What is the Golden Age of gunpla?

[@citrusjuicebox]

I didn't think anyone would miss my bunnies in just a channel trailer, but I guess I was wrong! So here it is again with some loving at the end. 🐇💕

[@pafu_pafu]

yay bunnies!!!!!!! :DDD you better not forget next time 🔪:D

[@vulcan0018]

Of course we do miss the bunnies. And Happy New Year 2025🎉

[@citrusjuicebox]

@@vulcan0018 Happy new year!

[@crigonalgaming1258]

Before the Scalpers, before the proliferation of P-Bandai, man we were eating good back then. 00 got Master Grades off the cuff. SEED got PGs of what seems like immediately. MG Turn X was really a joy to build. The HG Revive project sought to remaster old HGs, then these old HGs get Build Fighters equivalents even more. Everybody collectively lost their sh-- when Sazabi, Nu, Sinanju and Sinanju Stein ver Kas were introduced. We had years when every month was a new MG. This was in the good old days when Bandai really tried, which could not be said the same anymore.

[@Bionickpunk]

To me it was the period right before the pandemic, when kits got restocked and you can buy kits for a reasonable price.

[@citrusjuicebox]

Yes, at that time there was a glimmer of hope when Bandai released some Japanese PB kits at normal retail overseas, like the MG XN Raiser, 00Q Full Saber, and Astray Turn Red. It's good that their reprints are still normal retail overseas, but it's a shame more PB kits weren't released this way.

[@jehutyaumaan1633]

Whoa its raining citrus upload!! keep em coming!

[@LoneWolfInsane]

i miss the days when i did not have to check ten or more review videos just to find out if a kit had more then 90 degrees of elbow and kneebend.

[@citrusjuicebox]

Really? Whose reviews are you reading or watching that's that bad?

[@CommitaCream]

We're entering the dark ages. Gunpla is now an expensive casual hobby like Warhammer or labubu.

[@citrusjuicebox]

Oh God, blind boxes

[@akemi898]

Getting back into Gunpla when the MG 2.0 kits were releasing was a magical time, especially when my frame of reference were the '90s Wing kits. I've since drifted more towards Kotobukiya and the like.

[@adriflux7704]

This sounds awesome! It is exactly what I need. I plan on building only a limited amount of Gunpla, at least for now, due to time and budget. This is the type of guide I need.

[@Hadihadi-wr8mt]

I think it's not just for gunpla, 90,s and around 2000-2010 is the era of japan culture and also all good stuff in the world. Gunpla, anime, music, movie, internet etc etc. gunpla is just one of them. At those era production cost, labor and shipping still manageable so bandai can create gunpla variant as many as they want. Today, labor, shipping, and manufacturing cost already skyrocket, bandai can't spend their money to make too many model type that not sell well or too much cost, like MG I think P-bandai and gundam exclusive are bandai solution for budget using theme " less for more", selling less and reduce shipping but with high price for achieve profit.

[@Peweskimooxy]

Oh late 00's, how I took thee for granted

[@shahrilkamarulzaman8375]

Much appreciated, again Citrus...Depending on budget constraints...I'm planning on adding to my noob collection of 2024...in 2025, so look forward to some suggestions and reviews to help me along the way...keep it coming...lovely bunnies btw...God Bless!

[@thegenōsian]

I feel like if we banded together as a community we could successfully shame scalpers to hell. We all know the feeling of seeing a kit we want for 5x the price . Scalpers should not be left to happily buy online

[@chriszekableyat9886]

The golden age of gunpla was the time when they released the MG 2.0 version, that was the time when MG quality was the best and the rest of MG that was released at that time were superb quality.

[@citrusjuicebox]

Yes, that would've started in 2005 with the MG Gundam Mk-II

[@Zeta-gundam2]

hamma hamma를 구하시다니 부럽네요. 한국에서는 전혀 구할 수 없습니다.

[@asianpotatofarmer1310]

Can’t find it anywhere

[@cristiTM89]

I'd say my favorite gunpla kits come in the form of MG, examples like the Nemo, gundam MK-II and so on, I would say some older kits were fantastic for their release times, a bit loose but visually appealing.

[@ThomasVonHerzberg]

But isn't that the Golden Age for America? I think in Europe, Gunpla became affordably and eaisly attainable in the last few years. For example, the only German Gunpla Store will become an Official Bandai Partner starting next Year.. But yeah, there are no new Kits to buy, therefore..

[@citrusjuicebox]

If anything, access is worse today, even in Europe. In the past, although costs may have been higher due to import duty, shipping, etc., a larger number of overseas stores offered a wider selection of kits, so at the very least you could buy more of what you want. Waiting for reprints was almost unheardof then.

[@ThomasVonHerzberg]

@ But wouldn’t that mean that demand was lower back in the day? If there was so much to choose from and always easy to get then there weren’t many buyers 🤔 seems like the hobby got more popular and prone to scalp or not enough to supply the needs of today..

[@echohotelsix]

​@@citrusjuicebox i've built gunpla since the 90s. there are a lot of selections of kits (except p-bandai) on either online marketplaces, or any kind of B&Ms in my country like department stores, toy stores, or any hobby shops at price near MSRP. after the pandemic hits, some popular kits in my country costs more or less 2x MSRP probably due to the supply shortage. my usual go-to store are having hard time keeping up with the stocks. they even admit that they're having hard time supplying themselves to the point that they had to order some kits via air shipping, making it costs much more expensive. Preordering kits from the official toy distributor is the cheapest way to get newly released kits or any reissues, but it has high chance for your orders to be cut and might arrive much much later, up to 6 months of delay while all of my neighboring countries don't have any kind of shipment issues as far as i know. also, there are rumors that this distributor secretly cut preorders so they can sell those kits on offline events for higher price. Definitely not a golden age of gunpla for me. The current situation left a bitter taste on me and it makes me much less enthusiastic of my decades old hobby.

[@citrusjuicebox]

@@echohotelsix I appreciate your insight. Which country are you in? Happy new year!

[@citrusjuicebox]

@@ThomasVonHerzberg Yes, and lower demand isn't necessarily a problem, especially for niche hobbies. There wasn't an oversupply per se, more that Bandai could afford to keep a wider range of gunpla in circulation at any time (doubly so since they didn't produce nearly as many licensed kits back then as well). Happy new year!

[@inhhuytran5055]

Happy new year!

[@citrusjuicebox]

You too!