I dont know much about Gundam, but I think it is extremley well designed. I had a couple of the toys in the early 90's. They couldnt have been more than 5"-6" tall, but they were incredible...and cheap! Maybe they were about $6.00 each. They were in cardboard boxes with styrofoam inserts. The swords/shields were a clear pink plastic that seemed to glow. Of course they were fully poseable. Can anyone help me identify this line? If not..what are some other great Gundam toys? Pics are welcome!!! Thanks!!!!
For model kits, I recommend the Master Grade Kits. They do require some assembley but don't need painting...though painting will enhance their looks. The scale is 1/100. They're around 8-9 inches tall and most of them come with tons of weaponery - depending on the mecha. On the other hand, if you don't like to assemble model kits then I recommend the Mobile Suit in Action series. The first few weren't well made but the line has improved alot over the years...they're around 4 inches tall and come with tons of weaponery too - again depending on the mecha. The bad news is that the 2 lines are not easily available in the States. I will try to post links later unless someone cares to do the honors first. Sorry, I don't have a camera if not I will be posting pictures of my collection.
I would say the line you're talking about is either the HCM line (click) or perhaps the Mobile Suit in Pocket line (although I don't think those came with styrofoam inserts, and the only figures from it came from Victory Gundam and F91...sorry, no link...you could google it though). I'll echo Liger Prime's sentiments that if you're looking for display pieces that you can also pose, and don't mind building them then go with the MG model series. The HGUC model series is also pretty good...a little bit smaller (1/144 instead of 1/100), not all the parts are molded in color, but they are cheaper and there are some very different mobile suits available than in the MG line. If you're looking for toys to fool around with, go for either the MSIA or EMSIA series. Another option is the very small (1/200, ~3-4 in.) HCMPro series, which has some really good articulation and great sculpting, but adds some weird panel-lining details and the figures are not as durable as an MSIA (the plastic is closer to model plastic). I have at least one toy from every line (except the MSIP line...boy I wish I had that F91, although the large number of MSIAs I have makes up for it ) so feel free to ask any questions.
I concur. Although if you want to get into the models start off with something easy like the SD models (kbtoys.com actually has a bunch on sale right now for $5.00 each for a 2-kit box), or the HGUC 1/144 kits. There's a lot of great places to get them, just beware that the shipping will be a PAIN. tisinc99.com, hlj.com, and ebay.com are all your friends. I actually sit and put the models together at work. Usually a MG, depending on complexity will take me anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks, depending on how busy it gets (I work in a call center, as 3rd-5th level support, during the graveyard shift - so usually slow ). I need to save up some moola to get me some more PG kits (so incredibly AWESOME I can't even describe - NOT for the inexperienced). I would also highly recommend the Wing, Seed, and Seed Destiny 1/100 kits. Not as complex as a MG (except maybe the Astray Red and Blue frames) but they look damned good (except the Aile Strike and Freedom MG kits FAR outstrip their 1/100 NG/HG counterparts). If you are going to go that route try and find a wire cutter with the smallest and flattest head you can get (I got mine from radioshack - works beautifully), tweezers for those small parts (I need them since I have HUGE hands, and some of the parts for 1/144 kits and MG kits are TINY), and an exacto knife of some kind (I prefer one with a rounded blade - prevents scoring of the plastic when removing flash). That's my basic kit. I also have superglue, some emery boards (cheaper than models sandpaper boards from the model supply store) that help with flash as well, and eventually I plan on a spray gun, plasti-weld, etc for further detailing. As far as the actual toys, MSIA are awesome toys, as are the Arch-Enemy lineup, IF you can find them (probably on ebay). $20 each gets you a 1/100 scale toy that is awesomely articulated (not as good as Microman or Marvel Legends, but damned close) and tons of accessories. Sturdily built too (my Gelgoog is a freaking BRICK! I would hate to see someone lob it at someone else's head ). So yeah. This ended up being WAY more than I planned on writing If you have any more questions feel free to send me a PM or post on here. Also if you see him around Deejay is an awesome Gundam encyclopedia (hell he's the one that got me hooked ) as are quite a few of the rest of us who frequent the Direct Connect hub.
you guys rock! Im going to read these posts a couple of times, look up the peices mentioned, etc. I might have a couple of subsequent questions later. Thanks a bunch tho.
As for the model kits, check out www.dalong.net The site's in Korean, but he gives good pictorial reviews of pretty much every MG and PG kit in existence, as well as a lot of HGUC and Gundam SEED stuff. Looking down his MG list, once you hit roughly the RX-79 (above RX-78 ver 1.5), you're going to notice a substantial shift in design compared to previous MG kits (with the exception of the plethora of Zaku/Gouf variants). Prior to that point, the MG line was essentially a glorified 1/100 HG line. After that mark is where Bandai shifted the MG line to represent more mechanically detailed, poseable, and "weightier" versions of their mechs, with detailed, heavy-duty ABS plastic skeletons. And then again, from MKII ver 2.0 onwards (and also including the RX-78-2 OYW version, Acguy, and arguably, the Ball), you'll see yet another advance in design quality, in which Bandai looks to be squeezing out as much detail and poseability as they possibly can at that scale (7 points of articulation in the hands alone, for instance), as well as upping the ante on accessories and display options (display stands, special effects parts, etc). Don't let the complexity of higher grade models fool you. There's more parts, yes, but they're no more difficult to assemble than any lesser grade kit. Just more time consuming. Bandai's pictorial instructions are very easy to follow. As for cutters, I actually use modelling cutters. Same thing as wire cutters, except they cut flush to the surface, not fractions of millimeters away from it. Makes cleaning the sprue connections up a lot easier.
If you want a REALLY fancy model, complete with opening hatches, light up eyes, and completely posable hands, I suggest the Perfect Grade Strike Gundam. The only problem is that I haven't found it for cheaper than 140 bucks. So if you've got that, plus the shipping for the giant box, you can have one. My local Hobbytown actually has the Perfect Grade Strike Rouge, which is just a repaint of the PG Strike, except it comes with a flight pack and the Sky Grasper, which is a jet fighter type thing for carrying the pack. I could go on, but I know you don't want to be here all day.
I've been looking at the toys/models mentioned. They look great! A couple of other things I remember about the toys: 1.minor assembley was required (nothing complicated..just snapping things together) 2.they were about 5 inches tall 3.they had swords and shields that were made of a translucent pink plastic. They looked like lightsabers or something.
Yeah, totally agree with ya! If Bandai produced more mechs like Zaku IIs, the Zeong I will so totally buy that line. There's speculation why Bandai doesn't come out an Chogokin line for the Gundam series similar to the "Soul of Chogokin" series...it would kill off their model kit units. Golden Age...if that's what you are looking for in your Gudam toys, then I recommend the Mobile Suit in Action Series. You won't go wrong with it.
Hmmm...you've presented a mystery, and one which I'm curious to solve now. Do you remember which mobile suits were part of the line? The translucent beam sabers makes me think they weren't HCMs (although those do have some parts on the sprues). Did they come with crazy samurai parts? If so they could be from the musha cloth line, but I'm pretty sure those were bigger. Did they have any die cast? If so, they could have been from the chogokin line that Bandai did (not SOC), although those aren't all that old. I'm leaning towards them being from the Mobile Suit in Pocket line. Any info you remember would help.
lets see what I remember.. I had three of them. These toys were well articulated. I think that they were entirely made of plastic. They were not very expensive at the time...under $10.00 for sure. The Gundams had some assembly required while the villian did not. figure #1: Coloring was standard Gundam colors...flat and bright white (the new toys all seem to be on the grey side). His proportions were less extreme(the newer toys seem to have long legs). He came with a translucent pink shield, two translucent pink swords, a rifle, and a part that looked to be armor or something. I think this piece could attach to another part and form a small ship. On the whole I would also say that the Gundam was less ornamental than the ones out now. Though it still must have been the hero. Figure#2 Very similar to astandard Gundam model but was all red and a bit plain in terms of appearance. It had similar weapons to the one mentioned above minus the ship. Figure#3 This must have been a villian. It was all green. If it transformed it probably would have become an insect. The top of its head looked like the needle nose of a strange bug. This one did not have accessories. we can get this!! .
Was this one of them? click If so, then they were indeed MS in Pocket toys. I've always wanted to pick some up but they're kind of hard to find (at least the ones that I wanted to buy). If they weren't MS in Pocket toys, then I really have no idea what they could be.
THATS IT!!!!!!!!!! !WOW. Thats so cool. Thanks so much to all of you. So how would you guys grade these items (on their own or in comparison to others?) . Personally I thought that they were fantastic. If there are better ones I can't wait to start getting into Gundam collecting! This is the one I had. http://rixrobots.com/MSIP10.jpg I miss them!!!!
I recommend the G Gundam series. some of them are pretty kick ass cool, and there are a lot of funky designs.
Alot of older Gundam toys are pretty hard to find, even ones that came out not that long ago. I would think that the MSIP toys are especially rare in the U.S. because they came out before any of the animated series were released here, thus importing would have been lower. That and the lack of widespread internet at the time pretty much ensures that most of the MSIP toys that you'll find in the U.S. were brought over long after they were released and piecemeal rather than being ordered by the bevy of online stores we have now. I'd bet that if you were to go to Japan you probably wouldn't have nearly as hard of a time getting ahold of them.
Got my first, in a possible long line, of Gundam toys. I bought the MK-ll from the Mobile Suit in Action line. I must say that this is a very satisfying toy. Very poseable! As a fan of diecast metal, I was wondering if there are any Gundam products akin to "Soul of Chokogin"?
Nope. There was one but with min. diecast and didn't really take off. Oh how I would wish for a Gundam SOC line...I would buy 3 of the same enemy mechas to form a squad!
Well, the Kado Senshi Hyaku Shiki I have actually has a fair bit of diecast, and is really cool. But Liger Prime is right, most of the other Kado and Kahen Senshi stuff, as well as the Metal Material Models and GQ series are not too heavy on the die cast. Although I hear the Turn A had a decent amount.
