Size comparison with the universal standard — a cigarette pack

Upper body front shot. You can see some parts swapped out with plated ones.

The legs. From the front, the plated joints aren't that noticeable.

The verniers at the center of the backpack and the supports on both sides are plated.

Unfortunately on the body, only the beam cannon area on the chest was swapped to plated parts.
The ducts on the chest and shoulders are still the same old poop-brown frame;;
Instead, the ducts on both sides of the head were also swapped to plated.

On the arms, the fingers, wrist covers, and forearm joints are plated.

But the forearm joints... only the forearm covers are plated while the internal gimmick parts are left as-is,
so the color combination ends up looking a bit awkward. -.-;

The ankle and knee joints are plated

Buuut... since the internal frame is unchanged, even though the ankles and knees are plated,
the frame exposed on the calves is still the same plain poop-brown, which really cuts the plating effect in half;;

Even the small parts on the wings are swapped to plated

The plated frame on the Super DRAGOON fixed wings is pretty dazzling.

But... among the plated parts on the wings, this spot is the biggest letdown;;
The DRAGOON mounting section has that flashy plating, but just a bit above it the movable frame section is still the same poop-brown frame.. T_T

Looking inside you can see exactly that... if you're going to use plating, why only do half of it instead of changing everything...

Even though undergates are used throughout,
the fingers, back of the knees, and back of the ankles don't have undergates,
so the gate marks are plain as day. Hmm~~

Outer armor removed

Internal frame.
The difference between the old poop-brown frame and the plated joints isn't all that striking.
Probably because it's not a glossy plate finish but more of a semi-gloss coating like the Extra Finish style..
On the flip side, the original poop-brown frame actually has a decent look to it in its own way ^^;

Among the plated joints, the fingers still came out the prettiest..

The arm frame. Up close you can tell the wrist and forearm have been plated.

The plated knee section

The plated ankle section. It's mostly hidden behind the ankle cover, so you can barely see it;

Hold on, let's take a look at the leftover parts from the Strike Freedom Full Burst Mode...
As you can see above, some joint parts and some stand parts are left over.
The leftover stand parts are just the unused pieces from the general-purpose stand...
The leftover joint parts are the ones that were replaced by the added plated parts.
In other words, exactly the parts laid out above are the ones that got the plating treatment.

This kit comes with two stands.
One is the Strike Freedom-dedicated stand that was included in the regular release, and the other is a general-purpose stand sold separately.
The general-purpose stand on the right is the same one that originally came with the 1/100 Legend Gundam, and it's also sold separately for ¥500.
In this kit, befitting a special pack, it's been molded in a clear blue color to give it a premium, distinctive look.

These two stands share the same body connector.
So you can't use both completely independently — you have to pick one or the other.
Then again, since there's only one kit, having two stands doesn't really serve much purpose..

The Legend Gundam-version general-purpose stand. The clear blue molded color is pretty nice.

This general-purpose stand originally comes with a nameplate, where you can neatly engrave the name using dry decals.

The general-purpose stand normally has a bunch of holes for adjusting the angle of the support arm,
but in this kit they're used to plug in the deployed DRAGOONs.

The extra parts for Full Burst Mode. Among them, the clear rods are used as supports...

The straight rods are meant to be bent as shown in the manual.
They look stiff, but surprisingly they bend easily and hold their shape well. There's something oddly satisfying about the feel of them.. ^^

Combining the thruster effect parts for the Super DRAGOONs with the support rods.

Roughly, this is what a single Super DRAGOON ends up looking like.

And then all 8 deployed Super DRAGOONs are plugged into the stand using the support rods like so.

Rear wings open. You can just barely see the plated frame.

The rear view is definitely more eye-catching than the regular version, that's for sure.

The rear frame after the Super DRAGOONs have been deployed. It's quite a spectacle.

Close-up shot of the DRAGOON mounting frame.. The plating really is pretty.

These are close-up shots of the locking gimmick where the front and rear wings interlock with each other.
As you can see, it's not a simple push-fit like a regular pin —
it's designed to interlock with a convex-concave structure.
And if you look closely, the connection is made at two points: an inner joint (red arrow) and an outer joint (green arrow).
Both have to align perfectly at the same time for it to go together.
It's precisely this structure that's causing frequent breakage during assembly.

First, the rear wing. As you can see in the diagram, when the wing is spread open versus folded closed,
you can see that the angle of the double-lock gimmick on the round connector changes.

The front wing also has a double-lock gimmick, so its position shifts every time the wing is opened or closed.

So, as explained simply with the rough(;;) photos above —
you need to fold both wings to the same angle (ideally as fully closed as possible) before joining them,
just like in the O photo below. In other words, as shown in the X photo above, if the two wings are spread to different widths, they obviously won't fit together.
When the widths don't match, one side of the double-lock gimmick won't line up, making it hard to push in —
and that's why so many people have reported crushing their parts by forcing it..
Once those parts get crushed, the wings will just droop from that point on..
Make sure to fold both front and rear wings as fully closed as possible before connecting them!

With the wings fully folded, you need to overlap the silhouettes exactly and then push them together — that's the only way it'll fit properly.
The manual just vaguely says to align the two connectors, with no mention of lining up the wings themselves T_T
Keep this in mind! Once it's properly connected the first time, it won't break easily!

The kneeling pose unique to the Strike Freedom. The thighs only raise 90 degrees, so...;;

If you look closely, you can see the sheen of the plated joints.

Placed on the dedicated stand that was included in the regular release.

Placed on the general-purpose stand included in the Full Burst Mode.
Extended to its maximum length, it goes up about this high.

After Super DRAGOON deployment. Seeing it in person, the plating really makes an impression.

This scene right here! This is exactly what the Full Burst Mode was released to recreate..

The photo studio was too small, so I put it on the floor and took a size comparison shot with a cigarette pack.
It takes up an enormous amount of display space;;

The Super DRAGOON mounts

Front shot

View from above

Comparison with the regular version. At a glance, it's hard to tell them apart T_T

Comparison with the regular version (left) at the frame level. You can see the difference in the forearm and hand.

The difference in the knee and ankle joints.

The difference in the head side ducts. They're small so it's hard to notice..

On the body, the only difference is the beam cannon area on the chest.

For the Full Burst Mode (F.B.M.), all the stickers have been changed to gold tones as shown on the right.
The shape of the stickers and their placement positions are completely identical — only the colors have changed.

The cover on the inside of the shoulder has also been changed to plated.

If you look closely at the shoulder decals, you can see that the decal coloring on the Full Burst Mode side has become simpler in silver
and a bit brighter.

The difference in the arms.

The difference is most obvious in the hands more than anywhere else.

On the legs, it's a bit hard to notice the difference unless you look at the knee joints from the back.

The side rail gun section. It's identical except that all the stickers on the Full Burst Mode side have changed to gold.

The beam rifle also only differs in sticker coloring.

The most obvious difference is still the rear wings..

First, those small trapezoid-shaped pieces have been changed to plated.. but the difference isn't all that dramatic.

The difference in the backpack. The feel of the vernier section is noticeably different.

The Full Burst Mode decals are slightly brighter. (Which also makes them look a bit more faded)

The difference is most noticeable in the Super DRAGOON mounting frame.

There are differences here and there, but if you don't look closely, it's hard to tell them apart.. Hmm.. couldn't they have used a bit more plating?