Gunpla Builders World Cup (GBWC) 2016, Korea

These are my photos of Gunpla submitted to the Gundam Builders World Cup 2016 Korean Preliminaries. Before we begin, let’s note how entries in this year's contest were grouped:

• Builders Challenge: For all ages / any type of entry*
• Junior Course A: For ages 10 and younger
• Junior Course B: For ages 11 ~ 14
• Open Course A: For ages 15 ~ 20
• Open Course B: For ages 21 and up

*The Builders Challenge is a course exclusive to the Korean Preliminaries, which means course participants cannot proceed to the GBWC finals.

There were so many models on display at the Expo that I decided to only photograph those I found particularly noteworthy. Most of the Gunpla that stood out to me belonged to Open Course B and the Builders Challenge categories--I took only a few photos of models in Junior Course B and none from Junior Course A.

So... Did I submit an entry this year? Unfortunately no, as I just didn’t have time to build anything worthwhile. Disappointment breeds resolve however, and I look forward to trying again in 2017. In the meantime, my 2015 entry still sits comfortably on my desk.

Right! With nothing further to say, please enjoy my (rather large) photo album. I offer a hearty congratulations to all of the builders who entered this year's GBWC, and I look forward to next year's competition!

Gunpla Expo World Tour 2016, Korea

It's that time of year again! The Gunpla Expo World Tour has come to Seoul, bringing with it the 2016 Gunpla Builders World Cup. Since school is currently out for summer vacation I was able to attend opening day on July 27th, and I have pictures to show for it.

I'll break up my report into two parts: in Part 1, I'll share photos of the Gunpla Expo, and in Part 2 I'll upload my pictures of the models entered in the 2016 GBWC.

The 2016 Expo was fairly exciting, but overall not as much fun as the 2015 Expo. Last year's event was in a larger venue and had more to see and do (the stamp rally was a lot of fun), and I was easily able to spend several afternoons there. I wouldn't call this year's Gunpla Expo a letdown however, and I absolutely recommend attending if you have a chance to do so!

The Gunpla Expo World Tour will be in Seoul's Coex shopping mall from July 27th to July 31st, with GBWC finalists being announced at 2pm on the 31st. For a full breakdown of the Expo schedule, check out the posting on the official Gundam website.

Gunpla: Astray Red Frame, my first RG

It's been awhile since I last posted (again), and even longer since I built a Gundam model! Truth be told it's been a busy year for me with more ups and downs than I can count... I was beginning to wonder if I'd ever have time to get back into Gunpla. That's the nice thing about hobbies though: they're never really gone for good. They just get put on a shelf, tucked safely away where they wait until you're ready to pick up where you left off.

I'd never built an RG (Real Grade) model before; usually I stick to the simpler and faster to build HG (High Grade) kits. I've been curious about the RG line however, so when I was gifted the RG Astray Red Frame by an old friend I thought it was a good chance for me to try building something out of my comfort zone.

I built the RG Astray straight out of the box with no customization minus a little touching up with paint here and there. The RG line is known for its attention to detail, so I wanted to see how the RG Astray looks when built strictly by the manual. For the most part the whole process was relatively straightforward: clipping, trimming and sanding parts, drawing on panel lines and dabbing paint. Different from the HG line, RG models come with a hefty number of stickers and decals to apply. At first the task was a chore, but once I found my rhythm it became quite an enjoyable process. I completed the kit by spraying on a gloss coat; normally I give my kits a flat topcoat, but since the RG Astray is special I wanted to make it shine.

It was fun getting back into Gunpla, even if just for a little bit. Hopefully the next time I post a model on this blog it won't already be 2017!

Gundam Base, Yongsan (New Location)

It's been a long time since my last post! But, that's how life goes sometimes. Anyway, even if I haven't been uploading photos I've still been taking them, so now that I'm back I have plenty to share. First up: There's been a big change to the Gundam Base at Yongsan's I'Park Mall, and I'd be remiss as a blogger of Gunpla in Korea if I didn't update you all. For whatever reason, the Gundam Base was moved from the mall's 7th floor down to the 4th, the same level as the metro station lobby. So although the new location is a smidge smaller than the old store, having a Gundam Base greet you the moment you exit the station is pretty great. Also relocated were the Tamiya store, the Style X kiosk, the model trains booth, the toy store... Basically anything toy and hobby related is now on the 4th floor! As a result I've updated my master list of Gunpla stores in Korea to reflect all of the changes.

All of the photos in this post were taken last Halloween. They're a few months old now, but I don't think there's much reason to worry. It's not like the Gundam Base could have moved again since then!

Gunpla: Raziel, my 2015 GBWC entry

The Gunpla I built and submitted to the 2015 Gundam Builders World Cup is a modified FG Rasiel (Furoku Grade). Earlier this year I found the unassembled Rasiel kit in my parents' basement, forgotten and discarded, and I decided to take it with me back to Korea to work on. I thought that with enough time and effort I could convert Rasiel from a near-static model to a custom Gunpla with decent articulation. "Enough" time and effort ended up equaling six months worth; from February to August I worked on Rasiel sporadically, pausing when it became too frustrating, even taking breaks to build two other Gunpla. However, just in time for the GBWC I completed what I consider to be my most involved Gunpla project yet.

The first thing I did was put together the unmodified Rasiel to get a feel for the kit. Rasiel is an extremely simple Gunpla: all of its pieces come on a single runner. It can't bend it's limbs at the knees or elbows, nor can it rotate it's torso, head, hands, feet... It's basically an unpainted white block of plastic when built straight out of the box. To compensate I bought an HG Nadleeh, a relatively cheap model with many structural similarities to Rasiel, and butchered it for joints and other bits. I used a mini hobby saw to hack Rasiel and Nadleeh apart, and through mind-numbing and time consuming trial and error I was able to fit Rasiel with enough moving pieces from Nadleeh to give the former Gunpla a significant increase in articulation. Getting Nadleeh's parts to fit required every tool at my disposal: sanding files, hobby knives, quick drying putty, liquid cement, etc. One of my favorite new tools I acquired while working on Rasiel is a miniature pin vice. With it I was able to drill holes into Rasiel that I could insert plastic tubing into, creating sturdy new pegs for joining pieces together.

After three months of work I completed Rasiel's main body, allowing me to move onto constructing weapons and accessories. It wasn't enough that Rasiel was now mobile; I wanted to personalize it. In my head I had several ideas regarding what sort of Gundam I wanted Rasiel to be, and eventually I decided to make it an independent fast-attack mobile suit. Ripping pieces from four different parts sets and two other Gundam kits, I stuck bits together with blue tack for hours, trying dozens of combinations until I found something I liked, at which point I would permanently glue what I had created using liquid cement. I wanted to make Rasiel functional and stylish: for long distance combat I came up with a rail gun that works in tandem with the radome behind Rasiel's head (the halo motif of the radome acts as a callback to the religious origin of Rasiel's name). I made a sword-halberd hybrid for melee use, which is arguably not the most practical weapon but looks cool and gives Rasiel an imposing silhouette. The wings were tricky, as I wanted to make them slightly ornate but still believable while matching the aesthetic of Rasiel's body.

Painting Rasiel presented a new challenge, as this was the first Gunpla I painted head to toe. I started by spraying every piece with primer, after which I painted individual pieces with either white, gray or black spray paint. I then switched to painting by hand, giving Rasiel a personalized color scheme based on the colors found on US Air Force jets. When I was satisfied with the way it looked, I sprayed Rasiel with gloss coat to give the model a slick surface so that I could go back and detail it with black ink and apply water-slide decals. Finally, I sprayed Rasiel with a matte top coat to seal everything in before assembling all of the pieces together.

I finished Rasiel on August 19th, the last day submissions could be delivered to the Gunpla Expo in Seoul for the GBWC. To signify that this Rasiel Gunpla is my own original custom I titled it "Raziel", after the Hebrew Archangel of the same name. I retrieved Raziel on the 26th and spent a few days tidying it up, applying paint where it had chipped and tightening a few joints, and now that I've had time to shoot some decent photos, I'm ready to share my Gunpla on my blog. I didn't bring any medals home minus a participatory badge, but I'm not shy to admit I'm proud of my work.

And truthfully, I'm glad it's all over! What an exhausting project this has been. Immensely satisfying, but exhausting. I think I'll be taking a short break from Gunpla before starting a new model.

Gunpla Expo and Gunpla Builders World Cup 2015, Seoul: Part III

All right, enough beating around the bush: in my third and final post regarding this year's Gunpla Expo, I'll share the results of the 2015 Gundam Builders World Cup competition in South Korea. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the announcements were made at the Expo on Sunday, August 23rd, and I and a crowd of people had gathered to see the winners firsthand. Meijin Kawaguchi, the official master of Gunpla, was present to do the judging and award trophies in four categories:

Junior Course A (ages 0 ~ 10)

Junior Course B (ages 11 ~ 14)

Open Course A (ages 15 ~ 20)

Open Course B (ages 21 and up)

A third, second and first place winner was chosen for each category, totaling 12 individual winners. Two overall champions were also named, one from the Junior Division and the other from the Open. Those two will go on to represent Korea in the international round of the GBWC later this year.

Truth be told, while some of the Meijin’s picks made sense to me many others I didn’t expect, in particular his choice of Open Division champion. Have a look at the winners and you can see for yourself if you agree or disagree!

Gunpla Expo and Gunpla Builders World Cup 2015, Seoul: Part II

I've waited so long for the Gunpla Expo to roll into town that it feels anticlimactic to visit only once and be done with it. In order to fully enjoy all that the Expo has to offer I've gone three times now, with plans for a fourth trip later this week.

My first visit was on the 19th, so that I could drop off my submission for the 2015 GBWC. The Expo hadn't technically opened to the public yet, and as a result there wasn't much to see aside from the other GBWC entries. I went again on Sunday the 23rd to watch the official master of Gunpla, Meijin Kawaguchi, announce the winners of the GBWC (more on that later), as well as experience the Expo in full swing. However, two complications occurred on Sunday that forced me to consider returning to the Expo the following day: to my embarrassment I'd left my camera's battery in it's charger back at my home, meaning I had only the subpar camera built into my phone available to me (dejavu!), and the crowds on Sunday were so intense that it was impossible to enjoy any of the Expo's activities without fighting my way through throngs of people or waiting in dreadfully long lines.

Thus today after work I made a third trip to the Gunpla Expo, arriving an hour before closing time, in hopes that it would be a much more pleasant experience. Maybe I'm just looking for excuses to go to the Expo as many times as possible before it packs up and I have to wait a year for the next one, but in my defense when I arrived at the Expo this evening there was a significant decrease in the number of people in attendance. This allowed me to leisurely browse the display cases featuring the latest Gunpla fresh from Japan, toy around with several of the activities, and best of all I was able to complete the stamp rally without having to stand in any lines.

The stamp rally is a mini-game of sorts designed to encourage attendees to check out everything the Expo has to offer. Located throughout the convention hall are 15 stations, each featuring a task that should be completed in order to earn a stamp. Tasks include voting for a Gunpla in the GBWC, taking a survey, making a blog post about the Expo and showing your post to staff (easy!), buying something (...), etc. Once all 15 stamps have been obtained the attendee has a chance to draw a ticket from the lottery box, and on that ticket is written a prize. I got the 15 stamps with barely any hassle but I'll collect my prize later this week, when I make my fourth trip to the Expo to retrieve my Gunpla submission.

It's a silly thing, but going back and forth to the Expo as often as I like makes me appreciate that I'm an adult. For example, I saw my Gunpla-loving 5th grade student at the Expo on Sunday. He had come with his dad, and for all I know this was his one chance to attend. Being a child, his desires have to first be approved by his parents, and even then what he wants may not be deemed what's best for him. Meanwhile, I can do whatever I want, and if that means going to the Gunpla Expo four times in a week than no one gets to stop me!

On the flip side, his dad bought him a Perfect Grade Gundam 00 Raiser plus a Gunpla Expo-exclusive base stand, so he may in fact have the upper hand after all.

Well... at least I got my photos!