The third present that I got for my fifteenth birthday, which I received alongside the HGUC ReZEL which I had already built and reviewed. I've always heard great things of the HG 00 Raiser, but never bought it due to the fact that the RG existed, and that the RG is regarded as one of the best, if not the best RG out there. So my solution to this was to eventually get the 00 Gundam Seven Sword/G, so I can also experience the greatness that is the HG 00 Gundam, and get an mobile suit with many awesome weapons as well.
Box:
The boxart is simple but good as well. You have the 00 Gundam Seven Sword/G floating in space with a destroyed A-LAWS GN-X III.
Parts:
You get 2 white runners, one taken from the original 00 Gundam kit...
...a blue runner, also taken from the 00 Gundam kit...
...and two multicolored runners, one which was taken from the original 00 Gundam kit as well.
I also forgot to take a picture of the large polycap runner that came with the kit, so here's a picture of the same runner from the HGBF Shia Qan[T].
You also get a sheet of foil stickers, and a neat little bendable wire.
Manual:
The manual contains your expected information, inside you get your average instructions, painted product shots, part count, color guide, and you actually get sort of a "development line" that shows the line mobile suits that the 00 Gundam Seven Sword/G was developed from.
Completed Product:
From a straightbuild, the kit looks quite good for a first glance, but if you look closer, you'll notice a few missing details. First of all, he's missing grey on his face, i've filled it in using panel lining marker on my kit, but it's just white OOB. He also misses some grey on his feet, and most obvious missing color app being the clear lenses, which are supposed to be green. The clear piece on the v-fin is supposed to be red, they give you a sticker for it but it doesn't cover the entire clear piece, so you'll want to paint it if you can. The weapons also fall off a lot on this kit if you have them equipped, so know that I went through a lot of pain and frustration to pose the kit for each picture of this review.
Articulation:
His head is on your average neck joint, although you may feel some resistance, the articulation is there.
His arms are on a swing out polycap that allow you to go that far out.
His shoulder goes up decently far, and it actually isn't that limited by his GN drives, because they can swing up and swing back out of the way if he so pleases. In the anime, this is used as a boost, so you could put him in a dashing pose with an action base if you put these behind him.
His arm can swivel and he has about a 100˚ bend. But he does have a hinge joint at the wrist which when combined with his hand, does allow him to get a 180˚ bend.
His wrist and elbow joint even allow his arm to go backwards. Ouch.
His leg swivel at the thigh and move a complete 180˚ no problem, very nice for the time. Torso also swivels but doesn't move around too much. I also have to mention the front "skirt" also likes to pop out a lot.
His ankle pivot is also insane, like Gundam Barbatos level insane. I mean, look at this split! This combined with his pretty much unmatched waist movement gives him downright amazing leg articulation.
Accessories:
Before moving on to extra accessories, we're going to look at the weapons already equipped on the Gundam. The Gundam's right GN Drive holds the GN Sword II Blaster, which is actually used more as a gun than a sword in combat. The tab that holds this on the shoulder is the loosest out of all the sword's tabs due to the lack of locking mechanisms, and the large weight/awkward angle of the sword.
The weapon itself looks quite cool, especially with those clear green effect parts.
It plugs into the hand quite easily, and the blue part has a tab that locks to the underside of the arm to secure the gun completely. All gun weapons also have a little tab on top that will rest on the top of the arm, it's completely useless though, and doesn't really help secure the arm at all.
It can be used as another sword or a gun, which is what it's mainly used as.
The left GN drive houses the GN Buster Sword II, which is quite self explanatory, a massive honking sword, and I love it. Although, there are a lot of holding issues with this thing due to the weight of it. It does have a somehow helpful remedy to this though which I will get to later.
The sword isn't just a weapon however, when stored on the left shoulder, it doubles as a shield! To do this, simply pull out the white parts of the sword, and there you go. I would've liked stickers for extra color apps under the sword, but since we don't have them, you'll need to paint the sword's insides for anime accuracy. In this mode, the sword deploys a GN field, which is large enough to not only protect the gundam, but nearby allies as well.
When you want to use it, simply just take it off the shoulder, push in the handle, and later flip up the hilt parts.
The sword obviously has weight issues, so it actually comes with a second handle to support this. This helps with the weight issues, however it makes posing more limited and the Gundam will always have to hold this with two hands. You can probably fix this using some kind of support for the sword though.
He also comes with the GN Sword II Long and GN Sword II short, which are quite self explanitory.
Alternatively, you can use both weapons as guns. Just flip out the handle, take out the white blade, and put it in sideways.
Boom, now the swords are guns as well.
The GN Sword II Long also has a handle hold for security.
The Gundam is equipped with a pair of GN Katars on his knees. These are the only weapon that the Gundam seems to have trouble holding, which is a shame because I absolutely dig how these look.
Now we come to the extra accessories, which isn't very much, but is totally acceptable when compared to how much is on the actual MS.
He comes with a single left open hand for more posing options.
He also comes with a wire part that is supposed to be used with the GN Sword II Short.
You just take off the tip of the sword and put in the wire.
The wire is bendable, so you can go wild with it. However, do remember to take care with it, and don't break it.
The Gundam also has a pair of beam sabers on his ass for his final swords.
These work well, however I find them more generic than the other swords that he has, just because almost every Gundam seems to have one.
There are also alternate holes for the beam sabers, so you can put it in a grabbing beam saber pose if you wished.
The final accessories are spare parts from the original 00 Gundam kit. Using these, you can convert your 00 Gundam Seven Sword/G back into the normal 00 Gundam.
First, detach all the sword weapons save for the beam sabers, and take off the blue knee armor. Next, take off the blades of the GN Sword II Short and the GN Sword II Long.
After that, attach the regular knees back on the 00 Gundam.
Finally, attach the normal blades back on the GN Sword II hilts and you've got a pair of GN Sword II's.
After that, you're done! It's now the more simple, and much more playable 00 Gundam.
Verdict:
The HG 00 Gundam Seven Sword/G is surprisingly a mixed bag. The HG 00 Gundam as a base is easily a great kit compared to other kits during the time. It's very articulate, sturdy, and has some great engineering. However, the kit gets slightly problematic with the Seven Sword/G parts. For one, all swords, save for the GN Buster Sword II fall off the kit very, very easily, and are all held in by single connections. This can lead to a few problems when posing, I personally had a lot of frustrations getting this guy to pose for the images. The large parts and swords can also get in the way of posing the kit, that combined with how the parts fall off a lot can be quite annoying. However, if you don't mind the fact that the weapons fall out a lot, then you should be fine with this kit. I'd recommend it to fans of 00, people who like MS with a ton of weapons, people who want a simple kit with nice shelf presence, and people in the same dilemma of me (wanting the buy the RG but at the same time wanting to buy the HG due to recommendation).
Pros:
- Base MS is very solid and sturdy. (!)
- Very articulate and well engineered.
- Has a lot of nice shelf presence when all weapons are equipped.
- Comes with parts to make regular HG 00 Gundam.
Cons:
-Weapons are loose and fall off easily. (!)
-Will need a bit of clear color paintwork for anime accuracy.
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