About Gundams... and Huckebein Mk II

Presenting to you one of my favourite model kit - Kotobukiya's 1/100 Huckebein Mk II. Again I bought this model kit at a bargain price at M Workshop again, which is at Sunshine Plaza. This model kit cost almost the same as a normal 1/144 super robotwar model kit. I guess the owner decided to bring down the price as this model is quite old (manufactered in 2006) and no one really build super robot wars model kits nowadays. I began liking super robot wars due to the super rbot wars original generation 2nd season anime that has been running since last season. I immediately fell in love with the series. Finally, there is a robot series that is so good and is NOT GUNDAM! Gundam series nowadays are getting more and more weird. Double 00 was not bad, but I must say the movie is quite a disappointment. It seems that Gundam is merely produced for the sake of Gundam model kits sales (refer to my earlier post 'Wrong about Japan'). Well let me talk a little but about the Gundam 00 movie since now I am in a good mood to say more about it... The new double 00 gundam which I am not sure what is called, is supposed to be main robo mech in the movie as everyone whuld have expected, but in my view, it was crappy. It only appeared towards the end of the movie with minimum action. It was not as fanciful as as the double 00 gundam in the second season. The new Double 00 gundam in the movie was more like gundam exia, having adopted a more light-weighted design with only 1 GN drive. But still, I would have preferred Gundam exia to this new look-alike gundam. The new version of the green gundam is like, almost the same as the one in season 2 which managed to recall its name, cheridium gundam. The new orange gundam, is almost identical to the one in the previous 2 seasons. Overall, I like Tiera's new gundam (which I forget its name) in the new movie. It looks completely different with imba cannon. I must say Tiera's gundam takes on different looks and design for every season and the movie, coming with surprise gimmick and power. Tiera himself is a likeable computer character that can get rid of his body and live virtually in computer. This is certainly a one-of-a-kind concept which I think is quite cool! I must say I quite enjoy season 1 and 2 that have many tears-welling scene, but througout the movie, I was like, waiting for something to appear, or the climax to come. Well, the weird plot about some alien planet whose inhabitants are 'metal-like-substances that fly', is... i can only say weird. I guess conflict between humans invoke more emotions in us rather than when dealing with conscious 'metals-like-substances flying around to assimilate humans into them. One thing I must praise about the gundam 00 series is that nationality of the characters. Setsuna F seiei is a middle east national, a rare nationality that is seldom used for the main character in other animes. That is all about it.

Coming to this NICE Huckebein model kit. The one good thing that I have come to like and look ut for in model kit is the the original colour of the pieces. With all the irritating painting process, nowadays I would prefer fully coloured model kits that does not require much colouring. Other than hard-to-find model kits that I fancy but requires extensive colouring, nowadays I always think twice before buying such kits, notably from Bandai. In fact, it has been ages since I last bought a Gundam model kit. Gundams look almost the same..e. I feel as if I have bought a whole load of identical model kits. Today, the only gundam model kit that I bother displaying is the limited edition clear colour gundam exia that I bought at AFA2008. I was initially skeptical about kotobukiya's model kit. To start with, they are made in China. To make the matter worst, I watched many review on super robot wars model kit on youtube that keeps repeating how loose and flimsy kotobukiya's model kits are. I was initially burning to buy the alteisen progressive model kit but all the reviews give it a thumbs down. Some even say that you should not buy the alteisen version progressive unless you like to waste money. I was so turned off when I read these review the night before I was planning to buy the alteisen model kit. I immediately 'cancelled' my order for the Alteisen model kit in my mind. It was only much considertion that I bought my first super robot kit, R-Gun at Hobby point at suntec city. Unfortunately, one piece went missing. From the runner, it seems I have pull that missing part off but I have no impression of haing done so. I fell into dark abyss. There was no way I can go back to the shop and ask for exchange or refund since I was already half done for the model kit. Moreover, all the runners were kept in sealed plastic, although there is a possibility of the the plastic been resealed. Moreover, the box was not in top condition when I bought the model kit. Part of the box has the coloured part torn off... To think that I have also checked through thoroughly to ensure all the runners were present immediately after I bought it at suntec city. I could only blame myself for bad luck. Luckily, the missing part is the not important in the overall construction of the R-Gun. However, it does make it imperfect. In the end, I managed to mitigate with my own ingenius idea.

Haviing bought a imperfect super robot war kotobukiya model kit, I was feeling down. Well, the R-Gun would have been perfect if not for the missing piece. Also, the model was not as loose and flimsy as described although the reviews were not specifically for R-Gun. I gathered that the loose and flimsy part may not be applicable for all kotobukiya's model kit. So, I decided to buy another super robot model kit, which is this Huckebein! One very good feature of this model kit is the fully coloured pilot called Bullet. Kotobukiya which is well known for its PVC figurines utilises their knack for coloured figures in this 1/100 model kit. I must say this coloured figire was the deciding factor for me to buy this Huckebein model kit instead of the Alteisen Version progressive, which I have not lost hope of. The completed Huckebein is huge, bigger than Bandai's 1/100 gundam. However, compared to R-gun, this Hickebein is relatively more unstable given its bigger size. Without Bandai's master grade inner skeleton design, 1/100 model kit are bound to be unstable and flimsy. But this Huckebein is much more stable than Bandai's HG 1/100 gundam which I possess. As many review points out, Kotobukiya's model kits often have sharp edges that can draw blood if you are not careful. But I do not see this as something bad. Things that are originally sharp are meant to be sharp even when it is a model kit, don't you agree? With the pieces moulded in many colours, I hardly paint the complete model. The whole of the Huckebein's main body is unpainted. The only painted regions are the some of the white areas on the very big gun which you see the Huckebein holding below:

Well, I don't understand why these parts could not be moulded in whote too given that all the other minute pieces are already being moulded into different colours. Also, the beam sword which you can see in the following photos are moulded on hard transparent pink plastic, unlike Bandai's brittle beam sword that always break at the connection points. The backpack that looks very cool and which houses most of the extreme sharp edges, giving it a realistic look. The backpack is basically a flying kit or engine. However, it adds weight to the back of the Huckebein, making it instable. Therefore, I decided not to attach the backpack when I display it in my room. The hands of the Huckebein is just like Bandai's master grade model kits with individual fingers being able to move. This Huckebein comes with loads of weapon, 2 beam sword, 1 big canon and 1 big gun. I highly recommend it to super robot fans as this Huckebein is actually the prototype of the extra-over-technology robots in the series. With the cost close to a master grade, I would say forget about latter and try out this kotobukiya's 1/100 model with attached coluoured figurine, if you still have not try out a kotobukiya's kit. However, you are most unlikely to find it in the country I am living in now.

Talking about Huckebein, I have the urge and mood to bring our intention to Gundam again. Due to the Huckebein being originally designed by some Japanese designer who mostly design gundams, it seems that the Huckebein series have been running into copyrights issue in the anime series. I can only say wake up your ideas, animes and robots are meant for everyone to enjoy and admire, not to issue copyrights. The Huckebein was re-designed in Super robot Originl Generation season 2 anime and appears as the new Exbein. It looks sort of cool, as if wearing shades and the colour was changed to a lighter blue.


Exbein figure, I can't seems to find any Exbein picture...


I got the Kuromi plush toy from UFO catcher at a Suntec city after 2 trys at the machine - 2 dollars ;P

PS -I always take repeated picture just in case, dun feel bored if you have been looking at similar photos. Enjoy!

Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa

It has been a few months since I last update this blog. Today, I bring everyone my 4th newest model kit since my last entry - Nausicaa. I bought this model kit by Bandai from M Workshop at Sunshine plaza for 20 plus dollars. The whole kit comes in 3 colours, white, gray and beige. The whole of the complete model was painted by me, including the skin colour. The darker shade of blue comes from Mr Hobby Sky Blue. whereas the lighter shade was formed by mixing white with sky blue. Oh, I almost forgot that I did not fully paint the little fox riding on Nausicaa's left shoulder. I only use dark brown to paint the stripes on mow's body. Decals were provided for the eyes and eyebrows of Nausicaa, a very important feature missing in many robots or cars model kits that come with single-coloured(usually beige) pilots or character moulds. One good thing about Bandai model kit is that the kit is usually snap-fit, without the compusory use of cement to glue the parts together. For this model kit though I did use cement to glue the pieces together since they were not exactly tight. For instance, the arms of Nausicaa were separated from her body piece and since the hands play an important role of holding Nausicaa to the plane, I use cement as a precaution. As expected, the face of Nausicaa does not really look like the real character but at least the face features look decent and from afar, the whole model with Nausicaa with her trade-mark plane and clothes colour allows us to immediately recognise it as Nausicaa. The stand comes with the name of the Ghibli movie in which Nausicaa is featured in. Overall, the model together with the stand looks like a genuine Ghibli product, although it is painted by me. Colouring with paint is gradually becoming sort of irritating. When using a new bottle of Mr Hobby paint, the painting process is smooth, only in the beginning. As time passes and after using almost 3 quarter of a bottle, the thinner or solvent in the paint begins to evaporate, making the paint turns viscous. This greatly affects the painting process and quality. Being myself, I always have the habbit of point out the slightest error or small unpainted area on the model and trys to mitigate the situation - meaning that I use the paint blush to repaint certain areas which causes uneveness, and I will then try to repain the whole area to remove the uneveness, which causes even more problem as the paint becomes thicker and thicker and causes areas to 'sink in' or become smeared with my fingerprint on them when I accidentally touched them. In the end I will usually scrap off all paint and repaint it. Well, Nausicaa's face is a victim of this but fortuantely the re-painting process works well. I also have to use lots of transparent spray paint which plays an important role in evaporating off the excess paint to some extent and prevent dust from sticking to the model surface in the future.

I would give this model kit a 9/10. As expected of Bandai model kit, everything is nicely done and every pieces fit. However, since this model kit is more like a character resin kit which I have to paint using many colours, the rating itself does not say much about the model kit design. I believe in the future, perhaps when Ghibli 100th anniversary arrives, this model will become a classis and a higly valued piece of ghibli artwork. Perhaps it will become a one-of-a-kind ghibli model that only I possess.