union Group
Weapons: Beam Saber, BR-M-87 Beam Rifle, AE/ZIM.C-BAZ-531300mm Clay Bazooka
Release: May 2015
Box: D0
Runner: 14
Parts: 342
Price: 6800 yen

Pundit: Highly recommended, but for serious and thick pocket collectors only.

Variants
There are 2 entries for the MG Hyaku Shiki before this one.  The only one worth to get is the 1.0 if you prefer the chrome gold.  Don't spend the money on the ballute system.  Use the same money and get MK II ver 2.0 instead.

Dalong's Review
Dalong's Score: 103

Up Next: Zaku II version 2.0

Hobby Talk: Model Kit Review, MG XXXG-01Wfr Wing Gundam Fenice Rinascita

Link to revised review here.

What's with the long name?  That's how Italian people named their products I guess.

Why this kit
The Wing Fenice is always one of my favorite Gundam from the Build Fighters series.  I wanted to get this kit before, but it went out of stock pretty fast.  Probably many others agreed with me that this is a better looking Wing Gundam's variant.  Plus I never build a Wing Gundam frame before.

Kit Details
The Wing Fenice Rinascita kit was released in June 2015, a D1 box kit with 20 runners and 462 parts. You get 1 big sheet of stickers but most of the stickers are unused according to the manual.  This kit is priced at RM 170.

Build / Difficulty
(Score: -1)
This kit is complicated because of the transformation.  The internal frame has a lot of complicated movements that resulted in small frame pieces holding everything together.  This directly contributes to the kit being a bit fragile and feels like it'll snap when you try to bend the joints.  You'll need to take extra time to understand the transformation mechanics to avoid damaging the kit if you ever wanted to transform this kit.

And there's lots of small pieces and these will fall off easily.  Even larger pieces feels it'll fall off at any given time.

And then, there's the problem with bad nubs.  Bad nubs are the main enemy of this kit. Despite being a 2015 kit and the claim of having entirely new runners, the nubs are horrible.  And it's especially bad and painfully visible on the green armor which makes up around 50% of the outlook of this kit.

This kit takes me 2 weeks to complete the build.  Not much detailing is needed, not much stickers to apply.  But spend some times on the nubs.  I didn't do a good job on it myself.

Looks / Details
(Score: +1)
Despite all the downfall, this kit looks amazing.  The red, white and green color scheme is unique and quite a departure from classic Gundam colors.  There's fair amount of details thanks to the complicated assemblies of small parts but the lack of decals does make the kit look less busy.  The looks are further enhanced by lots of sharp edges and posing this with the pink curtain effect is a must.

However the bad nubs cannot be unseen.  Although you get almost similar parts from the Wing Zero custom, but the older Wing Zero custom kit appears to have nubs at less visible place, equally obvious but more distinctively hidden.

Accessories
(Score: +1)
You get a buster rifle, an uzi type handgun, a beam sword which can be combined into a super big beam cannon.  Lot's of play ability there.

You also get a huge rinascita wing shield which stores another beam saber.  On top of these, you get pink curtain effect parts and an action base.

Articulation / Pose ability
(Score: -1)
Although this kit has a wide range of movement, having lots of add ons to the kit e.g thrusters, big weapons and shield, the pose ability greatly limited.  And having a weaker internal frame to accommodate the transformation, means you'll get weaker joint which doesn't help with the weight issue.

The kit is very top heavy given the big wings and weapons.  An action base is included for a reason cause this kit needs to be airborne.  You can get the kit to stand but expect it to fall over a lot.  Stick it on the action base and you're good.

Shelf presence
(Score: +1)
Unique colors, way oversize weapons and shield, big wings, effect parts.  This kit definitely attracts attention.  This kit looks good, and since it retains most of the unique features from the original Wing Gundam, fans almost will recognize it immediately.

Bonus
(Score: +1)
I never did the transformation, not ever since the less fun experience from the Aegis Gundam.  The transformation looks way better than the original Wing.  It's a new kit they said.

Summary and Rating
(Total Score: +2)
This kit looks great.  But for the looks, there are too much penalty to pay on the build, the horrible nubs and the kinda shaky internal frame.  And it don't really pose that well thanks to everything it has around it that prevents it from moving.

Possibly the best looking Wing Gundam variant.  The bird mode looks good.  But the quality's doesn't look like its from 2015, but more like a recycled 2004 kit.

Gundam: Wing Gundam Fenice Rinascita
Code: XXXG-01Wfr
Series: Gundam Build Fighters
Pilot: Ricardo Fellini
Weapons: Beam Mantle, Beam Saber, Buster Rifle, Handgun
Release: June 2015
Box: D1
Runner: 20
Parts: 462
Price: 4800 yen

Pundit: Get it if you're a fan of BF, else go safe and get either Yuy Heero's MS.

Variants
This kit is actually a derivative from the original Wing.
1) Wing 0 Custom (2004) - For the wings...
2) Wing Ver Ka (2004) - Katoki's version of Wing EW
3) Wing Gundam EW (2010) - The other variant of the Wing
4) Wing Proto Zero (2011) - From the movie

Dalong's Review
Dalong's Score: 99

Up Next: Hyaku Shiki ver 2.0

Hobby Talk: Model Kit Review, MG GAT-X105 Aile Strike Gundam ver RM

Link to revised review here.

Back to gunpla reviews.  The godlike Kira Yamato's original MS, now remastered to become even better than before.  Remaster is..? I think it's like 1.5 or 1.75?

Why this kit
A gunpla kit has a lot of variants for a reason.  One, it's a very popular kit.  Two, it's highly customize-able.  And three, imagination...  Strike Gundam kit is the modern representation of the classic RX-78-2.  The remaster of an already strong Strike kit, it's a yes.

Kit Details
The Aile Strike ver RM kit was released in May 2013, a D0 box kit with 15 runners and 370 parts. You also get 1 big sheet of stickers and 1 big sheet of dry transfer decals.  This kit is priced at RM 150.  You also get 1 huge archangel launcher action base included in the box.

Build / Difficulty
(Score: Neutral)
This build for this kit is very straight forward.  You'll know what you're building unlike some transformable Gundam which kept you guessing what parts you are building.

This kit takes me 2 weeks to build.  It has quite a lot of detailing needs to be done plus massive amount of decals needs to be put on.  But applying the stickers and decals are easy as there's no difficult angle, insane curves or even unreachable area where the decals should go.

Looks / Details
(Score: +1)
This kit looks great as it is.  It has a lot of details, massive improvement from the original strike.  Not much color separation as all you get is the classic Gundam colors.  This kit looks clean, not overly complicated.

Accessories
(Score: Neutral)
You get a beam rifle, a shield, 2 armor schneider, 2 beam saber and an aile striker pack + battery pack.  Oh, haven't I mentioned the big @$$ action base?  There's not much colors to the tools, but I'm glad the armor schneider gets a white blade.  Take that PG strike.

But the plus side is, you can get the RM 175 sword/launcher strike kit to get additional weapons.  And the grand slam is sold separately (RM25), in case you need the PG exclusive chrome blade.

Articulation / Pose ability
(Score: +2)
Strike Gundam kit probably has the best internal frame among all 191 MG kits out there.  Even bested the RX-78-2.  Thanks to this, the kit has the best movement and can do any imaginable pose without a problem.

And also thanks to that, this kit is very balanced.  No weight issue at all, even with the aile striker pack slapped on.  The feet are well planted to the ground.  No problem at all.

And this kit is solid AF.  I had never seen such a rock solid kit before.  In all my previous MG builds, something will feel lose, parts will fall off.  But not on this kit.  Every joint, every armor piece is strongly connected.  With the exception of the V-fins which falls off more that I thought it would and the aile striker pack which has the classic gunpla flimsy feel to it.  Nothing is perfect I guess.

Shelf presence
(Score: Neutral)
This kit most likely won't stands out too much as other kits.  It looks great, no doubt about it but lacks of "Look at me, I'm f**king awesome" kind of feeling.  But there's a way to fix that.  Look at the bonus section.

Bonus
(Score: +2)
This default look is great, but not explosive.  Being a popular kit, the accessories and add-ons are widely available.  To make this kit shines a little bit more, you can get the sword/launcher strike kit and slap everything on to create the perfect strike.

Not fancy enough?  You can even slap on the universal booster and give this guy some clear wing effects.  Or you can choose to mix any of this kit's variant's accessories to this kit.  Damn, the Lego feeling.

Summary and Rating
(Total Score: +5)
This kit has the best internal frame that provides excellent pose-ability and is a very balanced kit.  However, what comes in the box are the most basic of a kit.  But it provides you the perfect platform for expansion.  And I'm thinking of completing the perfect strike some time in the future.



Gundam: Aile Strike Gundam
Code: GAT-X105, AQM/E-X01
Series: Mobile Suit Gundam Seed
Pilot: Kira Yamato, Mu La Flaga
Faction: Earth Alliance
Weapons: Beam Saber, Armor Schneider, 57mm High Energy Beam Rifle
Release: May 2013
Box: D0
Runner: 15
Parts: 370
Price: 4200 yen

Pundit: Must have!  And buy the perfect strike "expansion" kit if you have the extra cash.

Variants
There's too many strike variants available.  I'm just picking a few newer and more popular ones.
1) Build Strike Gundam + Universal Booster (2014) - From Gundam Build fighters and are based on the remastered frame.  I've built the HG version and the MG is definitely worth to get.
2) Astray Blue Frame D (2014) - Blue framed variant, color and armor variation + lots of toys.
3) Sengoku Astray (2014) - Red framed samurai variant of strike.
4) Strike Rouge + Ootori (2013) - Cagalli's pink strike with lots of add ons + toys.  Bug fixes in the striker pack.  Kind of version 1.8 of this kit.
5) Buster, Blitz and Duel (2012) - The other 3 bad guys from the original Gundam Seed.  Based on the 1.0 strike frame.
6) Astray Blue Frame 2nd, Red frame (2009/2010) - Original 2 astray based on the 1.0 frame.
7) Sword/Launcher Strike (2008) - Expansion pack for the perfect strike.
8) Many many more...

Dalong's Review
Dalong's Score: 105

Up Next: Wing Gundam Fenice