Which Gundam Wing? Banshee Ver. Ka is a transforming kit with lots of parts, and they can be finicky. Providence and Justice should be similar to each other, very modern and fun while not being too difficult; just be gentle with the pelvis joints.
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Plastic Scale Modelling |OT| Gunpla and Everything Else
- Thread starter erd
- Start date
I don't like the MG Wing kits, personally. Building process just felt... off to me. The size being noticeably smaller than most MGs wasn't exactly a plus either.
Ended up buying this stupid ass monster because it's 40% off on the HLJ summer sale
I frankly have no idea where I'm gonna put that thing but I'll figure something out. I'm a sucker for incredibly stupid mecha and it doesn't get much dumber than the Deep Striker. Will be shipping him next month with Transformers MP Dinobot.
That kit's very solid. Just use standard modeling care and you shouldn't have any real issues. The Wing Endless Waltz frames are a really nice base they had to work off of.
I frankly have no idea where I'm gonna put that thing but I'll figure something out. I'm a sucker for incredibly stupid mecha and it doesn't get much dumber than the Deep Striker. Will be shipping him next month with Transformers MP Dinobot.
That kit's very solid. Just use standard modeling care and you shouldn't have any real issues. The Wing Endless Waltz frames are a really nice base they had to work off of.
Well I mentioned 2 other options as well, but this is the cheapest. It's just I have several days to kill so I thought it might be worth forking it over for a bigger challenge than hg since I have the time and the spare change. Plus it'd be a nice pace breaker before the hg Gyan and Zeong when I do get home. So thought I'd consider dabbling in mg, otherwise I'll grab whatever hg appeals to me
Mind you my big aim for this year is to save up and grab the mg g fighter and rx78 ver2(or whatever one it is that can do the linkups with it), but that's for winter.
I'd say you're fine with the either the wing or justice. Both are really good kits. I would avoid the MG Banshee as I frankly thing the MG version of the unicorn mold is poo. Either save up and get the PG or go with the RG if you want a transforming unicorn. The MG is very much a first draft. As for which of the other two, the justice is more modern and has some clever new engineering tricks, but the Wing will be a smaller and slightly easier build. Neither should trip you up too badly as a MG novice.
Generally speaking...
- Inner frame
- Better articulation
- Better proportions
- Armor separation gimmicks
- Better clear parts
- Better color separation
- Less or no stickers
- BIGGER IS ALWAYS BETTER (that's why PG is the best, but it's expensive as fuck, so MG is the second best)
The only thing HG has going for it is stability.
I'm actually a big fan of the 1/100 line.
I'm not a big fan of Gundam, so anime accuracy and inner frames do nothing for me, but I do like the size and detail of the MG line. The 1/100 kits strike a really nice balance for me
I'm not a big fan of Gundam, so anime accuracy and inner frames do nothing for me, but I do like the size and detail of the MG line. The 1/100 kits strike a really nice balance for me
RGs are my favorite line going right now honestly. I think they're closer to 1/144 PGs than MGs. Yeah they are fiddly but the engineering complexity is amazing and they're reasonably affordable. I love the MG line but it's really stagnated with the majority of the scale getting pushed to P-Bandai. The big event MGs they do every year are still incredible of course.
Case in point: the RG Unicorn was released last year while the HG Leo was released a month or two ago, and yet the MG Exia, released 9 years ago still looks a lot better
I'd post my crown jewel, the MG Freedom 2.0, but I gave it to my gf
How is the MG Gouf? I love the design, but since it's an older kit, I'm not sure how well it holds up
You are setting yourself up for disappointment. That illustration, while somewhat similar to Barbatos, doesn't look like any of the variants that showed in the anime. Whenever there's an IBO MG you can bet it will be a regular Barbatos.
The Ver.2.0 is from 2009 so I wouldn't call it old. I'm sure it is fine. Flow has built it so he can give you an opinion. Just don't get the 1.0 and you'll be OK.
BTW, old is relative. There is more difference in engineering between a 1999 kit and a 2008 one than there is between a 2009 kit and a 2018 one. I suspect it's mostly due to advancements in CAD and other rapid prototyping tools Bandai might have been using during the beginning of the 2000s. I was expecting 3D printing to become a new paradigm shift in model quality but so far this has not become that obvious unless that is responsible for kits like IBO 1/100 being as cheap as they are even though they have an inner frame (or even some of the IBO HG for that matter).
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This is might be a long shot, but does anyone in this thread live in or near Chicago, and if so, can you recommend a place I can purchase Tamiya spray paints? You can't buy spray paint within the city proper due to a stupid city ordinance, so it makes finding it kind of a chore. I've been ordering online, but it's kind of annoying to have to deal with shipping and waiting for something as basic as paint to arrive.
I don't know if Oak Lawn is close enough for you but M & M Models should have what you are looking for:
https://www.mmodelstore.com/
I'd probably give them a call before going just to make sure but I think so.
When I was in Japan last month I picked up this kit. It's been one of my most sought-after kits.
The original Alteisen.
The original Alteisen.
Congrats. Should have asked you to look for a huckebein Boxer ;-;
Anyone going to try and get their hands on the Voltron Super Mini-Pla at SDCC?
http://www.comicsbeat.com/sdcc-18-s...pla-bandi-shokugan-show-exclusive-annnounced/
http://www.comicsbeat.com/sdcc-18-s...pla-bandi-shokugan-show-exclusive-annnounced/
Thanks. It's annoying how difficult the SRW kits are to find online, especially for a reasonable price.
So, let me go on a VERY LONG rant I've been postponing to write since Monday.
Feel free to skip to the TLDR if you despise rants but I need to vent a little bit.
This all starts on December 2017 when, for unknown reasons, Air France decides to stop offering SAL as a shipping option from Japan to France, the Netherlands and Spain. SAL Small Packet is very convenient for being quite cheap if you do not care very much how long it will take to arrive and it is ideal for ordering a couple of HGs, an RG or a cheap MG.
What this means is that, currently, the only shipping option to these countries is EMS. EMS is fast but expensive. It often means you might be paying more for shipping than the kit itself which I think is actually a bit unfair to online stores because it means they aren't even getting most of the money you are paying them, reducing margins even further.
Typically, you can expect SAL to take from 2 to 4 weeks to arrive 3 being the usual. EMS, on the other hand, is as fast as 4 to 6 working days.
But hey, you get what you pay for, isn't it? Cheap and slow or expensive and fast. Maybe not.
Being that I'm forced to use EMS if I want to buy gunpla, at the end of April I decided to make a big order to take advantage of the fact I don't have to limit myself to small packages.
The way imports are setup in Spain is the following:
From this follows that somewhere below €22 is the sweet spot for importing small kits, with €23 being a horrible case where you would be paying €4.83 in VAT plus a €19 fee totalling €23.83 import taxes (higher than the product value itself).
If you decide to go bigger, €150 is the new sweet spot meaning you don't have to deal with the ordinary process but the simplified one (the difference in the fees is negligible).
This is made more difficult because Japanese companies obviously include invoices in Yen and fluctuations in exchange rates do occur.
Going back to my April order, I tried to adjust to somewhere below €150 but I failed to leave enough breathing room to account for the decrease in Yen per Euro that was going to happen the following days.
The order was placed on the 30th of April. Those living in Japan will already be thinking "Why would you be ordering during Golden Week, you silly". However, it shipped from the online store the 2nd of May and it proceeded to depart from Tokyo on the 5th (a Saturday) arriving in Madrid the 8th.
That, I guess, was my unlucky day because the Euro exchange rate had fallen enough for my parcel to be now worth €151.
Spain is pain. Spain is pain. Spain is pain.
Here begins a journey of your typical bafflingly bad experience of having to deal with the Spanish administration.
First, you receive a snailmail "urgent" letter with instructions on how to inform customs of the value of the parcel (the parcel includes an invoice in a transparent plastic bag stuck on the outside but they don't seem to care), asking for a scanned ID card as well as a proof of payment to the online store. Even though the docs I receive state they are from the 10th, the snailmail letter arrives the 15th and I have until the 25th to respond with the required documentation. Fortunately, there's a website to send your scanned docs and I send them the very same day I receive the letter.
It takes until the 17th for them to acknowledge reception of the docs but that's not too bad. Then radio silence until the 23rd when I receive a warning letter that the products are suspect of breaching intellectual property laws. I'm like WTF, these are original Bandai gunpla kits from Japan, not some Gundoom shit from China. To add insult to injury, the warning says that if in 10 working days they decide the merchandise breaks IP laws (something it seems they are not even required by law to verify with the IP holder, Bandai in this case) they have the right to destroy the parcel contents unless I formally oppose it in the same 10 days (or so I understand). Only there are no instructions on how to oppose it.
I try to contact them to ensure my opposition to €150 of gunpla being destroyed for fuck all reasons is noted but they aren't very helpful at all. They tell me that once a decision is reached, if unfavourable to me, I will be able to have my say (something that seems at odds with what the warning documentation says).
More than the 10 days pass with no news on whether a decision has been made. It isn't until the 12th of June (about 18 working days) that I receive a proposal of payment for the taxes due. Taxes in this case include the shipping costs and the law cited by the docs received is explicit in that shipping must be included. I don't understand the rationale of paying VAT on an EMS shipping cost but there's no escaping it. I must send them a document renouncing any further allegations and a proof of payment of the taxes to their bank account. I am given 3 working days to do this. I do it the following day, the 13th.
On the 14th the payment is acknowledged by customs but it won't leave there until the 21st.
On the 22nd it gets to the postal services in Madrid and the parcel gets to my home in Catalonia on the 25th (notice that postal services are not that bad).
To summarize: it took 3 days for my parcel to travel half the world but it took 6 weeks for Spanish customs to do their goddamn work. Therefore the higher cost of EMS was totally useless in this case.
So I may be called a weaboo for thinking Japanese services are run well while Spanish ones are run like shit but getting the package out in 5 days even though it was a country wide holiday that lasts about a week and then having to wait 6 weeks for the Spanish administration to drag their feet to do their thing paints a very eloquent picture.
Lesson learned: next time, I have to order for an amount of Yen that isn't as close to €150 as I did.
TLDR;
My gunpla order took almost two months to arrive because Spanish customs are inept and I'm pissed-off.
Feel free to skip to the TLDR if you despise rants but I need to vent a little bit.
This all starts on December 2017 when, for unknown reasons, Air France decides to stop offering SAL as a shipping option from Japan to France, the Netherlands and Spain. SAL Small Packet is very convenient for being quite cheap if you do not care very much how long it will take to arrive and it is ideal for ordering a couple of HGs, an RG or a cheap MG.
What this means is that, currently, the only shipping option to these countries is EMS. EMS is fast but expensive. It often means you might be paying more for shipping than the kit itself which I think is actually a bit unfair to online stores because it means they aren't even getting most of the money you are paying them, reducing margins even further.
Typically, you can expect SAL to take from 2 to 4 weeks to arrive 3 being the usual. EMS, on the other hand, is as fast as 4 to 6 working days.
But hey, you get what you pay for, isn't it? Cheap and slow or expensive and fast. Maybe not.
Being that I'm forced to use EMS if I want to buy gunpla, at the end of April I decided to make a big order to take advantage of the fact I don't have to limit myself to small packages.
The way imports are setup in Spain is the following:
- No VAT for any parcel with value lower than €22
- VAT of 21% for any parcel with value between €22 and €150 plus a fee of €19 for the simplified VAT paying process
- VAT of 21% for any parcel with value higher than €150 plus a fee of €25 for the ordinary VAT paying process
From this follows that somewhere below €22 is the sweet spot for importing small kits, with €23 being a horrible case where you would be paying €4.83 in VAT plus a €19 fee totalling €23.83 import taxes (higher than the product value itself).
If you decide to go bigger, €150 is the new sweet spot meaning you don't have to deal with the ordinary process but the simplified one (the difference in the fees is negligible).
This is made more difficult because Japanese companies obviously include invoices in Yen and fluctuations in exchange rates do occur.
Going back to my April order, I tried to adjust to somewhere below €150 but I failed to leave enough breathing room to account for the decrease in Yen per Euro that was going to happen the following days.
The order was placed on the 30th of April. Those living in Japan will already be thinking "Why would you be ordering during Golden Week, you silly". However, it shipped from the online store the 2nd of May and it proceeded to depart from Tokyo on the 5th (a Saturday) arriving in Madrid the 8th.
That, I guess, was my unlucky day because the Euro exchange rate had fallen enough for my parcel to be now worth €151.
Spain is pain. Spain is pain. Spain is pain.
Here begins a journey of your typical bafflingly bad experience of having to deal with the Spanish administration.
First, you receive a snailmail "urgent" letter with instructions on how to inform customs of the value of the parcel (the parcel includes an invoice in a transparent plastic bag stuck on the outside but they don't seem to care), asking for a scanned ID card as well as a proof of payment to the online store. Even though the docs I receive state they are from the 10th, the snailmail letter arrives the 15th and I have until the 25th to respond with the required documentation. Fortunately, there's a website to send your scanned docs and I send them the very same day I receive the letter.
It takes until the 17th for them to acknowledge reception of the docs but that's not too bad. Then radio silence until the 23rd when I receive a warning letter that the products are suspect of breaching intellectual property laws. I'm like WTF, these are original Bandai gunpla kits from Japan, not some Gundoom shit from China. To add insult to injury, the warning says that if in 10 working days they decide the merchandise breaks IP laws (something it seems they are not even required by law to verify with the IP holder, Bandai in this case) they have the right to destroy the parcel contents unless I formally oppose it in the same 10 days (or so I understand). Only there are no instructions on how to oppose it.
I try to contact them to ensure my opposition to €150 of gunpla being destroyed for fuck all reasons is noted but they aren't very helpful at all. They tell me that once a decision is reached, if unfavourable to me, I will be able to have my say (something that seems at odds with what the warning documentation says).
More than the 10 days pass with no news on whether a decision has been made. It isn't until the 12th of June (about 18 working days) that I receive a proposal of payment for the taxes due. Taxes in this case include the shipping costs and the law cited by the docs received is explicit in that shipping must be included. I don't understand the rationale of paying VAT on an EMS shipping cost but there's no escaping it. I must send them a document renouncing any further allegations and a proof of payment of the taxes to their bank account. I am given 3 working days to do this. I do it the following day, the 13th.
On the 14th the payment is acknowledged by customs but it won't leave there until the 21st.
On the 22nd it gets to the postal services in Madrid and the parcel gets to my home in Catalonia on the 25th (notice that postal services are not that bad).
To summarize: it took 3 days for my parcel to travel half the world but it took 6 weeks for Spanish customs to do their goddamn work. Therefore the higher cost of EMS was totally useless in this case.
So I may be called a weaboo for thinking Japanese services are run well while Spanish ones are run like shit but getting the package out in 5 days even though it was a country wide holiday that lasts about a week and then having to wait 6 weeks for the Spanish administration to drag their feet to do their thing paints a very eloquent picture.
Lesson learned: next time, I have to order for an amount of Yen that isn't as close to €150 as I did.
TLDR;
My gunpla order took almost two months to arrive because Spanish customs are inept and I'm pissed-off.
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It's funny, I once found Boxer online for $110 or so but I couldn't help but think "Nah, don't get scalpped and wait for a reissue". Years later and it's $250 ( ._.)
I know Koto aren't as big a company as Bandai but is it really so difficult to reissue stuff every now and then? I guess licensing also plays a role because unlike Bandai they don't own most of the things they make.
The worst is when you miss an inventory clearance discount and then it never gets reissued again.
I was lucky to get a discounted 1/400 Alpha Azieru for inventory clearance not thinking much of it. I have never seen the kit reissued in 7 years even though it's Bandai's so there should be no IP problems.
The only thing I can think of for a reason is that the kit was made in China unlike most gunpla that is made in Japan.
I don't know shit about SRW so I don't know anything about its desirability but this is on a 50% discount now.
https://hlj.com/product/KBYKP-123/Sci
Only one left as of my writing.
Yeah, it's really bad. The worst part is that these scalper kits are still sold for normal prices in Japan and most of them aren't super difficult to find. My Alteisen cost $20 and I saw other rare kits for $20-$50. I don't know how much the boxer went for since I wasn't looking for it, but probably not something near the online prices.
Cool. It's an ok unit but it's a grunt that is not piloted by any of the more popular characters, so I can imagine it's a bit niche in desirability.
Mg Gouf 2.0 is actually the better kit versus the custom 2.0. Gouf 2.0 is an amazingly sturdy kit. Also The gun hand can be swapped out with a regular hand that is in included in the kit. The whip is actually quite posable.
It was mostly annoying and drawn-out. I already know I'll be paying taxes when importing big kits but the lack of information and the overly long and complicated process is a pain in the ass.
At least the simplified process is kind of painless unlike the ordinary one.
I dread the day my country has us pay any fees or taxes on imports. Right now it's free but I have a gut feeling that will change within the coming years.
That's crazy detailed, all right. Even that fly looks real.
That sucks! If it makes you feel any better, the US Postal Service is almost equally terrible. According to tracking, the spray paints I ordered shipped from New Jersey, came to a suburb of Chicago about 40 minutes from my house.... and then were sent to a distribution center in Florida, where they've been for several days now. All this for like $25 worth of paint.
This has to be the dumbest detour ever.
As if distances between US cities were small. For reference, Madrid is "only" 600km (about 370 miles in old units) from where I live and that's half the country away.
I like these Bandai Star Wars kits.
They have such detail and include both waterslides and stickers.
They have such detail and include both waterslides and stickers.
They are a joy to panel line. I've started to panel line my pieces while they are still on the runner. It makes it easier most of the time, the only bad thing is that a few lines are not really accessible there.
Wow, that's terrible. Why would they jump from the problems with the payment stuff to "We think you're breaking IP laws so might destroy it", though? And what do you mean by "renouncing any further allegations"?
I've mostly had really good experiences with Bandai's Star Wars kits. I've built the OT X-Wing, the OT Tie Fighter, and the Y-Wing. The TIE and X-Wing were both great, but the Y-Wing's nacelles were so flimsy and frustrating to work with that it sucked my enjoyment right out, haha.
Which kinda sucks because it's my favorite Star Wars ship.
Which kinda sucks because it's my favorite Star Wars ship.
First, there was never any problems regarding payments.
In theory, customs makes several different checks. The most obvious ones being invoices where merchandise is clearly undervalued (like buying a brand new smartphone and declaring you paid €10 for it).
Tax payment always comes after customs inspection, that is if they even decide to do it. They may also decide it's not worth doing and trust the invoice.
My parcel was too big to ignore, I guess. Six 1/100 kits, one of them being the RE/100 Nightingale make for a very bulky box even if it doesn't weight very much.
The IP stuff is supposed to deter counterfeit merchandise coming mostly from China. I might be paranoid but I suspect it can be misused so that the prospect of having your goods destroyed makes people think that paying €85 in tax plus fees isn't actually that bad.
On the allegations part: keep in mind that legalese is not my forte and some words may have slightly different meanings in English which is not my first language, obviously.
In theory, you can dispute the amount you are being charged if you consider it is not correct. For example, used goods aren't supposed to pay, only goods where a monetary transaction has taken place do. So, if an import was declared "not used goods" by customs but you think they qualify, you can present allegations against that.
In practice, there is no point in disputing the charge because in a clear cut case where the invoice is correct they charge you what the law says. I still don't agree that much on having to pay VAT for shipping but the law is written in a way that there is no doubt you have to. My guess is that this is made so that online stores don't avoid taxes by charging €100 for a €200 product while shifting the cost into shipping by making the latter 100€ more expensive.
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Today's haul from Barnes and Noble:
EDIT: They weren't kidding about how easy the Leo was. Speed-built in a little less than an hour.
EDIT: They weren't kidding about how easy the Leo was. Speed-built in a little less than an hour.
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Nice! I also love how it has zero (0) stickers, and has armor separation on the knees. I look forward to your pics of Arbalest, I'm considering picking up one as well.
Was arranging my boxes earlier and separated everything I haven't started yet. Here's what my backlog looks like:
I should really stop buying kits >_<
I might have to try hitting up Barnes and Noble like you guys have mentioned in here, see what the local one has. I used to love buying these kits back from Toys R Us (RIP) back in late middle school/early high school when Gundam Wing was first showing on Toonami, haha. Built a bunch of the Wing/Endless Waltz models. Every once in awhile I think about buying one off Amazon or something, but never end up pulling the trigger. Maybe seeing a box in person again would push me over the edge...
Who are you kidding? The backlog is eternal. DontForgetYouAreHereForever.png XD
That Real Grade Banshee with the 27-SP numbering had me scratching my head for a while because the side of the box does not show it in Unicorn mode.
I haven't bought a kit in years ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
In fact, the only reason I bought it was because it was an exclusive that might be hard to find in the future (the MG Heavy Arms Custom)
Haha, yup, that should be the Unicorn mode box art in front.
Amusingly, you can clearly tell a person's preference from their collection. Mine is mostly Unicorn, IBO, 00, Wing, Seed, and BF/T. I have a grand-daddy out of a whim, but only because I like the look of the 1:1, I'd never buy an RX-78-2 otherwise.
Even if I didn't buy a kit in years, my backlog could last me a half a decade.
What you can tell from my collection is that I have a preference for heavy discounts.
I bought a Hi no Majin kit even though I give no fucks about Majin Bone (dropped it after a single episode) just because it was ¥200. The kit is kind of OK and for the price I'd say it was worth it.
Other than that, a certain Universal Century bias may show but nothing major.
So far I've stuck to uc og show designs because that's what I've watched, and I like how the designs are elegant in their (relative) simplicity. However I've only have 1 or two left I don't have or haven't ordered hg wise, and it'll be a while before I go mg(I think I'll order the gun tank so I have the trio rounded off), so I'm moving to other eras, but since I'm watching the shows as I go odds are I'll wind up grabbing ones from my current show. Next week will be the exception because I'm grabbing whatever a shop has that interests me
Damn. I have three unbuilt kits and I'm already mad with myself :p
Guess the tough customs are doing you a favor.