What is Gunpla?

Let’s start right at the beginning!

Not sure what all this Gundam talk is all about?  Worry not!  Our first blog post is dedicated to you.  We’re going to talk about what Gundam is, what the difference between Gundam and Gunpla is, and we’ll hopefully leave you far better informed.  Let’s start!

What is Gundam?

[caption id="attachment_22" align="alignleft" width="250"] Mobile Suit Gundam (1979)[/caption] To put it briefly, Gundam is the name of a Japanese animated series that features huge robots used for combat.  But Gundam is a lot more than just that.  It all started in 1979 with the first animation called Mobile Suit Gundam.  Although Japanese audiences were accustomed to robot anime series, this one was clearly different from anything else they had seen.  There was a noticeable attention to detail that made the robots, or Mobile Suits as they’re known in the series, seem very real.  The details often included things like specific dimensions of each suit, its weight, weapon caliber size, material used in construction, manufacturer, and a specific model number in addition to is commonly used name.  All this coupled with storylines highlighting the strife of war and conflict propelled Mobile Suit Gundam to become Japan’s first adult focused robot animation. [caption id="attachment_24" align="alignright" width="225"] Yoshiyuki Tomino[/caption] The success of the 43 episodes of Mobile Suit Gundam (MSG) made its author, Yoshiyuki Tomino, a legend among Gundam fans and that lead to him penning many different series.  It’s impressive to note that Tomino’s work lead to the development of a very long elaborate fictional timeline that involves 9 separate eras/centuries, each of which encompasses multiple Gundam series.  The most encompassing of these is called Universal Century which ties in around 15 different series.  The mind boggles!

Cool!  But what is this “Gunpla” talk?

[caption id="attachment_23" align="alignleft" width="250"] 2015 is the 35th anniversary of Gunpla![/caption] Glad you asked… The success of the Gundam franchise saw it expanding from animation into other areas such as manga, video games, and toys.  Another area that Gundam expanded into was plastic model kits.  Gunpla is one of those abbreviation of an abbreviation kinda things. So GunPLA stands for Gundam Plamo, and Plamo stands for Plastic Modelling so Gunpla is basically Gundam Plastic Modelling. Lead by iconic Japanese toy manufacturer Bandai, plastic model kits of fan favorites were made and started to appear on the shelves a year following the launch of the MSG anime.  Bandai has come a very long way since then and has vastly improved their design and manufacturing processes.  This wasn’t always the case, but today’s Gunpla kits require no paint or glue for assembly and once you’re done with your kit, you end up with a beautiful model that is fully poseable and often comes with many cool gimmicks and extra weapons. [caption id="attachment_27" align="alignright" width="300"] MADE IN JAPAN![/caption] Our website stocks hundreds of these kits, so please feel free to browse and see if something catches your interest and we’d be happy to deliver it to you.  ^_^ We hope our first blog post was informative and entertaining.  Our plan for the blog is to post weekly updates and to cover areas such as kit reviews, news, tutorials, and general information.  What specific topics would you like us to cover in future blog posts?  Please share your thoughts below.