Who Knew Ugly Could be so Beautiful

Usually a broken, scratched, incomplete thing is utterly abominable but this battle damaged MG Hyaku Shiki by Dunpeel is absolutely masterful. I mean look at it, that battle damage is something wonderful. I'm going to put it out there right now, this is beyond my current skill level and wll worth a looksee. Also that LED enabled I has quite the sinister air to it if I do say so myself.

Shout out to Gundam Guy blog for shining their light on this amazing peace, head over to the artists page for the full gallery of excellent images.

Model Kit Musings - Fenice Rinascita

Not Ricardo Fenice sold separately.

5184 yen. 5,184 yen. Five Thousand One Hundred and Eighty Four Yen!

Wing Gundam is my favorite mobile suit of them all and anything resembling it is right up my alley, so it goes without saying the Fenice Rinascita is definitely on my radar but what's up with that price! There's no way translucent plastic costs that much, right? I doubt it true but perhaps this price means the inclusion of the Meteor Hopper (which actually belongs to the Wing Gundam Fenice). I'd pay 5,184 yen for  an MG version of the Honoo any day but I'm going to have to wait on a sale for this kit, I simply don't see the value for what's largely little more than a re-skin.

Surely these aren't worth the extra yen?

I know times are hard at Bandai (not really) with the taxation increase and whatnot but is this kit really worth more than the Exia Dark Matter (5,000 yen), Wing Zero Proto Zero (4,800) or the Astray Blue Frames (4,800 and 5,000 yen respectively)? I can't help but think this is a by-product of the popularity of Build Fighters, the cost of these kits has risen with each release from the 4,200 yen of the Build Strike Full Package to 5,000 yen for Sengoku Astray and Exia Dark Matter. Regardless of the reason I'm not pleased with this price, that said it's still possible there's more material not being shown that more than makes up for the price. Here's hoping, till next time peeps.

All images courtesy of Gundam Guy Blogspot.

Shout Out to Hype.Tokyo!

I don't know about you all, but one of my greatest moments of consternation comes shortly after opening a new kit. Once the box opens my initial excitement is always replaced by worry there will be missing runners and delay my building.

Well that worry was finally realized about 11 or so days ago, when I received a MG Crossbone Gundam Full Cloth from (what I think is) a relatively new retailer by the name of Hype.Tokyo. This kit dashed my excitement by arriving sans the F runners. As you can imagine I was quite unhappy with this predicament, especially since the Crossbone wasn't purchased through an approved western distributor, which meant I couldn't simply order replacement parts.

After taking a minute (it was actually a couple of hours) to scour the internet for backup plans I finally sent an email to Hype.Tokyo and explained the situation. I'm going to be honest I was surprised by their response, I expected a bit of XBox style customer support run around but there was none to be found. Instead they immediately offered to provide the missing parts, asking only that I verify my mailing address! Retailers (not named Amazon) aren't usually so trusting or accommodating, I'd actually expected them to suggest I ship the product back on my dime for a refund.

Oh but it gets better, no only did they ship my replacement parts for free at a faster rate than the original model was shipped, but they also included a free Action Base! I had no idea the Action Base would be included and even though it's a 1/144 scale base - y'all know HG's ain't my jam - it's a very nice gesture that has earned Hype.Tokyo a shout out from this builder.

About Hype.Tokyo

• Numerous sale item
• Free shipping on orders over $35 - includes tracking
• Large selection of Gunpla.
• Additional anime related products on offer.

Also there are pictures: