Premiring originally in 1979, Mobile Suit Gundam is one of Japanese most famous science fiction fanchise, on par with Star Trek or Star Wars in the States. Rather than creating yet another super robot show to sell toys to children, Yoshiyuki Tomino and his team instead created a quasi-realistic future setting where war between a united Earth government and a rebellious set of space colonies is carried out with large, humanoid fighting machines. As the show began to catch on, Bandai eventually created a line of detailed model kits for the show's most popular robot designs. Currently, model kits count for a substantial portion of Bandai's Gundam-related profit and enjoy popularity with the old and young alike in Japan. Gunpla is basically Japanese shorthand for Gundam plastic models.

Bandai produces many different model kit lines which differ in terms of scale, detail, and difficulty. The Master Grade line, which is featured promiently on this page, is made up of highly detailed, surprisingly posable, 1/100th scale (average height is probably around seven inches or more) kits which start at around $28 each. Master Grade kits usually don't technically require glue or paint, though it can make quite a difference depending on the specific kit. All manner of Gunpla kits and accessories can be purchased by us English-speaking folks through Hobby Links Japan (or eBay, of course, as well as a smattering of other online stores).

What follows is my collection of Master Grades. The pictures ought to give a good idea of what kind of results you can get with a minimum of detailing effort (I much prefer building the kits to painting them). For examples of what somebody really skilled can accomplish with Master Grade kits, check out The Neo Zeon Forge.