Ever buy Minipla before?

Eh...kinda not really? I mean I payed about $60 for mine after shipping so I guess it evens out anyway. It really comes down to how much you want a small version of the original DX toy with better articulation, and how much you'd be okay with labor and the cost of any paint you would add.

I'd go with no, but others may feel differently, and I don't consider it a *bad* purchase by any means. Getting it to look right takes more effort than with a standard minipla kit. Mine arrived with what I believe is a defective tyranno tail. The ptera mecha pretty much needs some glue so it doesn't fall apart when handling the combined modes. The stickers for the sides of the helmet don't look great.

That aside, the finished product is good-looking (assuming you effectively cleaned up the sprue remnants) and moves well. The pre-painted face is very welcome. The plastic is good-quality. Unlike the SRC version, it can break into individual components, form tank mode, and combine with the upcoming Dragon Caesar (although the latter will set you back by even more money.) I don't think it's a bad purchase by any means

There's a Super Robot Chogokin version on Mandarake right now for 7,000 yen, which comes out to 62.50 before shipping.)

No, I'm a figuarts man myself, just recently started buying the robots.

My backlog is growing:

http://i.imgur.com/KX2SG6D.jpg

I'm still undecided on whether or not I want to paint them or not...

Is that a black Daizyujin on the bottom?

thats just the standard box for it

Like goggleV mentioned, it's just the way the outer box looks. Not sure why they chose to make it black and white though.

Does anyone have any tips or relevant tutorials for painting Minipla? I might use my spare Leo to practice but I don't really have any idea where to start as I haven't painted models before.

Spent about 2+ hours just putting together ShiShi voyager because there are so many panel lines. I kind of wish I didn't start panel lining in the first place. lol. I decided not to paint any of it and just do a straight build with panel lines this time around for the Kyuranger miniplas.

http://i.imgur.com/TAL4YQd.jpg