The time has come...

I started this guy a long time ago. About 9 months. Early-Mid December 2010 is when I first got him and first did the unboxing ceremony with all my PG's present, saluting what would be their new leader. The most advanced, newest and most majestic Perfect Grade amongst them... The one called "Strike Freedom". That time in my life and now seem like polar opposites. So much can change in less than a year! Complete life upheaval in my case. And these poor guys were taken along for the ride. Caught in the great Tohoku earthquake, beaten and battered by tsunami waves, never mind the regular rigors of international transport across half the planet...

But they survived.  WE survived.  The family is all together again.  So as it began... so shall it end! Honour Guard!!! Salute!!!

Mark II.  My first PG ever.  Bought him in my first year in Japan so he's a Chiba/Tokyo kid through and through.  This guy has had the **** kicked out of him over the years but he's still standing and still looking good!  I've always been so proud of him.

Zeta. Hand was lost to the Great Tohoku Earthquake of this year. But he made it home basically in one piece but a bit broken.  Had to do some repair work to get him to this stage.  Bought him during my 2nd stage in Japan and finished him in my 3rd.  Started in Kasugai, Saitama - finished in Matsusaka, Mie.

Red was in the most amount of pieces but he's almost completely intact minus some minor breakage in the ankle area.  Bought in the place that would become my 2nd home in Japan, Nagoya - Aichi at Bic Camera during the "heyday" of my time in Gunpla.  4th stage of my life in Japan.

Strike.  Almost as good as the day I first bought him.  He's been waiting a long time for "Big Bro" to arrive.  Bought in Matsusaka, Mie and finished there.  He's the country boy or 田舎物 (inakamono) of the group.  He would get an upgrade later when his twin brother Red stepped into the picture.

The Throne.  Made for he that I would acquire during my 5th and final life in Japan or my 2nd life in Nagoya.  Completed during the transitional phase back into Canadian life.

Indeed... The Gauntlet has finally come to it's conclusion...  Time truly does wait for no man.  All of these mechs mirror parts of my lives.  I can see my whole time in Japan by looking at each of them.  8 years worth of experience and memories.  It's not just about building robots for me...  It's about the memories associated with them... so I just want to take this time right now to thank all the participants of this group build for helping me forge new memories in my new/old home.

One day left!  ONWARD!!!

Extreme Gundam Mash Up

+ some others courtesy of Hobby no Toriko!  LOVE this guy!

Feeling ALL of this stuff! SO creative! Can't get enough!!!

Zeta Gundam Movies

I just watched the first one last night and I have to say... Wow!  I actually tried to watch it years ago before I knew anything about Zeta or even 0079 for that matter and I just ended up falling asleep.  Probably because I watched it at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon while waiting for my gf at the time to get off work.  Wasn't really into it.  But I watched it again last night (at a friends request) and I was totally blown away!  It's SO good!  Of course they skipped a lot but they kept the best/most important parts in there I think.  It was 2h of solid entertainment!  At least I think it was 2h.  I can say this now after having watched both Mobile Suit Gundam and Zeta Gundam in their entirety.  

Whereas I could only watch the Original Gundam movie trilogy in sections (about 30 minutes at a time.  It was kind of repetitive and the old style animation didn't really do much for my modern sensibilities)  the first Zeta movie was an action packed 2h and totally worth it.  It blends new style 2005 animation techniques with the original Zeta animation from 1985.  Very impressive and highly recommended if you're a UC fan.  Then again... If you're a UC fan you're probably saying "Damn this guy is just watching this NOW?!".  Yeah...  I know.  Check out this clip!  So good!  I love seeing old style UC done with modern techniques!  They should have done this for the original series for the 30th anniversary of Gundam!  Maybe they'll do it in 20 years for the 50th?!

I gotta say... after watching the MS Gundam compilation movies and now the first Zeta Gundam movie... The whole series becomes much easier to understand (despite a couple of differences). I told my friend that it's good that she's seeing it like this. It's better than the original imo. Especially for beginners.

Did you watch the compilation movies of 0079 and/or Zeta?  If so how did you think they compared with the series if you watched those too?

Welcome back!

Decided that I'll try to write a couple of short posts more often just so that there's less of a gap in between posts (I wrote this day's ago but then Blogger was giving me trouble my picutres and I haven't had the time to sit down and figure it out until now. Took a lot of time. Who would've thought that blogging would be so time consuming!).

Gundam really has become almost of a daily thing for me. I guess I should have made this a Gundam board more than a 'Plamo' one. Oh well. No going back now.

Today (well, then. Which was the 8th) I decided to haul out my Perfect Grades. I missed them too much. I'm glad they're out now. I cleared out some place to display them. While I was assembling them again I realized that I look at them with different eyes now. I see a lot more of the details in them now. I see broken things that I know how to fix now. Fix more effectively I should say. I know how to order parts from Bandai now. I've already done it.

Doing one of these guys over the way I'd like to would take A LOT of time though. But what the hell. I have it. It's not like I have a deadline. If it takes 10 years that's OK. I mean I've already had the Mark 2 for 5. The thought kind of filled me with hope. Like... I don't have to rush. I can just do it. Take me time and do it right. Enjoy the process you know. The time you put in reflects the outcome. The PG's will have to wait until I can more experience though. I want to airbrush them I think. I mean I really want to do a totally overhaul on them with an insane paintscheme. Something that people will look at later and think, "wtf did that guy do?! That must have taken forever!" haha.

The other day I put up this pic as my wallpaper and I got to miss them so much.

This is what they look like now.

Welcome back guys! It's about time you saw the new apartment!

Jumbo Zeta, Teruhisa Tajima, Uniqlo, Gundam T-Shirts and... a Gundam BAR?!

I want to tell a story. In order to do it properly I have to actually start a couple of weeks ago with Jumbo Grade Zeta and the works of a man named Teruhisa Tajima. Weeks ago when I'd first gotten the May Dengeki Hobby I saw a very cool picture of Jumbo Zeta holding a steel rod next to some electrical pylons. It's was called "Primitive Weapon" and I was quite impressed with the double entendre. I liked the photo more because of the title.

Teruhisa is a photographer who photoshops images of model Gundams into his photos.

I saw that some of his work was going to be made into T-Shirts for a fashion company here called "Uniqlo" which I suppose is the Japanese equivalent of American clothing shop "Old Navy". I really liked the Guncannon "Smoke gets in my eyes." shirt but it only comes in pink and... I don't wear pink shirts.

I saw that the shirts were going to start to be released sometime in late April. So one day I just happened to be out for lunch with my co-workers and as we were walking back to the office we passed by Uniqlo and everyone wanted to go in and check it out. Sure enough there were a lot of Gundam themed T-Shirts there. Take a look!

I wanted to get the light blue one with the two Goufs but they were sold out of that so I went for the good old RX-78-2.

I wore it underneath a polo shirt I was wearing when I went out later on that week. That night I end up going to Gundam themed bar. A lot of people were surprised and I think maybe even impressed when I pulled up my polo shirt to reveal the helmet of the RX-78. But I'm a bit of a maniac I think. I even have a picture of the MG OYW I built as my cell phone wall paper. That also provoked similar cries of astoshiment from the people present when they saw it. Not to mention I knew the names, pilots and model numbers of almost all the models there. But more on the Gundam Bar later.

1/35 Jumbo Grade Zeta Gundam

This thing is... massive. I've never seen anything like it. The box itself is around 1m tall (around 3 feet or so). I thought the PG Zeta was big but it's only 1/60 scale. This is almost DOUBLE that... AND it transforms as well. When I first heard about this I thought that it was a kit but obviously it's not and comes pre-made. I actually took this pic a while ago but it was kinda low on the priority list (along with HG RX-93). Quite a piece of work but a little bit... unwieldy for me. Would love to see it out of the box though.