For mobile suits, 1/35 is an absurdly large scale (though garage kits do exist in that scale, and Bandai’s Jumbo Grade figures are 1/35 scale), so there was a deliberate focus right from the get-go on smaller support vehicles that rarely, if ever, made it into kit form. To explain this choice, 1/35 is a popular scale for tank models, as Bandai was clearly aiming for more traditional military modelers and older Gundam fans. Hard Graph, with only one exception, focused entirely on ground troops in the Universal Century, with sets comprised of small dioramas or secondary vehicles like the PVN.4/3 Wappa hovercraft and M353A4 Bloodhound hover car. While the EX Model line largely stuck to the traditional Gundam scales of 1/100, 1/144 or 1/1700 for large ships to stay compatible, U.C Hard Graph went in a new direction. While the kits released under the EX Model name were often based on interesting vehicles not seen in kit form, the kits themselves were simple and lacked the details and features of MG or HG kits. It was a similar, though more cohesive, formula to Bandai’s earlier bare-bones EX Model line, a hodgepodge series of kits based on support units like the Magella Attack or Dopp Fighter that would only appeal to hardcore fans. Bandai also released kits based on Patlabor, Cowboy Bebop and Space Battleship Yamato under the EX Model line. The kits were largely monochromatic, requiring builders to use paint to achieve a pleasing result, and a lack of snap-fit parts meant you’d have to break out the glue to build them. Hard Graph kits came in drab military color schemes. Eschewing bright, TV-accurate colors, U.C. In other words, just about anything that isn’t a giant robot. Hard Graph was a range of kits that focused on everything modern gunpla didn’t (and still doesn’t) bother with. Similarly, most gunpla kits are snap-fit, requiring no glue to assemble, and come packaged with traditional stickers instead of finicky (but better looking) waterslide decals.įirst released in 2006, U.C. Where traditional model kits required paint, Bandai pioneered the idea of “injection molding,” allowing designers to create a single piece out of multiple colors of plastic in the pursuit detail that wouldn’t require paint. Organized with an easy to understand grading system, Bandai’s kits are grouped by complexity (an informal “non-grade,” High Grade, Master Grade, Perfect Grade ) that instantly explains the complexity and rough size of the kit, even if the purchaser couldn’t explain the different between 1/100 and 1/144 scale. Hard Graph is an odd step-child to Bandai’s gunpla empire, but the irregularity of the line highlights just how homogeneous typical gunpla kits are. In terms of subject and construction, U.C. By not requiring the precision, tools or patience of regular kits, gunpla kits allow non-modelers the chance to build. Since the first gunpla kits (a portmanteau of “ Gundam” and “play model” ) were released in the 1980s, Bandai’s half-action figure, half-model kit toys have succeeded by distancing themselves from the trappings of traditional model kits.
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