MGCosmic Era

ZGMF-X20A Strike Freedom Gundam Mechanic Designer Okawara Kunio Exhibition Ver.

The standard MG Strike Freedom repainted in the mecha designer's own muted palette, with a decal set that turns it into a small tribute piece.

MechaGrade Score

4.0/5

Strike Freedom Gundam · 1/100 · 2015

GradeMG

Scale1/100

Released2015

Runnersn/a

Check price on Amazon

Affiliate link. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

The verdict

This is the same excellent MG Strike Freedom engineering everyone already loves, dressed in a toned-down color scheme built for a museum gift shop rather than a toy aisle.

I like it more than I expected to. The desaturated whites and blues actually read as more grown-up on the shelf than the standard kit's bright primaries, and the K.O. decals and clear-pink DRAGOON effect parts give it a genuine collector's-item feel rather than just a recolor gimmick.

Best for: Strike Freedom fans who already know the base kit and want a quieter, more premium-looking version to sit next to it

The full review

What it is

This is the MG Strike Freedom Gundam, the same 1/100 engineering Bandai has sold since the standard release, recast in muted grays, dusty blues, and soft golds meant to echo mecha designer Kunio Okawara's own concept art rather than the anime's bright white-and-blue color scheme. It was sold only at his 2015 exhibition at the Mori Art Museum in Ueno, and it comes with exclusive water-slide decals bearing his K.O. initials for the wings, plus special iridescent clear-pink effect parts for the Super DRAGOON system shaped to spell out the same initials. Building it feels exactly like building the familiar Strike Freedom, just with a color story that photographs beautifully once the Wings of Light are mounted.

The catch

Because this is the same mold as the original MG Strike Freedom, it inherits that kit's known rough edges. Several builders flag visible seams on the beam cannon and DRAGOON wing assemblies even after careful part fitting, and the yellow inner frame that holds the beam cannons in the wings is reportedly a little fragile if you repeatedly remove and reattach them for posing. The muted colors also mean less color separation pop than the standard release, and being an event exclusive from 2015, actually finding one today means paying well above its original 6,480 yen tag on the secondary market.

Who it's for

Buy this if you already appreciate the standard MG Strike Freedom and want a display-focused variant with a genuinely different personality, or if you care about Gunpla history and want the Okawara tribute details on your shelf. Skip it if you just want the cheapest way into a Strike Freedom, since the vanilla MG or the newer MGEX will get you there without the collector markup. It is also not the kit to hand a first-time builder looking for a bright, straightforward build; the muted scheme rewards people who already know what the character colors normally look like.

The build story

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

The build itself follows the standard MG Strike Freedom sequence, so runner cleanup and part fit feel familiar to anyone who has built the base kit; nub placement is reasonable and the frame goes together without surprises. Where this version stands apart is entirely in the plastic color: softer grays and blues replace the bright primaries, so panel lines and detail read differently under light, and the K.O. decals need a steady hand since they sit prominently on the wing surfaces.

Engineering-wise you get the same wing-deployment mechanism that made the original Strike Freedom a fan favorite, with the wings sliding outward to reveal the gold DRAGOON mounts and the Wings of Light effect parts snapping in for the iconic finishing pose. Articulation is generous for an MG of this vintage, with good shoulder, hip, and ankle range that lets it hold dynamic flight poses once the wings are extended, though the DRAGOON beam cannons themselves can feel slightly loose in their mounts.

Lore & trivia

01This version was sold exclusively at the 2015 exhibition of mecha designer Kunio Okawara's work at the Mori Art Museum in Ueno, Tokyo, priced at 6,480 yen and unavailable anywhere else at the time.
02Okawara, who designed mobile suits across the Gundam franchise going back to the original 1979 series, also has his personal K.O. initials worked into this kit as wing decals and as the shape of the included clear-pink DRAGOON effect parts.
03The color scheme was chosen to match Okawara's own concept illustrations for Strike Freedom rather than the brighter colors used in the Gundam SEED Destiny anime broadcast.