Gundam

Gunpla Build - Real Grade Gundam Exia (Part 1) 2022-02-26

The RG Exia is fairly old for a Real Grade, old enough that it still features the prebuilt inner frame that was once the trademark gimmick of the product line:

Pay attention to the thing in the yellow baggie. We’ll come back to that soon

This means that the Exia is likely to suffer from a phenomenon popularly known as Early Real Grade Syndrome. Essentially, the frame gets loose and floppy over time, and since the joints are pre-assembled (and rather intricately at that), there’s no easy way to take them apart to tighten them up. Once it starts getting floppy, there’s not much you can do about it other than try and prop it up and hope for the best.

Gunpla Builds - Garbage Time 2022-02-19

Traditionally I’ve only purchased model kits of mobile suits that I like, and am already familiar with (either via watching the show or reading the manga that they appear in). That changed over the last year, when COVID-induced supply shortages fried my brain and convinced me to grab kits that I found mildly appealing at best. Like these two for example:

These kits have me in a bit of a bind. I haven’t had any intention of building either of them any time soon, but I’m afraid that if I don’t build them, then they’ll both linger at the tail end of the backlog forever and ever.

2021 Gunpla Retrospective 2022-02-18

For the first time ever, I think I built enough model kits last year to give me enough fodder for a best/worst list. Or maybe it would be better to call it a “Beat/Failed to live up to expectations” list. Whatever - you get the idea.

The rules are simple:

Any model kit or figurine built during 2021 is eligible. In the case of one particular entry, only half of it was built during the year, but I’m going to count it.
I’m going to pick three in the “best” category, three in the “worst” category, and one honorable mention.

Now, let’s begin:

Gunpla Build - High Grade Gundam Helios (Final) 2022-02-17

It’s time for the Helios to fly. But first, a few bits of housekeeping …

While the model can stand up on its own, it's not easy with those wings on its back. That's why most, if not all the photos in this post are going to be done with the help of an Action Base. (And not just any Action Base, but a clear green one that I bought it just for this occasion)
Embarrassingly, for most of these photos, the wings aren't properly assembled. The individual wing segments are layered incorrectly, a fact that I only discovered when taking the last few photos. To be fair, I think they're still in the correct order, so the photos shouldn't look off perse. But I wanted to be upfront about this, as I know that many Gunpla fans are extremely eagle-eyed.
After a successful test of the new lightbox, I decided to go with an appropriately colored background.

I’m not sure that was such a good idea …

Gunpla Build - High Grade Gundam Helios (Part 4) 2022-02-16

Backpack

The backpack is huge. I would have taken a photo of all the loose parts, but I was afraid I’d end up losing something in the process. Instead, I broke them up into two sets. Here are the pieces for the “core” backpack and the satellite cannons:

And here are the wings:

It’s a lot, but as I found out, it’s not so scary if you tackle it all in sections.

Gunpla Build - High Grade Gundam Helios (Part 1) 2022-02-07

The Blazing Gundam was such a simple, painless build. I could spend as little as thirty minutes on it and feel as if I made some progress. Let’s see if the Helios follows suit.

First, the runners:

I am quite positive this is reusing runners from previous models (there is both an F and an F1 runner), so this doesn’t really tell us all that much. For all I now, a quarter of these parts may end up going unused.