The State of the Gunpla Union – 101211

Whoa, an actual State of the Gunpla Union address?  Yeah, it’s been that long.  As you may have already noticed, updates have been (un)surprisingly lacking in the previous couple of months.  Bluntly put, I literally have no life now thanks to my beautiful son.  But I’m sure my fellow parents out there know how that is.  So by no means am I unhappy about it, but the reality has set in that the time that I now have is extremely limited.  So that means things just aren’t happening, like gunpla and gaming.  But that doesn’t mean I can’t stop thinking about it and talking about it.  So let’s talk about Gundam stuff.

First up, Gunpla stuff.  As Gaigun already posted, there was another 7-11 Gundam campaign similar to the one done about 2 years ago.  This time around not just an updated Gundam figure, but a 7-11 Zaku II and Beargguy as well!  Suffice to say these things sold out pretty much the day they were lined up in 7-11 stores around the country.  It doesn’t help that each store only got like 2 of each kit.  But somehow I managed to snag a full set at Akihabara on a business trip thanks to a cool 7-11 manager.  There was some other nifty stuff like another lucky draw for Gundam stuff, as well as a tie up with Nissin Cup Noodle too, so I snagged things here and there.  I actually have another set of the cup noodle gundams, which would be cool to use for a contest….   I am trying to build my 7-11 Gundam but I’m literally going at a pace of one part per night, so I’m still an arm, leg and head away from completion.

For other gunpla news, I have to say that the MG Sandrock is looking better and better, aside from the ridiculous amount of decals (Thanks Katoki!).  To be honest, Sandrock and Shenlong Gundams were never my favorite and I found them quite bland next to Heavy Arms, Deathscythe and Wing, but I’m liking the look of this design.  After Heavy Arms, all that is left is TallGeese (and honestly, I never liked TallGeese, I don’t understand all the love it gets) and Bandai will have milked a majority of the GW mobile suits.  There are still the EW versions though… Leave to Bandai to take all your money!

MG Sandrock

In other MG news, this year’s big December release is the MG FA Unicorn.  Honestly, I’m kind of up in the air on this.  I’ve already built two MG Unicorns, and two HG Unicorns, and I still have another one sitting around.  Toss in the… inflated… price for all the extra weaponry and I have a hmmm, going to have to pass on this one feeling.  The green psychoframe is cool, though, but not worth the price of admission.  I keep looking at it and thinking, why is this call (F)ull (A)rmor Unicorn?  It gets just another shield and really no more armor, shouldn’t this be the (F)ull (W)eaponry Unicorn?

MG FA Unicorn

The next RG Freedom looks good as well, but since I have only built 1 of the 3 RG I already have, I’m in no rush to pick it up.  With RG’s coming out at a rate of 1 every 3 or 4 months, I figure the next one will probably be around February or March.  While early to speculate, I wonder if we won’t see something from Gundam OO next?  There is always Gundam Age, but they will probably release the MG long before moving to the RG line.

RG Freedom

But as you all know this year’s hobby show is from October 13^th, so we should get quite a bit of info for the next six months or so of Gunpla releases.  I’m sure it will be dominated by Gundam Age materials, with a section given to the GW MG line up.  But perhaps we may just see the next PG in store?

Speaking of the hobby show, applicants to the Gunpla World Cup Japan Round who pass the first round of picture submissions will have their pictures displayed at the hobby show for the second round of judging.  As you all know, I submitted my GP01.  While not going all out, I did a paint job, panel lining, and water slides followed by a flat coat.  Sad to say I did not pass the first round.  I had hopes that Bandai wouldn’t take all bling bling kits, but would take some more.. solidly done kits to even it out.  Probably they did take some average kits to make it look fair, just mine wasn’t one of them.  So here are the pictures that I submitted.  Will need to do a full photo session soon because I am quite pleased with how the kit turned out.

So I guess the next couple of days should have some exciting news if we are lucky.

Moving onto other thing Gundam, what’s hot in the blogosphere is Gundam Age.  Having watched it real time on Sunday, I must say I’m not sure what to think.  The general reaction seems to be positive, but that it’s definitely aimed at the younger generation.  I think that’s quite true as a lot of the jumps in logic simply don’t allow for deeper… interaction so to say as other series have.  As an aside I have read that some people think that all Gundam series are aimed at kids, but I think that is not so true with some recent series (especially regarding UC timeline series.)

Gundam Age

Anyways, back to the subject at hand, GA Ep 1 was your standard enemy attacks colony, hero gets in Gundam, and fights off first enemy stories.  The style of design quite reminds me of old Super Robot anime series which definitely is not quite Gundam, but still good.  Stereotypical design?  Yeah, but vibrant in the colors and music is decent.  But we still come back to the fact that GA is aimed at a much younger crowd, as we again see how things are glossed over, such as the actual horrors of what the attacks do.  Aside from Frit’s mother dying in the opening scene, I get the feeling that this will be a much lighter death free Gundam.  As for design, the Gundam Age itself is decent, but not feeling everything else.  I’m pretty sure when we get to the part swapping power ranger/super robot style episodes things may get pretty lame.  I can see it already, with the heavy mech style Frits going to move in to close range and punch the crap out of his enemy… hmm…

Anyways, first episode is decent, but the series will require a certain turning off of expectations that previous series have for seriousness and more adult themes.  The good thing is that Bandai is at least giving the older crowd some UC love based off the plans to take the Origin and animate it.

So what are the thoughts on upcoming gunpla, the hobby show possibilities, and lastly Gundam Age?

GAF PG Strike Freedom Group Build

As some may already be aware, one of the four gunplar bloggers of the Apocalypse taken the stand yet again to throw down the gauntlet for what may be one of the most ambitious group build projects yet.

As people know, Busterbeam, Gaijin Gunpla, Lupes, and myself first came together at the predecessor to the GAF forums as they are known today, to participate in the now legendary MG Sinanju Group Build Project.  This project is really what gave us four bloggers the start in the Gunplar blogosphere as well, leading us to be sometimes termed as the four gunplar/bloggers of the Apocalypse.

The Sinanju GBP led not only to great synergy among like minded individuals, but helped us meet new people like Sonar and Gundam Guy, and to actual friendships that have transcended the forums.  So yeah, it was pretty damn cool.

But while we’ve all kept going in our respective paths, and putting out new works, there is always talk about that original synergy and effort that was born out our first GBP.  Well, Busterbeam has decided to take his turn with the Gauntlet of the Apocalypse and formally challenge not only us, but anyone else who is interested to bring their best to the gunplar game, and take it to the next level.

And when I say ambitious, I mean it.  We’re not going HG, no sir.  Not stopping at MG.   We’re taking it straight to the PG level.

I’m proud to announce that I will be participating in the GAF PG Strike Freedom Group Build, and I join Busterbeam in challenging my fellow gunplars who may have picked up this monster of a kit, and who have not finished yet, to join in with us.

Here are the official group build rules:

1. You must already own a PGSF
2. You must be part way through your build process. It can be that 5% in (classified as: “I looked at the manual and thought about it for a while.” or 95% finished (classified as: “I have a couple more decals to put on and then the final top coat”), as long as your somewhere between 1% and 99%.
3. The standard Strike Freedom color scheme is banned.  Re-colors only.
4. You must think of a noun by which your PGSF will be referred to.  We were talking about using the 4 Horseman of the Apocalypse theme (thus the title) but who wants to name their PGSF “Famine”?  Anyway you have time to think of the word/s you want to use.  Just post it when you post the final pictures of your PGSF at the GAF forums.

and the final and most important rule.

5.  You MUST finish EVERYTHING by September 1st.

Strict rules, but it’s all part of the strive to push ourselves to the next level, and to create that new Gunplar legend.

As you can probably tell by the WiP’s up to this point, I’m pretty much in the 90% area of finished. While the actual kit was a solid build, I was somewhat disappointed with the wings/dragoons, and even more disappointed by the less than “Perfect” grade of the various gold parts.  This group build will allow me to come back to the PGSF and fix those problems that I saw with the kit, and to challenge myself to actually get past the current plateau I find myself on and move for the next level.

For the current progress, feel free to go back over the previous WiPs.

Part 0
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

So, who else is going to pick up the gauntlet and join in the Gunplar League of the Apocalypse?

Lastly, while not set in stone yet, the theme/noun that is floating around in my head?

“We’re going Digital”

WiP: PG Strike Freedom #05

With the mobile suit itself finished, we move onto the next step, the wing units and dragoons.  Otherwise known as the tedious part.  We all joke about weapons block, or decal block, and what not that tends to hit almost every model kit out there, but in this case, the Strike Fredeem has boring repetitive parts block.  I found the best way to handle this was to just do it in bits and pieces off and on over the last week and a half or so.  Business trips and the usual company affairs did keep me away for some nights so it’s not like it really takes that long.  It just feels like it does.

So, onto the dragon units themselves. Considering that there are eight dragoons, I went ahead and knocked this out over a couple of nights.  I did a couple the first night to get it down, then set up an assembly to knock out the rest the next day.  In particular, nothing special about this, just a gimmick to slide the “thruster” part of the dragoon in when you attach it to the wing tip.

A jumble of parts, all this just for the dragoons

A step by step from top to bottom for the complete dragoon build.

Setting up the assembly line.

After working on the dragoons, we move onto the wings themselves.  Basically there are four wing units with two wing tips, if that makes sense.  It still means that you’re building eight wing tip units though.  I knocked these out as well over three nights doing two or three units a night.

The parts needed to put the wing tip together.

Put together you get some simple interlocking movement as well.

Which you can see the range below with the dragoons attached.

The second wing type, pretty much the same except for the top, which will connect the wing to the previous built wings.

Same range of extension as the last parts.

So after building all this wings, it’s time to put wing type A together with wing type B.

And throw on the top and you’ve got one of your four wing sets.

All four finished.

What you don’t see in the above pictures are the gold decals that are put on to highlight the wings and dragoons.  I’m planning on saving those after panel lining and top coating.  Overall, the wings are just huge.  The length of one is easily the height of your average MG.  The interlocking movement, while simple, works well.  The downside is that the gold latticework, for lack of a better word, doesn’t pop back into the wing easy on some of the wings.  Also, like Buster noted, putting the dragoons on and having them stay in the closed position can be touchy sometimes. I’ve taken apart a few of the wings and put them back together, but still have touch parts, or less that smooth movement.

Overall, the gimmicks work well, but when you have 8 of the same thing, the probability of one of those wings not working as well as stated increases significantly.  While good for posing as well, there is no extra attachments for the back to have dragoons flying around, like the MG Hi-Nu.  Again, I come back to very solid kit, but with some design choices left to be questioned…

So that leaves very little left to do, just the connecter for the wings and the backpack.  But that will be a section all its own, as I plan on tackling the wing joint fix.

WiP: PG Strike Freedom #04

So I’ve finished up the mobile suit portion of the PG Strike Freedom, and we’ll take a look at some shots.  As I’ve mentioned before, the gold plated and extra finish parts of the frame only cover maybe 75% of what’s actually visible.  Overall this doesn’t distract too much, at least at this point, but it’s still a small disappointment after such hype what made about the finish.  So let’s take a look at some shots and you all can judge for yourselves.

The biggest offender of the bunch, the waist mounted giant rail guns

Unfortunately the back of each of the waist armor pieces aren’t plated either.

The waist itself, as well as the fairly visible leg/waist joint there.

As see with the rail gun attached

Right on the ankle joint, but not really noticeable here

The side of the lower leg, also not as noticeable here

The arm is fairly fine, save around the elbow area. Unfortunately you get nub marks on the back side which are visible.

The shoulders, when extended, you can see some yellow.

Overall, the biggest stand out has to be around the waist area and the reail guns at this point for me. Considering how you slide the rail guns around to the back, the yellow is visible, even when you put the beam rifles in their place. Also, a huge complaint I have about the rail guns is they fit very loosely on the pegs, and will fall off easy. Due to the way they are made, you can’t stick the peg in all the way to get a good fit, so I find it a little frustrating.

Still, it’s not all doom and gloom for the mobile suit. The build is solid and I find the engineering to great. It doesn’t bring anything new to the table like PG 00 Raiser did with locking functions for arms and legs, and GN drives, but it is solid. Unfortunately, the planning on the extra finish/gold plated parts falls short, and it shows. This means you have to go that extra mile to touch things up if you want the full effect. Of course it can be argued that a Perfect Grade is all about going that extra mile for perfection, but I thought that when you drop 26,000 yen, or well over $300 for a PG, you’re paying for that perfection already included. Slight rant if you will, but you want to go into a PG kit expecting the best, and so at this point I’ve seeing great, but not best.

So, here’s a bunch of quick shots of the mobile suit for you, and this weekend I plan on moving onto the final part, the dragoon system.

WiP: PG Strike Freedom #03

Moving on with the build, we’ll go ahead and jump into the waist, arms, and rail guns.  Starting off with the waist, there really isn’t anything special about the build.

The parts for the waist

Put together

As I mentioned before, I’ll be skipping the build pictures for the legs, as GaiGun has a good post up on them already.  But still to give you an idea of how they look, here are the feet and legs for you.

Feet

Legs

Pretty articulate at this point

Putting what we’ve built together and…

Next up, the arms and rails guns. Honestly, there isn’t anything special about the arms either. In regards to the waist mounting rail guns however, the curse of yellow plastic that I mentioned last post rears its ugly head yet again.

A completed arm with the pieces required

Also pretty articulate at this point

Completed rail gun and parts needed

Unfortunately, no plated or extra finish gold here

With the arms finished, we’ve come to the end of the frame build at this point.

Completed frame

Overall, the design and construction is rock solid, as befitting a PG kit. There are no complaints here, but at the same time, there isn’t much that’s “new” aside from the various gold plate/extra finish parts. If anything, the one disappointment in regards to the gold is for as hard as they tried to make it work well with all visible parts, it still comes off half ass considering how much of the regular yellow plastic looks to be visible. Of course, it may not be as bad as I’m making it out to be once I actually put on the armor. So, the net plan is to move onto the outer armor for the mobile suit. Depending on how things look, I’ll consider painting the visible frame parts. So the next post will be looking at just that.

Just how will it turn out…?

WiP: PG Strike Freedom #02

Continuing on with the WiP for the Strike Freedom, today we continue on with the backpack and torso. The backpack itself isn’t a complicated affair, but I run into an issue that will rear it’s head a few times during this build.

The parts for the backpack

As you see above, it’s a pretty simple affair of putting the two halves together and snapping on the thrusters. You notice as well that there are only 3 plated gold parts, the thrusters and a part that sticks out a little in the rear. Completed the backpack looks like this.

Side

Back

Front

So that issue that I just mentioned? It’s that not all the visible gold parts are of the plated, or extra-finish type. With the backpack, obviously Bandai is assuming that you’ll be too busy with the Dragoons to notice, but even then, I find it to be lazy, considering how well they designed most of the rest of the kit.

Speaking of the Dragoons, I’ve left them for last, due to the other engineering foresight, brought up by Plamo Addiction. There are a variety of methods to counter the joint issue, but I’ll think about that at the end.

Anyways, sticking the backpack on the stand and you get something like the below. In regards to the stand, I’ll direct you to GaiGun’s WiP #0 on that.

Stand

So with the backpack out of the way, let’s move on to the torso. Going through this, it seems to be fairly standard torso fare, similar to the PG Strike or PG Astray. We have a “center” block style, and then the “left” and “right” torso sides. These then slide into the “center” block.

We start off with the cockpit

Completed cockpit with the “central” block pieces

Some sliding action for the cockpit there.

And the completed “central” torso. You see where the “side” torso pieces hook in.

The side torso pieces.

Left side completed.

And the torso, completed.

From there we stick on plated gold parts for the chest vents and neck area, but I’ll showcase that next part when I look at the waist area. So far, there’s been nothing spectacular with the build, but this is pretty basic stuff right now, and as always, there’s only so much you can do with the torso. Next up, I’ll be moving onto the waist or arms. In regards to the legs, rather than double post, I’m just going to direct you to GaiGun’s WiP #2, as he does a great job.

But, the one thing I’m seeing, and you’ll see in upcoming WiP’s, is the curse of the visible yellow frame will strike again.  Meaning, I’m going to have paint some of the frame to have some consistency.  Now what gold to use…