HGCosmic Era

GAT-X105 Strike Gundam KASHIMA ANTLERS Ver.

A stadium jersey poured over a genuinely good frame.

MechaGrade Score

3.6/5

Strike Gundam KASHIMA ANTLERS Ver. · 1/144 · 2020

GradeHG

Scale1/144

Released2020

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

This is the same well-liked Aile Strike Gundam mold Bandai has been refining since the 2019 remaster, just dipped in Kashima Antlers deep red and navy for a 2020 J.League tie-in.

If you already own a plain HGCE Strike, you know the shape: solid double-jointed elbows and knees, a ball-jointed neck, and a frame that holds a pose better than kits twice its age have any right to. The team colors are the whole reason to buy it, and they're applied with more care than I expected from a promo kit.

Best for: SEED fans and J.League supporters who want a display-shelf novelty built on a genuinely solid HG frame, not a discount Strike

The full review

What it is

This is the GAT-X105 Strike Gundam, Kira Yamato's first mobile suit from Gundam SEED, run through Bandai's 2020 collaboration with Japan's professional football league. Under the paint job it is the same Aile Strike Gundam kit that got a real articulation upgrade a few years back: double-jointed knees and elbows, a proper ball-jointed neck, and skirt armor that lifts out of the way instead of blocking leg movement. The Kashima Antlers colors (that deep red and navy) go on the torso, shoulders, and skirt in molded plastic, not just paint apps, and it comes with the Aile Striker flight pack, beam rifle, shield, and a pair of Armor Schneiders. Building it felt exactly like building a good modern HG, which is the pleasant surprise here.

The catch

You are paying a premium for a recolor, and that's worth saying plainly. The J.League team decals (the crest, sponsor marks) are stickers, not molded detail, and they're the part that will show wear first if you handle the kit much. Because this was a limited regional collaboration release, it's not something you'll find easily at retail anymore, so pricing on the secondary market runs well above a standard HGCE Strike. The core kit itself has the usual HG-era small-part fussiness in the hands and flight pack joints, nothing new, just the same tolerances the base mold has always had.

Who it's for

If you're a Kashima Antlers supporter, a J.League collector, or someone who just wants a Strike Gundam that doesn't look like every other Strike Gundam on the shelf, this earns its spot. It's also a fair pickup for SEED fans who never got a modern-frame Strike and don't mind the team branding, since the engineering underneath is the same kit hobby sites rate as a real improvement over the 2004 original. Skip it if you want a screen-accurate Strike for a diorama or MSV, or if you're not willing to hunt secondary market listings for a discontinued promo run.

The build story

What the build is actually like, and the engineering worth knowing about.

The build follows the standard modern HGCE Strike sequence: legs and torso go together fast with clean gate placement on the main runners, and the polycap joints in the hips and shoulders feel snug rather than loose, which isn't always true of HG-era kits this size. The Aile Striker backpack has more small connecting parts than the body itself, and that's where I slowed down and took my time with nub cleanup so the red trim edges stayed sharp.

The engineering payoff is the range of motion. Double-jointed elbows and knees let the Strike get into a real lunge or a bent-knee landing pose, the ball-jointed neck adds head tilt that sells expression even without a face sculpt to speak of, and the skirt armor swings clear so kicks and wide stances don't jam the hip joints. Color separation on the deep red and navy is handled in the plastic on the torso, shoulder vents, and skirt, with the team crest and finer branding left to the sticker sheet.

Lore & trivia

01The Strike Gundam is the first mobile suit Kira Yamato pilots in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, taken up when the Coordinator military attacks the neutral colony Heliopolis.
02This kit was part of a 2020 Bandai collaboration with Japan's J.League, releasing HG Strike Gundams in the colors of individual football clubs, with the Kashima Antlers version carrying that club's crest and sponsor decals.
03The kit shares its mold with the modern HGCE Aile Strike Gundam, itself a 2019-era rework of Bandai's original 2004 HG Strike that added the double-jointed knee and elbow articulation collectors now expect from the line.