Saturday, December 24, 2011

Bandai RX-78-2 Gundam Ver. 2.0

As expected, I haven't had the chance to update my blog lately, that's because we've been rushing to meet several deadlines at the office these past few weeks.  It sure is welcoming to have some time off from work during the Christmas break.  Hopefully the remaining days of the year will be quiet and relaxing.

I've recently decided to try my hand at assembling a Gundam kit.  Bandai, the company who makes these robot models, had churned out quite a number of kits depicting the different 'mecha' and vehicles appearing in the various Mobile Suit Gundam animated series.  I must admit I am not really a hardcore fan of the anime, although I did manage to watch an episode or two.  But as an avid modeling fan, I do admire the engineering of the model kits.  So for my first foray into unknown territory, I went to the local hobby store this afternoon and I decided to pick a Gundam which I have seen many times before... namely the RX-78-2 Gundam.

The RX-78-2 was the model of the Mobile Suit that was piloted by Amuro Ray. He's the lead character in the 1979 Japanese animated series Mobile Suit Gundam.  The success of the series has spawned multiple sequels, spin-offs and the metaseries have grown into a billion dollar franchise.

Since this Gundam is the most well recognized it has been produced in a lot of different scales and the kit have been improved and re-released multiple times over the years.  I bought a more recent version of the RX-78-2.  Bandai calls it a Master Grade Version 2.0.  

'Master Grade' kits are typically 1/100 scale in size however the level of detail and articulation are quite extensive.  I should say it is pretty decent for the price you pay, especially if you cannot afford the much more expensive 1/60 scale 'Perfect Grade' model kits. 

As for Version 2.0, that's because this one is supposed to be an improvement over older versions of the same RX-78-2 kits released earlier.

I guess that is it for now... Happy Holidays everyone.