Kusakusa Gunpla

48th All Japan Model & Hobby Show

October 21, 2008 at 4:59 pm | Posted in Events | 3 Comments
Tags: armored core, code geass, Geara Doga, gn-x, Gundam 00, gundam exia, gundam raziel, infinite justice, macross, macross frontier, MG Sinanju, shin matsunaga, srw, super robot wars, tokyo hobby show, UC hardgraph, Unicorn gundam, Zoids

So this was the 2nd hobby show I went to, after the one in Shizuoka. This time I had to venture further, coz it was held at the Makuhari Messe which is about 45min train ride from Tokyo station. And unlike the one in Shizuoka, this one had a 1000 yen entrance fee, which I duly paid. As I made my way inside, I noticed that all booths were in one single hall:

My first excursion was to the Bandai booth, where the main attraction is much awaited MG Sinanju:

My first impression was WOW… Aesthetically pleasing, bad-ass looking, this MG should be on everyone’s Christmas list. But the lack of dynamic poses makes me worry that it might share the same fate as MG Unicorn : looks good on the outside but with severely limited joint movements, i.e. just good for a standing pose. Compared to the weapons for the Unicorn, Sinanju’s weapons looks limited to a rifle and some beam ax/sabres, which was disappointing.

The rifle has some sort of gimmick though, if you can see the bottom left of this pic:

The gold engraved patterns on the chest, wrists and knee areas look set to be molded in black and supplied with gold stickers. This might prove tricky for those Out-Of-Box (OOB) builders, but painting it might prove less of a hassle (I hope).

And finally here’s a pic of the box art, with the standard Ver. Ka white background. The dude in the background? That’s just Amuro Ray, he works for Bandai now :p

Moving on to the next MG lineup, is another Zaku variant, Shin Matsunaga’s Zaku II. As much as I love Zakus, I think I’ll pass on this one. The boxart looks cool, though.

The next MG on show was the Infinite Justice. No comment on this one, since I’m not a huge fan of Seed

For the HGUC lineup, the only kit on display was the Geara Doga. Considering how much I love grunt units, especially green ones, I’m quite tempted to get this one, even though I’ve already bought the HCM Pro version. It definitely needs a paintjob though, if you compare the OOB version below:

with the painted ones here:

For the UC Hardgraph fans, the next release seems to be this tank. Sorry I don’t know the full name

And here’s a pic of the next (presumably) Gundam Fix Figuration release, Zeta Plus

Next was the Gundam 00 section. Here’s the Gundam Raziel which will come as a free gift in the coming issues of Dengeki Hobby magazine.

Here’s what it should look like fully painted:

Other than the previous lineup of 00 models such as this:

there were some soon to be released kits like the 1/100 Gundam 00, complete with LED(?) gimmicks for the shoulder things.

And there’s the 1/144 GN-XIII, which looks nicer than its predecessor, except for the lance. It reminds me too much of Code Geass’s Knightmares. I prefer the rifles of the original GN-X.

And then there’s this abomination: Ahead. Looks like something out of Gurren Lagan, if you ask me.

And that’s it for the Gundam related section. There were some stuff on sale, like this Gundam beam sabre. It just makes sound effects as you swing it around. I just don’t get the point of buying one of these

They were also selling a limited alternate color version of the 1/100 Exia, called the Roll-Out version. Its just grey in color, just like the Phase-Shift off version in Seed

There were the familiar booths in the show, like Kotobukiya, Hasegawa, Tamiya etc… as well as a section dedicated to remote control stuffs. I learned my lesson since the last hobby show, and came ready with a fully-charged camera battery this time. So here’s some pics that I thought were interesting:

This was the Evangelion spark plug, or whatever plug you call it. Its actually quite huge, almost the size of a baseball bat.

And there’s this cute little fella. Can’t remember the name, forgive my ignorance

Some Zoids stuff,

Armored core stuff,

Plenty of Super Robot Wars stuff,

Patlabor,

A lot of Macross stuff, particularly from macross frontier,

And some very nice macross art:

Also some models from Code Geass

plus some Geass eye candy :)

Some Linebarrel mechas and figures. Haven’t seen the show so I don’t know what to comment

And now some random figures. WARNING: Some images might not be worksafe

Tired of these anime figurines? Here, have some real girls instead :)

And that concludes my report. I was quite disappointed there weren’t many ‘new’ stuff, since most exhibits were similar to the one in Shizuoka. But this time there weren’t any booths for local gunpla hobbyists to show off their work. Instead there was a museum-like exhibit on the history of scale-modelling in Japan.

I didn’t manage to buy any model kits, just bought some Hasegawa aircraft decals (again), Yellow-Submarine joints, epoxy putty (they were selling it cheap) and got some free postcards.

Considering the entrance fee and the taxing journey I had to make, I really have to think twice before going to the next Hobby show in Tokyo. In conclusion, it was a good experience, just. Anyway, enjoy the pics and wipe the drool off your monitor :)