MSiA NRX-055 Baund Doc

Height: 18cm to top of "rabbit ears."

Articulation: 57 points total - Double jointed neck; 8 points in left arm: Double jointed shoulder, upper arm hinge, upper arm swivel, hinge elbow, forearm swivel, pre-wrist hinge, ball joint wrist; 9 points in right arm: Ball jointed shoulder, pre-elbow swivel, double jointed elbow, ball joint wrist, 4-joint claw; 3 point in torso: Chest ball joint, double torso hinge; Ball joint waist; 14 points in each leg: Ball joint hip, mid-thigh swivel, triple jointed knee, ball joint ankle, double jointed front toe, 2 triple jointed rear toes; 3 double jointed thruster cones. Plus additional joints for transformation.

Colors: Molded dark blue, pink, dark grey, green, clear yellow; Painted pink, dark blue, yellow, black, green.

Accessories: Diffuse Mega Particle Cannon; Beam sabre; Beam rifle; Extra hands x2

Release Data: Released in Japan on February 23rd, 2006 at a price of ¥4200. This item is still available as of this review.

Gallery: 37 images.

Author: ExVee

The Figure

In Zeta Gundam, one design concept seemed to keep creeping up as new Mobile Weapons were introduced: Form follows function. The late transforming designs are the main examples of this. Gabthley, Gaza-C, Hambrabi. All of them show more concern paid to engineering their transformation and distinctive features than to making them look precisely humanoid. But even these suits are blown away by the last original Newtype use design fielded by the Titans, the Baund Doc.

Instead of being made as a mobile suit that transforms into a mobile armor design, the Baund Doc seems more clearly intended as a mobile armor that just happens to become a mobile suit. That it spends the majority of its screen time in its mobile armor mode I feel lends backing to this notion. The mobile suit mode lacks such conveniences as "two hands", "symmetrical arms", or "logical center of gravity." This is totally a mobile armor made able to cope with mobile suit combat by becoming a basic mobile suit itself. And I can definitely say the figure relates that same feeling.

The Head

Now, I love this from a mechanical point of view. The sculpt is pretty well dead on to the lineart, right to the "rabbit ear" antennae that I can't help but believe are for the Psycommu system to pick up the pilot's brainwaves from outside the machine. Just like the Psyco Gundam, the Baund Doc was depicted as operating on a basic level from Rosamia's brainwaves while she was outside the cockpit. But this isn't the part I really like.

The non-humanoid shape of the head majorly frees up the neck, which is a double ball joint. Because it's so open, you can get a considerable range of interesting poseability with the head alone. There's another neat bit, in the execution of the cables running from the head to the collar. Ordinarily, cables running between the torso and some moving part end up being quite troublesome. Hi-Zack and Hambrabi are two examples that immediately spring to mind. But it's different in this case. Where the cables involved in the aforementioned examples are meant to be secured at both ends, the Baund Doc only has the cables secured to the bottom of the head. The other end of each cable is just tucked down into the collar, and is essentially free to move with the neck. It's a really good way of dealing with this design element.

This isn't to say that it's not without problems, though. After turning the head for transformation, the cables may stick to that side. They can be slid back around front, of course, but it's a little tricky to get in to manipulate them in the small space available. Plus if you turn the head too far (the Baund Doc was shown doing a full 180 with its head...), one cable will pop out of the collar, dependant on which direction you're turning. But these are exceedingly minor complaints. For ordinary day to day operation, these cables should never give you any trouble.

Arms and Torso

The really obvious thing at this stage is that both arms are really different. The left arm is closest to a traditional mobile suit arm, but without a full armor coat. If you like the bare frame look, this is very suitable. The left arm carries the mobile armor's "mohawk", for want of a better word. The hand is backed by the pink forward bit, including the monoeye track, with the rest sitting on the arm allegedly as some level of shield. The articulation is a bit short, since this has to conform to the lineart, which was not made with double elbow hinges in mind. Otherwise, though, it's about usual. The "shield" is connected to the arm on a swiveling segment, allowing the shield to rotate around the arm. Next best thing to a forearm swivel joint, in this situation. The mechanical detailing here is pretty basic, but still good looking and accurate. It even offers some benefit in that it adds a hinge joint just before the wrist, allowing a bit of unusual articulation. I have to admit though, so far I haven't even noticed if I've used it or not.

The right arm has more standardized articulation, but loses out in its own way. The right shoulder joint is technically set out far from the torso, and is mounted under the very large fixed-position shoulder structure. I may not describe that aspect perfectly, but the effect is that where most MSiA can point their arms straight up, the Baund Doc cannot do so with its right arm. Because of this limitation, the usual double shoulder joint is omitted here. Though the elbow is a double joint, the way the ends of the upper arm and forearm are shaped reduce the actual range of a joint a good bit. There is no right hand. Instead a large claw is at the end of this arm. But it's connected the usual way, with a somewhat open range ball joint. The claw is jointed pretty simply, but it works well. Each of the four "fingers" are independantly articulated around a central point. The joints are easy to move, but stiff enough to be able to hold small objects, including the beam rifle, but the claw can't close enough to grip the beam sabre securely without bending the smaller "fingers" inward to close further.

The torso is kind of oddball. It has a really restricted ball joint between the chest and what we'll laughingly call the abdomen, the same as EMIAs have. The abdomen itself is a bizarre conglomeration of joints with wildly varying tolerances, stretching from the bottom of the chest down to and including the pelvis. The upper and lower body are connected together by what amounts to a single chunk of plastic about a half centimeter by a centimeter. The top and bottom of this piece attach to the upper and lower halves of the body by actually good and strong hinges, keeping this joint quite stable. Below the hinge is a ball joint, used as a mostly swivel waist joint, as well as for transformation.

The issue with a ball joint here is something I've touched on before, in the review of Psyco Gundam. The entire weight of the upper body is resting on a soft plastic ball and socket joint, within a design that doesn't offer any inherent support. In my case at least, this actually came out of the box loose, resulting in the upper body tending to lean one way or the other (usually forward) and no way to directly stop it. The other joitns can be arranged to minimize the visibility of this effect, but I still find it to be a failing of the engineering. That joint really needed to be a straight swivel, because if it had been this would not be an issue at all. The upper half would rest flush with the lower half, and there'd be no play in the joint to lead to this floppiness.

Below this is a final large hinge joint, also used mostly for transformation, and it's what actually folds the whole upper body into the mobile armor hull. Thankfully, this is a very stiff joint that isn't going anywhere before you're ready for it to. Obviously there's no lack of articulation in the torso, but as with the Qubeley, if it's not simply a matter of too much, it's a matter of the materials not being able to support what's being done in the way it was engineered.

The hull of the mobile armor itself is actually not an integral part of the figure. As packaged, the hull is in two pieces, else the box would have to be a good 15cm deep. The front half is attached solidly to the pelvis, but it can be removed safely if you really wanted to. The back half hooks to the front in what feels like a permanent connection, but is actually quite removeable, should you ever need to repackage it at a later date. Or if you want to play Naked Baund Doc. The plastic of the hull is harder plastic than what MSiAs usually use, but not quite the hard plastic used on, say, parts of the Gabthley or Asshimar. Warping is certainly not an issue, but you can also be reasonably assured this isn't going to crack from falling on a hardwood floor. Ceramic tile or concrete I won't comment on, since I've had frying pans break from falling on those floorings.

The Legs and Feet

Obviously the rigid nature of the hull will preclude some poseability. Though to be perfectly fair, the back of the hull is still pretty weighty and throws off the center of gravity, which will create posing problems by itself. The hip joints have quite a good range, mostly to facilitate the transformation. Interesting enough, the hip joints have shoulder armor style covers over them, which you'd barely be able to notice if you never took the mobile armor hull off. More to the point, why would the design even need this if it's surrounded by thick armor anyway? There's swivel joints just below the hips, too. Much of the articulation employed in the legs is for the benefit of the mobile armor mode, and while the skirt is restrictive, the joints do still mostly help the mobile suit mode.

The feet remind me of Gaia and Chaos, in that they're full of hinges to not necessarily positive effect. Since these have to become somewhat dexterous claws in mobile armor mode, the foot is divided into three parts: The main foot part, which is what faces forward in mobile suit mode, and two smaller toes pointing backward. Each has two joints. First is a large, stiff hinge that holds position very satisfyingly. Next is a hinge the same as is used in regular elbows. This presents more of a problem. These joints are soft plastic, and can easily become deformed under pressure. This may well result in severe loosening of the rear toes, which would lead to a critical loss of balance. The feet would no longer be able to support the enormous mobile armor hull by themselves. Mine already came with a slightly deformed toe, which is presenting balance issues. I can work around them at this point, but a continuing effect is something that concerns me for the longevity of this figure.

The design itself would otherwise be quite sound. With different, stronger joints, the wide base provided by these feet would give the figure very good stability and probably make it very difficult to casually tip the Baund Doc backwards.

Mobile Armor Mode

Or "modes", really. To start with, it can transform, effectively, standing up. The upper body simply folds out of sight within the hull, with the arm shield sitting on top. The legs need not necessarily be involved, except to angle thm back a bit to offset the added weight in the rear end. The transformation is really simple. Just turn the body and then the head to the right, and wiggle the torso through the slightly narrow opening in the top of the hull. The arm shield slides together and tabs in to form the "head", I guess, of the mobile armor. Getting the mobile suit head down into place is a bit tricky, and seems to require bending the antennae past the main thruster cones in the back. Once the head gets past that point they don't need to be bent anymore. This is a "perfect" transformation, in that it's so simple that no parts need to be removed. Not even the left hand. On the other hand, that fixed position right shoulder structure is still fixed in position. Meaning that it sticks visibly out from the bottom of the mobile armor. Oops. This probably could have been made a non-issue with the addition of an agnled swivel joint at the base of the shoulder structure.

To go for the full flying mobile armor mode, there's a hatch on either side of the front half of the hull. Once opened, these allow clearance for the legs to flip up to the sides as basic arms. Even with the hip joints and thigh swivels essentially useless in this position, there's anough other joints here to give these arms some range of posing. It could possibly even carry around another lightweight MSiA by the arms, as long as you could balance the weight in the grey part of the claws. And could elevate the Baund Doc enough. As it is, I don't see any obvious place you could fit a stand that'd actually hold the thing up without tipping one way or the other right off. And remember, the larger claw goes on top.

Paint and Deco

I'd have to say the paint quality in general is average. There's numerous overrun edges, as well as uneven coats in many places, especially in large areas of yellow. One aspect that I am pleased by is the black paint used in the monoeye tracks and thruster cones.

See, straight black paint is not especially... well, black. Especially flat black. It looks black, but it's very obvious that instead of being dark, it's just a painted panel. What is typically done to darken black paint and even plastic is to mix other dark colors with it. Usually dark purples. In plastic, this tends to result in a slightly purple appearance when backlit with a strong light. But with paint, the purple elements are basically imperceptible. All that you get is a really deep, dark black that actually looks more convincing as a darkened, empty space even under semi-direct light, instead of only working when an object is in shadow.

This is something that's bothered me in many MSiAs, since straight flat black is almost always what is used for the insides of thrusters and large barrel weapons. This is an advance in paint work that I think is pretty long overdue, and hopefully will stick around from here on.

Articulation and Engineering get 8/10

Paint and Deco get 7/10

Accessories

-Beam Rifle

One of the more basic designs. And at this scale, it's really more like a large beam pistol than a rifle. It can be held in either the regular gun hand, or the claw, depending which side you favor. It's also made to peg into the right side of the mobile armor hull. It doesn't really feel very secure when you get it in there, but it certainly seems to stay well enough.

-Diffuse Mega Particle Cannon

(That's the new fancy name for a scattering beam or mega particle cannon)

On the "mohawk"/arm shield, there's a hatch. Inside is a multi-jointed arm that you can fold out and plug into this cannon. In the original design, the cannon could store inside this space, but then in the original the right shoulder didn't stick out the bottom. Dumb laws of physics!

Anyway, this can be used just the same in either mode. And in either case, it doesn't really feel very solid, but it hasn't fallen off yet. It just flops around a lot. It also uses the extra dark black paint.

-Beam Sabre

It looks to be a normal blade as would and has come with any modern Zeta MSiA, just with a bigger grip. You could probably swap this blade with any other Zeta blade and it'd fit just fine.

-Extra Hands

Besides the fist, it only comes with two. Obviously both left hands. One is the trigger finger hand for the beam gun, and the other is the sabre hand. The hands themselves can swap easily, but you have to really watch out for all the extra stuff on the arm, which can be dislodged a bit easily during this process.

Accessories get 8/10

Closing Remarks

Thing is, this should be a really good figure. It's large, fairly straightforward, and the especially mechanical design should give it a good deal of freedom for articulation. Unfortunately, some of the material choices made in critical places have really compromised the potential. Instead of a big, solid figure, you have a large figure that could very well not be able to hold up its own weight eventually because its flimsy jointing may continue to weaken under the strain they're not equipped to handle. I gave Engineering an 8/10. There's a good number of little things here that work and that I really like. If those foot joints and the main waist joint had been made differently, this figure could have easily gotten a perfect score in Engineering.

As it is, this is a toy that will cost you an absolute minimum of $40 to import, but probably much more. At those prices, I cannot objectively recommend this figure. People who like the design and are willing to overlook the failings and accept the possibility of critical joint failure down the road will probably be just fine with this, but it's really too big ticket to buy and have to expect mechanical failure.

I'll give it Could Have Been Better from an objective stance. But from the conditional state I described, I can call it Very Good.

-ExVee, 3/03/2006