Oh My G-d, It's A Gundam... Aaaarrrgghhh!!

[Martijn Meerts]

Watched season 1 of Gundam 00 last weekend, and am halfway to season 2 now.. Lots of similarities with Gundam Seed / Seed Destiny, but as I really like Seed and Seed Destiny, I really rather like 00 as well ;)

Sorely tempted to start collecting Gundam kits now, although I'll need to stick to the 1:144 HG's for the main part.

Of course, I already have a 1:100 MG Wing Custom as well as 1:144 HG Abyss, Chaos, Gaia and Impulse (from Seed Destiny), so I guess I sorta already started collecting them ;)


Oh, really liked Turn A Gundam as well, although it took a while to get into the quite different style of mobile suits in it ..

[Shashinka]

00 is said to be a remake or retelling of Gundam Seed.  I hate Wing, but loved 00 (of which I have seen the entire series of) I think 00 reminded me a lot of Double Zeta with more likable characters.

Recently I inheritaned a lot of HG models from my buddy Brendan who only models MG. I plan to make a photographic Dojinshi from them.

[Martijn Meerts]

Haven't seen Wing yet, but I just love the model of the Wing Zero Custom with the full wings (http://www.hlj.com/product/BAN929454) rather than the more robotic wings.

The nice thing is that those HG models aren't all that expensive, but they still look really good. Obviously, I'd get the occasional MG and possibly a PG if they come out with one I really like. Although I have to say the Gundam MKII "Titans" from Zeta Gundam in PG is tempting, love the colours on it =)

[Shashinka]

Wing turned me off to Gundam for about 6 years. It took watching the original UC stuff before I could watch it again. I call Wing, Sailor Gundam. Seed is just a retelling of the 0080. I'll all about the Red Comet.

[Shashinka]

Haro started rocking while I was taking the picture. Bloody thing is like a Ferby and moves and lights up oat will.

[Martijn Meerts]

Just as annoying as the "real" haro's then =)

Haven't built my Gundams yet, except for a small superdeformed Strike Freedom =)

[Shashinka]

I think it's more annoying than the Haro in 00.

[Bernard]

Haro started rocking while I was taking the picture. Bloody thing is like a Ferby and moves and lights up oat will.

Ferbies have ears and mouths, Haro looks a lot like the little "Walmart" price slashing guy. (Or something out of the NBA)

[Shashinka]

Haro has ears that flaps, they just aren't deployed at the moment the picture was taken.

[Bernard]

Haro has ears that flaps, they just aren't deployed at the moment the picture was taken.

Okay then how does he walk or even sit down? (He doesn't have a lap)
Does he just roll along and go from basketball hoop to hoop?

[Shashinka]

mine rolls, hence why uit has the orange stand, but in the anime it bounces around like a basketball. Typically Haro would be in a zero-grav environment so it would float, using it's ears to steer or move like a propeller.

[Martijn Meerts]

Jeff has already touched on this subject, but while browsing the web a bit for pictures of PG Gundam kits, I came across a few sites of people who had either built Gundams which have lights included, or they modified some Gundams with LED's.

Obviously, it's cool to have your Gundam light up, especially when you use a couple of them on a module ;)

The question though... While it easy enough to modify any Gundam with LEDs in various places for static display, modifying them and still keeping them posable should add another challenge.

For the Gundam module I'm planning, I'll have 4 Gundams (from SEED Destiny) on the module. 2 battling eachother (Gaia and Impulse), while 2 others are watching from a (short) distance (Abyss and Chaos.) For transportation, you'd really rather want to be able to remove the Gundams from the module. That means they need some sort of contacts around their feet that plug into the module, have wires running up throughout the entire body and light up the bits that should light up.

Anyone ever come across modifications like that on the web, or will it be more of a trial and error type of thing? =)

Obviously, if only the lights are supposed to light up, you might just as well put a battery in the body and have a hidden switch to turn it on or off. But I'd prefer to be able to hook up the Gundam lighting to the computer controlled lighting system ;)

[Martijn Meerts]

Hmm.. Since my Gundam are already packed in boxes ready to be moved, and since I wanted to test a few things with regards to lighting and possible movement, I went ahead and ordered a couple more kits... 1/100 MG Gundam Exia Ignition mode (really like this one, since you can build the damaged version with a missing arm, cloak covering up the shoulder joint, and half the "face" missing etc. :)), 1/144 version of the RX-78-2 30th anniversary, and a Zaku II mass production type.. The Zaku II will be my test subject most likely ;)

I'm wondering if there's enough room to hide a tiny servo somewhere which would allow rotation of either the head, or the "eye" (or both)

[Shashinka]

I'm still waiting for Bandai's 1:! Messiah Grade series to come out.

[Martijn Meerts]

I hear they have some 1:35, but they're slightly expensive :)

[Shashinka]

Pft, Perfect Grades are for wusses and molemen.

[Martijn Meerts]

1:35 is hardly PG ;)

I believe they only have 2 or 3 models in 1:35, they're over a meter tall and cost around 2000 USD ;)

[Shashinka]

That's right PG's are 1:60, c'oh 

The 1:35 are the Jumbo Grade, but the 1":35 sell between 175-200 dollars. I haven't seen them in the 2000 price range. There's about 10 or 15 of them, all from the UC that I know of.

There might be a few resin kits out there that are 1:35, but have yet to see one for sale.

[Martijn Meerts]

Hmm.. the 2000 dollar ones might be even bigger than.. They're meant for displays at stores and exhibitions etc, and they're well over a meter tall.

[Shashinka]

The JG's are pre-assembled sadly, but are about 1m tall. There are some one-of-a-kind resin kits that are displayed at shows, but I don't think they can be bought over-the-counter from Bandai.

[Martijn Meerts]

Oooh.. Perfect Grade 00 Raiser gundam coming in November..

http://bandai-hobby.net/pg/00raiser/pg_00raiser.pdf

[Shashinka]

I wish they'd make a perfect grade, RB-79 "Shark" Ball.

[Martijn Meerts]

I pre-ordered the PG 00 Gundam.. It's expensive, sure, but it comes with so much cool stuff. Not only does it have LED's all over the place, the GN Drives actually have motors in them, so they spin while they light up =)

It's a shame it's not a PG version of the broken up Exia in the first episode of season 2, but on the other hand, I have the MG version of that one =)

My first PG, looking forward to it.

[Shashinka]

If, not for the economy and my situation, I'd buy a few MG stuff I've en wanting including a Union FLAG, but then again if I had money at the moment there's a bunch of TomyTec stuff I want. (Already had to sell the tams)

[Shashinka]

I pre-ordered the PG 00 Gundam.. It's expensive, sure, but it comes with so much cool stuff. Not only does it have LED's all over the place, the GN Drives actually have motors in them, so they spin while they light up =)

It's a shame it's not a PG version of the broken up Exia in the first episode of season 2, but on the other hand, I have the MG version of that one =)

My first PG, looking forward to it.

Martjin, did the PG of 00 ever come?

[Martijn Meerts]

I pre-ordered the PG 00 Gundam.. It's expensive, sure, but it comes with so much cool stuff. Not only does it have LED's all over the place, the GN Drives actually have motors in them, so they spin while they light up =)

It's a shame it's not a PG version of the broken up Exia in the first episode of season 2, but on the other hand, I have the MG version of that one =)

My first PG, looking forward to it.

Martjin, did the PG of 00 ever come?

Yeah, got it a long time ago. Still haven't started on it though ;) Took me a while to translate the color charts of the various Gundam models I have, and then it took a while to get all the paint ordered.

Right now I'm experimenting with my 1:144 Zaku II before starting on the 1:144 Force Impulse, Gaia, Abyss and Chaos (for the Gundam module), MG Exia, MG Wing and the PG 00. I plan on doing a complete re-paint of the Zaku II, including the subframe, as well as glue all the pieces together and then sand down all the unwanted seams etc. I'm also working on installing an LED in the head of the Zaku II, rather than use the crappy sticker that's included. That way the eye sensor can actually light up :) I managed to get a 3mm pink LED to fit without major modifications. Obviously I had to drill the 3mm hole, but other than that it was surprisingly straight forward. The idea is to route the wires through the body and 1 of the legs, and then try to install some sort of socket inside the foot.

I've also been tempted to order more PG's since it seems they're re-releasing some of the older ones, but I still have so many kits I should finish first, I can hardly justify buying even more kits ;)

[Shashinka]

I always liked the Zoku I have four at the moment, I'm not confident in my painting to take on a PG

[Martijn Meerts]

The Zaku's have a certain charm, and the 1:144 model is actually really nice. I'm also not confident enough with my painting to go for the PG, which is why I'm building a few smaller ones first, and just do some general testing. I've airbrushed/spray painted a couple of things before (like my 1:16 Tiger tank) but sometimes it works out well, and sometimes it doesn't. Of course, not having a well lit place to do the airbrushing doesn't help much ;)

I'm definitely going to paint all the gundams though, because out of the box they look too plastic for my taste :)

[linkey]

I have the following Gundam in my collection:

Gundan SEED/ Destiny/Astray
1/144
Oowashi Akatsuki
Gunner Zaku Warrior (Lunamaria Hawke)
Gouf Ignited (Heine Westenfluss)
Gouf Ignite (Yzak Jule)
Blaze Zaku Phantom (Dearka Elthman)
Strike Freedom
Infinite Justice
Destiny Gundam
Gundam Astray Blue Frame

Other Gundam
1/100

MS-06J ZakuII
RX-77-2 Guncannon
RX-79 (G) Gundam (MS 08 Team)
Gundam SEED Zaku with Blaze and Gunner wizard.

Other items
RX-79 (G) ground force war set.