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This has been a question that’s being thrown at me by myself, my fiancee, my parents and my peers. They look at my office desk and they see four Gundams standing guard and one hovering above with its beam rifle aimed at whoever is seated at my desk.
My actual fascination for model kits, Gundam in particular, started when the first Gundam series hit our local channels. It was Gundam Wing back then. GMA 7 even made up stupid names for the Gundams featured in that series: Gundam The Wing (Wing Gundam), Gundam The Death (Gundam Deathscythe), Gundam The Dragon (Shenlong Gundam), Gundam The Cannon (Gundam Heavyarms) and to our eternal shame – Gundam The Desert for Gundam Sandrock. Good grief! But yeah, everybody got hooked to the Gundam craze when Wing Gundam aired. Then Gundam X came out. Toy Kingdom’s model kits sales soared since they were the mainstream retailer for these toys.
That time, it was still too expensive for me to purchase one for myself. So there were times when we had to make do with locally produced rip-offs of these Gundam model kits. Count on the Filipinos to make pirated copies of everything – even model kits. My cousins in Guam could afford these so for most of the time, my joy was limited to building these model kits, never owning them.
Model kit after model kit came out and my fascination grew even bigger. I went as far as learning about the basic facts about the timelines, the mobile suits and their differences. I got to appreciate other artists other than Kunio Okawara who was the original designer of these Gundams. Other artists included BEE Craft and the guy who designed the Astrays. But the one at the very top is Hajime Katoki, the guy who designed the Gundams in the Gundam Sentinel series and the customs in the Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz series. He even has his own Gundam figure line called Gundam Fix Figuration and the ver. Ka Master Grade model kits.
Still, even at that point, I didn’t have my own model kits. All I had were pictures, a brain full of facts and specs and building experience thanks to cousins who had the money to buy the model kits and preferred to have me build their kits for fear that they’d break something beyond fixing.
That was until I started working.
Ever since I started earning my own money, I’ve purchased two 1:144 HGUCs (High Grade model kits from the Universal Century timeline), two MGs (Gundam ver. OYW and Strike Gundam + IWSP) and one PG (Perfect Grade Strike Gundam). There’s a couple more supposedly coming in, if the budget allows.
Back to the question of whether or not I’ll ever get tired of collecting. It will probably mellow down at some point, especially when there are better, more important things to set aside money for like preparations for marriage, setting aside money for the kids’ education or buying a new house or car. But along the side, I still think that I’ll be collecting model kits, Gundam action figures and other mecha-related stuff. So not only will I be limited to Gundams but my collection may even expand to other mecha series.
I’ve already thrown the question of whether I’ll ever get tired of watching anime/reading manga. Same thing. I’m a perpetual kid and I’ll always be fascinated by mecha and other Japanese fantasy/fiction. I’d probably even end up influencing my own kids in the future in enjoying mecha stuff.
Mecha, model kits and collecting has always been part of me. Some people shake their heads at me for purchasing a Php7,700 model kit (PG Strike cost me that much) but I’d like to believe that it’s every collector to himself/herself. I’d probably shake my head at someone who collects toenails or old iPods that don’t run anymore. Same banana. I’ll definitely collect and cherish my model kits till I die…or when my son or daughter is ready to inherit my collection. Until then, there’s still a lot of model kits to build, paint and modify, action figures to collect, pictures to shoot and blog entries to make regarding the fascinating world of mecha model kits and action figures!
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banpresto, blog pimping, model kits, mecha, hobby
