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Quick reminder that I've moved things around.

If you're looking for gunpla you'll want to check out the ephemeral-builds blog.

I've also been watching some Macross and posting my thoughts over on ephemeral-ephemera if you're curious.

[argumentalist]

I'm going to be shuffling things around a little bit...

I didn't really understand how primary/secondary blogs worked when I first got on Tumblr and was just posting everything right here on my primary blog. But I don't really want absolutely everything I do on Tumblr to be under that "ephemeral-builds" label. So I've created a new/secondary blog to post my builds to.

If you're looking for gunpla you'll want to check out the ephemeral-builds blog.

I've also been watching some Macross and posting my thoughts over on ephemeral-ephemera if you're curious.

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My wife bought me a "DIY Miniature House" for Christmas last year, and I didn't love it. It didn't push my usual plamo buttons and much of the build was annoying.

Well, this year she tried again with the CuteBee DIY BookNook Owl Bookstore.

Right off the bat - this kit looks a lot better than that "DIY Miniature House" last year. It's mostly laser-cut wooden parts. There's a sheet of stickers and some clear plastic for windows, as well as a lighting kit.

The wooden parts are fantastic - great printing, clean cuts, easy to snap out of the runner, and they fit together very tightly. It's definitely pushing some of those plamo buttons for me.

There's a bunch of plexiglass-ish plastic to glue into place for windows. I used some canopy glue, which dries completely clear, so I didn't have to worry too much about making a mess.

Some of the stickers didn't work great... It kind of looks like this was originally a sheet of printed paper to cut and glue that was upgraded to stickers at some point, because they don't always make sense. There's a couple pictures to stick into frames, but the sticker-y adhesive is on the wrong side. So I had to cut and glue them. Same thing with the sticker that goes behind the "Owl Bookstore" signage.

Everything continues to snap together nicely. There's some more gluing to do, but nothing egregious. No papercraft books to cut/fold/glue. No tiny furniture to upholster. I'm finding myself really enjoying this build.

And there it is - all assembled and lit-up. It looks fantastic. And as the picture up top shows, it looks even better up on my bookshelf.

The build was really satisfying and I'm not at all opposed to building another one of these. Far superior to that "DIY Miniature House" I built last year.

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I wasn't a huge fan of Build Divers. The whole Build series is kind of an interesting premise... I mean, I'd absolutely love an actual game like that. But the stakes feel necessarily lower when they're basically just playing video games - not actually fighting wars. (Well, at least in Build Divers.)

But some of the suit designs are absolutely amazing. I love seeing these characters' customized gunpla. And the MomoKapool is just adorable.

I think this is my first HG Build Divers kit, and it's about what I expect from modern gunpla. There's a few polycaps, of course, but it's not excessive like some of the older kits. And there's no ABS inner-frame.

The head/eyes on this kit annoyed me.

There's a whole pile of stickers for various expressions, but only one head/eye section. So I can't really change the expression as I (re)pose the model. I would've really appreciated having a couple extra head/eye sections so I could do multiple expressions.

Also - it wasn't clear until after I'd applied the stickers, but there's a color-separated eye section. So I probably didn't actually need to use a sticker at all.

This whole kit is adorable from head to toe. Stubby little fingers. Big, ducky feet. Roly-poly, fat body.

One of the weird (?) things I like to do as I build a kit is kind of play with the parts as I assemble them. Examine the joints and construction and see how things move. Put a limb through its paces. Just kind of marveling at the engineering and design of the kit.

But this time around I found myself just kind of grinning at the cute little parts. It's just silly from start to finish.

So there aren't really any accessories to speak of... No weapons or shield or anything like that. But there is a cute little Petitkapool to ride around inside it.

And, again, there's a variety of different eye stickers for the Petitkapool... But you're basically stuck with just the one. There's no good way to swap eyes.

Scattered across the runners there's enough left-over parts to build another two arm segments. You could probably use these to make the arms longer - kind of like the extendable arms we see with the Acguy kit.

The MomoKapool is just adorable. I know I keep saying it, but that's just such a striking thing with gunpla. Usually they're big, scary weapons of war... And this thing looks like a penguin plushie.

There's basically no articulation on the PetitKapool - but that's fine. It's really just supposed to hide away inside the MomoKapool. I'm honestly kind of surprised that Bandai bothered to include the thing at all. Especially with its own eye stickers and display stand. Definitely shows some dedication.

The arms pop off and everything folds up into a cute little ball. Again - it's adorable.

The articulation isn't great. The legs are very short and stubby and stiff. The arms are actually surprisingly good, but the fingers barely move. There's some bend and flex at the waist, but not much. Surprisingly - the head/eyes can rotate some, independently of the body.

I'm really kind of surprised by how solid and satisfying this build was. I guess I kind of expected it to be almost a joke or a throw-away. Bandai clearly took this design seriously despite the fact that it looks almost like a joke.

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I've been building a High Grade Phenex for the past couple days and am almost done with the main build at this point! Just gotta finish up the backpack/armed armors and then it's time for paint. Because that plastic gold color sucks so much.

Thought I'd show you because you're one of the few gunpla Tumblrs I know

Thanks for sharing!

Yeah, that injection gold can be rough... But the build is looking good despite it!

Have you checked out the gunpla community? Lots of great builders posting all sorts of stuff over there.

[argumentalist]

Well, I said I'd have to build the second set of option parts, and here it is - Option Parts Set Gunpla 02 (Launcher Striker & Sword Striker).

Right away this has clearly got a lot of different colored plastic. Nothing like the all-grey Iron-Blooded Orphans option set.

Again, there's not really a lot to this set. The instructions are pretty light and the build was fairly quick.

While I guess it doesn't actually say "Entry Grade" on the box it's definitely got that feel. There's no stickers in the box and there's some fantastic color separation. All those different bits of yellow, red, and grey are separate parts.

Like it says on the box - you get the Launcher Striker and the Sword Striker. There's some beam effects for the sword. And a wire for the claw. Plus a couple adapters to use these parts on a standard HG, as well as some bits to combine it with the Aile Striker.

The support arm for the launcher is incredibly floppy and annoying. It doesn't move and bend the way I expect it to, so the easiest way to pose the kit is to actually remove that support arm and then re-attach it in the new pose.

The Sword Striker is annoying in its own ways... The beam boomerang really doesn't fit into the hand well. And it feels like attaching that shoulder armor is more complicated than it needs to be.

One of the neat things about combining everything into a Perfect Strike Gundam is that there's a 3mm mounting hole in the Aile Striker - which helps offset the weight of everything and makes posing much easier.

While I absolutely love the simplicity and color separation of the Entry Grade kits, I feel like this is really pushing the limits of what they're capable of. It's starting to feel a little weak and iffy. It's substantially less solid than the Strike Gundam was on its own.

Now I want to try building the Real Grade version and see how it compares...

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My first time building a Gundam Artifact - #006, the Full Armor Gundam.

I was hearing a lot about "Gundam Artifact" a while back... But since I'm in a fairly small, rural town I've got limited access to gunpla. And all of the online stores seemed to sell out really, really fast. I was eventually able to order a full set of Series 2 from Bandai.

The Series 2 box contains five kits, numbered sequentially from 006 to 010. The boxes for the individual kits all look identical except for a label on the top. There doesn't seem to be any unique box art or anything.

I kind of expected another simple, chunky, gashapon-style thing in the box. That's absolutely not what I got. This is a full-on plastic model kit with three runners full of tiny, tiny little parts to snip and assemble.

I'm really kind of blown-away by the detail and complexity of this kit. The pictures really aren't doing it justice. This leg here is made from eight separate parts. It's absolutely covered in little surface details. And the whole thing is about the size of a quarter. I'm stunned that they managed such intricate molding at that scale.

Everything snaps together very nicely. Very tight, solid fit. No real issues getting anything assembled. The few times things didn't want to go together it was because I was doing something wrong.

I think I probably should've glued this thing together? I don't imagine I'm ever going to need to disassemble anything? And I think some plastic cement would help solidify everything nicely... But it was already half-built when I realized that, and I didn't want to try to disassemble what I'd already built. So that's just a note for next time.

Once you've got the component bits assembled it all just slots together into the torso. The assembly isn't tricky or complicated, it's all just very tiny. Tweezers are an absolute necessity. And cleaning up gate-marks is a genuine challenge - some of those nubs are bigger than the intentional surface details.

The arms can swing up and down, the head turns, and that shoulder cannon has a bit of movement... But I would absolutely not call this "articulated" or "posable". It kind of reminds me of building a Warhammer model - where you've got one or two options/poses to pick from. It's basically a static build. A tiny little statue. An artifact.

I really want to do something to bring out all those surface details... Panel-lining, or something... But they're so tiny and intricate and absolutely everywhere... Maybe a panel-wash? Hit it with a glaze? Some Nuln Oil?

I'm genuinely impressed with this tiny little kit. There's a lot more to it than I expected. I'm certainly looking forward to building the rest of this series... And I'm hoping to track down some more.

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I've been re-watching Gundam SEED... And I was really impressed with the Entry Grade Strike Gundam I built a little while back... So I had to pick up the Option Parts Set Gunpla 01 (Aile Striker).

Much like that option parts set for Iron-Blooded Orphans that I built a little while back - it's a pretty small box. Not a lot of plastic in there. And the instructions are similarly light.

I was a little worried when I opened the box and saw all the grey plastic right on top. I thought it might all be completely color-inaccurate like that Iron-Blooded Orphans option parts set I built.

But, no, there's actually a good amount of color in the box. There's a couple grey runners with weapons on them. A black runner. And a multicolor runner with some white, red, yellow, and a couple translucent pink beam effect parts.

As expected, it's a quick build.

There's some kind of beam-shotgun looking weapon. A ridiculously huge bazooka. The grand slam sword. The Aile Striker backpack. A couple beam sabers complete with transparent pink blade effects. And some extra bits and pieces to accommodate different 1/144 kits and allow you to eventually build the Perfect Strike (if you buy another option parts set).

The beam shotgun (I dunno, that's just what I'm calling it) looks pretty neat. And since both weapons can be used ambidextrously you can dual-wield them!

The bazooka is just amazing. It's got four magazines, two of which are removable.

The Entry Grade Strike Gundam has a 3mm hole to accommodate a stand. I'm just using a Simple Stand from Good Smile Company. They generally work great... But this kit has that annoying thing where the hole is made from two parts sandwiched together, and it doesn't really want to stay intact. The butt-skirt kept separating as I posed the kit. I guess I might want to cement that eventually...

As for the grand slam sword - it looks kind of amazing.

I always appreciate when a kit can actually reach for its weapons.

Unlike the Iron-Blooded Orphans option parts set - this one feels like real value for the money. It looks good right out of the box with no painting or stickers needed. It builds quickly and easily and really augments the Entry Grade Strike Gundam.

I guess I could maybe complain that these parts should've been in the EG kit to start with? Or that a stand should've been included since the Aile Strike is obviously going to be up in the air? But either of those would've increased the price, so I guess it'd be a wash.

Anyway - I'm quite happy with this build. And I'm definitely going to have to pick up the second option parts set, too.

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Grabbed a quick picture of the HG God Gundam and HG Nobell Gundam up on the shelf.

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I've wanted to build one of these things ever since I first learned that they exist. Some kind of weird Sailor Moon style Gundam? Yes please!

Unfortunately they were out of print for a while... And I wasn't willing to pay $60+ for an old HG kit... But the recent reprints have made it readily available once again.

So, here it is - the High Grade Future Century Nobell Gundam!

I didn't really watch Mobile Fighter G Gundam when it was current. I probably caught an episode or two on Cartoon Network back in the day, but I didn't generally have time for anime back then.

I didn't know this design existed until I saw it mentioned in a list of feminine gunpla on Reddit a couple years ago. I knew I had to build it.

This is an older kit originally released back around 2011. It's got a couple runners of ABS plastic for the inner-frame. No polycaps at all.

There's a simple sheet of foil stickers. There's a little white for around the collar, a couple red stripes, eyes and cameras, and a bit of green for the middle of the chest. Nothing terribly egregious. And everything seems to fit pretty well.

I've built "feminine" gunpla like the Aerial... And I built that Figure Rise Standard kit of ChuChu... But I've never built an explicitly feminine robot like this.

I know it's accurate to the show, but the design is just weird. It's a straight-up robot girl in a sailor suit.

For the beam ribbon weapon effects we get some pink printed acetate. It peels off a sticker-y backing and you get two short, straight segments as well as three different spirals. I'm surprised at how decent they look.

There's a couple open hands, a couple holding hands, a left hand doing the peace sign, as well as a couple extra hands for the Shining Gundam - so it can carry the Nobell Gundam. There's two handles for the beam ribbon, a stand adapter, and a base/weight thing for the beam ribbon effect.

The articulation is a little limited... There's just the one joint for the elbows and knees, so you can't get anything super-exaggerated. But it pulls off pretty much all the poses I was aiming for. It looks really nice and dynamic. Especially with that beam ribbon effect.

The kit includes a basic stand in a milky, translucent white plastic. It's not great but it'll definitely get the kit off the ground.

And, again, this thing just looks really good. There's absolutely nothing else like it up on my shelf. Truly unique.

Now I kind of need to build the berserk mode of the Nobell Gundam, too.

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My wife got me a couple of these Bandai Godzilla gashapon as gifts. They're not exactly plamo... But they're made by Bandai and some assembly is required...

I don't know what these things would look like if you actually grabbed one out of a capsule machine in Japan - but the ones my Wife got her hands on come in bags.

There's a weird-looking, wrinkly, scaly capsule inside the bag. And inside that capsule you've got your goodies. Which are, themselves, wrapped in plastic.

As you can see - some assembly is required. It's definitely not a full-on model kit, but there's still some satisfaction in building it. As usual with pretty much everything I've touched from Bandai - the fit is fantastic. This is made out of a weird, soft, flexible plastic.

It looks like I got the Godzilla (1994) figure this time. This would be the same version of Godzilla that showed up in Godzilla versus Space Godzilla.

Again, I'm surprised by the level of detail in this tiny little thing. And it really leaves me wanting to collect more of these things.

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My wife got me a couple of these Bandai Godzilla gashapon as gifts. They're not exactly plamo... But they're made by Bandai and some assembly is required...

I don't know what these things would look like if you actually grabbed one out of a capsule machine in Japan - but the ones my Wife got her hands on come in bags.

There's a weird-looking, wrinkly, scaly capsule inside the bag. And inside that capsule you've got your goodies. Which are, themselves, wrapped in plastic.

As you can see - some assembly is required. It's definitely not a full-on model kit, but there's still some satisfaction in building it. As usual with pretty much everything I've touched from Bandai - the fit is fantastic. This is made out of a weird, soft, flexible plastic.

I got MOGUERA this time around. It's a combining robot thing that shows up in Godzilla versus Space Godzilla.

I'm honestly a little surprised at the level of detail in this tiny little thing.

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Have you ever done kitbashes/would you want to?

I have not yet kitbashed anything.

I'm interested... But I'm always afraid of ruining my kits. I'm not convinced that I'd be able to produce what's in my head. I'm worried it'd just end with a pile of broken, mangled plastic.

I'll try it eventually - but I'm not there yet.

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Back to Bandai this week - but it's still not normal gunpla...

I've been eying this kit for a while and finally picked one up for myself. I'm not generally a fan of the chibi/SD-style kits, but this one just looked too cute to pass up.

It's a small box with just a single page of instructions. The whole build took me maybe half an hour.

This Limex plastic is really weird. Very soft with a velvety matte finish to it. And it marks super, super easy. It's also oddly heavy.

There's just a single foil sticker in the box - a bit of black that goes around the eyes. Obviously nothing egregious but I can't help feeling like that could've been properly color-separated.

Having said that, the color-separation is actually pretty fantastic for the head and torso. Lots of bright, vibrant colors and crisp molding. I mean, it's simple and chunky and exaggerated... But it looks really good.

The arms and legs are just basically sticks.

You get the little Gunpla-Kun guy as well as the runner display we'll see in just a moment... But there's also a beam rifle, shield, and beam sword.

The colors aren't great on the accessories - everything is just molded in a single color. And it's not even the right colors. I feel like the backpack and beam rifle should've been black.

I'm tempted to paint some of these details... Throw a bit of yellow on the shield's starburst... Or at least paint the beam sword's blade... But I'm not sure how paint would work with this Limex, and there's something to be said for the ridiculously simplicity of this kit as-is.

There's basically no articulation in this kit. The head can bobble around a bit on its ball-joint. The arms and legs can swing up/down a bit. But that's really it. You're not going to get anything expressive or dynamic out of this thing.

This is why you build the kit - the cute little gunpla display. It's kind of adorable. Definitely looks good on my desk. Definitely speaks to my love of gunpla. Makes me happy just looking at it.

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I was looking through my backlog, trying to decide what to build next, and realized I'd never built this bootleg pink Shia Qan[T].

Unlike my last AliExpress bootleg kit - this one came in a box. But I'm not sure what that box art has to do with the kit itself...

The instructions are decent. A little small and hard to read, but definitely serviceable.

The kit comes with a sheet of foil stickers as well as some waterslide decals. I'll use the stickers, but I'm saving the waterslides for something nicer.

The fit and finish of this kit leaves quite a bit to be desired.

The molded surface details are decent... But the parts really don't want to go together nicely. Everything feels either too tight or too loose. I actually had to glue a couple bits because they kept falling off. And I needed to use pliers to apply enough pressure to get some other bits together.

I'm not sure what kind of plastic this is molded from but I don't like it. And, again, it seems inconsistent. The white and pink plastic feels almost oily. And the grey bits feel very stiff and brittle.

I tried to do some panel-lining, but gave up about halfway through. It just didn't want to stick. It was rubbing off just when I was handling the kit.

I've never built a Qan[T] - Shia or otherwise - so I'm not really sure how this build compares. I don't know what accessories should or shouldn't be included. But there's a neat sword, an open left hand, and an absolutely massive shield thing.

Right off the bat the kit feels very loose and squishy. The hips absolutely do not want to hold any kind of pose. The legs keep sliding apart, flopping the kit on the table.

Well, it certainly does look striking. The glossy, transparent blue definitely stands out against the pink. There's lots of molded surface detail that I'd love to panel-line, but the ink just isn't sticking.

The weakness of this kit continues to frustrate. That giant shoulder shield thing keeps popping off its support arm. And, again, the legs just don't want to hold anything up. I have to leave it standing almost straight. I can't do anything terribly dynamic.

I guess I'm not disappointed with this kit... I mean, I didn't spend more than $10 for it, so the bar is set pretty low. But it was certainly a little frustrating.

Ultimately I'm not sure that these bootleg kits are worth it. Maybe for something that's exceptionally rare and hard to find and expensive? But it really didn't give me the satisfying build experience that I'm looking for.

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I'm still recovering from that big Ver.Ka build - so I'm building another High Grade kit this week. The HGIBO Graze Standard/Command Type.

I missed-out on Iron-Blooded Orphans when it was new. And since I wasn't willing to pay $60+ for a standard HG kit, the recent HGIBO reprints are my first opportunity to build some of these kits.

I was pleasantly surprised at how minimal the sticker sheet is. Just some yellow bits for the glow of the AHAB reactor and a couple camera lenses. That's it. I mean, yeah, it's a grunt kit so it's not like the coloration is too crazy... But I'm used to older kits being more sticker-heavy.

I'm again using the panel-liner I bought off AliExpress a while back... And I think I'm liking it. It doesn't flow as nicely as the Gundam Markers I'm used to... But the clean-up seems to be easier.

I was tempted to paint these yellow bits - but I'm trying for a simple build. Nothing complex or involved. So I just went ahead and used the stickers.

I love that this kit includes the head-opening monoeye gimmick.

I really like how mechanical the mobile suits are in Iron-Blooded Orphans. All sorts of exposed machinery and pistons and stuff. And this kit does a great job of capturing it.

I love how lean and angular the Graze is. It really feels like a no-frills piece of military machinery. Clearly a grunt suit. And while it's definitely channeling the Zaku II with that monoeye and the commander antenna and the green color... It's almost the polar opposite of that rounded, chonky design.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that you get two full sets of boosters. I completely expected to be re-using the same two boosters in two positions.

Beyond that - we get a choice of standard or commander heads, a big axe, and a rifle. Just the standard/closed/holding hands.

I love how the HGIBO line really went all-in on the part-swapping and customization. Right in the instructions it's suggesting throwing the Graze shoulders on Barbatos.

It's not the most poseable kit... The legs, specifically, are a little hard to work with. The hips and waist skirting don't allow for a lot of mobility there. And the feet are a little stiff. It's hard to get a good, dynamic stance.

Still, it does look pretty fantastic.

This really is one of my favorite grunt suits. And I'm seriously looking forward to building some of the variations on the standard Graze now that they're readily available again.

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I've been re-watching Gundam SEED lately... And I wasn't ready for a genuinely complicated build yet... So this week I'm doing the Entry Grade Strike Gundam.

I was really impressed with this Entry Grade kit. I keep expecting them to be unsatisfyingly simple... And that's just not the case. Really nice molding. Good, sharp details. Terrific color separation and accuracy without any stickers. Good articulation. It really blows my mind that Bandai can do something like this so simply and cheaply.

This basic Strike Gundam kit just comes with a shield and beam rifle... But that's probably about right for the Strike. All the other goodies are routinely coming from some sort of Striker Pack - which, incidentally, can be purchased separately.

Posing this kit was a little bit of a struggle... The articulation is fine, but the joints are very stiff and the kit is super-light, so things don't really want to settle into poses nicely.

Again, though, I'm really impressed with this kit. I'm definitely going to have to pick up some of those add-ons. And I believe there's an Entry Grade Strike Rouge out there, too, which I'll have to look for.