Hobby Magazine August Issue

Upcoming Gundam series: Mobile Suit Gundam AGE

Release date: Fall 2011

  

High Grade 1/144 Gundam Age-1 Normal

Release date: September 2011

Price: 1,200 Yen

Images and source from: GUNDAM GUY

Upcoming High Grade in August

It is not new kits that make the news instead of the kits that we already knew which are the High Grade Shining Gundam and Master Gundam. Going back to the Future Century, the High Grade Shining Gundam is looking fantastic and I’m glad Bandai decides to stick with the Future Century line and perhaps After War Gundam X will have the chance to join the High Grade kits after this.

Looking at the Shining Gundam, it will come with 2 sets of head which are normal mode and super mode, a Shining Finger Sword and an incredible over-sized Shining Finger, hopefully it doesn’t cause any weight issue to the kit for posing. So far I’m not sure whether Bandai will include the gold part inside the shoulder or it will be grey part as shown in the prototype.

 

Another Future Century kits will be joining Shining Gundam in August is the Master Gundam with Fuun Saiki which I think it is awesome to have a High Grade horse. The Master Gundam is looking great as it can have its Darkness Finger come from the cloak and the cloak goes around it properly, a master cloth and also an over-sized Darkness Finger. The fact that Master Gundam comes together with Fuun Saiki, I think it makes a guarantee purchase for the old school G Gundam fans.

 Images : Gunjap

ELS 00 Qan[T]

Gundam 00 The Movie: ELS 00 Qan[T] Charity Auction by Kanetake

Found an illustration of ELS 00 Qan[T] in gunjap website. First impression is the author tries to make Qanta looks like more human-ish mobile suit similar to Nirvash type Zero from Eureka Seven.

Nirvash Type Zero Spec 3

Gunpla

I guess everyone who knew Gundam will probably quite familiar with the word Gunpla and so do I. Gunpla came from combination of the words Gundam Plastic model and I have to say that Gunpla is the coolest model kit ever!

Despite Gunpla had been existed for decades but due to the popularity of Gundam especially in North America and Europe as Gundam Wing being aired through television, thus indirectly making Gunpla becomes famous. Besides that, as Bandai keeps on improving the mechanical design by the brilliant designer, Mr. Katoki Hajime, that makes Gundam fans like me feel worth for buying it.

My very first Gunpla, Gundam Virsago. Back to 12 years ago, this is the best quality of Gunpla i ever have 

In terms of quality, Bandai had made the best evolution of Gunpla from Non Grade, High Grade, Master Grade, Perfect Grade and finally Real Grade. Well the category that I most crazy about is Master Grade due to its detail design, inner frame, nice dry transfer and water decals and I’m really looking forward for the new coming Master Grade, Gundam Epyon from Gundam Wing. 

My greatest interest is collecting Gunpla, although I have only 15 Master Grade Gunplas in my collection, yet I’m looking forward for my collection to grow. Last but not least, happy 30^th anniversary to Gunpla and thank you very much Bandai~

How did I get into Gundam?

Despite there are a whole bunch of animes coming out from Japan and the only anime that really catch my attention was Mobile Suit Gundam. At the same time I want to thank a friend who had leaded me into the world of Gundam. Here is my story which is pretty simple. 

Back to 1998, during that time I had no internet, no vcd and no computer, so the only entertainment at the mean time was watching tv and video tapes. One day, my friend had given me a video tape that had Kido Butoden G Gundam written on it (hopefully I pronounce it correctly), but at that time I literally knew nothing about Gundam except the fact that they were giant robots similar to those super robots like Mazinger Z and had a V fin on their forehead.  After I had watched the first two episodes, I think it was great.

I’m quite embarrassed to say that Gundam means a lot to me as it had accompanied me ever since I was at the age of 10. I started to listen to Gundam’s opening and ending themes which later on my father knew I like it so much and he purposely bought me a collection of Gundam soundtrack. From the soundtrack I realized that G Gundam was just one of the Gundam series and there are huge bunch of other Gundam universe that I wanted to find out more about which lead me to watch most of the Gundam series. 

That wraps out for how I get into Gundam, so why don’t you leave a comment down below and stay tuned for lots more articles about Gundam. Enjoy the first opening theme from G Gundam and thank you very much.

Rules Before Boarding

There are some problems that I encountered before boarding an international flight which are quite minor but it is good to be aware of. I appreciate all the hard works done by customs officers because after all they try to ensure we have a safe journey. 

For domestic flight, when your hand carry luggage goes through the customs, they will just roughly scan your stuff, asking what is inside the bag, sometimes weight your luggage and that’s it. They are quite lenient.

When come to international flight, the procedures are stricter than domestic flight. Firstly, before entering to the departure hall, my passport and thumb print are required to check-in using a machine and that is how my problems begin. I was stuck at the machine due to that silly thumb print sensor. After I inserted my passport into it, I need to press my thumb quite hard on the sensor to get my thumb sensed. But the thing is the small piece of glass seems to be easy to break and that’s why I dare not press it with full force, so error keep on showing on the screen. 3 minutes struggling with the machine, I decided to walk out from that stupid machine and manually check-in at the counter.

 While waiting for the long queue to reach the customs, I took a glance at how the officers frisk the passengers and check their hand carry luggage. It took a few seconds to get things done, so I thought it would be easy to pass the customs. When it’s my turn, first thing that the officer told me was ‘Please take out your laptop and belt,’ Well laptop is still acceptable but why belt?  Maybe they wanted to prevent me from highjacking the plane by strangling the pilot with my belt.

Trouble still haunting me until the very last moment before boarding. When the officer opened my bag, he asked me to empty my bottle which is full of water and I forced to drink half bottle and pour the rest. The worst thing is the officer had confiscated my lotion as only 100 ml of liquid is allowed to board while my lotion exceeds that limit which is 200 ml. Now I’m suffering dry skin in UK thanks to my dear officer for carrying out his job so seriously. I guess the reason why the amount of liquid is restricted is because explosive chemical stuff like liquid nitrogen can be made by water.

Airbus 330-200 from Etihad Airways  awaits, Liverpool here i come~