Good to see the red frame next to it for comparison. Also cool to see the difference after touch up. I've finally started collecting Seed 1/144 kits. And have noticed old kits that share the same shield like the Dual and Strike need color correction on the bar near the top. Revived Strike doesnt have that problem
I mean, the Red Frame canonically uses the same flight pack with mods as the M1, so I had to compare the two fraternal twins so they don't get confused. I'm also glad you liked the touch-ups, as minute as the difference was on camera. Though to be fair, the Duel and Strike were made in the early 2000s, so I can't really blame them for the color separation. This one is still a bit iffy, but at least it's not too bad to touch it up
@@mj2005gundam I agree. They already have the Strike frame. All the G-weapons were pretty much based off the Strike. Minus the aegis. An hgce providence would be awesome
I know. I never took interest in the original HG Seed Kits, but this is by far the best amongst the others in that line. My other favorite Astray is the Astray Out Frame D and Load Astray Ω.
This was my first build and I loved the process however I came across a few issues. The hip joint by the instruction manual made it loose and prone to falling apart and the soft plastic joint connections from the thigh to the hip kept falling out when I moved the legs. I came across a few fixes, using a PC-1 connector that was spare after everything else was built I managed to create a better connection point for the hip and I super glued the soft plastic joints behind the white thigh armour as it does not interfere with movement. My second build will be a Witch from mercury Lfrith as I love the colour scheme on that one and then maybe ill tackle the RG EVA-01 from the Evangelion line that they did.
Got this along with the older Blue Frame Astray and 2nd L and find it quite odd that none of them were compatible with each other. Worst offense I can see is given it's Astray lineage, the backpack is designed to be built-in rather than a simple strikerpack addon (in-show it was meant that way but kit design could find a way to just let it be strike pack compatible). The 2 bonus swords are cool and ended up repainting the kit's frame and flight back with a Metallic Red in reference to the Red Frame Astray. Sadly broke the peg mounting the beam saber already.
Well, the frame structure between this and the normal Astrays are completely different, and kits before Build were not built with customization in mind, so I really cannot blame them for that. At least the weapons are cool though, but I have to agree that the beam saber storage sucks
I hope you've had a very Merry Christmas dude and this is a very impressive looking grunt. It gets the job done, it looks as accurate to the actual line art as it can and it really doesn't have that many issues aside from some small minor ones. Honestly, I did have a bit of an issue when I was building the redframe flight pack version HG but it was mostly due to the right shin accidentally breaking while building and for some reason despite me being tight on the parts for the legs, sometimes it will start to unhinge for some reason and some of the armor for the lower shin would fall apart even though I put the shin armor in. So I'm probably considering getting the real grade version but asfor this high-grade grunt it's still pretty good. Another fantastic review, again hope you had a Merry Christmas and I already have plans to buy a HG Moon Gundam AND a HG Lfrith. Figured it's time to stop sleeping on those.
Homework during the holidays, so that explains how merry my Christmas was. Hope yours was better than mine. And besides the frame and beam sabers, this kit is one of the greatest kits to come out of the HG SEED line. It's simplistic, solid, has unique weapons, and doesn't cost much at all (at retail). And since this doesn't use the standard HG Astray frame, you don't have as many things to worry about when building this grunt. And the HG Moon and Lfrith are top-notch kits to go for. Go get 'em tiger.
@@mj2005gundam My Christmas was more quiet but I did get a good amount of stuff I needed and I did get Armored Core 6 finally. Sucks that you had to do homework on Christmas.
Sadly, the Astrays we know today are exclusive to two animated shorts and largely the manga, so the only Astray you'd be able to find in the SEED series proper is this one. Though, I highly recommend you find this kit, especially given its quality for its price, and how they were recently reissued
Oh man, when I bought this thing on release, people were so impressed bc it was the best traditional humanoid kit the HG Seed line had to offer. It was on part with the better HGs in the early 2010s, faring slightly worse than HG Age kits since they had simpler color layouts and design philosophy. I will say though, the HG Astray frames did have some noticeable improvements compared to this in color accuracy and articulation despite being only 1-2 years newer. The waist, hips, and ankles were much better on the red/blue/gold frame and they featured better seam placement. The proportions on those also felt like they slightly modernized the 1/100 proportions, which alongside the PG were my favorite interpretations of the Astray design. I don't particularly care for the especially lanky version of the Kai design the MGs and RG use. I do like how the M1 looks a lot though, it's a great translation of the Red Frame into a mass-production model. It basically makes the muscular details more blocky and the overall silhouette streamlined. I really wanted a new HG Murasame (the old proportions are just ugly IMO) with this level of engineering at the time and then once again with the 20th anniversary with modern HGCE engineering, but alas...
I'm quite glad they made this with 2011 engineering though, as despite the slight color difference and dated elements, it's as you said, on par with the kits at the time. Moreover, it is a fun grunt unit with some character, and can serve as a simpler Astray if the proper ones are a bit too intimidating to some.
I’d really wish the “backpack” was an actual backpack, because it’s practically a hunchback, and imagine the possibilities it Orb wasn’t on budget cuts
For some reason after watching whitch from mercury all I can think of now when I envision the mass production astray's MK II successor is a cross between the M1 and Aerial and a few of the other Gundam units. And I mean it's not impossible for something like that to exist in Gundam Seed as they already have a similar system known as the quantum control system that they use for their Dragoon weapons so why not use it to more efficiently control a mobile suit as well? And no I've never really thought of the murasame as the Mark II to the astray line considering it's an almost completely different mobile suit.
One big issue, the DRAGOONs cannot be used in the atmosphere. Apart from that, I can see that the next logical step is to integrate what the Akatsuki achieved into this and mass-produce them
It's kind of ironic to think that, while the Astray prototype suits were better machines than the mass-produced M1, the model kit of the M1 is superior to the kits of the other Astrays, at least in my experience.
@@mj2005gundam Well, it's got better proportions than most other HG SEED kits. Not HG Cosmic Era, but HG SEED. It also was among the last kits produced for the HG SEED line as well, so it was clearly being made with the latest tech that older kits in the line hadn't received.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2024 MJ This kit need to be remastered in MG even if it has to reuse Astray Frame 1:40 Wait, it was red all along? I thought it was orange
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you too. If this kit gets an MG, it will have to use a new frame to account for the simplistic level of detail compared to the standard Astrays. Also, it is in slightly of a brownish red all along, but if you compare the plastic to the shield stickers, the difference stands out
@@mj2005gundam we only have HGs not HGCEs. Also I think an astray can be converted into entry grade format. We already say one in the seed freedom trailer let's hope it's special enough to get a kit
Well, there are way too many SEED side stores all under the Astray banner, while this guy was featured in the mediocre anime and didn't have the swords. I'm not surprised that this got overshadowed
Nothing a simple scratch build and paint job can't achieve. Though when they didn't even bother making the Astray Shrike, I'm not sure hopes are high for those variants
Yes and no. Yes it has something like the Striker Pack system, but to me, the designs were great as Lowe had to work with junk and his eccentricity to upgrade his Red Frame, even collaborating with Gai to upgrade his Blue Frame as well. The M1 is just the grunt version of it, with proper government backing and mass production
I’m ashamed to admit it, but I originally thought that Orb had mass produced the Astray Frame units without permission from who originally created them, then I learned that both the Astray Frames and M1 were created by the same nation
Merry Christmas to you too. And I did purchase the Lfrith Anavata, though it, like a lot of the late 2023 PB releases, will be covered from February onwards due to shipping
I’m surprised you got your hands one one of these old kits, let alone liking them. Usually the older kits have limited articulation compared to the modern HGs. Think there was an upgraded version of the Astray grunts, I think it was called the Murasame (or something like that) that was able to transform. Unfortunately I lost the chance of picking one up due to how rare it was
Funny how kits from the early 2010s are over a decade old now. I usually try to like a kit instead of judging it by its age and articulation. It's about the whole package in the end
I want this for my collection since I only have the NG M1 Astray but man, this thing is dirt cheap in quality. I'd love a 1/100 version but that'll be when pigs fly.
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love this guy, to me Astrays tend to look best when they're kept on the simple side
Red Dragon is where I draw the line in terms of flamboyance. Don't get me started with the Red Dragonics...
@@mj2005gundam That thing is canon?!
@@MasterSwo-MK yep
Good to see the red frame next to it for comparison. Also cool to see the difference after touch up. I've finally started collecting Seed 1/144 kits. And have noticed old kits that share the same shield like the Dual and Strike need color correction on the bar near the top. Revived Strike doesnt have that problem
I mean, the Red Frame canonically uses the same flight pack with mods as the M1, so I had to compare the two fraternal twins so they don't get confused. I'm also glad you liked the touch-ups, as minute as the difference was on camera. Though to be fair, the Duel and Strike were made in the early 2000s, so I can't really blame them for the color separation. This one is still a bit iffy, but at least it's not too bad to touch it up
This is such a cool kit, gives me victory Gundam vibes
I don't really see the resemblance
I have this kit and i love it! Granted, the entire kit has lent itself to various kitbash projects, so not much of the original kit remains.
Which is fair enough, this is just as good a core unit to build upon as other grunts or kits made for customizing
Love to see the entire SEED and Destiny line get the revive treatment
At least the original G-Weapons, the Justice, Providence, and Legend need them. I'm still waiting
@@mj2005gundam I agree. They already have the Strike frame. All the G-weapons were pretty much based off the Strike. Minus the aegis. An hgce providence would be awesome
@@mj2005gundam what exactly are those "revive" kits ?
nice, i prefer this over the red/blue/gold frame
Sometimes simpler is best
I know. I never took interest in the original HG Seed Kits, but this is by far the best amongst the others in that line. My other favorite Astray is the Astray Out Frame D and Load Astray Ω.
Love your videos mate, thank you so much for the great content!
My pleasure!
I’d love to see a MG M1 Astray release someday tbh
Sadly it's like pulling teeth to wait for a retail MG release of some main units, never mind grunts
This was my first build and I loved the process however I came across a few issues. The hip joint by the instruction manual made it loose and prone to falling apart and the soft plastic joint connections from the thigh to the hip kept falling out when I moved the legs. I came across a few fixes, using a PC-1 connector that was spare after everything else was built I managed to create a better connection point for the hip and I super glued the soft plastic joints behind the white thigh armour as it does not interfere with movement. My second build will be a Witch from mercury Lfrith as I love the colour scheme on that one and then maybe ill tackle the RG EVA-01 from the Evangelion line that they did.
Polycaps are mixed in the modern context, but I'm glad you started with one of these as they're still decent.
I've had my eye on this guy for a while now. Simple, yet stylish.
Good for you, since they've just been reissued
Got this along with the older Blue Frame Astray and 2nd L and find it quite odd that none of them were compatible with each other. Worst offense I can see is given it's Astray lineage, the backpack is designed to be built-in rather than a simple strikerpack addon (in-show it was meant that way but kit design could find a way to just let it be strike pack compatible). The 2 bonus swords are cool and ended up repainting the kit's frame and flight back with a Metallic Red in reference to the Red Frame Astray. Sadly broke the peg mounting the beam saber already.
Well, the frame structure between this and the normal Astrays are completely different, and kits before Build were not built with customization in mind, so I really cannot blame them for that. At least the weapons are cool though, but I have to agree that the beam saber storage sucks
I hope you've had a very Merry Christmas dude and this is a very impressive looking grunt. It gets the job done, it looks as accurate to the actual line art as it can and it really doesn't have that many issues aside from some small minor ones. Honestly, I did have a bit of an issue when I was building the redframe flight pack version HG but it was mostly due to the right shin accidentally breaking while building and for some reason despite me being tight on the parts for the legs, sometimes it will start to unhinge for some reason and some of the armor for the lower shin would fall apart even though I put the shin armor in. So I'm probably considering getting the real grade version but asfor this high-grade grunt it's still pretty good. Another fantastic review, again hope you had a Merry Christmas and I already have plans to buy a HG Moon Gundam AND a HG Lfrith. Figured it's time to stop sleeping on those.
Homework during the holidays, so that explains how merry my Christmas was. Hope yours was better than mine.
And besides the frame and beam sabers, this kit is one of the greatest kits to come out of the HG SEED line. It's simplistic, solid, has unique weapons, and doesn't cost much at all (at retail). And since this doesn't use the standard HG Astray frame, you don't have as many things to worry about when building this grunt.
And the HG Moon and Lfrith are top-notch kits to go for. Go get 'em tiger.
@@mj2005gundam My Christmas was more quiet but I did get a good amount of stuff I needed and I did get Armored Core 6 finally. Sucks that you had to do homework on Christmas.
I love Astrays, I wasn't aware of this one, I'll have to see if I can find it. (I also need to watch Seed so I can check out other variants)
Sadly, the Astrays we know today are exclusive to two animated shorts and largely the manga, so the only Astray you'd be able to find in the SEED series proper is this one. Though, I highly recommend you find this kit, especially given its quality for its price, and how they were recently reissued
Oh man, when I bought this thing on release, people were so impressed bc it was the best traditional humanoid kit the HG Seed line had to offer. It was on part with the better HGs in the early 2010s, faring slightly worse than HG Age kits since they had simpler color layouts and design philosophy. I will say though, the HG Astray frames did have some noticeable improvements compared to this in color accuracy and articulation despite being only 1-2 years newer. The waist, hips, and ankles were much better on the red/blue/gold frame and they featured better seam placement. The proportions on those also felt like they slightly modernized the 1/100 proportions, which alongside the PG were my favorite interpretations of the Astray design. I don't particularly care for the especially lanky version of the Kai design the MGs and RG use.
I do like how the M1 looks a lot though, it's a great translation of the Red Frame into a mass-production model. It basically makes the muscular details more blocky and the overall silhouette streamlined. I really wanted a new HG Murasame (the old proportions are just ugly IMO) with this level of engineering at the time and then once again with the 20th anniversary with modern HGCE engineering, but alas...
I'm quite glad they made this with 2011 engineering though, as despite the slight color difference and dated elements, it's as you said, on par with the kits at the time. Moreover, it is a fun grunt unit with some character, and can serve as a simpler Astray if the proper ones are a bit too intimidating to some.
Hot take: I vastly prefer the M1 Astray to the prototype counterparts.
I don't think that's a hot take at all. It's perfectly reasonable
@@mj2005gundam Its certainly a hot take for Bandai. They will print the shit out of anything ARF or ABF, but everything else is just shit outta luck.
Thank you for sharing, I will buy one,it is worth to build and play
It absolutely is worth it
I’d really wish the “backpack” was an actual backpack, because it’s practically a hunchback, and imagine the possibilities it Orb wasn’t on budget cuts
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the flight pack is separate in canon. That's how Lowe was able to attach one onto his Astray
For some reason after watching whitch from mercury all I can think of now when I envision the mass production astray's MK II successor is a cross between the M1 and Aerial and a few of the other Gundam units. And I mean it's not impossible for something like that to exist in Gundam Seed as they already have a similar system known as the quantum control system that they use for their Dragoon weapons so why not use it to more efficiently control a mobile suit as well? And no I've never really thought of the murasame as the Mark II to the astray line considering it's an almost completely different mobile suit.
One big issue, the DRAGOONs cannot be used in the atmosphere. Apart from that, I can see that the next logical step is to integrate what the Akatsuki achieved into this and mass-produce them
It's kind of ironic to think that, while the Astray prototype suits were better machines than the mass-produced M1, the model kit of the M1 is superior to the kits of the other Astrays, at least in my experience.
It really is ironic. Though opinions will differ as it objectively is on the same quality level as the others in HG form
@@mj2005gundam Well, it's got better proportions than most other HG SEED kits. Not HG Cosmic Era, but HG SEED. It also was among the last kits produced for the HG SEED line as well, so it was clearly being made with the latest tech that older kits in the line hadn't received.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2024 MJ
This kit need to be remastered in MG even if it has to reuse Astray Frame
1:40 Wait, it was red all along? I thought it was orange
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you too. If this kit gets an MG, it will have to use a new frame to account for the simplistic level of detail compared to the standard Astrays. Also, it is in slightly of a brownish red all along, but if you compare the plastic to the shield stickers, the difference stands out
Happy holidays and I wish for a new version of M1 astry HG based on seed freedom movie
Happy holidays! Though I doubt an updated M1 will happen because that's already been done in the form of the Murasame
@@mj2005gundam we only have HGs not HGCEs. Also I think an astray can be converted into entry grade format. We already say one in the seed freedom trailer let's hope it's special enough to get a kit
Did those Anti-Ship swords ever see use anywhere?
I don't really recall seeing them before.
never saw the M1 actually using them but IIRC they were supposed to come with the Strike Rouge IWSP pack.
Never. I don't even recall any media with the swords
@@mj2005gundam Huh, so they're a model kit exclusive ay?
Interesting.
The basic grunt Astray overshadowed but its ace upgrade.
Well, there are way too many SEED side stores all under the Astray banner, while this guy was featured in the mediocre anime and didn't have the swords. I'm not surprised that this got overshadowed
I'm still holding out hope we'll get variants of this kit like Jean Carry's M1 Astray or the M1A Astray. They'd probably be P-Bandai though.
Nothing a simple scratch build and paint job can't achieve. Though when they didn't even bother making the Astray Shrike, I'm not sure hopes are high for those variants
@@mj2005gundam I guess you're right, but I have no experience scratch building and I don't know where to start. Every guide I've seen is in Japanese.
2:46 - This is why I hate this type of beam saber storage.
I hate those too. IIRC most beam sabers stored like that plug into a cup instead of a tiny peg
*same storage method as the Gundam Delta Kai in the shield. Given the use of it's questionable brittle white plastic, it was bound to happen.
@@icdeadpipolAlso with the HGAC Leo; and thus I just keep them out of the shield for good.
I'm surprised that the Astray exploded in popularity. Isn’t it a red-painted watered-down Strike?
Yes and no. Yes it has something like the Striker Pack system, but to me, the designs were great as Lowe had to work with junk and his eccentricity to upgrade his Red Frame, even collaborating with Gai to upgrade his Blue Frame as well. The M1 is just the grunt version of it, with proper government backing and mass production
I’m ashamed to admit it, but I originally thought that Orb had mass produced the Astray Frame units without permission from who originally created them, then I learned that both the Astray Frames and M1 were created by the same nation
I mean, if creating an army behind the back of your official neutrality is making them without permission, I think it'd still count as such
Merry Christmas MJ oh did you purchase the lfrit anavanta.
Merry Christmas to you too. And I did purchase the Lfrith Anavata, though it, like a lot of the late 2023 PB releases, will be covered from February onwards due to shipping
In love this machine
I love it more than I thought initially
i dig inaccurate colored parts if its in all white. the swords maybe easy to paint over as-is
Fair enough, at least you don't have to worry about priming and original colors bleeding over and such
I managed to secure 2 of this kits
Eyy nice
I’m surprised you got your hands one one of these old kits, let alone liking them. Usually the older kits have limited articulation compared to the modern HGs. Think there was an upgraded version of the Astray grunts, I think it was called the Murasame (or something like that) that was able to transform. Unfortunately I lost the chance of picking one up due to how rare it was
They recently reissued some of the Old Seed HGs.
Sadly they never seem to reissue THE HG seed destiny ones which really sucks.
at the end of the day articulation isn't all that important
@@borgar1765 fair enough.
Funny how kits from the early 2010s are over a decade old now. I usually try to like a kit instead of judging it by its age and articulation. It's about the whole package in the end
It’s sad that does astray girls died
Well, I feel like they're a knockoff Shrike Team from Victory, so of course they dropped like flies
It baffles me that this is a surprisingly good high grade…..yet the strike noir is dog water.
There's a 6-year difference between the two. That's probably why. Strike Noir was released in 2006, while the M1 in 2012
@@mj2005gundam wait 2006??? Dang thought it came out later. The timing for the M1 sounds about right though, a year before build fighters.
I want this for my collection since I only have the NG M1 Astray but man, this thing is dirt cheap in quality. I'd love a 1/100 version but that'll be when pigs fly.
When Bandai ever gives a damn about retail, newly-molded MGs again, that'll be the time