What is Gunpla?

Gunpla is an extremely popular line of mecha model kits that are made by Bandai. The name of the line comes from a portmanteau of the words “Gundam” and “Plastic Model (Plamo)”, and Gunpla are poseable model kits that are based on the various mobile weapons of Mobile Suit Gundam franchise, mainly the Mobile Suits.

Gunpla is currently the most popular model kit line produced by Bandai, selling hundreds to thousands of these mecha model kits every year. As they are model kits, they are molded on plastic sprues or runners, usually made of PS plastic, but many other plastics like PE, ABS, PP, and even PVC can go into the construction of these kits. These figures require assembly from the buyer. These runners contain the numerous parts of the kit, and it is up to the buyer to cut these parts out, as well as put them together to make their finished Gunpla kits.

What makes them different from your standard model kits, are that most of these kits come molded in coloured plastic, and are even snap fit out of the box, meaning they use things like pegs to get parts to attach to each other. Due to this, no paint or glue is required to build these model kits, and all you really need for a good looking kit are a pair or nippers, an x-acto knife, or maybe your choice of sandpaper if you need it. These kits are even poseable and have working joints, accessories, and poseability from a simple straightbuild, which is an impressive feat on it's own. These kits are also designed in ways that are usually structurally solid, while Gunpla aren't as durable as an action figure, they can stand more wear than a standard glue together model kit. Despite them being sturdier than standard model kits, I do not recommend playing with them, at least not seriously. Minor messing around and posing is what i'd do at best, Gunpla are still model kits at the end of the day, and should be handled as such. Most Gunpla sometimes use stickers for finer details, as well as for decals if the kit includes them. People tend to frown on the sticker decals as they leave a visible outline, but Bandai also includes dry transfers for most of of their MG releases, and waterslides can be found in most P-Bandai and Ver. Ka kits, as well as from third party companies.

Bandai's levels of engineering with their model kits really shows in their numerous offerings. Gunpla has been going on for decades, and you can really see the evolution these kits have gone through. When Gunpla first began, these kits were also glue together model kits that needed paint, and had very simple construction, weak joints, jokingly lackluster poseability, horrible proportions, and bad seamlines. Nowadays, Gunpla excel in their detailed parts, many grades, well engineered joints, mechanisms, and gimmicks that allow for awesome articulation, gimmicks, and tones of posing options. If you compare the Gunpla of 1980 to the Gunpla of today, you can really see how far Bandai has honed their model kit designing skills. While the evolution of Gunpla does fluctuate, and some odd eggs do get released from time to time, bad kits nowadays are still better made kits than standard model kits, as well as older Gunpla releases.

Bandai's use of coloured runners, detailed parts, intuitive engineering, easy assembly, and perfect fitting to make a relatively simple build for anyone with the time to make these kits. It is these types of engineering feats with their model kit technology that makes Bandai well known as the very best company in terms of model kit engineering and designing, and while some companies like Kotobukiya do rival them, the level of quality Bandai make Gunpla at, make them the resounding top of model kit companies. There is a massive variety of Gunpla to choose from, with different levels of grades, build difficulty, engineering, and quality riddled all around. You can find more details on the many grades of Gunpla from this page. Some kits would be superior to others in certain ways, and the many different types of quality, age, and engineering do affect the kit's quality out of the box, however depending on the skills of the modeller, you could possibly work around these issues by modifying these kits. However customising is not always easy, and most of the time will take a bit of practice and skill to perfect.

Of course, these are model kits, and building the kits right from the box is not all you can do to them. These kits can be customised as far as the builder wants them to be. These kits are paintable, just be sure your paint doesn't react negatively with the types of plastic your kit is made of. Some builders prefer to do more simple things with their kits, like only panel lining and giving a quick topcoat, while advanced builders go to puttying, plaplating, and scratchbuilding parts for their kits to make them really something to look at. You can do many things with these kits, but sometimes you'll have to put in more effort than just a straightbuild to get the kits up to one's standards.

With all that said, the Gunpla line up is one of the most well known model kit lineups, and easily one of the most popular ones to most kit collectors. It's got a huge variety of mechs to make kits of, and the advances of engineering really does show in a number of these kits that Bandai has to offer. The prices are also really cheap compared to most other figures, and with Gunpla, there is a large amount of freedom you have with making your kit. You can go from a simple straightbuild to high end customisation, the amount of things you can do with Gunpla model kits far exceed what most figures offer, and even some model kits do too. In the end, Gunpla is one of the most versatile figure lines out there, and definitely some of the best model kits the market has to offer.

(Shoutouts toVice Admiral Izurumi, Spencer, and Shrimp Sickness on Discord for donated images of their kits. Thanks guys!)