Colonial Armory Reviews The MGear Belt Used In The Mandalorian

A few weeks ago the marketing firm for the company MGear contacted us about reviewing a belt MGear makes — the MGear MultiBelt Pro Extreme —  that was used as an accessory in the Disney+ series The Mandalorian. After we decided it might be something cosplayers would like to see, we agreed to do a review once the marketers accepted we would permit no editorial interference in it.

The choice for who to do the review was pretty easy — Skye of Colonial Armory. Skye specializes in military science fiction armor and weapons prop building from franchises like Warhammer 40,000. He even makes entire sets of armor for participants in sci-fi-based LARP events.

So we sent Skye the belt and below is both his written review and the video review. After the review was written and recorded, the marketing firm informed us that we have a discount code for anyone who might be interested in buying the belt — NC21. Feel free to use it and save 10 percent.

Upon opening the box
First impression of the belt as I took it out of the cloth bag it was packaged in is that it looks really cool. The belt is made of a heavy duty nylon strapping that has been doubled up and securely sewn together. Because of the material and the double layering the belt is fairly rigid and holds a hoop shape easily when closed. The buckle has an interesting modern design to it while remaining simple and not being gaudy. To go along with its interesting appearance it also sports a novel magnetic clasping system that holds the belt shut using two fairly large rare earth magnets. The clasp is surprisingly strong and is very difficult to open unintentionally. The magnets also do double duty by holding a small steel multi tool to the front of the buckle inside a recessed section of the carbon fiber faceplate. The multi tool is pretty simple with only a few tools consisting of a strap cutter, box cutter, bottle opener, flat head screwdriver and a small wrench. It’s not a huge assortment of tools but for its size and purpose it’s a pretty good array.

Adding the belt to pants
Putting on the belt is also different to most belts you are probably used to. First thing I had to do was open the velcro adjustment and unthread it from the buckle. After that I slid the belt through my belt loops and fed it back through the buckle and adjusted it to size. The process is a lot slower than putting on a normal belt and the belt can be a snug fit through some belt loops. It took me a little time to adjust it to my desired tightness but since the clasp opens and closes independently you only have to adjust it once. Also because of that when you unbuckle your belt you don’t have any dangling belt to deal with. Funny thing that came up: The belt has enough memory and spring that, unless you fold them, your pants will hoop open like a wind sock when you take them off.

Over the course of a week of wearing the belt at work I had a better feel of the belt as a whole. Since the belt is harder to size than the web belts I’m used to wearing, it took me a little bit of actually wearing it to find that sweet spot of tightness that wasn’t uncomfortable. However after I found it the belt was perfectly comfortable. Because of how wide and stiff the belt is it kept the waistband of my pants from rolling over or slipping as much when bending over or kneeling. The buckle wasn’t big enough for it to cause any discomfort and is easy enough to operate.

I was expecting that the only tool on the multi tool I would end up using was the bottle opener but I actually ended up using the boxcutter at work. It did the job well but I couldn’t see using it as my daily work box cutter since it doesn’t look like the easiest thing to sharpen. That said, for the amount of boxes I open in my day-to-day outside of work it’s more handy than trying to find a pair of scissors. Last thing that came up is that I am at the upper limit of the intended size range for this belt (I’m 40in waist and the belt is for up to 42in) so the end of the adjustment side of the belt sits right over my pocket. It was something I needed to be mindful of when grabbing my phone because it would irritate my wrist/thumb.

Cosplay uses
So besides wearing the belt for work I also played around with it to try it out with different cosplay related things. The belt is really good for use with belt holsters and drop leg platforms. The stiffness of the belt keeps it from deforming due to the weight of things hanging from or off of it. It also looks really cool and the design isn’t particularly hard coded to fit a specific genre.

Examples of types of cosplays I could see this useful for include:
Anything Cyberpunk
Apex Legends
Overwatch
Star Wars
The Expanse
Resident Evil