By Ray H.

Gundam Kit Figures

Gundam kit figures are definitely the backbone to the Gundam franchise, at least from a merchandising standpoint. The reason they're so popular is that they appeal to two audiences: model builders and action figure enthusiasts. A Gundam kit is like a combination of Model and a Toy.

The majority of them out there are plastic snap together kits that are pre-colored and they have a massive amount of articulation. They are also very easy to assemble and the instructions have lots of illustrations, so even if you can't read Japanese all you have to do is look at the picture and match the numbers. When your all done you have a fully operational Mobile Suit ready to wreak havoc with.

The articulation on Gundam kit figures is staggering, the Basics range with about 15 points each to something insane like Perfect Grades which can have over 200 points of articulation. Almost all the armor moves, so you can set them up in dioramas perfectly. Some notable feats of articulation are articulated fingers. Some 1/100 scale kits have basic finger articulation while a Perfect Grade has 3 points of articulation per finger! So you can say "My Gundam has more articulation in its pinky than some toys have in their entire body".

Some of the more advanced stuff has working mechanics, underneath the armor, and there's also some with neat little hydraulics.

The detail is also another winner, these have superb sculpts that a lot of effort is put into, and pictures can't really do them justice. You need to see these finished in person. They also usually come with decals and stickers too. One worry people have is since these are in a box they are not sure what there getting, I'd like to point out that many of the pictures you'll find in the following sections is stuff out of my own collection, with a minimal amount of work done (some inking and charcoal wear).

There's a very large selection of kit figures out there encompassing all the different Gundam series form the original 0079 Gundam to the newest Gundam Series Turn-A. These kits are defiantly successful for a reason, the level of detail and assembly is basically determined by what grade of a Gundam you get, which is covered in section 2.

Last September Bandai released the Wing Gundam kits in Southern California Toys R Us stores and online to "test the waters" to see if the U.S. would be ready for Gundam. Then the Gundam Wing show premiered and they became a scorching hot property, the demand is very high but the supply is really low so they were really hard to find. Bandai is really gearing up right now and getting ready for a massive release, and they have even retooled the 1/144 boxes and added mini pilots with the 1/144 wings. So as it stands right now the future of Gundam in America looks very bright. As for Gundam's future in Japan, check out this production model from "G-Savior" its the new live action CGI/live-action Gundam special. It's probably only a matter of time before Bandai releases a kit figure of it.

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