Note: This entire review is entirely NOT Gunpla related, but this deserves a review nonetheless and this blog is a tad more permanent than a forum post.

I came across a link to made2dock’s site on MacRumors, and those docks looked damn sexy. At the time, the only offered dock was the dock-IN-case. I contacted the owner about the possibility of making one that is sunken into a desk, similar to Belkin’s In-Desk Dock, but with more hotness. The owner was an absolute pleasure to deal with, being extremely helpful and cooperative, and the result was the product now known as the dock-IN-desk.

My new desk setup:

I just moved into a house that I’ll be living in for college for at least he next two years, and this just looks gorgeous on my desk.

My iPhone 3GS fitting snugly in the dock with my Incase Slider case on it.

The quality with which this was made is amazing for the price. Also included in the box were some foam strips, which I places around the base to ensure that the dock can’t move in my desk. Because of this, I don’t really have a picture of it OUT of my desk, so below is a photo taken by made2dock:

Something many people were wondering about was how the dock affects the sound coming from the iPhone’s speakers, and I am very pleased to say that it is virtually unchanged. Located here is a video of me playing some music and then putting it in the dock, demonstrating both the ease of which you can put the phone in the dock as well as how well you can still hear the sound afterwards.

So my basic conclusion? This is a ridiculously high quality product for the price you pay. I wouldn’t think of having any other dock for my iPhone after this.

Quick access to the completed MG Exia Review:

Introduction: Rant and Awe
Part 1: Formal Introduction & Pre-Build
Part 2: GN Drive & Torso
Part 3: Head
Part 4: Arms
Part 5: Waist
Part 6: Legs
Part 7: Weapons
Part 8: Overall Impressions
Part 9: Exia Repair
Part 10: Oh Thank the Lord, My Batteries Have Arrived  

Updates/Corrections:
- I realized later that the green parts on the head also have laser etching. Nice!
- The clear decals are just stickers, NOT waterslides. (Thanks KeviinX!)

I got these yesterday, which is actually waaaay sooner than I expected. Kudos to Amazon.

GLOWING LETTERS YESSSSSSS.

The GN Drive’s glow is pretty nice too, probably aided quite a bit by the chromed flywheel.

Some dark shots. Basically I think the LEDs are a nice gimmick by normal standards, but the laser-etched text on Exia’s chest turn them into an awesome gimmick. It’s just really damn cool, but it is still a gimmick nonetheless.

And thus concludes my MG Exia review. For reals this time.

I like my lightboxes like I like my women…

The lightbox I assembled for the Exia review is shown above. I largely followed this tutorial to create the actual box. It is just an old Zappos box with three sides cut out and covered with tracing paper, and then I slid in a cut-to-size white posterboard.

The lighting setup is temporary at best… I have some overhead lights going, then my desk lamp shining from above, and then I hold the handheld light shown right next to the camera when I take the picture.

The results were great for the amount of effort I put into it… I just made it with things I had laying around and about 10 minutes. Good stuff.

BRILLIANT!

The process of converting an already built MG Exia to Exia Repair is unfortunately far from painless… You have to pretty much completely disassemble and reassemble the head as well as partially disassemble the arm (to remove the GN strip). There are certainly other steps, but those are the most agitating.

It really irks me that they couldn’t include enough parts to just make a simple head swap, since you’re replacing the majority of parts in the head… I can understand not including, for instance, an entire other GN Sword, since you only swap two parts, but the head is a different story.

As you know (spoiler warning if you don’t…), Exia Repair is shown in the first episode of season two of Gundam 00 as a sort of patched together version of Exia in an effort by Setsuna to get the Gundam working after the damage Graham caused to it with the GN Flag. Fun fact: the eye on the right of Exia’s face is from a Tieren (to fix the fact that Graham stabbed him right through his fucking head).

The ball joints in the cape allow for some pretty decent flexability with the cape, although I can’t help but be bothered by the fact that it’s supposed to be tan, not black.

…and that about does it. This review is completed, although I will have one last update in a few days when I receive my batteries.

I did want to note at some point that I did this entire build completely out of the box (minus paint dabs on the chrome parts), so I have NOT used any stickers or decals yet.

Feel free to throw any questions my way and I’ll do my best to answer them. I hope this helped out a few people in making a buying decision!

So my overall opinion of this kit?

Fantastic.

Out of the box, this the best kit I have ever built. I don’t get the chance to build plenty of MG kits, but the last one I had the pleasure of building was the Sinanju, and that was one hell of a kit as well. The proportions are amazing, and just EVERYTHING reeks of sharpness and detail.

As for the inevitable comparison to the non-grade 1/100 kit… Yes, it’s close, but only because the 1/100 kit is a great kit in itself. Without owning the 1/100 myself, my opinion is that the MG is altogether sharper and far better at small details, such as the mounting racks for the GN Blades. The MG has WAAAAAAAAAY more surface detail as well, but a skilled modeler could fix that themselves.

(Different focus in the two pics, in case you were wondering…)

Then of course there’s the gimmick of the glowing chest and the laser-etched lettering on the GN Condensers, and my god, that is the most fucking cool thing I’ve seen on a model in awhile. I can’t wait until the batteries for my LEDs arrive so I can fire this guy up. In addition, the material used for all of the GN strips is fantastic.

Bandai knew it had to try to outdo an already great 1/100 kit with the MG, and so I believe they really threw everything they had at it, and in my opinion they certainly succeeded. I highly recommend this kit if you love yourself some Gundam Seven Swords…

My only gripes with this kit I have noticed thus far are:
1. The aforementioned arm joint problem.
2. The beam saber mounts on the shoulders have already become somewhat loose (easily fixed).
3. The neck joint is surprisingly only a single ball joint. Why this is mystifies me, so it is a bit of a let down.

One last final note/bonus points. The MG Exia contains 3 decal sheets:
1. Stickers: Contains stickers to put on the inside of the GN Condensers and the eyes.
2. Dry Transfers: Various small warning markings.
3. Waterslides (BONUS POINTS!): The blue and white lines that you can put on the surface of Exia.
3. Clear Stickers: The blue and white lines that you can put on the surface of Exia.

So that concludes my review of the standard Exia. I’ll be putting together Exia Repair now. In the meantime, feel free to leave me comments with any other questions you might have.

Yay for pointy things.

The blades are all nice ‘n sharp. Veeeery very nice looking.

The gun barrel and muzzle also receive chrome plating. The effect with the barrel is quite nice.

ARE YOU READY FOR THE MOTHERFUCKING LIGHTBOX???

So yeah, I built a lightbox for picturey goodness. The MG Exia is the first Exia model to feature GN Blade mounts without part swapping. The pull out of the joints and then you pivot that ball joint out. Very slick, except that the mounts get in the way of leg articulation when they’re pulled out.

The MG Exia is also the first Exia model to feature a pivoting gun on the GN Blade, meaning that it can equip other weapons while having the GN Blade on its arm.

Oh, the utility of the GN Blade…

The GN Shield has a little unfolding gimmick that is rather simple but is certainly a nice touch.

Aaaaand just a pair of shots to show the glory of my lightbox. And by glory I mean “wow, those pictures don’t completely suck balls anymore.”

I’ll be writing up my final thoughts on the Exia pretty soon, and then snapping together Exia Repair.

Legs

The foot has a rather ridiculous amount of joints in it that allow for a pretty impressive amount of movement given its design. I rather like it’s subtle side-to-side pivot.

Again with the laser-etched parts, and again, they’re looking fucking fantastic.

The leg poseability is quite good. The little gray piece is built in to function as a little stand for when the Exia kneels. Quite clever.

And now for some completed pics in front of a shoddily made background because I’m yet to build a lightbox!!!

When put together, I can’t help but think this thing looks amazing. The proportions and sharpness of everything makes it look like a fuckin’ tank. Except with legs. And instead of cannons it has swords. Lots of them.

As I mentioned in the waist section, there are two built in options to increase how far up the leg can bend. The picture on the left shows the limit in the “default” configuration. The pic on the right has the front skirt pivoted up and the leg’s slot moved into the down position.

Boom! Just another shot against the poorly made background. I’m going to throw together a lightbox on the cheap for my Overall Impressions section, so things will hopefully get quite a bit better than this, haha.

Next up is the weapons, which let’s be honest, is why we’re here.

Waist

Not a whole lot to say here other than everything is just very clean and sharp. The grey pieces on the front skirt armor are the same piece as the under-armor detail on the skirt armor’s rear, which I couldn’t help but think was pretty clever.

The skirt armor has some joints to let it get up and out of the way of the legs if need be.

All the articulation you’d expect of the beam saber holsters is here, plus the armor they sit on is individually articulated as well.

The joint where the legs go in allows them to slide up and down, with up as the “normal” position. More on this in the section on legs.

The assembly thus far as well as some shots of the bendability at the waist. Because the waist joint is a ball joint rather than a peg joint, it allows a fair bit of movement.

Next up are the legs…

Arms

The GN Condensers in the arms are actually two clear pieces. Below the transparent green piece is a clear piece, which really aids it having a lens-like look. The picture on the left is the arm assembled with just the green piece, whereas the right shows it assembled with both pieces.

Now we’re gettin’ down to it. I just wanted to reaffirm how much I like this material for the strips in comparison to having them just being a solid color. Wow.

Final assembly of the upper body. The various panels created by the gaps in the shoulders are veeery nice.

The beam saber mounts on the rear of the shoulders have a nice range of motion, but even with that…

It can still be a bit of a struggle for Exia to actually be able to reach them… After a large amount of fiddling I was finally able to achieve it as shown in the last two pics. To be fair, this is a wicked hard pose to get ANY model into, so the fact that it is possible is quite impressive, even though it’s difficult.

The glory of the transparent GN strips at work… Seeing the internals in motion is a very nice touch.

Now, one gripe I have noticed… In the first pic above, I am showing the limit of Exia’s arms’ motion, because they hit the white piece on the upper arm. However, if you exert a tiny amount of force, you can get them to the position shown in the second pic, but this pops up the white arm piece. The effect is shown in the third and fourth pic, showing the forearm cap before and after putting force on it, respectively. This just seems like a bit of bad design to me that could have been rather easily avoided by adjusting either part.

So the upper body is all finished up… I’ll be moving on to the waist soon, even though the manual dictates the legs are next, since I have the need to be able to piece together my model as I build it…