"buuut you need to buy them all separately." almost all parts need buying in bandai. meanwhile, 3rd party kits will provide them all if you just preorder
Competition is good for the industry. And their price points are more competitive and alot of the premium kits from third party manufacturers offer a Metal Frame build. Its a good thing. No more single entity companies charging astronomicial amounts of money for the same designs over time and monopolizing the market.
@@terminator572 motor nuclear (aobing and bunch) lines is one, the upcoming cang toys also make a plastic and metal frame option, i think star glory is also using metal frame? kinda a lot to list tbh now that its a trend
bandai doesn’t see these companies as competitors, they don’t produce mgs anymore. it’s more like these guys are filling in for the market that bandai has neglected
i rly think no country can match Chinese work standard and salary. So i think no company can be competitive whit chinese product line, since they rely on chinese product line. I mean, if i need YOU to cast a portion of my products, if not all, and you choose to do the very same, how can i put my items in pair whit your price? Also, how much do i need to spend in JP to factor a model, and how much do i need to pay in China? Simple.
There are so many things wrong with this comment "No more single entity companies charging astronomicial amounts of money for the same designs over time and monopolizing the market." Let's unpack: 1. Monopolizing the market of what? Model kit? Then no, Bandai has never been able to monopolize model kit markets. For decades, it has been competition among several brands (Hasegawa, Bandai, Kotobukiya, etc). 2. Charging astronomical amount of money? Have you heard of WH40k? Airsoft? Frankly Gunpla is dirt cheap for the quality. It might be a shame if you don't live in Asia, but then you'd have higher income base anyway. 3. For the same design over time? Dude, are you saying for RX-78-2. HGUC v1, v1.5, v2, MG 1.0, MG 1.5, MG ver Ka, MG 2.0, MG 3.0 are all the same? 4. Back to monopolize. But Bandai contributed heavily in building the popularity of Gundam franchise dude. So we are just going communist mode now? What is yours is mine now? What about IP, author ownership and all that? Just fuck them cause we want cheap plastic?
Throughout the first half of the year, I've built 1/100 (Scale-ish): Hemoxian - Thor Thunder God InERA+ - Thunderbolt InERA+ - Genesis MotorNuclear - Nezha SNAA - Thunder Incise Grace Backlogged OrangeCat Industries - Estailev MotorNuclear - Cao Ren MotorNuclear - Ao Bing PO'd SNAA - Guardian Gawain SNAA - Martial Emperor So far, my experience with these third party model kits has been a surprise. Build quality is great, the amount of detailing could put 2.0 MGs to shame. Each build, including panel lining and cleaning of nubs alone would be a 3-4 days endeavor - not because of poor plastic quality, but the insane amounts of part separation. Not to mention, Bandai has been slacking on both MG and RG. Even HG kits barely come out throughout the years. I still purchase Bandai products (ie Gundams/30mm/Macross/SRW) but man, slim pickings. Give third party kits a try, the brands I've listed are the more well known and well reviewed ones. Enjoy building!
In Era is so good, I am genuinely in shock at how good the kits are. I'm at the point where building bandai MGs feels like I'm building third party. Motor Nucler is popular and I only built the wei yuan but that was also a phenomenal MG kit for 30-40 bucks. I still prefer In Era.
@@BlitzShott It's like a HiRes Kit from Bandai, comes with a metal build inner frame and you build the armor pieces on it. Never built a HiRes due to its asking price - But, very happy with MotorNuclear. They really go overboard with the aesthetics if you are into extravagant/regal styled kits.
I finished building my Supreme Evolution´s Eternal Star Glory 1.0 and I must say I´m impressed! The build quality, color separation, plastic material, and details are incredible, don´t let me start talking about the almost 90% under-gated parts! Oh! Boy! Now THAT was a game changer in cleaning the nubs and stress marks of the kit... but most of all, the aesthetics it possesses. It baffles me how Bandai´s closest product to it are just a few RG and, surprisingly or not, even fewer Ver.Ka kits. I love Gunplas, but it seems Bandai is more focused on mass-producing HGs that will sell for coins and will be bought in bulk rather than making kits that might be pricier but can be a total experience to us builders.
Some of those non-Bandai kits truly look awesome. Great video man! Totally agree with you, when there's fair competition, the ultimate winner is us, the consumers.
Hell yeah bro! 🤜🤛 It doesn't matter whether it is bandai or not. The thing is we enjoy building this kind of stuff. And by the way, the video is great though. More power to the owner of this channel 💪
P-Bandai are the real Bandai killers. Just why bandai? Why it needed to be pbandai? Does the kits have more details than normal hg ones? Does it have more articulation? Does it come with water slide decals and a stand? The kit itself doesn’t justify the price. Just look at demi garrison and lfrith jiu. Almost quadruple the price of a bootleg in my currency. When i see Bandai release new pbandai i will immediately search for its bootleg counterpart.
Another thing that makes this worse is when you want to buy multiple of the same kit for different posing and display options. The prices and the limited nature of many of these kits often gets in the way of that.
my dumb ass read it as "does it come with water slide?" you know what, at this point those p-bandai should come with water slides. hell, bring the damn water park here for buying one of those bullshit xd
somebody could make a 1:1 rx-78-2 and I wouldn't consider it a bootleg or a 3rd party kit (even though, by all definitions it would be). Bandai fucking sucks.
Honestly,the rise of bootleg won’t touch bandai’s revenue for the simple fact that they catered to two completely different audience. They are rather an adding option to the variety of existing bandai kit. Straight builder maybe will shift toward 3rd party but they will get burn out pretty fast by the ungodly amount of runners those 3rd party kit has(like i got burn out while assembling the daban 8802 strike freedom), people that customize their kit will choose bandai anyday as they don’t have to correct the already issue that the kit has
Not really, customizer only get Bandai because it is necessary for resin kits and the likes, if there was an alternative that didn’t use their kits, like the stargazer and the GP02, no one would willingly buy Bandai, repairing issues is part of the work to get something truly beautiful anyway
@@fieldkaiju yes but they are not doing 1 off,if they would only buy 3rd party or bootleg i can assure you that the assembly and correction part is the most tedious and long process and less efficient then buying bandai. have you seen how many pieces the 3rd party have? Like how many wasted hours they will spend trying to fixing all the joints and pegs before even start to working on the kit. The resin kit part is false,there are exact carbon copy that can use those dress kit as well,but mostly doesn’t do why? Resin kit take already an ungodly amount time for preparation,do you think that people would spend even more time than the necessary by fixing the base kit because is a bootleg?
@@fieldkaiju by doing what? Adding a resin dress kit? Buying a more detailed of same kit so you don’t have to customize it on your taste?Like no way. The point is not the end result,but the convenience of the process,buying a bandai kit is preferable because of that. People that customize will buy 3rd for variety,but definitely not a carbon copy bootleg if there is a bandai equivalent and will stick to bandai
The same thing happened to me lol. I tried sticking to Bandai (besides getting custom weapons). But when Solomon's Gp02a was released, it was too good for me to pass up on. The fact that it doesn't look like a knockoff Gp02a was also a plus for me.
The 3rd party stuff isnt killing Bandai anytime soon. What we're really seeing is Bandai more or less stagnate with their products and continually release more and more stuff through P-Bandai while regular releases are more or less relegated to reprints with the occasional new kit coming out, usually based in some way on an older one. Looking at you MG Dom 1.5. Meanwhile the 3rd party companies dont have Bandai's quality control on their products, so they compensate by having larger numbers of parts and more color separation, though this does lead to increased prices and often more difficult builds. As for bootlegs, there's always gonna be bootlegs of anything popular, gondam's not unique in that. Ask any sneakerhead about fake Jordans or a woman about offbrand makeup. Heck, i'm in the middle of a repro of the DM MG Akatsuki, the WuJi/Dadao one, right off the back of building a MG Strike ver. RM, and it's a far more tedious build with less solid construction and a lot of cleanup of parts before assembly to prevent stress marks or parts potentially breaking while i'm trying to pose it. 3rd party has it's own market, namely experienced builders or people that wanna build something different from the usual Bandai fare and don't want to wait for the next MG/RG/PG release.
Some of the 3rd party also have their own original model kits. SNAA does that. Also Bandai isn't the only one, there is kotobukiya and some other I don't know. And about bootleg, they're getting better now. Offering 80-90% of the quality for the price of half what Bandai do. Also make some P-Bandai kits more "accessible".
You forget that third party / knock off kits are in their infancy still they are getting better with every new release and are starting to look better visually than Bandai's kits in some regards.
When I was building its legs, I was honestly contemplating on adding the armor with the amount of detail they added on the inner frame. Kit is rock solid
The initial inner frame used by Dragon Momoko was based on the Strike RM kit. Dragon Momoko started using it and then the Astray inner frame since a lot of Astray variations were released. Next is the Unicorn too but again the most common inner frame is still the Strike RM. DM made the Metal Build figures into affordable gunpla model kits. Most 3rd party kits got their runners undergated and like DM, Daban even improved or fixed on some of the design weaknesses on Bandai's existing kits. One of the reasons that Bandai went after DM at the time was because DM just released the Exia R4&Astray Blue 3rd Frame kits when Bandai was just releasing their own versions some months before their announcement. They obviously didn't like it when a 3rd party KO looked better than their designs since DM's gunpla kits are based on the Metal Build figures. It made their non-MetalBuild Exia release looked really inferior in design since they want to release variations of the same kit multiple times and most of the time in P-Bandai too to milk out as much as they can from the same mold like the Unicorn. Ironically with the Unicorn Gundam gunpla kits, Daban released their version with undergated runners and improved on the mistakes that the original Bandai kits had on their releases. It made the Phenix very affordable&less of a pain assembling it since most experienced builder will just paint the kit themselves and the undergating hide most of the nubs. The moment that 3rd party Thor kit was listed on HobbyLinksJapan, it made those 3rd party kits legitimate. When noobs asked for a better looking DeathScythe since SuperNova&DragonMomoko kits are much rarer to find now, the SNAA HuntKill looks great as a Blitz/DeathScythe alternative. Also SNAA Hunt/Kill, Daban MB Astray 8812&8814 and DM MB Destiny kit will bleed you assembling it as it has very sharp parts. Other than the Strike Freedom MGEX, I still love my Dragon Momoko/MJH Metal Build Strike Freedom, Destiny&Testament/OutFrame kits.
i'm gonna be honest, Bandai quite literally shoot themselves in the foot. they created the demand, but somehow they are stupid enough to not produce product to meets those demands, they even know and have statistic of what sold well and what doesn't. the rise of their competitor should be a great wake up call for bandai that they are no longer THE mecha model kit building company.
I don’t think it’s unwilling as much as it is unable. The gunpla hobby exploded post pandemic and their factory doesn’t have enough capacity to meet demands even after expansions which is why they’re currently building a second one. Last I heard it’s gonna start producing gunpla at the end of this year or something?
who is THE mecha model kit building company then? cause it ain't the Chinese, who after having a decent run at original designs, are reverting back to their "copy Gundam cause it sells" tactics.
The sad thing is that thats how most Japanese companies operate. They will have the data, the numbers, and the resources to produce products that consumers will gobble up but won't. The issue is that they [japanese companies] wont go into any market that they don't have a detailed report saying that the upcoming lineup is a guaranteed money maker. One of the core issues is that the company will be often times the first to decide to do this and so there is no data or sales figures on how well it will turn out but even when they do it, they don't devote enough resources to it. All the merch for gundam isn't for me. It's on a pre-order basis, so if you miss it you won't ever get it .. ever. The stuff that you might want isn't for you. I'd like to have some enamel pins from Gundam Seed and Gundam Wing but they're limited edition and are of obscure characters [the bouncing robot]. They don't know the basics of merchandising which is making products that have as broad as an appeal as possible so it makes you want to pull your hair out. No enamel, lanyards, or posters!!! I don't want some weird backpack that I'm never going to use that costs me $90, I don't want some weird stationary, nor do I want some key chain ornament of a character that is too big to ever be used and will cost be $20 with shipping. Where will I ever use or appreciate those items? Is it so hard to get a Gundam wing poster? or a large mouse pad of the same image? Or am I stuck with merch that will put a large target on my back saying that I'm a giant weeb? Like I'm NOT walking around with an umbrella with the gundam seed characters on it. It'd be borderline social suicide XD
I don't see this thing about bandai digging their own grave. They're a multibillionaire company that branches outside of model kits and even with model kits alone, its only the other huge companies like kotobukiya that compete on the same level even then they're both doing fine. Japan is still their main market and bring in the most revenue compared to the world so why bother changing up anything especially pbandai which is kinda sad for everyone else outside of Japan
4:18 blade of the razor are not clear in the source material it was a hard blade so it would be logical for them to go for the sticker. I hope you mention that in the next video cause sadly most people who asking for bootleg or 3rd kit don't have standard nowadays they don't even care if it accurate or not
Also Testament Gundam were hack from Robot Damashii form and turned into model kit just like how they do it with Metal Build. There's alot of wrong facts in this video, i hope you spend more time on research 😅
Bandai has been too comfort all these years...and plastics they used now r cheaper and even worse.... Kits r more ez to break, etc.... just look at the latest Sky Defender... that model kit look glorious~ even just look at the design of the stand, its look super awesome~~
I buy bootlegs too but the part about bandai plastic being cheaper and worst is wrong. Bandai kits still has better plastic quality than bootlegs. If you build bandai kits and ended up breaking a peg or two then the only one to blame is yourself. On the other hand, bootleg kits are easy to stress if you aren't careful enough. That's why i have to strengthen the joints so the kit would last long. Sanding bootlegs kits is a hassle too compared to bandai kits. ABS produces more dust when sanded than PS and KPS plastic. Bootlegs only exists as an alternative. Also its not like all bandai kits are expensive anyway. SD kits are cheap. Some 30MM and 30MS kits are cheap. There are also some gundam kits that are quite cheap nowadays.
@@KitsuManko in deed what i heard those bootleg kits leaves their build fingerpains i kinda still waiting for either Bandai or the bootleg to issue the G-defender for Gundam MKII ver 2.0...... its long overdue....
I live in Brazil, and our current situation is not good for the gunpla hobby, we have to pay 92% of importation taxes for almost everything that we buy from other countries, and it makes the bandai products cost a lot, for example our minimum wage is 1412 R$ wich is arround 252 dolars, the new RG rx 78-2 is costing 157 R$ whithout the importation taxes, so i would need to pay almost 400 R$ on this kit, which is more than 1/4 of my salary, and thats why i like to buy the bootleg kits despite having their issues is what the reality in Brazil allow me to have
I personally think that the current "bandai killers" are kits like that Solomon gp02 and the upcoming 1/60 tallgeese. they are essentially a faithful sunrise design but with modern engineering. We know Bandai can do it but they refuse to. And even if they did, they would have to make an MGEX gp02 to even come close and if they did, it would cost easily double the price of the solomon kit. I can't speak about the tallgeese yet since I haven't seen one with my own eyes but based on all the pics, it seems like it will be PGEX level of engineering. And it's not like Bandai can accuse these companies of copying their kits because they either don't exist yet or are so outdated that it's clear they aren't the same thing other than the overall silhouette
a very common but misleading viewpoint. what makes the GP02 and Tallgeese popular are not the model kits, but the multi-media and IP-making efforts going into those designs (story telling, anime animation, marketing, lore, world building). Bandai can indeed accuse those bootleggers, cause they steal Bandai & SunRise IP. Think about it, would those bootleg GP02 and Tallgeese exist if those MS are not popular (therefore guanratee kits sale for the bootlegger)?
As good as bandai's gundam are, the price is outrageous in my country compared to the 3rd party/bootleg kits. Like most MGs are 1/3 of our minimum wage. I personally not sure if it's Bandai's or scalper's fault tho
@@Spore_Spawnfrom the US here and I’m telling you that you don’t know where to shop or cheap as fuck. For one I have never bought a MG for $200. Most I have spent was $150 The O. On average a MG run $35-$90. Knockoffs because that’s what these Chinese kits are, typically run over $100
ok but has anyone noticed that a significant amount of these "gundam-derived" kits are based on the Judge very closely? Like, they have the same exact proportions and general body shape, just with different armor and accessories slapped on. in this video 12:20 and 13:00 are examples of this
This. Even with all that absurd amount of detail which let's face it few of us will really care about, they start looking more or less the same too. Almost every model if not based on the Judge is a hodgepodge of Barbatos, Destiny or Astray with 10 samurai swords and pointy bits all over the body. I don't get it like what are they even based on anymore. A large part of me wanting to get a kit is how cool it looked in the show. These on the other hand, most of them are based on nothing and are random concept arts brought to life with no real lore or show to make them more compelling.
@@ensiel4738Funny enough, that's exactly why I got into the third party kits in the first place. I like mecha designs, but never got super into Gundam in the first place, so I have no attachment to any series, so instead I just picked whatever looks cool to me without having to worry about trying to watch this series or another to get the full context of its design or the backstory of its pilot or whatnot
Bandai is still making good kits but whoever is in charge of distribution clearly doesn't care about foreign markets with how many things are going P-Bandai instead of regular releases. They seem to be focusing more on a wider audience with cheaper, smaller kits, instead of MGs since that makes more money. The new Narrative Ver. Ka is really good, but the Sinanju Narrative Ver Ka is just extremely lazy so it's like a one step forward, two steps back kind of situation with MGs.
First off, thank you for making this video, your accent and voice are nothing to be shy about. 2nd you brought up a topic that might be needed to spread awareness. I my self tried couple of the brands you mentioned in the video. From my perspective you analyzed my behavior towards these brands. They do hurt my fingers from time to time. But at the end it feels like it was worth it. The final result quality is in some cases on bar with Bandai. And the mecha art/build is not exclusive to Bandai but must be shared. At least it challanges them to make something better. But i do feel like the brands that make their own spin on mecha builds also need our support to make more unique takes on Mechas. I did not watch every gundam show. But i admire the engineering and sophistication of any one who builds a great looking Mecha. And to me I enjoy the journy of building it and feel sad a bit when its complete. So keep them coming! Also if you wanna keep them coming... the Chinese companies are helping not emptying your wallet. Finally, you already edited, voiced and posted here. You have it in you to keep doing that. I mean heck you could make your channel focus on highlighting those hidden Gems! An in-depth review of kits from those brands would go a long way now in the community. Thank you and keep it up!
The vision to see a kit that is in high-demand and being able to bring it to consumers is what makes third-party companies so great. I'm glad to have them around, to me it's just another option for consumers but of course this is Bandai's playground and you gotta be careful playing in it.
Voice is good. Video is good. Zero gravity judge not good needs lots of glue lol. Other third party kits not as bad as you say, like inara or sna However bandi has lost touch and I have built bandi kits for 30 years
Bandai isn't even putting Gunpla out anymore (at least, nowhere near enough to service the current fans), that stuff is almost impossible to buy, especially when it's always out of stock, so it's no surprise people are buying 3rd party kits if they can't get the originals. Plus, anything cool is automatically P-Bandai, even stuff that doesn't make sense to be P-Bandai.
Motor Nuclear has pretty awesome looking kits! I would say they are equal to bandai at a lower cost. I have both bandai kits and motor nuclear specifically the Ao Bing mech
I'm in the "I have no idea what Gundam is, but their model are really cool" group. I mean, I've watched some of it when I was a kid, like 30 years ago. I just bought my very first model last week as a test. Well, yesterday I just ordered three more! But thing is, I wasn't even aware there was third party companies. I'm pretty glad I stumbled upon this video as I'm definitely going to browse what's available outside of Bandai.
This is a good thing we may be able to see a day when this third party can somewhat compete with bandai in sales so they actually have to price their products more carefully (dont think its anytime soon but one can dream).
I remember around 2010, it felt like nothing was a regular release anymore. Everything was gatekept behind P-Bandai (limited runs, with a premium to it) which I'm sure is still the case but maybe dialed down now..The first few examples I see as original creations. Starting to get back into gunpla now, I'm seeing a lot of 3rd party conversion/accessories that actually compliment Bandai releases
Wish there was more originality to 3rd party kits (like with Hemoxian kits for example) and they didn't all look like some random kitbash from Instagram or something. Most of the time they are incredibly overdesigned spiky mess without an identity and something that would appeal to an edgy angsty teen. Well, Japan has a different idea of what is considered cool or appealing, often favoring simpler or cuter designs, so edgy won't really fly here. There's also a nostalgic factor and attachment to a character involved. It can make you want to buy a kit of a particular character, even if you'd never end up building it. I got my Hemoxian Thor simply because it was like on a 50% sale and nobody else wanted it. (The other box is still on the shelf today after many months, btw). I thought oh well, fine, I'll take it, just for a possibly different build experience and to compare. I still could care less for the character itself. I wanted to get Tastier too just for it's base/stand that can host all the extra weapons and effects inside its compartment. That thing is genius and I wish more model makers took a note. Anyway, 99% of 3rd party kits aren't available in Japan so Bandai doesn't even realize there's any kind of competition exists. Like, pretty close to zero presence. (Bootlegs can't even be sold here, otherwise the place that sells them will get into legal trouble the next second they try to) Other than probably competition from Kotobukiya. Which doesn't even come close, especially compared to the sheer catalogue Bandai has. Kotobukiya kits are also in a different price range and are often almost double of a similar Bandai kit. I've been walking around the recent caped Eva 02 Tv Ver release from Kotobukiya and that 8600 yen price tag wouldn't let me pull the trigger. On the other hand, the older HG Eva kits from Bandai were also reprinted at the same time and they were gone in a flash, while Kotobukiya's one is still sitting there waiting for its buyer. I know it will be gone eventually and there won't be a reprint for many years to come so the prices will double or even triple, like it was with Armored core kits. So there's an availability issue with Kotobukiya too. But Bandai keeps the line-up varied with different series and the prices fairly low. There's always something on the shelf. So Bandai feels relatively safe and strong - they pretty much dominate the local plamo market. But for 3rd party kits you really need to be an extra nerd and go out of your way to find and buy them off of aliexpress and similar places if you're in Japan. I can see a rare single box of a 3rd party kit on a store shelf from time to time but usually nobody takes it because of low trust and aversion towards foreign makers (especially if they are Chinese/Korean) which are automatically seen as products of a lower quality. (Same thing with electronics, cars, etc, btw) It seems that if something isn't present in the local retail market then it simply doesn't exist at all. I know about the existence of some of these because I browse english parts of the internet. Btw, that Solomon Physalis model that made all the rave recently on the western internets - barely anyone even heard about it in Japan. The locals probably don't even realize they're are buying a chinese product for the most part, because they are sold under famous Japanese brands here. Like the MENG Eva kits being sold by GSI (responsible for all the Mr Hobby branded products, Gundam markers etc). Or the Tekkaman Blade from Orange Cat Industry sold under Wave brand, etc.
I bought a Dragon Momoko Tallgeese III before Bandai announced theirs. It was by far, the worst model I had ever built. I was lucky to get a refund on it. And I turned that into a pre-order of the P-Bandai Tallgeese III. I kept the DM version for awhile. But decided to put it where it belonged. In the trash.
That heavy arms daaammm that's really cool . Third party I liked a lot for the English instructions could still easily put together a Gundam from all japanese instructions just how there drawn out just match and Orient the pieces to match the pictures and your away laughing. But the third party kits are a little easier to work with I found there to be a lot less clean up and nubbing on the parts. But both share the same thing In common fun and relaxing to build awesome hobby love gunpla
TTo be honest, as a gunpla fan in Brazil, nowadays it's easier to get these third party kits than a simple MG or even HG, it's almost impossible to get a gunpla with good prices nowadays. I've never bought a boot leg kit and prefer the "new designs" like the judge. Nowadays, I basically buy kotobukiya kits and these third party kits ahahahah. The last gunpla I bought was the FAzz ver ka and it cost the price of 3 of these cool third party kits, it's just not worth it anymore.
Third party would hurt the Bandai "P-Bandai" limited release which in absurd price and in my experience some kits are not worth the price, not just that but other kits that Bandai won't release. The really strange thing that happen is the rise or many more third party after the fall of Dragon Momoko
I’ve been on a MASSIVE 3rd party kick lately. Specifically with the Infinite Dimension kits and SNAA (Supernova) kits. Mainly because Bandai seems to be more focused on their HG and RG lines while their MG line gets maybe 3 releases a year. These 3rd party companies now have their own originally designed model kits that are just as good if not better than what Bandai has to offer.
Bandai: We made this kit demand, see? All of us: Are you gonna make more to meet the demand? Bandai: No :) All of us: Are you gonna make more novel kits of suits we want? Bandai: No :) Third party: Fine, we'll do it ourselves. Bandai: Wait-
1. Improvments in 3d printing tech making the design and manufacturing process easier perhaps (?) 2. Bandai has practically abandoned the MG line; I realize they still release a few per years especially through p-bandai, but it's been full speed on HG and RG. I thought FM would be their short term solution but they didn't release one this year. Not to mention, yugioh and digimon kits to name a few have also taken up additional resources that otherwise could've gone to similarly sized 1/100 scale models. It seems like if Bandai is going to release an MG now, it's either a Ver.Ka or MGEX, or p-bandai variant of an older kit. 3. These 3rd party companies like IN Era for example see a hole in the market and are simply trying to occupy it. A lot of these kits aren't perfect but they're damn solid, come with water slides, and sometimes even die cast metal frames for an affordable price.
The only thing I hate about this phenomenon is how a lot of these 3rd party is compensating on their tech by giving you prebuilt die cast frames or frames you build but with some die cast parts. It feels solid but that’s one part of the build that I don’t get to experience make my own.
me who is 6months into the hobby built 10 3rd party kit 2 Bandai kits and i would say 3rd party kits are giving me alot of worth for my buck that some of the bandai kits couldn't give
I hope we will see more third party mecha model kits in the future, even better if they somehow manage to create their own stories and lore around them.
Yea people nowadays are slowly realising that they are getting ripped of by the "Original" brands start seeking for alternatives.. This already happends with Building Brick or some may call it "Lego"
Kinda funny I bought mega size Zaku from Daban and Bandai, their quality is equal since each model has different issue. The Daban has its pipes didn't stick and it's mono eye barely moves smoothly. The Bandai Zaku arms doesn't stick. I think third party able to catch up since Bandai themselves barely roll out new models with better engineering other than P Bandai which mostly cosmetic changes. But it seems third party haven't set their eyes on the grunt suit.
from the little i know, I dont think bandai is scared at all, but i do think they know they need to improve and they have been doing that, on a whole i think bandai are testing more things with the 30mm releases, and may very well move their lineup to have an inner frame of some sort for all models, i can see they are experimenting with this with select HG's but also the fact RG is still kinda new, and the MGSD line that is quite refined, slowly but surely im certain bandai are upping the bar provided the strategies in place are at cost, i dont think they bother thinking about gambling to make something ultra premium if its not worth selling, and at the same time, to do all of this without alienating the people who buy this stuff.
Gravity judge was the reason I bought a MG seed kit as it looked like it could exist in seed, which led to more seed MGs and more third party like In Era+ Aurora and Ruling, Glory (stargazer), Wuji Akatsuki, Daban Destiny. I feel these kits actually help Bandai sales, I would have never gone outside RG/HG if it weren't for 3rd party. (Edit) Also want to add the fact I still support Bandai even though I own a 3rd party version, pre-ordered the RG Akatsuki and more. But if Bandai starts trying to shut these companies down like Dragon Momoko, I will switch 100% to 3rd party.
Tbh i've become a big fan of Motor Nuclear kits. Only had some troubles with AO Bing which is their first one. The design is quite good but the plastic on that one isnt as good as on their newer kits (Still leagues above the average cheap Chinese mecha) Also helps that they go for a dynasty warrior mecha vibe so they're also distinct from gundams
I have a couple 3rd party kits I need to get to. But while you can see they are inspired by Gundam, they are their own thing. Though I would love to get ahold of some of those Momoko kits to try on my channel.
Nice video I like original gundams over bootlegs, but i live in south america and the shippong cost are exesive and premiun bandai overpriced, i pay like 130 dollars over a mg testament and the minimun wage in my country was 200 usd at that time, the bootleg of the psycho blade + 2 expansion pack was just 42 usd, so at least in pb i preffer bt. The 3rd party kits look amazing but the prize is to much to buy many of them
It wasn't just by chance that multiple bootleg/third party kits came onto the market around the same time. It was planned in a Gunpla Makers WeChat so that it would be hard and tedious for Bandai to target a certain kit to sue
I will never buy 1 to 1 bootleg copies. But I will buy something like the Solomon GP-02 Physalis if I like the design. As for the original Chinese kits, most of them are too spikey or they look 80-90% Gundam. They also tend to be more like fantasy style robotic knights while I prefer the more industrial or unique design, like the Burn Lapius or the Aesculapius, Turn X, TR-1, TR-6, Xi Gundam, Devil Gundam, etc. I hope the Chinese, AND Bandai as well, make more variety.
Competition is always a good thing for consumers like us, it forces Bandai to innovate and not to play it too safe. Tho that being said, both 3rd party, and Bandai feel kinda boring for me lately with their releases. Especially 3rd party kits, they might look different at first, but they all have similar gimmicks (big flashy weapons, funnel like weapons, huge backpack, guns on their wings). After seeing this pattern, it is hard for me to go back to 3rd party kits, because it doesn't even excite me like it used to anymore. I now build more armored core variable infinity kits and also FSS kits. They are quite different from gunpla and its fun learning new stuffs from building them.
simple. 3rd party black magic kits actually have the kits i want that Bandai refuses to make. and cuz the kit is so damn badass in design gundam legal is lacking
people usually buy a Spiderman figure because IT IS spiderman, not just some random design with spiderman inspiration, with armor and spikes or wings on top, even if it looks "badass" the point is to get something that you appreciate for what it is, not only for the "coolness" of the design, even with that, each mechanical design has a style, inspiration or philosophy behind it, it isn't about adding more spikes and wings and call it a day
I have a few third party kits and a lot of bandai kits. From what I've gotten and experienced, 3rd party kits look cool, but don't feel good. They tend to fall apart more and have weight problems unlike the 1/100 I've gotten from Bandai. They are definitely for different audiences, but Bandao kits just have that quality that can't be matched from my experiences
Bootlegs of existing bandai kits usually have issues like you described, often really bad ones too, but, original 3rd party kits like the Hemoxian Thor in my experience tend to have better or sometimes equally good stability compared engineering as a bandai kit.
Yep. And most of these newer ones are sorta original designs with this "armor parts on top of more armor parts" Metal Build-ish look to them. I'm tempted to get the Thunderbolt to try it out. 🤔
Bandai: "I could release it buuuut...."
releases things as P-Bandai only kits
And they only make a limited run!
It's mostly cosmetic when you think about it, very few that it's an actual different new models.
@@notani3533 Maybe at the beggining of pbandai existence but not now.
@notani3533 at this point they releasing completely different MSes in the pbandai line just to drive demand
"buuut you need to buy them all separately."
almost all parts need buying in bandai.
meanwhile, 3rd party kits will provide them all if you just preorder
Competition is good for the industry. And their price points are more competitive and alot of the premium kits from third party manufacturers offer a Metal Frame build. Its a good thing. No more single entity companies charging astronomicial amounts of money for the same designs over time and monopolizing the market.
Which ones offer metal frame builds? I've been looking to branch out of Bandai.
@@terminator572 motor nuclear (aobing and bunch) lines is one, the upcoming cang toys also make a plastic and metal frame option, i think star glory is also using metal frame? kinda a lot to list tbh now that its a trend
bandai doesn’t see these companies as competitors, they don’t produce mgs anymore. it’s more like these guys are filling in for the market that bandai has neglected
i rly think no country can match Chinese work standard and salary.
So i think no company can be competitive whit chinese product line, since they rely on chinese product line.
I mean, if i need YOU to cast a portion of my products, if not all, and you choose to do the very same, how can i put my items in pair whit your price?
Also, how much do i need to spend in JP to factor a model, and how much do i need to pay in China?
Simple.
There are so many things wrong with this comment "No more single entity companies charging astronomicial amounts of money for the same designs over time and monopolizing the market."
Let's unpack:
1. Monopolizing the market of what? Model kit? Then no, Bandai has never been able to monopolize model kit markets. For decades, it has been competition among several brands (Hasegawa, Bandai, Kotobukiya, etc).
2. Charging astronomical amount of money? Have you heard of WH40k? Airsoft? Frankly Gunpla is dirt cheap for the quality. It might be a shame if you don't live in Asia, but then you'd have higher income base anyway.
3. For the same design over time? Dude, are you saying for RX-78-2. HGUC v1, v1.5, v2, MG 1.0, MG 1.5, MG ver Ka, MG 2.0, MG 3.0 are all the same?
4. Back to monopolize. But Bandai contributed heavily in building the popularity of Gundam franchise dude. So we are just going communist mode now? What is yours is mine now? What about IP, author ownership and all that? Just fuck them cause we want cheap plastic?
Throughout the first half of the year, I've built 1/100 (Scale-ish):
Hemoxian - Thor Thunder God
InERA+ - Thunderbolt
InERA+ - Genesis
MotorNuclear - Nezha
SNAA - Thunder Incise Grace
Backlogged
OrangeCat Industries - Estailev
MotorNuclear - Cao Ren
MotorNuclear - Ao Bing
PO'd
SNAA - Guardian Gawain
SNAA - Martial Emperor
So far, my experience with these third party model kits has been a surprise. Build quality is great, the amount of detailing could put 2.0 MGs to shame. Each build, including panel lining and cleaning of nubs alone would be a 3-4 days endeavor - not because of poor plastic quality, but the insane amounts of part separation.
Not to mention, Bandai has been slacking on both MG and RG. Even HG kits barely come out throughout the years. I still purchase Bandai products (ie Gundams/30mm/Macross/SRW) but man, slim pickings.
Give third party kits a try, the brands I've listed are the more well known and well reviewed ones. Enjoy building!
In Era is so good, I am genuinely in shock at how good the kits are. I'm at the point where building bandai MGs feels like I'm building third party.
Motor Nucler is popular and I only built the wei yuan but that was also a phenomenal MG kit for 30-40 bucks. I still prefer In Era.
@@lol3xtrach3353 Right? InERA kits offer so much detail and parts separation. Actually pleasantly surprised on the plastic quality really.
SNAA and InEra are really good quality. Haven’t built Motor Nuclear but I hear good things.
@@BlitzShott It's like a HiRes Kit from Bandai, comes with a metal build inner frame and you build the armor pieces on it. Never built a HiRes due to its asking price - But, very happy with MotorNuclear. They really go overboard with the aesthetics if you are into extravagant/regal styled kits.
I finished building my Supreme Evolution´s Eternal Star Glory 1.0 and I must say I´m impressed! The build quality, color separation, plastic material, and details are incredible, don´t let me start talking about the almost 90% under-gated parts! Oh! Boy! Now THAT was a game changer in cleaning the nubs and stress marks of the kit... but most of all, the aesthetics it possesses. It baffles me how Bandai´s closest product to it are just a few RG and, surprisingly or not, even fewer Ver.Ka kits.
I love Gunplas, but it seems Bandai is more focused on mass-producing HGs that will sell for coins and will be bought in bulk rather than making kits that might be pricier but can be a total experience to us builders.
Some of those non-Bandai kits truly look awesome. Great video man! Totally agree with you, when there's fair competition, the ultimate winner is us, the consumers.
Thank you so much Master Gio San!😊🙏 I’m honored that you enjoyed my video. Thank you for being an inspiration!
Hell yeah bro! 🤜🤛 It doesn't matter whether it is bandai or not. The thing is we enjoy building this kind of stuff.
And by the way, the video is great though. More power to the owner of this channel 💪
P-Bandai are the real Bandai killers. Just why bandai? Why it needed to be pbandai? Does the kits have more details than normal hg ones? Does it have more articulation? Does it come with water slide decals and a stand?
The kit itself doesn’t justify the price. Just look at demi garrison and lfrith jiu. Almost quadruple the price of a bootleg in my currency. When i see Bandai release new pbandai i will immediately search for its bootleg counterpart.
Another thing that makes this worse is when you want to buy multiple of the same kit for different posing and display options. The prices and the limited nature of many of these kits often gets in the way of that.
my dumb ass read it as "does it come with water slide?"
you know what, at this point those p-bandai should come with water slides. hell, bring the damn water park here for buying one of those bullshit xd
As someone said, these aren't 3rd party kits, but original creations.
But they are. You are confusing them with "bootlegs".
Yeah that's always gonna be a thing lol. Goes to show how big Bandais monopoly is.
somebody could make a 1:1 rx-78-2 and I wouldn't consider it a bootleg or a 3rd party kit (even though, by all definitions it would be). Bandai fucking sucks.
Original creations my a$$
@@lesterantenor1026 Yes, most of them are. All of the In+Era stuff, SNAA stuff, Zarov, Zero Gravity etc.
Honestly,the rise of bootleg won’t touch bandai’s revenue for the simple fact that they catered to two completely different audience. They are rather an adding option to the variety of existing bandai kit. Straight builder maybe will shift toward 3rd party but they will get burn out pretty fast by the ungodly amount of runners those 3rd party kit has(like i got burn out while assembling the daban 8802 strike freedom), people that customize their kit will choose bandai anyday as they don’t have to correct the already issue that the kit has
Not really, customizer only get Bandai because it is necessary for resin kits and the likes, if there was an alternative that didn’t use their kits, like the stargazer and the GP02, no one would willingly buy Bandai, repairing issues is part of the work to get something truly beautiful anyway
@@fieldkaiju yes but they are not doing 1 off,if they would only buy 3rd party or bootleg i can assure you that the assembly and correction part is the most tedious and long process and less efficient then buying bandai. have you seen how many pieces the 3rd party have? Like how many wasted hours they will spend trying to fixing all the joints and pegs before even start to working on the kit. The resin kit part is false,there are exact carbon copy that can use those dress kit as well,but mostly doesn’t do why? Resin kit take already an ungodly amount time for preparation,do you think that people would spend even more time than the necessary by fixing the base kit because is a bootleg?
@@ilnumero1234 yet you end up with a much better result, which is the whole point of customization
@@fieldkaiju by doing what? Adding a resin dress kit? Buying a more detailed of same kit so you don’t have to customize it on your taste?Like no way. The point is not the end result,but the convenience of the process,buying a bandai kit is preferable because of that. People that customize will buy 3rd for variety,but definitely not a carbon copy bootleg if there is a bandai equivalent and will stick to bandai
Nah I enjoy the process of fixing and building 3rd party kits Bandai kits are just too smooth
One thing that changed my mind in moving to 3rd party kits was Solomon Physalis. Complicated build but it was the proper MG people wanted.
The same thing happened to me lol. I tried sticking to Bandai (besides getting custom weapons). But when Solomon's Gp02a was released, it was too good for me to pass up on. The fact that it doesn't look like a knockoff Gp02a was also a plus for me.
@@TheObservantGent it was worth the build ❤
P-Bandai cannibalize Bandai own market. like, whose idea releasing a popular kit as limited run will make their customer happy.
The 3rd party stuff isnt killing Bandai anytime soon. What we're really seeing is Bandai more or less stagnate with their products and continually release more and more stuff through P-Bandai while regular releases are more or less relegated to reprints with the occasional new kit coming out, usually based in some way on an older one. Looking at you MG Dom 1.5. Meanwhile the 3rd party companies dont have Bandai's quality control on their products, so they compensate by having larger numbers of parts and more color separation, though this does lead to increased prices and often more difficult builds. As for bootlegs, there's always gonna be bootlegs of anything popular, gondam's not unique in that. Ask any sneakerhead about fake Jordans or a woman about offbrand makeup. Heck, i'm in the middle of a repro of the DM MG Akatsuki, the WuJi/Dadao one, right off the back of building a MG Strike ver. RM, and it's a far more tedious build with less solid construction and a lot of cleanup of parts before assembly to prevent stress marks or parts potentially breaking while i'm trying to pose it. 3rd party has it's own market, namely experienced builders or people that wanna build something different from the usual Bandai fare and don't want to wait for the next MG/RG/PG release.
Some of the 3rd party also have their own original model kits. SNAA does that. Also Bandai isn't the only one, there is kotobukiya and some other I don't know.
And about bootleg, they're getting better now. Offering 80-90% of the quality for the price of half what Bandai do. Also make some P-Bandai kits more "accessible".
Also some bootleg offer different versions already existed kits. Such as Red Aerial, clear version Aerial, Gold Barbatos, etc.
You forget that third party / knock off kits are in their infancy still they are getting better with every new release and are starting to look better visually than Bandai's kits in some regards.
Currently building In Era+ Thunderbolts. Man the inner frame detail is off the charts, the plastic quality is out of the world too.
When I was building its legs, I was honestly contemplating on adding the armor with the amount of detail they added on the inner frame. Kit is rock solid
@@csat4363 buy another one and leave the armor off it is an option
The more badass model kits the better
The initial inner frame used by Dragon Momoko was based on the Strike RM kit. Dragon Momoko started using it and then the Astray inner frame since a lot of Astray variations were released. Next is the Unicorn too but again the most common inner frame is still the Strike RM. DM made the Metal Build figures into affordable gunpla model kits. Most 3rd party kits got their runners undergated and like DM, Daban even improved or fixed on some of the design weaknesses on Bandai's existing kits.
One of the reasons that Bandai went after DM at the time was because DM just released the Exia R4&Astray Blue 3rd Frame kits when Bandai was just releasing their own versions some months before their announcement. They obviously didn't like it when a 3rd party KO looked better than their designs since DM's gunpla kits are based on the Metal Build figures. It made their non-MetalBuild Exia release looked really inferior in design since they want to release variations of the same kit multiple times and most of the time in P-Bandai too to milk out as much as they can from the same mold like the Unicorn. Ironically with the Unicorn Gundam gunpla kits, Daban released their version with undergated runners and improved on the mistakes that the original Bandai kits had on their releases. It made the Phenix very affordable&less of a pain assembling it since most experienced builder will just paint the kit themselves and the undergating hide most of the nubs.
The moment that 3rd party Thor kit was listed on HobbyLinksJapan, it made those 3rd party kits legitimate. When noobs asked for a better looking DeathScythe since SuperNova&DragonMomoko kits are much rarer to find now, the SNAA HuntKill looks great as a Blitz/DeathScythe alternative. Also SNAA Hunt/Kill, Daban MB Astray 8812&8814 and DM MB Destiny kit will bleed you assembling it as it has very sharp parts. Other than the Strike Freedom MGEX, I still love my Dragon Momoko/MJH Metal Build Strike Freedom, Destiny&Testament/OutFrame kits.
Not only they're cheaper and some of them are comes with metal inner frame
You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it come true. You may have to work for it, however.
Its the same thing that happened to the transformers toys. It made the official toys better in the end.
I had to scroll back just to make sure its umi shinonome... confirmed man of culture
i'm gonna be honest, Bandai quite literally shoot themselves in the foot. they created the demand, but somehow they are stupid enough to not produce product to meets those demands, they even know and have statistic of what sold well and what doesn't.
the rise of their competitor should be a great wake up call for bandai that they are no longer THE mecha model kit building company.
Very well said, it just never made sense to me why they are not releasing kits that will clearly be very popular.
I don’t think it’s unwilling as much as it is unable. The gunpla hobby exploded post pandemic and their factory doesn’t have enough capacity to meet demands even after expansions which is why they’re currently building a second one. Last I heard it’s gonna start producing gunpla at the end of this year or something?
who is THE mecha model kit building company then? cause it ain't the Chinese, who after having a decent run at original designs, are reverting back to their "copy Gundam cause it sells" tactics.
The sad thing is that thats how most Japanese companies operate. They will have the data, the numbers, and the resources to produce products that consumers will gobble up but won't. The issue is that they [japanese companies] wont go into any market that they don't have a detailed report saying that the upcoming lineup is a guaranteed money maker. One of the core issues is that the company will be often times the first to decide to do this and so there is no data or sales figures on how well it will turn out but even when they do it, they don't devote enough resources to it.
All the merch for gundam isn't for me. It's on a pre-order basis, so if you miss it you won't ever get it .. ever. The stuff that you might want isn't for you. I'd like to have some enamel pins from Gundam Seed and Gundam Wing but they're limited edition and are of obscure characters [the bouncing robot]. They don't know the basics of merchandising which is making products that have as broad as an appeal as possible so it makes you want to pull your hair out. No enamel, lanyards, or posters!!! I don't want some weird backpack that I'm never going to use that costs me $90, I don't want some weird stationary, nor do I want some key chain ornament of a character that is too big to ever be used and will cost be $20 with shipping. Where will I ever use or appreciate those items? Is it so hard to get a Gundam wing poster? or a large mouse pad of the same image? Or am I stuck with merch that will put a large target on my back saying that I'm a giant weeb? Like I'm NOT walking around with an umbrella with the gundam seed characters on it. It'd be borderline social suicide XD
I don't see this thing about bandai digging their own grave. They're a multibillionaire company that branches outside of model kits and even with model kits alone, its only the other huge companies like kotobukiya that compete on the same level even then they're both doing fine.
Japan is still their main market and bring in the most revenue compared to the world so why bother changing up anything especially pbandai which is kinda sad for everyone else outside of Japan
4:18 blade of the razor are not clear in the source material it was a hard blade so it would be logical for them to go for the sticker. I hope you mention that in the next video cause sadly most people who asking for bootleg or 3rd kit don't have standard nowadays they don't even care if it accurate or not
Also Testament Gundam were hack from Robot Damashii form and turned into model kit just like how they do it with Metal Build. There's alot of wrong facts in this video, i hope you spend more time on research 😅
Wisdom is knowing what to do next; Skill is knowing how ot do it, and Virtue is doing it.
Bandai has been too comfort all these years...and plastics they used now r cheaper and even worse.... Kits r more ez to break, etc....
just look at the latest Sky Defender... that model kit look glorious~ even just look at the design of the stand, its look super awesome~~
Sky defender is expensive but totally worth it, it one hell of a kit with so many parts & it look pretty awesome when completed!
@@sebastian-FX357Z1 I think it’s a PG level with a big MGEX price if its a Bandai kit but it’s super detailed
I buy bootlegs too but the part about bandai plastic being cheaper and worst is wrong. Bandai kits still has better plastic quality than bootlegs. If you build bandai kits and ended up breaking a peg or two then the only one to blame is yourself. On the other hand, bootleg kits are easy to stress if you aren't careful enough. That's why i have to strengthen the joints so the kit would last long. Sanding bootlegs kits is a hassle too compared to bandai kits. ABS produces more dust when sanded than PS and KPS plastic. Bootlegs only exists as an alternative. Also its not like all bandai kits are expensive anyway. SD kits are cheap. Some 30MM and 30MS kits are cheap. There are also some gundam kits that are quite cheap nowadays.
@@KitsuManko those evil C joints r devils 🤣
@@KitsuManko in deed what i heard those bootleg kits leaves their build fingerpains
i kinda still waiting for either Bandai or the bootleg to issue the G-defender for Gundam MKII ver 2.0...... its long overdue....
It was her first experience training a rainbow unicorn.
I live in Brazil, and our current situation is not good for the gunpla hobby, we have to pay 92% of importation taxes for almost everything that we buy from other countries, and it makes the bandai products cost a lot, for example our minimum wage is 1412 R$ wich is arround 252 dolars, the new RG rx 78-2 is costing 157 R$ whithout the importation taxes, so i would need to pay almost 400 R$ on this kit, which is more than 1/4 of my salary, and thats why i like to buy the bootleg kits despite having their issues is what the reality in Brazil allow me to have
I personally think that the current "bandai killers" are kits like that Solomon gp02 and the upcoming 1/60 tallgeese. they are essentially a faithful sunrise design but with modern engineering. We know Bandai can do it but they refuse to. And even if they did, they would have to make an MGEX gp02 to even come close and if they did, it would cost easily double the price of the solomon kit. I can't speak about the tallgeese yet since I haven't seen one with my own eyes but based on all the pics, it seems like it will be PGEX level of engineering. And it's not like Bandai can accuse these companies of copying their kits because they either don't exist yet or are so outdated that it's clear they aren't the same thing other than the overall silhouette
a very common but misleading viewpoint. what makes the GP02 and Tallgeese popular are not the model kits, but the multi-media and IP-making efforts going into those designs (story telling, anime animation, marketing, lore, world building). Bandai can indeed accuse those bootleggers, cause they steal Bandai & SunRise IP. Think about it, would those bootleg GP02 and Tallgeese exist if those MS are not popular (therefore guanratee kits sale for the bootlegger)?
I wish third party kits would make Bandai not release everything in P-bandai
I hope China should make more bootleg kits of P-Bandai kits and Very rare Gunpla kits that didn't get reprint for so many years.
As good as bandai's gundam are, the price is outrageous in my country compared to the 3rd party/bootleg kits. Like most MGs are 1/3 of our minimum wage. I personally not sure if it's Bandai's or scalper's fault tho
From the US here can confirm that MG's tend to go from $60-$200 USD, they are outrageously expensive here too.
Yep, even the HG price is 1,5 times higher than last year in here
😭 this is totally a global thing, in Europe the prices r crazy high
@@Spore_Spawnfrom the US here and I’m telling you that you don’t know where to shop or cheap as fuck. For one I have never bought a MG for $200. Most I have spent was $150 The O. On average a MG run $35-$90. Knockoffs because that’s what these Chinese kits are, typically run over $100
@@HighBeanz idk if that's good or bad news lmao, well at least I know that I'm not alone
ok but has anyone noticed that a significant amount of these "gundam-derived" kits are based on the Judge very closely? Like, they have the same exact proportions and general body shape, just with different armor and accessories slapped on. in this video 12:20 and 13:00 are examples of this
This. Even with all that absurd amount of detail which let's face it few of us will really care about, they start looking more or less the same too. Almost every model if not based on the Judge is a hodgepodge of Barbatos, Destiny or Astray with 10 samurai swords and pointy bits all over the body. I don't get it like what are they even based on anymore. A large part of me wanting to get a kit is how cool it looked in the show. These on the other hand, most of them are based on nothing and are random concept arts brought to life with no real lore or show to make them more compelling.
@@ensiel4738Funny enough, that's exactly why I got into the third party kits in the first place. I like mecha designs, but never got super into Gundam in the first place, so I have no attachment to any series, so instead I just picked whatever looks cool to me without having to worry about trying to watch this series or another to get the full context of its design or the backstory of its pilot or whatnot
Bandai is still making good kits but whoever is in charge of distribution clearly doesn't care about foreign markets with how many things are going P-Bandai instead of regular releases. They seem to be focusing more on a wider audience with cheaper, smaller kits, instead of MGs since that makes more money. The new Narrative Ver. Ka is really good, but the Sinanju Narrative Ver Ka is just extremely lazy so it's like a one step forward, two steps back kind of situation with MGs.
dragon momoko is not gone, their new names are hemoxian, soskill, e-model...
Great video brother, nice to hear all the little tidbits of info that not everyone knew about.
First off, thank you for making this video, your accent and voice are nothing to be shy about. 2nd you brought up a topic that might be needed to spread awareness. I my self tried couple of the brands you mentioned in the video. From my perspective you analyzed my behavior towards these brands. They do hurt my fingers from time to time. But at the end it feels like it was worth it. The final result quality is in some cases on bar with Bandai. And the mecha art/build is not exclusive to Bandai but must be shared. At least it challanges them to make something better. But i do feel like the brands that make their own spin on mecha builds also need our support to make more unique takes on Mechas. I did not watch every gundam show. But i admire the engineering and sophistication of any one who builds a great looking Mecha. And to me I enjoy the journy of building it and feel sad a bit when its complete. So keep them coming! Also if you wanna keep them coming... the Chinese companies are helping not emptying your wallet.
Finally, you already edited, voiced and posted here. You have it in you to keep doing that. I mean heck you could make your channel focus on highlighting those hidden Gems! An in-depth review of kits from those brands would go a long way now in the community. Thank you and keep it up!
Thanks a lot for watching and for your kind comment! I’m glad you enjoyed it! 🙏
The vision to see a kit that is in high-demand and being able to bring it to consumers is what makes third-party companies so great. I'm glad to have them around, to me it's just another option for consumers but of course this is Bandai's playground and you gotta be careful playing in it.
Responsibility is not inherited, it is a choice that everyone needs to make at some point in their life.
Voice is good. Video is good.
Zero gravity judge not good needs lots of glue lol.
Other third party kits not as bad as you say, like inara or sna
However bandi has lost touch and I have built bandi kits for 30 years
I just finished the Solomon GP-02A and it blew me away with how good it was.
Bandai isn't even putting Gunpla out anymore (at least, nowhere near enough to service the current fans), that stuff is almost impossible to buy, especially when it's always out of stock, so it's no surprise people are buying 3rd party kits if they can't get the originals. Plus, anything cool is automatically P-Bandai, even stuff that doesn't make sense to be P-Bandai.
Motor Nuclear has pretty awesome looking kits! I would say they are equal to bandai at a lower cost. I have both bandai kits and motor nuclear specifically the Ao Bing mech
I'm in the "I have no idea what Gundam is, but their model are really cool" group. I mean, I've watched some of it when I was a kid, like 30 years ago.
I just bought my very first model last week as a test. Well, yesterday I just ordered three more!
But thing is, I wasn't even aware there was third party companies. I'm pretty glad I stumbled upon this video as I'm definitely going to browse what's available outside of Bandai.
This is a good thing we may be able to see a day when this third party can somewhat compete with bandai in sales so they actually have to price their products more carefully (dont think its anytime soon but one can dream).
I remember around 2010, it felt like nothing was a regular release anymore. Everything was gatekept behind P-Bandai (limited runs, with a premium to it) which I'm sure is still the case but maybe dialed down now..The first few examples I see as original creations. Starting to get back into gunpla now, I'm seeing a lot of 3rd party conversion/accessories that actually compliment Bandai releases
Wish there was more originality to 3rd party kits (like with Hemoxian kits for example) and they didn't all look like some random kitbash from Instagram or something. Most of the time they are incredibly overdesigned spiky mess without an identity and something that would appeal to an edgy angsty teen. Well, Japan has a different idea of what is considered cool or appealing, often favoring simpler or cuter designs, so edgy won't really fly here.
There's also a nostalgic factor and attachment to a character involved. It can make you want to buy a kit of a particular character, even if you'd never end up building it.
I got my Hemoxian Thor simply because it was like on a 50% sale and nobody else wanted it. (The other box is still on the shelf today after many months, btw). I thought oh well, fine, I'll take it, just for a possibly different build experience and to compare. I still could care less for the character itself.
I wanted to get Tastier too just for it's base/stand that can host all the extra weapons and effects inside its compartment. That thing is genius and I wish more model makers took a note.
Anyway, 99% of 3rd party kits aren't available in Japan so Bandai doesn't even realize there's any kind of competition exists. Like, pretty close to zero presence.
(Bootlegs can't even be sold here, otherwise the place that sells them will get into legal trouble the next second they try to)
Other than probably competition from Kotobukiya. Which doesn't even come close, especially compared to the sheer catalogue Bandai has. Kotobukiya kits are also in a different price range and are often almost double of a similar Bandai kit.
I've been walking around the recent caped Eva 02 Tv Ver release from Kotobukiya and that 8600 yen price tag wouldn't let me pull the trigger. On the other hand, the older HG Eva kits from Bandai were also reprinted at the same time and they were gone in a flash, while Kotobukiya's one is still sitting there waiting for its buyer. I know it will be gone eventually and there won't be a reprint for many years to come so the prices will double or even triple, like it was with Armored core kits. So there's an availability issue with Kotobukiya too.
But Bandai keeps the line-up varied with different series and the prices fairly low. There's always something on the shelf. So Bandai feels relatively safe and strong - they pretty much dominate the local plamo market.
But for 3rd party kits you really need to be an extra nerd and go out of your way to find and buy them off of aliexpress and similar places if you're in Japan. I can see a rare single box of a 3rd party kit on a store shelf from time to time but usually nobody takes it because of low trust and aversion towards foreign makers (especially if they are Chinese/Korean) which are automatically seen as products of a lower quality. (Same thing with electronics, cars, etc, btw)
It seems that if something isn't present in the local retail market then it simply doesn't exist at all. I know about the existence of some of these because I browse english parts of the internet.
Btw, that Solomon Physalis model that made all the rave recently on the western internets - barely anyone even heard about it in Japan.
The locals probably don't even realize they're are buying a chinese product for the most part, because they are sold under famous Japanese brands here. Like the MENG Eva kits being sold by GSI (responsible for all the Mr Hobby branded products, Gundam markers etc). Or the Tekkaman Blade from Orange Cat Industry sold under Wave brand, etc.
I think the best kits are resin kits/conversion kits/garage kits. Because they look like upgraded versions of existing bandai kits.
The key to growth is the introduction of higher dimensions of consciousness into our awareness.
I bought a Dragon Momoko Tallgeese III before Bandai announced theirs. It was by far, the worst model I had ever built. I was lucky to get a refund on it. And I turned that into a pre-order of the P-Bandai Tallgeese III. I kept the DM version for awhile. But decided to put it where it belonged. In the trash.
Hemoxian thor legit has better engineering and build quality than the large majority of my Bandai MG's.
So I realized things have changed when I saw Motor Nuclear kits on HLJ... I've been collecting their kits and have enjoyed it so far.
Just built the supernova blade king and it was a VERY nice build!
That heavy arms daaammm that's really cool . Third party I liked a lot for the English instructions could still easily put together a Gundam from all japanese instructions just how there drawn out just match and Orient the pieces to match the pictures and your away laughing. But the third party kits are a little easier to work with I found there to be a lot less clean up and nubbing on the parts. But both share the same thing In common fun and relaxing to build awesome hobby love gunpla
TTo be honest, as a gunpla fan in Brazil, nowadays it's easier to get these third party kits than a simple MG or even HG, it's almost impossible to get a gunpla with good prices nowadays. I've never bought a boot leg kit and prefer the "new designs" like the judge.
Nowadays, I basically buy kotobukiya kits and these third party kits ahahahah. The last gunpla I bought was the FAzz ver ka and it cost the price of 3 of these cool third party kits, it's just not worth it anymore.
honestly, the amazing kits more than make up for the spicy cough, well played china
Third party would hurt the Bandai "P-Bandai" limited release which in absurd price and in my experience some kits are not worth the price, not just that but other kits that Bandai won't release. The really strange thing that happen is the rise or many more third party after the fall of Dragon Momoko
Solomon's GP02 is insane! It's got LEDs a motor for the bazooka, better gimmicks and detail. It's like a MGEX mixed with a PG. And all for only $95!
Been eyeing the Guardian Gawain, it looks fire
I’ve been on a MASSIVE 3rd party kick lately. Specifically with the Infinite Dimension kits and SNAA (Supernova) kits. Mainly because Bandai seems to be more focused on their HG and RG lines while their MG line gets maybe 3 releases a year. These 3rd party companies now have their own originally designed model kits that are just as good if not better than what Bandai has to offer.
they caught Bandai lacking so they made it themself.
Yup, Stargazer Gundam mg, GP02 2.0, etc
Bandai: We made this kit demand, see?
All of us: Are you gonna make more to meet the demand?
Bandai: No :)
All of us: Are you gonna make more novel kits of suits we want?
Bandai: No :)
Third party: Fine, we'll do it ourselves.
Bandai: Wait-
1. Improvments in 3d printing tech making the design and manufacturing process easier perhaps (?)
2. Bandai has practically abandoned the MG line; I realize they still release a few per years especially through p-bandai, but it's been full speed on HG and RG. I thought FM would be their short term solution but they didn't release one this year. Not to mention, yugioh and digimon kits to name a few have also taken up additional resources that otherwise could've gone to similarly sized 1/100 scale models. It seems like if Bandai is going to release an MG now, it's either a Ver.Ka or MGEX, or p-bandai variant of an older kit.
3. These 3rd party companies like IN Era for example see a hole in the market and are simply trying to occupy it. A lot of these kits aren't perfect but they're damn solid, come with water slides, and sometimes even die cast metal frames for an affordable price.
The only thing I hate about this phenomenon is how a lot of these 3rd party is compensating on their tech by giving you prebuilt die cast frames or frames you build but with some die cast parts. It feels solid but that’s one part of the build that I don’t get to experience make my own.
I think Bandai just needs to give us more Gundam Versus Games. 👍🏻
JMS is the current GOAT herein the Philippines atleast.
We even joke that JMS is a decal company that bootleged Gunpla to sell decals
your voice is fine! Clear and concise.
When chinese gundam otakus own a toy factory and able to do what other gundam otakus dream of.
The Saint workshop Saint armor Oracle is my first 3rd party gunpla kit and lets just say that I like them more the bandai kits
me who is 6months into the hobby built 10 3rd party kit 2 Bandai kits and i would say 3rd party kits are giving me alot of worth for my buck that some of the bandai kits couldn't give
JMS Schwarzette and MK-II is really good kit
I hope we will see more third party mecha model kits in the future, even better if they somehow manage to create their own stories and lore around them.
the aurora from in era & sky defender from einta industries, these two are the best~
Yea people nowadays are slowly realising that they are getting ripped of by the "Original" brands start seeking for alternatives.. This already happends with Building Brick or some may call it "Lego"
the MGEX bootleg though XD. i love it!!!
Mechanicore, Elyn and Rodams definitely deserve mention 🤖
Kinda funny I bought mega size Zaku from Daban and Bandai, their quality is equal since each model has different issue. The Daban has its pipes didn't stick and it's mono eye barely moves smoothly. The Bandai Zaku arms doesn't stick.
I think third party able to catch up since Bandai themselves barely roll out new models with better engineering other than P Bandai which mostly cosmetic changes. But it seems third party haven't set their eyes on the grunt suit.
@@notani3533 yeah , actually i been hearing alot about how good daban copied some kits especially the new ones. Which kinda scary tbh
@@princetrumzit’s not, Bandai should be making better kits, Solomon release a single kit and it is the best master grade Bandai has ever put out
from the little i know, I dont think bandai is scared at all, but i do think they know they need to improve and they have been doing that, on a whole i think bandai are testing more things with the 30mm releases, and may very well move their lineup to have an inner frame of some sort for all models, i can see they are experimenting with this with select HG's but also the fact RG is still kinda new, and the MGSD line that is quite refined, slowly but surely im certain bandai are upping the bar provided the strategies in place are at cost, i dont think they bother thinking about gambling to make something ultra premium if its not worth selling, and at the same time, to do all of this without alienating the people who buy this stuff.
Gravity judge was the reason I bought a MG seed kit as it looked like it could exist in seed, which led to more seed MGs and more third party like In Era+ Aurora and Ruling, Glory (stargazer), Wuji Akatsuki, Daban Destiny. I feel these kits actually help Bandai sales, I would have never gone outside RG/HG if it weren't for 3rd party.
(Edit) Also want to add the fact I still support Bandai even though I own a 3rd party version, pre-ordered the RG Akatsuki and more. But if Bandai starts trying to shut these companies down like Dragon Momoko, I will switch 100% to 3rd party.
They're cool..but as a grunts lover, I'll wait a lil' bit more
Tbh i've become a big fan of Motor Nuclear kits. Only had some troubles with AO Bing which is their first one. The design is quite good but the plastic on that one isnt as good as on their newer kits (Still leagues above the average cheap Chinese mecha)
Also helps that they go for a dynasty warrior mecha vibe so they're also distinct from gundams
Just finished my Gundam Physalis by Solomon and it's crazy good, just one or two joints that were a bit too tight
i love my china mecha, own a changdao white tiger and im very satisfied, also the after service is amazing
The Daban MG Jagd Doga is amazing, makes Bandai's re100 seem even worse than it already is.
One thing that Bootlegger doesn't do is make obscure suits as kits meanwhile bandai is currently doing that.
Happy to see that I was featured in the burnout portion of this video hahahahaha. Great video lad
@MaxWinstanley007 holy cow !!🤩, haha thank you much. Love also your videos man. Burnout aside, keep that passion growing, my dude 💪
the third-party kits are really good, just wish that they made more 1/144 scale kits
hey finally someone talked about this, I've been curious myself
Excellent video!! You got a new sub.
Third party company:P bandai? We turn that into a common one 😂
I have a couple 3rd party kits I need to get to. But while you can see they are inspired by Gundam, they are their own thing. Though I would love to get ahold of some of those Momoko kits to try on my channel.
Nice video
I like original gundams over bootlegs, but i live in south america and the shippong cost are exesive and premiun bandai overpriced, i pay like 130 dollars over a mg testament and the minimun wage in my country was 200 usd at that time, the bootleg of the psycho blade + 2 expansion pack was just 42 usd, so at least in pb i preffer bt.
The 3rd party kits look amazing but the prize is to much to buy many of them
Kits can be badass, but most importantly is the story behind every kit, that's the only reason for the collection to worth something.
Nah badass is the most important
Story? Pretty sure most of us never watch gundam
That Bandai model file leak really hit hard
Its their fault, so much for metaverse
This rise happened way before the leak.
It wasn't just by chance that multiple bootleg/third party kits came onto the market around the same time. It was planned in a Gunpla Makers WeChat so that it would be hard and tedious for Bandai to target a certain kit to sue
I will never buy 1 to 1 bootleg copies. But I will buy something like the Solomon GP-02 Physalis if I like the design.
As for the original Chinese kits, most of them are too spikey or they look 80-90% Gundam. They also tend to be more like fantasy style robotic knights while I prefer the more industrial or unique design, like the Burn Lapius or the Aesculapius, Turn X, TR-1, TR-6, Xi Gundam, Devil Gundam, etc.
I hope the Chinese, AND Bandai as well, make more variety.
I live in Brasil and bootleg gunpla is the reason I can aford modelkits.
Bandai aint making my MG stargazer
Competition is always a good thing for consumers like us, it forces Bandai to innovate and not to play it too safe. Tho that being said, both 3rd party, and Bandai feel kinda boring for me lately with their releases. Especially 3rd party kits, they might look different at first, but they all have similar gimmicks (big flashy weapons, funnel like weapons, huge backpack, guns on their wings). After seeing this pattern, it is hard for me to go back to 3rd party kits, because it doesn't even excite me like it used to anymore.
I now build more armored core variable infinity kits and also FSS kits. They are quite different from gunpla and its fun learning new stuffs from building them.
simple. 3rd party black magic kits actually have the kits i want that Bandai refuses to make. and cuz the kit is so damn badass in design gundam legal is lacking
people usually buy a Spiderman figure because IT IS spiderman, not just some random design with spiderman inspiration, with armor and spikes or wings on top, even if it looks "badass" the point is to get something that you appreciate for what it is, not only for the "coolness" of the design, even with that, each mechanical design has a style, inspiration or philosophy behind it, it isn't about adding more spikes and wings and call it a day
what Bandai ignores these 3rd party can capitalize on and without a model to compare it to its considered original.
I have a few third party kits and a lot of bandai kits. From what I've gotten and experienced, 3rd party kits look cool, but don't feel good. They tend to fall apart more and have weight problems unlike the 1/100 I've gotten from Bandai.
They are definitely for different audiences, but Bandao kits just have that quality that can't be matched from my experiences
Bootlegs of existing bandai kits usually have issues like you described, often really bad ones too, but, original 3rd party kits like the Hemoxian Thor in my experience tend to have better or sometimes equally good stability compared engineering as a bandai kit.
Im with u on them titans kits i got both hazel custom woundwart then the same in blue and a hazel 2 t6 looking thing. Altho theres so many more
Fighting bro u r doing good
Yep. And most of these newer ones are sorta original designs with this "armor parts on top of more armor parts" Metal Build-ish look to them. I'm tempted to get the Thunderbolt to try it out. 🤔