Oh I know, but that's why I love them :o

Yeah, me too :lol

So how long until Den-O breaks down and buys one?

http://www.hlj.com/product/ban989507#

Ha! If, and I mean if I did, I'd get it from amiami. They're "only" 18,640 there :p

So the hobby shop in my town now has the campaign items for gunpla on sale now for about 1.69.

Screw the subs. Unicorn's English dub is where the awesome is. :D


Meanwhile, my toy collection is doomed.
http://i1131.photobucket.com/albums/...damMaximus.jpg

That is the single most amazing and terrifying creation ever made :lol

I love it

Now to sum up what I've been doing with Gundam since Build Fighters has ended.


Let's start with Super Robot Wars. I found a translation of Alpha Gaiden and I gotta say, it's pretty fun when I can understand what characters are saying and can understand the battle system without a bunch of guides. Having Gundam X in it kept me moving forward in it. I also got side tracked on getting more familier with Magzinger Z. I haven't beaten it yet, but I'm working on it slowly.


Also in this time frame, I picked up Unicorn when I tracked down the English audio track (which may be the best English audio I've ever heard on an anime). I planned on waiting until episode 7 was out, but ended up devouring it 2 months early. After that, I told myself to finish Zeta, ZZ, and then rewatch Unicorn 1-6 before 7. I just now started ZZ this week, but ended up watching episode 7 just now...I do not regret my lack of will with Unicorn. I won't spoil episode 7, but just going to say it's good. It's really good. Like the rest of the show.


Now for the elephant in the room, Zeta Gundam. If you're a Zeta fan, you might want to skip this paragraph. You've be warned. I have now seen every episode of Zeta and I can say without a doubt in my mind that Zeta Gundam, in my opinion, is garbage. Absolute garbage. There is nothing of value here. None of the characters are interesting or likeable (least of all the lead), the plot literally goes in cirles, and the only okay story arc was 100% filler (and then they repeated the same arc two more times, once with the same character dying!). Every character this show tries to make me "care" about is an idoit and their stipudity leads their own deaths. It's no wonder to me why Yoshiyuki Tomino wanted to make a bunch of changes to Zeta ala George Lucas. He was trying to fix this train wreck of a show. Zeta is going at the bottom of my list of Gundam series that I've seen (TV, OVA, movies, etc). Below SD Gundam Force, below G-Savior, and even below Doozy Bots. It amazes me Gundam continued as a franchise after this garbage.


Finally, there's ZZ that I just started this week. This is much better. Thank god. I was going to be so pissed if I wasted my time on Zeta to to find ZZ wasn't any better. Thankfully, that's not the case (so far). Thus far the new characters are enjoyable and Captain Marshmallow (I think Mashymre is the correct spelling) might be my new favorite Zeon character. Also, some (not all) of the returning cast are less annoying like the dumb kids, that fit better in this tone, and Yazan who's basically now Team Rocket trying to catch a Zeta Gundam. Really, the only bad thing here is how heavily it's tied to Zeta. This would be much better if it was more stand alone.

Woah.

Zeta is nearly a masterpiece, easily Tomnio's best work. Possibly the best series in the franchise, and frankly it's easily my favorite by a long shot. It's one of the most beloved Gundam shows of all time. I understand you having a different opinion of it, but it's pretty much at odds with, well, Japan :lol

Totally fine for people to have different opinions though. What you hate, I love. Kamille is perhaps my favorite protagonist. He begins immature and angry, at odd with the world around him. But his intellect and off the chart Newtype powers mature him into one of the finest pilots ever. Char changing up his allegiance to fight with the AEUG rather than Zeon or Neo Zeon was a welcome shift. In fact this depiction of his is my favorite. He's not a childish brat seeking revenge on the Zabi's any longer and he isn't the lunatic of CCA.

The MS designs of this series are also hands down some of the best in both form and functionality. The Gundam MK II, Zeta, Hyaku Shiki, Rick Dias, Hizack. All classic designs in their own right. But the Zeta especially is what really helped bring transformation into the Gundam franchise. Many of the other absurd designs of this series I can take or leave, but on the whole this is one of the most innovative shows out there in terms of MS design. They really honestly tried new things, most of the time with great success.

The Titans were compelling villains that felt like a natural progression of some of the darker tendencies we'd seen the Federation fall to during the One Year War. Their formation and policing of the Colonies is one of the most important formative events in the UC timeline. Of course later series like Stardust Memory would fill in the gap to show us what brought them into being in the first place, but they're existence shaped the rest of the century. They were the group of villains you could love to hate. They didn't feel generic like the later Crossbone Vanguard or Zanscare Empire, but felt original in comparison to the Principality of Zeon.

In my opinion Zeta is one of the best constructed and executed Gundam series ever. Memorable characters, memorable designs, tragic fates with lasting impact for characters, returning characters from the original series and reference to those events. It really has it all for me.

Again, I 100% respect your opinion. But Zeta is my baby :o

I think I might like the Zeta movies better then the series... as of right now. I'm on 37 and am almost done so if the ending is that much better, I'll think about it.

I…didn't think Zeta Gundam was that great myself either. Maybe it's because I saw a lot of AU's first before watching Zeta but I didn't really understand the hype.

ZZ on the other hand…is pretty bad. The first half is a lot of nonsensical crap that doesn't really start to get good till the last couple of episodes or so.

ZZ I'll give you isn't as great, but I still really enjoyed it. Where's DaiRiderRX when you need him? He's my Zeta Bro.

The thing with Zeta is Tomino was suffering from the worst depression of his career. So he poured a lot of his raw emotion into the show. He used his pain to craft the story. Now by the time ZZ was commissioned he was on stronger anti-depressants and felt that he'd gone "too far" and been too dark with Zeta. So he tried to course correct so to speak with ZZ. Which result in the very mixed and light hearted tone of the first half of the series.

That was until fans outraged by the huge tonal shift from Zeta to the first half of ZZ got the message to Sunrise that they were displeased. Sales numbers falling also helped communicate this. This message in turn got to Tomino and Sunrise tried to get him to shift focus back to how Zeta had been crafted. Resulting in the even more mixed signals from the series.

I enjoy it, but I know it isn't for everyone.

Oh my yes :D

http://imageshack.com/a/img843/703/00vka.jpg

Zeta is my favorite, but I enjoyed ZZ. There was some really great episodes, but it's too uneven, and really slow in the middle. I find Dragonar a better "light" show then ZZ though.

Yeah ZZ Gundam gets decent once they kill off the comic relieve commander villain and Haman takes the reigns.

I see no fault with this statement. The beginning of the series is not to my liking, especially as a successor to Zeta. once the focus shifted, I found myself increasingly more interested in the series.

As for Zeta, it was a fitting and natural extension of the story established in the original program. Details such as the integration of Zeonic scientists and engineers into the ranks of the Federation influencing the designs of the newer mobile suits helped to sell that idea to me. That they essentially flipped the roles of the federation and the insurgents was welcomed. The Titans and their constant need for increasing power and control within the Federation forces proved interesting and different enough from Zeon and its function. The characters were enjoyable, most having flaws, effectively demonstrating believable growth within the context of the series.

My original watching was spread over a couple of months, allowing me the opportunity to not experience the density of the series within a short amount of time.

Is HLJ the best place to order kits from? It just seems like they have the really competitive pricing on their HGs and have some decent policies but I want to make sure, since that kind of stuff can be insane if you don't know of any underlying problems.

As long as it's not a preorder there should be no problem ordering from HLJ.

AmiAmi and HobbySearch are reccomended too.

ROBOT DAMASHII GOD GUNDAM!!!!!!!! YES!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay, I'm fuckin happy now :D. :lol

I originally saw the series when Bandai put the complete series boxed set out in the US. It was the most out of left field release ever and I wanted it. I put the first disc in and was hooked from there. I love to marathon shows as it is, but damn Zeta was compelling. It took me about a week to watch the entire series but I absolutely loved it.

On another topic, my Admin bros Kickback and Sentai Tamashii just bought me a Master Grade Perfect Gundam for my birthday (which is today) :D

Been rewatching Gundam 00. I forgot how well paced it is. It has the pacing and development of something like the compilation movies, yet, its a show.

With me being in a super huge Gundam phase right now, I'm surprised I haven't just spent all of my money on 00 high grades yet. (Which all of my money would be about $20 lol).

I don't know if I should continue onto ZZ after Zeta or skip to a certain point of the show or just watch Char's Counterattack or what.

I'm an OCD freak. So I always say watch what comes chronologically next. And since ZZ picks up mere hours after the final episode of Zeta, it's very much a continuation. As I stated on the last page, it has it's drawbacks but it's still a great show.

Just power through ZZ, it's worth a watch. The hg00 line was prolific. Just about every ms design from the series was made. Needless to say, if there's an itch to scratch, they'll. Have something for you.

Well, happy birthday! If I remember correctly, it's built upon the 1.5 frame. It should be an interesting build and look awesome next to the build strike.

Exactly :D

Quick question about HG Nadleeh. I know he doesn't come with the stuff that Virtue did, so do they sell those parts that it could use as weapons seperate from Virtue? I don't want to buy an MS I'm not a big fan of just to not assemble it just to get like 2 or 3 parts.

00 was when High Grades really became good, specifically the season 2 mechs are all great.

I'm waiting for the proper release. I've watched the dubs up until now so I'll probably stick to that.

These days I can't stand dubs. Just don't work for me anymore. Though I can still watch older shows like Zeta & Wing in dub.


And I know I posted this over at TFW, but I figured you guys needed to see it too. Ran across an unboxed Neo Zeong on twitter last night.

http://imageshack.com/a/img835/3829/v12x.jpg

I kinda pity the craftsmen who like to completely repaint their model kits. All that painting to do...

Holy cow.

That's like…three master grades worth of runners there!

:eek: after watching that episode, I wanted to get one.

I'm weird. I'll only watch AU Gundam dubbed (if it is) whereas UC, I'll watch it in Japanese with subs (bar my eventual viewing of Unicorn).

I watch UC with subs because I started it with the MSG compilation movies and why would I switch over to a dub now?

So, having finally finished building my MG Astray Red Frame and MG Crossbone
Full Cloth. I can say this.

Red Frame is by far the most fun kit I have ever build, and while I love the full cloth crossbone design, the MG kit is terrible, nothing wants to stay put, panels and random parts are very loose on it.

I just finished rewatching season 1 of 00. Now I am tempted to jump into this whole gunpla thing. As if I wasn't on the fence already :D

Just saw this on Flickr:

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3817/...764c57c8_c.jpg0524_UC-7 by とほ。, on Flickr

I hear people say that you're gonna fuck up your first gunpla kit and considering I only really really want like 3 or 4 kits, I'm scared of what happens to the ones I most desire. So, should I get a more inexpensive kit in order to have a first try before I go on or am I fine?

If you have any left over bits or runners, practice using those first.

I didnt screw up my kit, which was the HG00 00 Raiser with GN3 sword. Might vary depending on the kit though.

Probably of interest to some:

Gundam's Advance of Zeta Spinoff Manga Cancelled Due to Artist's Health