Slowing down a bit on Gunpla-ing after the previous endeavor on MG Infinite Justice to talk about some of the items I got most recently.
Most people would know this kit I believe: HG 1/144 Gundam Nataku from "Gundam Wing Endless Waltz" (content and manual can be seen on Hobby Search). A very old kit released more than 10 years ago. Being able to finally get this kit is very meaningful for me. Having the other four Gundams, this is the last one I wanted to have from the HG 1/144 Endless Waltz series, which I started collecting since the earliest stage of Gunpla-ing in my life.
The "mission" to collect all the five Gundams wasn't intentional actually. As with some of the other hobby items I missed now and then, I just waited and waited, and get them when I do see them again. What's unbelievable for me though, is having to wait for over 10 years to finally get this kit. ^^;
Gunpla was a very niche segment of the hobby business here at my place when I started going into it, and that was 13 years ago. I think the total Gunplas available in all stores that you can find in the whole of Kuching back then was probably just 10 percent of what we have right now. ^^; That was how small the world of Gunpla was here at my place and how poor the selection of kits was. There were tons of MSIA though.
Anyway, I remember the majority of the kits available then were from the 1/144 and 1/100 Gundam Wing and Gundam X series, a few HGUCs and MGs, and of course the Endless Waltz series. I only watched these Gundam anime series in my university days a few years ago, so back then in the late '90s and early 2000s when I was getting these kits, I have no idea about their stories and origin.
Having to not know where these Gundams came from is a mixed blessing for me in my opinion. ^^; I never get to know the story when I built the kits, but thanks to that, I never developed any devotion towards any of the Gundams. That might sound strange, but me knowing myself and my stubbornness when I was younger, I know I would never be patient enough to wait for such a long time to get all of them if I had watched the movie back then.
And having to go from there, I bought my kits (all of them) because I like their design, be it the mecha, the model kit itself or both. The same goes for the HG 1/144 Endless Waltz series. I like the uniqueness of each Gundam. I think I did like the 1/100 scale version a bit more back then because of their size, more parts and extra gimmicks. I bought the 1/144 scale version because of their relatively low prices (a big issue for me as a student back then) and the fact that the 1/100 equivalence was always out of stock. Speaking of which, I just completed the collection of all the 1/100 scale Endless Waltz kits not too long ago as well. ^^
One thing amazing about this HG 1/144 Endless Waltz for me, I got all the kits from different sources at different times in over 10 years. ^^; Gundam Wing Zero Custom, Gundam Heavyarms Custom, Gundam Deathscythe Hell and Gundam Sandrock Custom were bought from different hobby stores and departmental stores in Kuching, while Gundam Nataku, which eluded me all the time was recently purchased from an Malaysian based hobby store. I supposed because I got the 1/100 scale version of Gundam Nataku, I never really bothered about getting the smaller 1/144 kit for quite a while, until I realized and started enjoying the goodness of Gunplas in every form.
I have HG 1/144 Serpent Custom as well, which was also "another story" among all the kits from this series. ^^
And so, with the purchase of HG 1/144 Nataku, a very long but unintennsional journey of getting the five Gundams from HG Endless Waltz series is done, after 11 years. ^^
With the 1/100 scale version.
With the other four Gundams.
Apart from HG Endless Waltz, I've also completed my HCM-Pro Gundam Double O series, with the purchase of Cherudim Gundam, Arios Archer Set and Seravee Gundam. ^^
After experiencing the great features and gimmicks of the first four HCM-Pro figures I have: Gundam Exia, Gouf Custom, 00 Gundam with O Raiser and Tieren Ground Type set, I really like this series (too bad it's inactive now). Even better, I got these three latest purchases for a great bargain as well. ^^
Another interesting kit I got recently: MG Figurerise 1/8 Kamen Rider W Cyclone Joker. ^^
Despite having watched zero episode from "Kamen Rider W", I like the color combination of this Kamen Rider very much. It's just so groovy. XD For someone who prefer model kit more than action figure, I was extremely excited when the MG Figurerise version of this Kamen Rider was exhibited at this year's Shizuoka Hobby Show in early May, complete with release date and price to confirm on its release.
Would most probably interject the progress of all my current Gunplas by working on this MG Figurerise kit instead, since I don't really feel that normal panel-lining would go with a human action figure-type model kit. The work should be pretty straight forward and simple I think. ^^
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8 comments:
I think you would like putting together that Karmen Rider W. I know I did. :)
HG Nataku is my first ever gunpla. I got the bootleg version though. Well I know nothing about it back then, never heard about Bandai before :D
That's quite some purchases! I didn't realise Gundam W was so old cos I just bought the dvd recently and is going to watch them again. Envy to see that you have completed those Endless Waltz Gundam (Heavy Arm Gundam is my fav) as well as Gundam 00.
>>LEon
Yes you do. Haha. We talked about that long time ago. ^^
>>reeoyuy
Quite the opposite for me that Gundam Nataku is my latest Gunpla. ^^
>>Dennis
I never realized that Gundam Wing is such an old series myself since I watched the anime much later than the first time I built the models, but I do know the models are old. Some of those 1/144 scale kits back then are of the same price (in Yen) as BB Senshi kits that we're getting today.
Ah good ol' Endless Waltz HG gunpla... I remember I have built them, but due to my inexperience and youth I did really badly at them and ruined most of them, and lost them all after moving home twice. Only Deathscythe Hell Custom remained unbuilt. Heck those were the clear colour / metallic coating ones as well!
At least the unbuilt Deathscythe Hell Custom is still there as a reminder of how I should treat my gunpla nowadays... -_-;;
Now I think about it it's hard to imagine both Wing and 08th MS Team are 15 years old. It sure doesn't feel like that way, but it is :o Prices of gunpla sure rises a lot. The HG kits these days can match very early MG kits in the past!
>>Q
Yeah, it's really hard to imagine how fast time goes by. I remember for all the completed models shown in this posting, I cut their parts from the runners using just a pen knife. The panel lines were all from 0.3mm pen - very thick lines. Those are the stuff I'll never do again nowadays, with so many Gunpla-ing tools and tips here and there to help with the assembly.
Still, I kind of miss the days when I don't have that much money to buy them, and each one I bought would be super-precious to me. I always used some sort of motivation for myself to wait for the best time when I can really enjoy building them, like study for the exam first, finish this pile of homework first, wait till school holidays etc. It was really fun. I suppose I learned a great deal of patience from that kind of self-motivated hold. XD
Now, with so many selection of kits, and that there's not much financial barrier not being able to buy any of them, personal time is much harder to arrange for hobby, and it seems that there'll be no end to that. ^^; I just changed my style from completing everything on a single day in the old days, to bits by bits for a kit now. ^^
Also, it's true about the details of HG kits we are getting nowadays. 1,500 to 2,000 Yen price range is common now, when most HG kits in the old days are 1,000 Yen and below. ^^;
Hello Ngee Khiong, this is my first post here. I just wondering, how do you remove seams on all of the HG Endless Waltz kits of yours?
Hello sir..i am new at this kind of hobby. can u pls post tutorials on how to build endless waltz HG 1/100 gundams including the paint.or if not share some links on tutorials sir. thank you and i hope a get to learn a lot
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