Kit Review

Straight build + Stickers + Panel lining

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

HGCE Rising Freedom Gundam - Various angles (1/6)

HGCE Rising Freedom Gundam - Various angles (2/6)

HGCE Rising Freedom Gundam - Various angles (3/6)

HGCE Rising Freedom Gundam - Various angles (4/6)

Various angles

HGCE Rising Freedom Gundam - Detail shots (1/4)

HGCE Rising Freedom Gundam - Detail shots (2/4)

Detail shots

Weapons loadout

The beam rifle can be stored on the rear skirt.

Inside of the shield

Spread the shield's wings and add the beam parts to use it as a shield boomerang.

HGCE Rising Freedom Gundam - The manual says to use the clip-type holder included with the separately sold Action Base 7 when

The manual says to use the clip-type holder included with the separately sold Action Base 7 when displaying the shield boomerang —
— but when you actually try it, it doesn't hold very well.
When you actually try it, it doesn't hold very well.

You're much better off using the included stand joint parts to display it — way more stable.

You can also connect two beam sabers together.

Only 3 hands are included in total.

The rail gun deployment works similarly to before.

HGCE Rising Freedom Gundam - The deployment of the Hyper Impulse Cannon "Sturmsvache" is also similar to before, bu

The deployment of the Hyper Impulse Cannon "Sturmsvache" is also similar to before,
but it's become noticeably easier to deploy.

HGCE Rising Freedom Gundam - You can also deploy the Sturmsvache by pulling the wings slightly outward and then folding them

Pull the wings slightly outward and then fold them back 90 degrees
to deploy the Sturmsvache so it lines up straight with the wings.

Limb articulation

Forward/backward shoulder articulation

Flexible waist articulation

There's now a gimmick that lets you lower the hip joints downward.

The ankle side-to-side range is pretty impressive too.

HGCE Rising Freedom Gundam - You can also rotate the blue section of the forearm to reposition it, which lets you change the

You can also rotate the blue section of the forearm to reposition it.
This lets you change the direction the shield is mounted.

HGCE Rising Freedom Gundam - Wing deployment gimmicks (1/3)

Wing deployment gimmicks

HGCE Rising Freedom Gundam - Poses making use of the flexible waist joint (1/3)

Poses making use of the flexible waist joint

Beam saber action

HGCE Rising Freedom Gundam - Pose with two beam sabers connected and beam shield applied (1/3)

Pose with two beam sabers connected and beam shield applied

HGCE Rising Freedom Gundam - Sturmsvache attack pose (1/3)

Sturmsvache attack pose

HGCE Rising Freedom Gundam - Full barrage pose with rail guns deployed as well (1/4)

HGCE Rising Freedom Gundam - Full barrage pose with rail guns deployed as well (2/4)

Full barrage pose with rail guns deployed as well

Shield boomerang pose

TRANSFORMATION

HGCE Rising Freedom Gundam - Lower the nose section that was mounted on the back to cover the head, then deploy the small win

Lower the nose section that was mounted on the back to cover the head, then deploy the small wings at the front.

Rotate the wing mount half a turn to position the wings slightly toward the rear.

Fold the feet in, then attach the joint parts to the crotch area.

HGCE Rising Freedom Gundam - Flip the beam rifle's secondary grip out to the side, then spread the red section of the shield

Flip the beam rifle's secondary grip out to the side, then spread the red section of the shield up and down to expose the mounting point.

Combine the beam rifle and shield and plug them into the underside — transformation complete.

HGCE Rising Freedom Gundam - MA form transformation (1/5)

HGCE Rising Freedom Gundam - MA form transformation (2/5)

HGCE Rising Freedom Gundam - MA form transformation (3/5)

MA form transformation

Together with the HGCE Freedom Gundam.

Straight build

The Rising Freedom Gundam from the theatrical film "Mobile Suit Gundam SEED FREEDOM," which opened in January 2024, has been released as an HGCE. Perhaps to give this new Freedom — returning after 21 years — the attention it deserves, Bandai skipped the regular HG and went straight to the higher-grade HGCE. This is a kit where you can really feel the effort that went into its development on multiple fronts.

First off, the overall gimmicks and design concept of Freedom have been preserved as much as possible, while the detailed design has been completely reworked. The rail gun, the cannon "Sturmsvache," and the wing deployment all work similarly to before, but the gimmicks overall are much more user-friendly. Articulation is also above average as you'd expect from a modern kit, with a flexible waist joint to boot. There's even a gimmick — similar to Kotobukiya's girlplas — where each hip joint can be lowered independently to extend the range of motion.

The overall color separation is excellent for an HGCE, so the straight build looks pretty solid — though there are more stickers than you might expect. The white stripe sections on the wings are all handled with stickers, but thankfully they don't look too out of place. The blue stickers on the beam rifle do feel a bit off by comparison, which is a minor disappointment. That said, the assembly process is smooth and comfortable as you'd expect from a modern HGCE, and overall this is a kit that's just a pleasure to build and handle.

Compared to the original Freedom, the new additions here are the shield boomerang and the transformation gimmick. You can add beam parts to the shield and pose it as a separate shield boomerang in flight. The transformation into MA form is a pretty simple process, but the end result looks more convincing than you might expect.

The thing I like most about this kit is the joint strength — it's polycap-less, yet everything is tuned to feel smooth and well-balanced. On top of that, poses hold firmly no matter what you put it in, so combined with the flexible articulation, posing this thing is genuinely fun. The waist joint in particular is so flexible that twisted body poses look really great.

All in all, this feels like a step up even compared to the 2015 HGCE Freedom Gundam — a refined design paired with excellent quality makes for quite a standout kit. The sticker count is a bit higher than I'd like, but the base color separation is good and they don't look too jarring, so it's something you can live with. Either way, this is clearly a kit where Bandai's intent to "sell a ton of these!!" alongside the new SEED anime is plain to see — and at this level of quality, it's a fantastic "new" Freedom Gundam that I'd recommend to just about anyone. :-)

HGCE Rising Freedom Gundam | 2024.1 | ¥2,400

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.