#legos is an expensive hobby

[nicos-oc-hell]

⚽️ Owen MacKade 🎮

My half of an aesthetic trade with @unfortunate-arrow

[lucyllawless]

Saturday afternoons be like…

[lesbianvillain]

legos……….

[boydepartment]

Dating him

✉️Jeongin would’ve never asked you out if Han wasn’t stupid enough to accidentally tell you that you had a crush on him. The second Jeongin knew you liked him he was giddy and ready to start bumping up the charm. He’d be super dorky but in the most charming way possible. Jeongin ended up asking you out when you two were already eating lunch together.

“What if this was a date. What would you say to that?”

“What?”

“You heard me.”

✉️Jeongin is a total sweetheart but also a total gremlin when it comes to being romantic. He’s like those sour patch kid commercials. At one point he’s teasing you over how you got your new shoes dirty, then he’s giving you an extra pair of his wild ass shoes.

✉️Whenever he’s playing video games with the boys and it ends in an argument, he usually relies on you to take his side. Even if he’s wrong, just to get on Felix or Seungmin’s nerves you’ll agree with your boyfriend.

“OF COURSE YOU AGREE WITH HIM HES YOUR BOYFRIEND???”

“Okay and? I don’t have to agree w him.”

✉️Your photography skills have DEFINITELY improved after dating him. He asks you to take photos for him and with him all the time. You absolutely love it. It even led you to doing photography on the side :,)

✉️Sometimes you do have to reassure him though with how amazing he is. Jeongin is really hard on himself especially with who he has around him, so he’s thankful he can relax around you. He doesn’t have to constantly be on top of himself around you. Jeongin loves that. He loves you.

✉️You don’t usually sleep at the dorm however, he does love going on overnight trips to random places. Whether it be an amusement park, or waterpark. He loves to walk with you in public and admire you.

“Ethereal…”

“What?”

“What-“

✉️One time you wanted to try out a new hobby. So you tried to start crocheting! You made a ton of ugly beanies and a ton of ugly bags. Jeongin was your #1 fan tho, anything you make, he will wear. And he WILL show it off

“My partner made this!!! You can’t have it.”

✉️You would’ve thought that he wouldn’t want to share his clothes. Since they’re all fairly unique and expensive you thought he wouldn’t let you touch them. YOU WERE SO WRONG. Jeongin’s favorite thing to do is style you in different clothes. In HIS clothes.

✉️Quiet times involve you guys building little models together and sometimes legos. You really love the Lego sets that are themed, like the Star Wars or Harry Potter sets. He likes messing with them when you’re not looking so it works out

💌Jeongin’s love is special, it’s youthful and filled with banter. It’s sort of like the color yellow. Yellow is loud and can be annoying but it’s so warm and reminds you of summer.

[chrispineofficial]

legos are a crazy expensive hobby. unfortunately! they did get me 😔

[cybergoth-damsel]

It's amazing how lego sets targeted at adults cost multiples of times more than imported model kits even by big name JPN brands. I tried to get into LEGO in 2022 but it was so expensive that I decided it wasn't worth it after buying just one $30 set.

Because the appeal of LEGO to me was modifying and repurposing them I never thought I'd enjoy gunpla until I found out about 30 Minute Missions kits last week.

(30 Minute Missions are a bandai gunpla line that sport interchangeable parts and "extra parts packs" that allow you some beginner friendly customization without breaking out a power drill)

I bought a small on-sale kit from a local hobby shop for only $14 and I really liked putting her together;

I'm a little embarrassed posting her because she's so small and simple but I'm pushing through it LOL

Since I'm picky about paint and tired of working with spraycans I'll have to save up for an airbrush set-up, but the ceiling of expression already feels a lot higher than I thought it would! Also I'm really happy at the prospect of a hobby that won't burn blue light into my retina. For the time being I'm very happy to have something fun to look forward to.

If you customize gunpla at all or use 30 minute missions lmk! I wanna see what people have done with them and get some inspiration outside of the most god-tier expensive complicated shit.

[akhuna]

Headcanons for the Witcher story I'm currently working on

Vesemir: Has taken up gardening. Currently trying to bring the rose bushes on his property back to life.

Aiden: Owns a Maserati. Lives on espresso shots. Collects tiny figurines of animals.

Lambert: Borrows Aiden's Maserati (regularly). Spends a small fortune on Lego sets. Has the most expensive, stylish and impersonal flat.

Eskel: Right now recovering from the injury that gave him the scars as well as from serious heartbreak. Loves to end the day with hot chocolate.

Geralt: Chill big brother who holds everything together (don't tell Vesemir). (I'm still fleshing out a hobby for him.)

Letho: Does yoga. Listens to classical music. Loves white tea.

Gaetan: Listens to Industrial and Noise during training and Future Pop to calm himself down. Runs the Database at Headquarters. Loves Japanese food and learns Japanese (in secret).

[sweetheart-satoru]

lego set

he's glad he can live his childhood through your hobbies

author's note: i rewrote everything cuz this sucks 😋 also reader is around the same age as denji so we are in fact no hi*eno #2

denji wished he met you earlier.

he wasted his first kiss on himeno, who not only made his first kiss experience terrible but also vomited in his mouth to make it worse. whenever he thinks back to that moment, his mouth goes dry and he thinks he might cry.

he thinks he might die of humiliation when remembering her vomit's chunky, gross taste. "bleugh!" he groans to himself, and aki turns to look at him confused. "what's wrong?" aki was in the middle of discussing something with someone that denji didn't bother to learn their name.

"nothing, i'm gonna go get water!" he excuses himself and power jumps on his back, "ooh! ooh! let me come! ponytail boy is boring." she sticks her tongue out, which aki ignores. "no, you're both in trouble. power, you need to stay. denji, hurry up." he replies, which makes power frown. "see, boring." but she just walks away and sits in a chair.

denji leaves the room, quickly shutting the door and holding his stomach. he feels like he might throw up. as he walks up to a water fountain, he bumps into a girl holding a bunch of papers in her arms.

"oh, sorry. wasn't watching where i was going." you say, bending down to pick them up. denji can barely form a word, and he thinks you're one of the prettiest people he's ever seen.

"oh- uh," he's not good with words so he just shuts up, bends down and helps you pick it up. "sorry, i also wasn't watching where i was going." he blurts out, scratching his head.

you just chuckle and reassure him that it's fine.

that's how you two first met.

over time, you and denji (and power), have gotten much closer. he comes over to hang out during the weekends or when you're back from school.

today, you're just chilling in your room watching an old show while you finished a new lego piece that you saved enough money to buy. (why the fuck is lego so expensive bro i just wanna build)

power got in trouble again so she is not here as denji knocks on your door. "coming!" you call, pausing your show and putting down whatever part from the lego you had in your hands down.

when you open the door you smile widely when you see a certain blond-haired boy in front of you. "oh, hey denji. wanna come in?" you ask, opening the door slightly more for him to enter. "yeah.. thank you.." he says, looking a bit flustered.

and over time he learned to be more neat and clean when coming over. he never listened to aki when he told him to put his shoes away nicely, so when he first stepped foot into your house and saw all the shoes neatly lined up, he couldn't help but want to please you and do the same.

you lead him to your room, which every time he steps into, he feels nervous. he fidgets with his fingers, not paying attention to where he is going and almost falls down.

"holy shit!" you cuss, trying to muffle your laughter. "are you okay, denji?" you help him back up on his feet, and you watch his face get red. "yeah.. i'm okay." he yells at himself to get his shit together in his head.

holy shit i just embarrassed myself like crazy!! he imagines power laughing in his face.

"here," you let him sit in the chair where your lego was near, "i'll get you ice." quickly, you rush downstairs and come back with and ice pack. when you hand it to him he mumbles a quiet, "thanks." and puts the ice on his little injury.

he turns the chair around to face the table in front of it, "hm? what's this?" he points to the lego. you tilt your head, "that's my new lego set! i jus' bought it!" you exclaim joyfully.

"woahh.." he looks at it closer, "what does that mean?" he asks, confused. "hm? have you never had lego before?" you ask him, "well i mean, i was basically homeless my entire life, and was on the verge of death like every other day trying to make money.. so, yeah.. never had one before." he shrugs, as if what he said literally wasn't crazy.

you cough awkwardly, "oh.." he just nods, still paying attention to the lego set, trying to understand what it is, "well, want me to show you?" you ask, trying to lighten the mood.

"yeah!" he exclaims, "okay, stand up," you shoo him out of your chair, "see this?" you show him the instruction book, "you need to follow what they're saying. so this page is where i'm on right now, you basically need to look for the pieces the page is telling you, and put them where the picture in the page has them. like this, see?" you show him.

he nods slowly, "can i try the next page?" he asks quietly, looking up at you. grinning down at him, you get up, "sure. here, try it."

author's note: bye i hated how i wrote the first one so here's this :,) but i still have the other version saved even though it's literal dog shit

[yearninginpages]

Being best friends with Modern! Aegon would be a complicated way to spend your 4 years of University.

He was a frat boy with a tendency to get the cops called on him for disturbance of the peace, and could sometimes be an asshole for boasting so much to get attention from girls BUT

Many people didn’t know that behind that, he was actually a great artist!

I can see Aegon being into art, and that’s definitely how you two met.

It’s a hobby he used to enjoy when he was growing up, and his Mother definitely encouraged him to continue.

It started out with you being kind of sharp and mean to him for his reputation, but eventually as you interacted more with him you realized he was just a dumbass.

You stayed away from parties, only coming by to check on him and text his family in case of an emergency.

Aegon was sweet, funny and charming. It was impossible to drop him even if people tended to tell you that you should drop him while you could.

He revealed his Star Wars collectibles and secret lego obsession with you.

He’d wait for you to get out of class, by the same door, every single day to drive you home.

But that still didn’t excuse the fact that it hurt when he wrecked himself and had casual hookups like it was nothing.

You confronted him about it and he said he didn’t see the big deal.

This was the point where you realized you needed to distance yourself because his foolish actions were even catching up to him even if he was kind to you.

He tried to get you to change your mind the only way he knew how, with expensive presents and more than public displays.

But it was too late.

This sent him even deeper down the slope of his self destructive behavior.

When he hit his third year, under academic probation, and his third case of alcohol poisoning he looked around and definitely realized he needed help.

Alicent & you were the only one that took his decision seriously and actually started to seek help with him.

It took years, and a severe alcohol poisoning where he woke up cold in a hospital with his Mother and you comforting each other as you cried to realize he was way too gone for good.

Aegon is not a perfect man, but he’s also not as much of an asshole as to let the people he loved watch him destroy himself.

And he realized that you still cared, and still looked after him. But, you knew your worth and he needed to get his act together.

You didn’t get to reconciliations immediately, it took time, and a lot of venting on both sides to really understand the depth of the situation.

It was a hard recovery for Aegon. He was still part of the frat, still had a reputation, and still got invited to the same spots with the same people.

Still, he remembered what he did this for.

Not for you, not for Alicent, not for Otto, or anyone else, but for himself.

He wanted to get better so he could finally see himself the way you saw him.

He wanted to feel like Aegon again, the real Aegon. Not the one that craves attention, and avoids responsibility.

As he got better, he started taking up the hobbies he’d once quit. Art, playing instruments (bass), and he even started his own little band which you made T-shirts for <3

He was still an arrogant douchebag sometimes, and definitely needed serious tutoring from you, but now he was happier.

He grew frustrated because even after all he went through, his Father and older half sister still posed him as a threat, and a reckless child.

But that didn’t matter anymore.

He had other things in mind.

He planned to ask you out.

Aegon had stopped the casual hook ups, deleted Tinder, and straight up told you he loved you.

He did not beat around the bush, he knew you loved him too. <3

Now you both finished your bachelors, Aegon and you moved in together, you hung up all his work around the house.

Aegon had a bunch of expectations, and a company inheritance that he could not escape.

You almost died when he announced that he wanted to leave his duties to his younger brother and intended to marry and not return to his family’s whole Law Firm.

He expanded and achieved a successful career with his band, releasing his first album!

Needless to say, you were the muse for most of his emo little songs.

Aegon was happy like this.

[butterfly-writer]

Surprise!

Hawks x Male!Reader

Summary: Y/N wanted to give Hawks a gift, but why? No reason! It was just a random day and he felt like it. And Y/N decided to pick up a new hobby!

★☽A/N: I love crocheting, and so, I’mma make the reader a pro at crocheting (Couldn’t be me but I’m still learning:DD) also- Fluff generators >>>

Contents: FLUFF - Reader being good at crocheting

══ ⋆★⋆ ══

Y/N is just walking to the stores during a random day of the week. Hawks was busy during his hero work and patrolling his part of the street. Y/N walked along the racks of items until he stumbled upon a coupon for “Crocheting lessons.” Of course, he was intrigued by this.

Then, it hit him. ‘What if I crocheted something for Keigo?’ It was brilliant! He could learn a new skill and also make a gift for Hawks! He immediately called the number by the time he went home and scheduled the course and paid through online.

In just a few weeks with extra hard work, Y/N managed to crochet at the beginner’s level and as the days went by, he could create all kinds of stuff!! All the crocheted items he created, he would give them away for charity since he didn’t want Hawks to know and to help children in need. All those things involves like: clothes, tote bags, messenger bags, gloves, stuffed animals, etc. It was an excellent skill to develop and it definitely saves money (Except the expensive yarn- It’s super expensive where I come from.)

══

A few days went by as Y/N created the most awesome gift box! It was gonna be filled with Hawks’s favorite sweets, snacks, flowers, etc, including the crocheted items he made.

Hawks started to notice his lover’s suspicious antics but didn’t pay that much attention because of his busy work at his agency and including the increase in crimes ever since All Might retired. 

Y/N ordered a bunch of Lego flowers and Hawks didn't notice the package that arrived. Taking that advantage, Y/N grabbed the package and started to build it and managed to build it all in just one day. Then he went to the stores to pick up some of Hawks's favorite treats and paid for them.

Back at home, he used the box that he bought and put all of the stuff he bought into it. He looked to the side to see the two crocheted items he made, grabbing a roll of wrapping paper and started to wrap the items in it. He wrapped it into an adorable bird patterned wrapping paper. Putting each gift carefully into the big box and writing a handwritten letter.

Grabbing the big box and hiding it in the closet, Y/N covered the box with a bunch of clothes that he left to pile up in his closet. With a mischievous chuckle, he grabbed his phone and texted Hawks.

[Y/N]

Keigo

[Birdbrain]

ye?

[Y/N]

Got a surprise for you!!

[Birdbrain]

Really????

[Y/N]

Yes :DD 

[Birdbrain]

what is it?

[Y/N]

It’s a surprise dumbass

I can’t tell you now!!

[Birdbrain]

awwhhhhh :(( 

Y/N closed his phone with a smile on his face.

All he got to do is wait for his birdy’s arrival

══

Y/N was watching on his phone on the couch when he heard the door open. “What’s my surprise?!” Hawks asked excitedly as soon as he walked into the apartment. “You gotta find it yourself!!” Y/N yelled with a smile on his face, not looking at Hawks. “WHAT? No fair!!” The blonde pouted, taking off his hero costume’s coat and walking up to the sofa. “C’mon love! Give me a hint, please?” Hawks pleaded with puppy eyes.

“It’s in our apartment.” “That’s not a hint!!” Hawks complained, making Y/N chuckle. “Too bad, sweetbird.” Looking up from the couch to face Hawks, grabbing the back of his head and giving him a peck on the lips. “Fine!” Hawks said in defeat, walking around the apartment to find the surprise. “Wait- Are you my surprise?” Hawks asked from the bathroom, “Of course not!!” Y/N yelled out from the lounge. ‘Where could it be?’ Hawks wondered. Then it hit him! ‘The bedroom! Why didn’t I think that earlier.’ He sprinted to the bedroom and practically trashed the room until he stumbled on the closet. He opened the sliding closet door and he saw a peculiar large pile of clothes, grabbing all the clothes and tossing them to the side and found the massive gift that was hidden.

“Found it!!” He yelled. ‘About time.’ Y/N smiled, getting up from the sofa and walked into the bedroom. “Well? Open it.” Hawks smiled at Y/N like a child on Christmas, opening the box’s lid and seeing all kinds of gifts in it. “Today isn’t even my birthday, why on Earth would you prepare this?” He asked, “Just wanted to show my love.” The H/C haired softly smiled.

Opening each gift one by one, he finally came to the two wrapped gifts. “Which one should I open?” Hawks asked, looking at his boyfriend. “I say.. The bigger one.” He replied. Hawks nodded and opened the bigger gift first to see a stuffed animal! It was an axolotl in Hawks’s signature colors. With a dramatic gasp, his eyes glimmered at the sight of the gift. “This is adorable!!” He said, holding the stuffed animal in his hands. Putting the axolotl down, he then opened the other wrapped gift and it was a sweater! But it was in Y/N’s signature colors. “It’s in your colors!” Taking notice of the colors on the sweater. He put it on and looked towards his boyfriend’s E/C eyes. With a smile, he jumped into Y/N’s arms. “Thank you, thank you so much!! I love them!! I love you so dang much!!” He smiled, hugging Y/N in a tight hug.

Y/N chuckled as he hugged him back. “You’re welcome, songbird.” Holding Keigo’s cheek and looking at him with caring eyes. “I would do anything for you.” He said, before kissing Keigo affectionately.

══ ⋆★⋆ ══

[bonni]

I've gotten into legos lately. what a stupid, expensive, and impractical hobby.

[orcelito]

Oh yeah, I'm going to get into crochet. I'd been thinking knitting originally, but in looking it up, I realized crochet would be more in line with what I want to try to make. I want to learn how to make cute little yarn animals. & I need to learn a hands-on hobby besides Legos, bc as fun as Lego model building is, it's not exactly sustainable as a main hobby 😂 too expensive. Fun treats when I get a new model! But I'd like smth to just Do with my hands while I'm watching things or w/e. It's calming. I think it'd help me a lot.

[dollsonmain]

I've been trying to convince That Guy to try a hobby. All he has is video games, and right now he's not enjoying any of them so he cycles between them in short bursts, miserable.

He finished Vampire Survivor. There's nothing left to do other than take each character through every stage to get a checkmark, but that can be done almost entirely AFK, all he has to do is have one certain character in the party who is invulnerable and hit a button now and then to get through level ups.

He's bad at Enter the Gungeon so isn't enjoying that.

He's also bad at Armored Core 6 so spends most of his time replaying the same mission over and over, throwing a tantrum, and acting like he's about to get extremely violent but never doing it because he knows I'd get up and leave the room if he did.

He stopped enjoying Horizon Forbidden West when the game kept giving Focuses to characters other than Aloy and she wasn't his Special Red-Haired Princess anymore.

He bought GoW around the same time as Horizon and hasn't even loaded it up. He only got into that because Kratos's old weapons are similar to poi and that's all changed in more recent games which are for some reason Norse, now.

He gets bored with Minecraft fast, but I do, too.

He was bad at Gran Turismo and stopped playing that and Genshin Impact both when he switched to the PS5 and I got him ToTK.

He's also lost interest in ToTK after finishing the story and only having puzzles, caves, and koroks left.

His interest and enjoyment in video games has waned over the years as more and more games are no longer turn based and he's no longer able to play them with ease.

He needs a tangible, hands on, productive hobby instead of only a consumptive one. The closest he gets is LEGO and he's decided he doesn't like LEGO anymore because they're expensive.

[ordinaryschmuck]

MY HIGHLIGHTS OF 2023

Got to watch Across the Spider-Verse in theaters. Trust me when I say that this is a movie made for the big screen.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 and the Loki season finale proves that Marvel isn't COMPLETELY out of ideas.

What If...? Season Two was a lot of fun for me.

Got a PS5 and finally was able to play Night in the Woods for the first time than relying on other people playing it.

Bought Spyro: The Reignited Trilogy and Crash N. Sane Trilogy in an attempt to reignite my love of gaming (Ha).

Doctor Who became good again.

Finished It All Started with a Jacket.

Bought a bunch of LEGO sets that gave me a good (albeit expensive) hobby.

Bought two different kinds of Ninja Turtles action figures. Ones based on the Mutant Mayhem Turtles and the others on the IDW comics. They're awesome and seeing them together brings me joy.

Watched The Owl House finale, feeling so happy that my favorite characters all got this mega happy ending.

WHAT TO DO FOR 2024

Make that webcomic that I've been wanting to make.

Try to cool my temper.

Look for a job that doesn't make me want to shove a TC up someone's ass so hard that it gets lodged in their throat.

Watch more TV shows and movies that aren't animated or superhero related.

Whack Elon Musk in the nuts with a bat.

Solve world hunger and find world peace.

Eat a mango.

Those are my plans and I'm sticking with them.

[furtiveseal]

Gunpla was totally a perfect storm for me. Picture this. It's late last year. I have been spending most of my hobby money buying MtG booster packs (I know, bad idea, not my point). WotC gets into the whole OGL debacle and I decide I don't want to give them money anymore. This also incidentally frees up some time in the evening for me, and I'm mostly spending it on YouTube. Not great.

Now one piece of advice I'd seen a lot was that you should get a hobby where you make physical stuff, and I wanted to try that. Here's the thing though: I have dyspraxia, which means I have very bad fine motor skills, making many manual hobbies frustrating. I have an unfortunate Warhammer pile of shame that I may or may not get to because while I love the idea of having models, building them has been very frustrating: plastic glue melts them so every time I mess up it makes them look worse, and I didn't even have a hobby knife for a long time, so my models look bad. And that's not even mentioning painting. It takes me three hours to paint a single Space Marine intercessor, badly. I can't seem to thin my paints correctly no matter how I do it, and so I'm never satisfied with how my models look in the end.

Enter Gunpla. A friend introduces me to Gundam Witch, I get obsessed, and look into Gunpla. It's basically big Lego sets of giant robots. They snap together, no glue required. They're already in the right colors, no need to paint anything if you don't want to. The kits are WAY less expensive than Warhammer, at least for the entry ones.

I'm lucky, because my local game store happens to have a random 30 Minute Missions kit lying around. I get a set of three hobby knives for 3€, and I start building as soon as I get home. I have a bit of trouble here and there, I have to hurt my hands pushing some of the pieces to fit, but I end up building the whole thing in a few days and it looks... Good!

And I understand why people say to get a hobby which lets you create physical stuff. I love getting home every day and seeing the kits I built on my shelves. Figurines are cool, but it just hits different when you're the one who built them. I have a little family of 7 mechs now! And unlike figurines, I'm not afraid of handling them. Even if an arm falls off, I know I can just put it back.

Best part is, it's making me more confident about tackling my Warhammer pile of shame too. Maybe I'll even manage to paint tiny toy soldiers I'm actually happy with!

[jobrrr]

Hobbies and interests are weird sometimes.

Like sometimes you see something and you just know that’s what you want to do, and there is no looking back from that point. I remember seeing Magic the Gathering for the first time, and it was like 4th grade, I knew. And lo and behold, I'm 35, still playing magic. But like sometimes it just kinda happens by accident, like you don't mean to get into the thing at all.

I think it was mid 2021 and I just stumbled on the Blackwargreymon gunpla kit online. Digimon was a big deal for me as a kid, I was pretty young when it started, like 10?, and I have always had a soft spot for it. So this thing looked really cool, I didn’t really have anything on my shelf for digimon even though it was a big deal for me as a kid, and it wasn't that horrendously expensive, even marked up on amazon. I don’t think I had ever done a plastic model kit before, so I started poking around to see what it would need, and I found a pretty decent entry level set of tools, clippers, some tweezers, some sanding tools and so on. So I went, what the hell, I did something nice for the kid in me. I think it’s important to do a lot of nice things for the kid in you, just good life advice. So I took the plunge. The closest thing to compare to I guess was lego, it’s kinda the same process, you just gotta cut out your pieces and clean them up, but after that you just put it together. Lego was another thing I really liked as a kid.

This kit was so much fun, I went into it with the just expectation that it will look good, and it does, very good. Ok I have to stress this, I don’t think there is anything on the market that looks even a fraction as good as these kits do, and at such a better price, it’s ridiculous. But the Kit was so much fun to put together, it's just meditative, and very personal. You slowly work your way through it, learning how the plastic feels and reacts to the cuts, shaves and sanding you do, and you make mistakes, but you work through it and learn. It’s imperfect in a very personal way. And then I finished it. And sometimes you just finish something and then you are like, ‘this can’t be the only time I do this’. I knew I was kinda hooked on it.

Thankfully there was a bit of backlog on the kits available. I think at the time the upcoming one was Machindramon, and I ended up picking the other kits in the meantime, Omegamon/Omnimon & MetalGarurumon. And so over that year of the pandemic it was a treat for myself, as I slowly built up this shelf of great looking digimon figures that I put together myself. When I got the Gallantmon/Dukemon kit, I took an extra chance on it, and decided to re-paint it with my minis paint, giving it a more classic color scheme. It’s probably the most time I spent on one model, and I haven’t tried painting one again since them, but I’m still immensely proud of it, there was a lot of little mistake I made, and a spoke on his shoulder broke that I had to drill a metal rod to reinforce as well as putting some extra epoxy putty in, but it was more lessons learned. As a prep I spent a bunch of time looking up videos of people painting gunpla, and as a side note, some folks do amazing jobs with that, like absolutely fantastic.

I wanted more though, and I was waiting for new digimon kits to come out but you are waiting. I think it was around the time the pandemic restrictions were loosening, and I was starting to maybe just explore places a bit again. I went into a Game Stop for the first time in a while, and was surprised to see a gunpla kit there. It was the master grade Barbatos kit, and it was a very reasonable price, like I want to say 60ish CAD. I was paying more for the digimon kits cause I was mostly getting that stuff through amazon and often it was imported from japan and extra shipping fees etc. So I went what the hell? I never really was that interested in Gundam before, I had a friend who made me watch an Iron Blooded Orphans OVA, and I honestly could not tell you anything about it, I was so checked out. But it looked cool, so I took another chance. I figured it wouldn’t look bad on a shelf.

That kit is a killer kit. I remember being so impressed with it, when you are building it you start with a skeleton and then you put the armor on top of that. It was so novel, and so cool. It’s a master grade, which is kinda the 2nd highest tier of kits available. 

I guess as a little aside, the entry level is High Grade, HG, this is 1:144 scale, and is a great entry level, kits can be very cheap, as low as 15ish up to 30ish (CAD prices, your can figure out your conversion, USD is going to be less). Next up you have Master Grade, MG, these kits are 1:100 scale, sometimes they are different names but 1:100 is size. These guys are pricier, but a big jump in quality, not to say the HG are bad, HG are pretty impressive, but the jump is very noticeable. MGs are very nice, and the prices I noticed are usually 60 to 90. The next typical grade up is Perfect Grade, these are 1:60 scale, and very big, and very complex. I have only done one so far, the Exia. It was 280ish I think. For these kits I think the floor is around 200ish, and can go up quite a bit from there, I think some push 500+.

Back from that tangent, this kit felt like the perfect entry for a more experienced kit. I had already done quite a few digimon kits, and it's the same stuff, just different franchise. Like literally the same, Bandia makes both of these kits. So this was easy to get into. And it really was cool, to say it again. I was like damn, this is neat. So I let that stew, and for a while that was the only gundam I had and I was pretty content for that to be the case.

Then a new boon arrived, I found a local gunpla store. I had actually been there a few times before, but before It was more focused on anime, but I guess in my absence over many years it shifted, and grew its gunpla selection a lot, the wall of bluray and dvds became a wall of boxes of gunpla. And They had digimon kits too. And the prices were very good. I made the switch, as it became a lot more accessible, just even the ability to browse and not do shipping, chief’s kiss. So I picked a few kits I didn’t have, and continued to get new ones there. But I started to see the rest of the gunpla, and I knew the Barbatos was cool, and they had such a big selection, even a lot of older stuff. 

So I started picking up a few. It was kinda neat, just jumping into this franchise that I really only knew on a visual level. Like I know it’s been around for a long time, and there are a lot of series, like OG, Wing, Seed, ect. But after that, I know nothing about the Gundam, they fight in big robots, that’s it. So I was in the odd position where I was free to just pick them up blindly if that makes sense, I wasn’t beholden to any lore or preference outside of ‘it looks cool’ and wow I kinda realized I don't have something like that. Like how often do you enter a fandom in a backwards kind of way. Like typically you get into something because you are a fan of it, you like the story, setting, characters and then that kinda informs how you follow up everything after. Like you get the figure of the character you like. I’m sure I’m not the only person who just gets (outside of WFM lol) the kits as kits with no real attachment to the source, and I imagine it's not even that small of a portion. Like people don’t need lore to do train kits or w/e. Anyways it was just a neat perspective, and like I said, freeing. I was allowed to pick stuff from w/e series, and mix and match cause I didn’t care.

So yah, i just went on picking up more kits, the prices of HG were such a great thing too. Like on average 20 bucks a pop for a kit, easy sell for me. So I started having a gunpla shelf, and that was cool.

I guess the next phase kinda happened. I had heard of Witch from Mercury (WFM), way back when it first announced, and the only take away at that time I had was it was going to feature a female lead, I remember going, I guess that’s cool, but you guys have been doing this for how long, and this is your first? I had another thought but I will come back to that later. So I just kinda filed that away as whatever, I wasn’t really that interested in it as a show, Gundam as a series just didn’t really feel my thing, I am still quite ignorant outside of WFM, but I guess I have more of a sense of it now. Anyways it comes to the point years later, and WFM starts airing, I think I even had a CR sub cause I wanted to watch spy family. I slept on the first 2 episodes. I had just met with a friend again that moved back, and he mentioned it’s queer, that Suletta gets herself engaged to in the first episode.

What. This was not what I expected. The point I mentioned before? So I'm a sucker for W/W ships, always have been. I very much had a thought when I first heard WFM years before, ‘it's not going to be sapphic though, it’s going to be some hetero stuff’, and it was a pessimistic take at the time, but I just felt burned out from everything being like that. Everything is fucking straight all the time. Like I just want more queer stuff, I hope everything ends up being queer, but realistically it’s not. And it’s Gundam, this is a big franchise, It’s not going to push further than female protag, so I just stopped my expectations there. But is it? And well fuck, I have to give it chance now. And it was, like not even in the subtext kind of way. Suletta was Miorine’s groom. The show had Utena in its DNA. I was very cautious though, feeling like this isn’t going to happen. I felt like I was going to get the rug pulled out, there certainly were a lot of guys vying for either of the two girls at the beginning. But I stuck with the show, a bit of pessimism and caution, but wanting it to happen. 

And the little things started happening. After the third episode I think there is a shot of Miorine’s room, and it's a mess. I told myself, then, in a very gut feel way, If Suletta cleans her room, it’s real. I carried that thought going forward. Unpacking it later, I realized how true to the characters it was, Miorine didn’t want to be there, her room was a prison to her and she didn’t let anyone into her life. And then she asks Suletta to clean her room in ep11, and god that episode. I threw out caution, I was ready to sink on this ship if it would after that. And shit, 12 was a hell of an episode to finish on, and then the wait for the second cour. Ooof. Like it was real now, very real, feelings were vocalized and it wasn't just reading into characters. It was firmly the TEXT, no room negotiation. This show was very intentional about everything, I could start to see how everything was now feeding into the rest of itself. God this show.

The wait for the second cour took a while. I was talking about gunpla before, wow. Sure, let's get back there for a bit. I was pretty moderate with picking up kits, I got just Aerial, and Suletta and Miorine. I honestly felt a little embarrassed at the time, like it was an admission that, yah, I’m getting the feels hard now. But that was it, I got some more unconnected gunpla but I was mostly just stewing on my feelings till the second cour hit.

And wow, did those feelings come in hard once the show came back. Not to sound old here, i’m only 35, but it’s easy to forget what watching a show weekly is like with how much bingin it like with the netlix model of shows was the norm for so long. But letting a show really sit with you, to digest it, let it stew and think about before moving to the next episode. For some shows that can be magic, or at least that’s been my experience. I don’t think this would have been a good show to binge, and if anyone is going to watch it, I don’t recommend just burning through it really quickly. This is a show that really lets you take it apart and analyze the moments. It felt like everything could be read into for more meaning. Tomatoes, The move forward, gain one, the growth of characters, how Suletta and Miorine treat each other. It’s a gold mine for essay lol.

Or this whole ending credits to Red:birthmark. This is is basically the whole character arc of Suletta.

I guess that sorta leads to onwards. I had dipped out of tumblr way back when things went south and everyone dipped. Like myself maybe not right away, but like it felt like 90% of folks were gone and I was soon too. I would sometimes check back in, but never stayed. Then things started to just get real bad with twitter. Like i never liked it as a social site, or reddit. It just feels bad. I had only really started to use it and reddit cause tumblr died, and they did not serve the same way. Like there are few decent subreddits. But they never really did what I wanted. So I started to maybe check in here again, more frequently. Then I remember the day it really stuck.

Bees happened, Yang and Blake kissed. I was not super invested in RBWY, I bounced pretty quickly way back. I like the fandom though, it has always been strong and I'm sure people will have different feelings, but w/e. I always found them charming, and I think it was what made me try watching the show way back in the first place. So anyways Bees happened, that was a big surprise, and it kinda hit hard. Like it was beautifully awkward in a real way, it felt genuine. And I saw it here on tumblr. And good fucking win for the fandom, I tried watching some of the more recent episodes, and I am not going back to watch old stuff but boy does Ruby have some trauma to unpack. Whoof, even missing context that hit hard. The fanfiction is great. Dug around in there and there are some really good ones. Bless the fandom. I started with Bees stuff since obv, but I also dug around into Ice Rose too. Maybe it’s too much to hope, but that show will be cooking if it also does that.

Anyways I guess I was back on tumblr. There were a bunch of oldies still here, and I could dive into the tags. And It really made me realize how much twitter was kinda just making me miserable. Like there is just so much more positive here, and over there it’s just miserable. And WFM was starting up again soon. Perfect storm. I wish I had been here for the first cour. But I was here for the second cour.

I had originally joined tumblr way back after Korra ended. I was not ready to let the show go when it finished, and this was a good place to celebrate the show. It was so fundamental to my early days here, I followed so many people because of it. Fan art, people talking about the show, even years later, fan fiction. Like I said, it was a celebration of the show. I still treasure a lot of those old moments, and followed a lot of those artists onto twitter and pateron. Hopefully I will start seeing them here more as twitter implodes.

It’s been very nostalgic here again, as we finish WFM. It’s like being back to that moment with Korra. I loved seeing all the art here again. I loved seeing all the talks, musing and speculation as the second cour went on. I started to follow people again that I kept seeing popping in the tags and It reminded me what it’s like to slowly learn a bit of someone on this site. I missed that old bleeding of interests you get. The cross contamination of fandoms. I got to see someone younger share their experience with Sailor Moon in real time through this site. I love it, I was a kid when that show first aired, it is so cool to get these new perspectives. 

And now WFM is finished. I said this before, I knew at the start of the second cour that this show is going to stick with me for a long time. Remember the gunpla, well I have perspective now, I have been picking up more of those because I now have feelings to contend with, lol. Not a bad problem to have. It hit hard, the show, episode 16 left me heartbroken, god. And now we are here, they have rings, they had the wedding. Eri is the sister in law. God it happened and it feels like this was plucked from a better timeline. This show is such a fucking win, I’m not letting it go any time soon.

I never really did much of this before, sharing that is. This is a lot, hell I’m even considering if I will post this as I draft this. I mostly just reblogged things and avoided putting my own words on top of them. And that’s fine, but idk, it’s never too late to try new things right, and you can always do things at your own pace, so maybe I can share a bit and it resonates with someone, and maybe it ends up being no different than existing in the void and never being posted. I spent too much time being self conscious of the things I like. I want to spend more time just making the kid in me happy you know.

Being around this all again has been nice, I feel motivated to be creative, more so then I was before. I have always had ideas for fics just floating in my head, and I think I might actually post a Persona 5 fic at some point, it's in the works. I recently played through it again with the female protag mod, and bless that mod, but now I feel compelled to write something about Makoto. Hell, maybe even some WFM stuff later. There is a really obscure doujin that I want to write something for as it felt criminal that it only got one entry. If you made it this far, thanks. Let yourself enjoy stuff.

John