SD GAT-X105E Strike Noir

The GAT-X105E Strike Noir is a variant on the design of the GAT-X105 Strike, created by the Eurasian corporation Actaeon Industries for the Phantom Pain special forces and designed primarily for close combat. Very similar to the GAT-X105 Strike in appearance, the structural and design changes implemented by Actaeon Industries were intended to increase the unit's power efficiency and therefore improve its operating time.

History
The Strike Noir's first deployment, along with the Blu Duel and Verde Buster, is to defend against Zala loyalist guerillas who emerged in the wake of the "Break the World" terrorist attack. Shortly afterward, Sven supervises a squad of GAT-01AR2 Slaughter Daggers as they destroy a Coordinator refugee camp where some of the terrorists were allegedly trained.

Later in CE 73, Sven engages in a brief, inconclusive duel with Martian Coordinator Agnes Brahe in the GSF-YAM01 Δ Astray. Agnes escapes in his ship, the Acidalium. Shortly afterward, when Orb joins in a treaty with the Earth Alliance, Sven is assigned to lead a squad of 5 Slaughter Daggers piloted by Orb soldiers in pursuit of the Acidalium. While the Orb pilots fare poorly and Sven's Noir Striker is damaged during the fight, he attaches the IWSP (which was being used by one of the Orb pilots) to Strike Noir and manages to severely cripple the Δ Astray.

At some point after this operation, Sven returns to his Phantom Pain squad and escorts the Bonaparte as it delivers the GFAS-X1 Destroy Neo Roanoke's unit. The Bonaparte is attacked along the way, and while Blu Duel pilot Mudie Holcroft is killed, the ZAFT force is wiped out and the Bonaparte arrives at its destination.

Appearance
Astraea appearance is almost likely the same on Exia. their body, legs and arms are very similar to Exia's appearance. Since Astraea is the prototype for the Gundam Exia

Colors
For the Colors, Astraea has a very typical color for a gundam. Red, blue, white and Grey are used on this model kit. White is the very used color for this one. It covers almost all over its arms, legs, head, feet, and body with white. As for Blue and Red, they are found on the body area which Blue covers on top portion of the body and Red in its abdomen. Also Red is on lower part of the feet and chin. For Grey they are on joints and palms of the kit.

Articulation
Since this came from the new series, It has a very good articulation. Its articulation is the same with over models in the series of Gundam 00. Chest parts, waist, arms knees and feet are very articulated.


Accessories
As for the accessories, It has a similar type of weapon for the Exia. It has a GN sword(same with exia but no guns attached), Has a separate GN riffle, GN cannon, GN Shield (almost the same pattern to exia 's shield), and two Beam sabers.

Availability on the market and Costs
If your thinking this is expensive since it is on a 1/100 scale, well it does not. Astraea comes with a cheaper price of 1400 yen or $14.65 US (according to Hobby Link Japan). And luckily this item is no hard to found. Astraea is very easy to buy since it has a lot of stock available.

Action Gallery

1/100 NG GNY-001 Astraea

Astraea appears in the side-stories of Mobile Suit Gundam 00P and Mobile Suit Gundam 00F. A prototype mobile unit, which serves as the intermediary design between the 1st-generation GN-000 0 Gundam and the 3rd-generation GN-001 Gundam Exia. It is a testbed for a number of experimental technologies, incorporated in pursuit of a greater general utility versus the 0. The GN Drive control mechanism differs from that of 0 Gundam, and benchmarks with both higher output and higher instability.

History
In 00P, where the Astraea is initially introduced, its paint scheme is white with blue and red highlights. As of 00F, 15 years later in the 00 continuity, the scheme has been altered to red with grey highlights, and the face has been covered with a black mask, in order to disguise the fact that it is actually a Gundam; as 00F pointed out, Celestial Being and its associates want to keep only four Gundams being known to the world. No explanation has been provided for the other changes thus far. Astraea eventually got modified for second time into the GNY-001F2 using various parts from Exia.

The two ear-like protrusions that extend backwards from the sides of the head structure appear to be a design feature unique to the Astraea, but their purpose is thus far unknown and its paint scheme is white with blue and red highlights.

The unit name derives from the goddess Astraea, who is associated with the card Justice -- one of the twenty-two Major Arcana in the Tarot. The other Gundam test-types follow this naming theme.

Appearance
Astraea appearance is almost likely the same on Exia. their body, legs and arms are very similar to Exia's appearance. Since Astraea is the prototype for the Gundam Exia

Colors
For the Colors, Astraea has a very typical color for a gundam. Red, blue, white and Grey are used on this model kit. White is the very used color for this one. It covers almost all over its arms, legs, head, feet, and body with white. As for Blue and Red, they are found on the body area which Blue covers on top portion of the body and Red in its abdomen. Also Red is on lower part of the feet and chin. For Grey they are on joints and palms of the kit.

Articulation
Since this came from the new series, It has a very good articulation. Its articulation is the same with over models in the series of Gundam 00. Chest parts, waist, arms knees and feet are very articulated.


Accessories
As for the accessories, It has a similar type of weapon for the Exia. It has a GN sword(same with exia but no guns attached), Has a separate GN riffle, GN cannon, GN Shield (almost the same pattern to exia 's shield), and two Beam sabers.

Availability on the market and Costs
If your thinking this is expensive since it is on a 1/100 scale, well it does not. Astraea comes with a cheaper price of 1400 yen or $14.65 US (according to Hobby Link Japan). And luckily this item is no hard to found. Astraea is very easy to buy since it has a lot of stock available.

Action Gallery

1/100 MG Shin Musha Gundam

Musha Gundam (Musha Gandamu?) are Gundam units modelled after samurai, ninja, or other forms of feudal Japanese warriors. Inheriting the base SD Gundam design, typical design element include changing beam sabre into katana, sheath that act as a gun, removable armour suits. Although the concept began with more typical Gundam proportions, the idea is most famous for inspiring a long running SD Gundam franchise.

History
The Musha Gundam series is the longest running SD Gundam series, lasting over 15 years. Since the series is set in the Warring States period, use of katakana is avoided and kanji is used heavily. With exception of Musha Senki and Musha Generation, names of characters, items, and places usually makes no literal sense unless you read it, similar to Mondegreen. Musha Gundam makes a non-SD appearance in Dynasty Warriors: Gundam as a major antagonist in the games Original Mode storyline. In Original Mode, a mysterious planet appears near Earth, and characters from numerous Gundam series and timelines fight each other to control the planet's power. However, once a victor is declared, Musha Gundam is awakened and threatens the destruction of Earth. In the PS2 Version, Musha Gundam has another assistant, Musha Gundam Mk-II, however, both of them didn't statistied themselves, and ends up killing each other. In the Xbox 360 and PS3 version, Musha Gundam is an unlockable unit. The player must defeat the Musha Gundam to save Earth. Apart from Musha Generation and the Tekki Musha, all the Mushas from Musha Gundam series are not viewed as mechanical robots. They portrayed as living beings that grow and mature similar to humans. Furthering this, often relationships between mecha in the main series are turned into family ties. For example, the Musha versions of Psyco and Pscyco Mk II are rendered as brothers.

Appearance
Musha Gundams are based on old style japan. using katana, spears, staffs and first generation of firearms. The looks of the shin musha is based on samurai armor. A very bulky armor covering the whole part of the body. Its like Tom Cruise on the last samurai in gundam form.

Colors
The Shin Musha has a very good colors variations. Mostly red with white, black, gold and grey. Red colors are on the main armor of the gundam from shoulders, chest (on the exhaust), arms to the top of the wrist, on the skirts from front to back, on the shin guards, and lastly below the feet. White colors are on the head, top of the arms and legs. Black colors are on the abdomen, on the inner layer of the shoulders and shin, and top of the feet. Gold colors are mostly on the detailed parts of the armor covering top of the chest, on some parts of the shoulders, and on the legs. Grey colors are on the joint parts of the body and wrist (palms and fingers.)

Articulation
On this model kit, it has the normal articulation of a master grade. even though this gundam has a bulky body. Its head can rotate, shoulders and arms bends nice, legs and feet also has a good articulation. On master grade models usaually fingers are articulated, so this gundam is very good to collect.


Accessories
Musha Gundam offers a lot of accessories. It has a long spear that can mounted on th back, has a katana that is placed on the hips, Also with another type of spear (halberd), and a gun that looks like a old version of 18 century riffle.

Availability on the market and Costs
This Gundam is quite expensive. It cost as much of 5000 yen or $51.95. (according to Hobby Link Japan). although this gundam is very limited of stock. Since the release of the PS3 game and uniqueness of this kit.

Action Gallery

1/144 HG GN-0000 00 Gundam

The successor unit to the GN-001 Gundam Exia. As the premier unit in Celestial Being's 4th Generation of Mobile Suits, "00" (pronounced Double-O) possesses many of the previous generations' standard features, including the GN Drive and Trans-AM System, as well as introducing newer innovation such as the revolutionary Twin Drive System. The system utilizes two GN Drives with compatible GN particles production as the basis for the system's operation, with their productive synergy generating GN particle emissions which exceed anything produced by a single unit.

History
After the fade of Celestial Being, Ian Vashti and engineers quietly designed and built 00 Gundam. 00's most unique feature is its use of dual GN Drives. The theory and application was drafted by Aeolia Schenberg himself nearly 200 years ago. He had the foresight to anticipate developing GN Tech to a level where the GN Drives can be utilize to a new level of power by synchronizing dual drives; the compatibility between two drives was proven to be a challenge. Ian compared other GN Drives onto 00 and all of them failed to reach 80% compatibility, except for Exia's GN Drive. Because Setsuna and Exia were missing for five years, they couldn't test its compatibility to 0 Gundam's GN Drive until season 2. After Setsuna/Exia barely surviving combat with A-Laws, Tieria/Seravee taken Setsuna/Exia back to Ptolemy 2 for immediate testing. A-Laws was tipped off by Wang Liu Mei as her way of testing the capabilities of Celestial Being. With only Gundam Seravee functional, their situation looked bleak. Ian's twin drive synchronization trials with Exia's and 0's was only 70%. Tieria theorized that activating Trans Am could boost the energy output and balance the drives, but the idea was considered too dangerous by Ian as it could blow up both drives and kill everyone on board Ptolemy 2.

Appearance
Since the series is brought up in the future, Double O looks is very different from the conventional gundams from the past series. This kit has a very slim type of body. And compare to exia, It has two twin drives mounted on the shoulders.

Colors
Gundam 00 colors are commonly used by main characters. Basically Blue, Red, White, Yellow and Grey. Blue colors are on the body, shoulders and on the wrists. White colors are on the head, "twin Drive", arms, top of the hands, waist legs and top of the feet. Yellow are on the "Antennas" and on chest (exhaust). Red colors are on the abdomen part, chin, and lower feet. Grey colors are commonly on joint parts and palms.

Articulation
Very pleasing to this model, its articulation is very unique and this is the first to introduce. Usually model kits legs cannot split, but this one can. A new type of leg joints and feet joints that are commonly applies to the shoulders are now applied to the legs and feet.


Accessories
This gundam has only one pairs of weapons called GN sword II and a pair of beam sabers mounted on the lower back. The weapon can convert into unique GN Riffles. It dosen't look like the common riffle which sword flips revealing its nozzle. Its too bad that his weapon is very limited.

Availability on the market and Costs
Compare to the other kits on the series, Double O only costs at a low price. $10.39 or 1000 yen (according to Hobby Link Japan). Its Availability is limited only since it is very popular as of now it is very rare to purchase this model kit.

Action Gallery