One 'N Only Jem

Kotobukiya Armored Core White Glint [so sexy~]

This is a kit that we both love and is only a sampling of the eye before the upcoming storm.

So, the evil that I’m referring to is building model kits. I have always admired both figure and mecha kits, but I never went out and bought any. I remember going into the model shop next to the arcade in the mall and admiring boxes upon boxes of beautiful gundam kits, yet I have never stepped further past the fascination and admiration. In video games and anime, there are times that you’ll see some really dope looking mecha that you’d like to have a scaled representation of.

As both a figure and video game collector, there have been plenty of mecha that I’d love scaled versions of. Unfortunately, pvc and video games have been more than enough to keep my attention. Model kit building is not a cheap hobby itself. You have to invest in a nice air compressor, airbrush, materials, tools, time as well as getting the kit.

We own kits and had the intention of working on them in the future, but it seems that that vague “sometime” in the future immediately turned into May 16, 2009.

We were invited by our friends to attend a kit building workshop with a lesson on airbrushing. Well, as much as google can lend a hand in understanding the techniques, in-person demonstration and on-hands experience is still the best learning tool. We drove ways away to meet up at the demonstrator’s house for the workshop.

Let me say, the demonstrator has the two cutest dogs. Ever. They are so damn affectionate and will roll over to their side, lying next to you with content expressions on their faces. So, it turns out that I already know of and have contacted the demonstrator before from a forum that I frequent. Talk about a small world.

So, the demonstrator was really kind with setting up tools (airbrushes/loaning out model parts/paint) so that both my husband and I could learn. My husband was a natural, of course, at airbrushing and having really good hand control. I’m not surprised as he has an artistic talent flowing through his blood. I pooled on my gundam kit and was still trying to learn the ropes of airbrushing.

A lot of people from the event were from the demonstrator’s personal forum and this was a general kit building event. I was able to view many of his works behind the glass cabinet displays as well as look at his workshop. There were many original kits that he showed me that I was quite familiar with. You see, even though I have never built an actual kit, I have seen the original kit, heard of the sculptor/maker or am familiar with the pvc version that is based off of the kit. Volks – one of my favorite companies who loves to shun me – is primarily a company known for their exclusive and gorgeous kits with many kits from their X and A-brand that I’d love to own.

A number of people from the forum, including the “head douchebag” as the demonstrator is affectionately known as, are working on an ambitious Mecha kit to display at the upcoming Anime Expo 2009. I was able to preview some of their progress and it’s coming along nicely. I’m not sure if we will be attending this year’s anime convention. We were gonna attend last year had it not been for a sudden disinterest in the convention and owning a good chunk of figures at the time. As much as we both love anime, I am neither interested in attending a good portion of the panels nor am I all that excited to get a signed poster featuring some my beloved anime’s English counterpart voice actors and actresses. I am never opposed to watching anime in English, but I rarely do it. I watch anime and enjoy it for what it’s worth, but deep down, anime will never surpass and overthrow my profound love for video games. Video games is very different in which I’d attend panels, booth events and strike discourse with creators in the industry and such. As it stands, there is not much going in terms of drawing my interest in wanting to attend Anime Expo. We have a giant collection, so the odds of finding something at a con is very unlikely if not closer to nil. Still, it would be very nice to get to see the kit built and displayed in all it’s glory. In the same token, if we’re habitually attending the kit building meets – which I have a feeling we will -, we’d be able to see the finished version regardless.

Anyways, moving along with the story, I went back inside the house to observe what the other people were working on. I was half expecting some FPS rampage to be going on in the living room, but much to my shock and amusement, Rockband 2 was the choice of gameplay for today’s gathering. We own the original Rockband, but haven’t bought Rockband 2. Quite a few of the members are really skilled at playing Rockband 2 on expert difficulty. We live in apartment building and there’s a certain level of volume control that must be observed and put into practice so as to not prompt your neighbors into calling the police on you. It was very amusing to see and hear the demonstrator belch out his lungs whilst playing the drums with both on expert difficulty settings. There were a couple of Rockband 2 breaks spread out at intervals to allow the kit builders some time to relax. As a random note, I need my camera to be up and functional to take pictures and maybe some audio of the demonstrator singing Billy Idol’s White Wedding Part 1 at the top of his lungs. All we needed were some backup dancers in shiny, black latex outfits shaking their butts.

At around 7:30 pm, we all hit up an eatery called The Hat. The proportions at this place were astronomical and a pastrami sandwich with a large small order of fries could be split between two people. As a joke, a small paper bag that most fast food joints use for a small serving of fries is included to demonstrate the sheer amount of fries you get. We ordered onion rings and for about $3, more than half of a paper bag was filled with onion rings. I’ve had plenty of oily and/or greasy food, but the onion rings were very big and delicious. Guess, the other guys couldn’t finish their fries and onion rings because it ended up being dumped into our bag. Shame that I ended up forgetting my bag because I could go for more onion rings right about now.

We got onto the discussion of pvc versus kits. I asked why he bought original kits rather than recast even though I already knew the answer going into the question. He asked me why I am into pvc so much. I told him that I love art and there are gorgeous pvc out there. All you do is stare at them, unless they are poseable, but there’s lot of staring done for kits as well. There is a sense of accomplishment in kit building that is obviously lacking with mass-produced pvc figures. I’m not at the point where my skills in building and painting kits is where I’m at, so I’m extremely content with purchasing and admiring mass-produced figures. Even though I’d feel a sense of pride in painting my own kit, the vanity in me that doesn’t accept anything but the best will not be satisfied in a mediocre kit infused with a lot of love. The reason why he buys original kits as opposed to recast is because he doesn’t want to support piracy. While he primarily buys original kits, he understands that recast is on a kit-by-kit basis. There are many kits that you’d never think of being able to own especially when the license to sell them is only obtained for one day – the day of the event. Many of these kits are made in extremely limited numbers and typically reach as low as 1 of 25. As someone who does not advocate the piracy of figures, it would make sense not to outright support it with kits, either. Unfortunately, it is not completely white and black as it is with pvc. While I’ve heard the argument that buying a pvc bootleg is the closest a collector will get to being able to afford a figure of a character they like or even an official figure that catches their eye, this cheap imitation will never come close to being able to represent the superior quality of an official release. Well, if you’re buying from quality manufacturers like me, that is. If it’s Bandai or Yamato or some other less reliable manufacturer, then the bootleg version might be comparable, but it really depends on what figure it is. The obvious bootlegged resin kits are typically made of cheap, Thai resin and are very brittle and hard to work with. Many of them are mass-produced using poor materials and cheap casting methods that these kits can be offered at very low prices.

Now, if you’re an amateur in kit building, I can break down cost and theoretical markup prices for certain kits. This may not be my line of expertise, but I am not exactly oblivious to other realms of the same hobby. The gorgeous Velvet kit by Dice Caramel Circle who is also affiliated with BUBBA in some way. Dice Caramel Circle was responsible for bringing out a gorgeous Tony Taka ver. of Kotona Elegance. BUBBA has been affiliated with the spunky Haruhi bunny suit resin kit as well as Max Factory’s Etna. Suffice to say, this group knows how to sculpt. This Velvet kit has been picked up for licensing by Yamato. As much as I’d love for ALTER to pick this kit up and do amazing things with it, ALTER usually makes their own design. There have been Yamato figures/statues that I own that I’ve been able to overlook flaws or was overly surprised with the quality (Darkstalkers Morrigan and Lilith resin statues). This is one of those moments where I absolutely REFUSE to succumb and settle for piece of crap Yamato just to be able to own Velvet from Odin Sphere. I have never been the type of person to settle for something that is second best as I pride myself in having a very good collection and only want the very best out there. As an extremely huge fan of both the video game company and Odin Sphere game, I will not give at least $90 to own an ugly version of a beautifully done Velvet just to complement my ALTER Gwendolyn or have more representation of characters from that series. Yamato is also doing a Mercedes that they’ve already managed to produce a garbage resin prototype that isn’t accurate to the artwork. To the untrained eye, it’s great, but to my eyes, it is off and I hate it.

My husband also expressed the same irritation with Yamato having purchased the rights to mass-produce it as a pvc figure. There was no way in hell that we’d preorder this travesty of a figure and allow it to lower the quality of our collection. Yes, this is how strongly we feel of our respective hobbies.  Now, this kit is exclusively being sold at the Hobby Complex 07 event for a retail price of 16,000 yen. If you think this is expensive, you have to consider that this is a small group’s work, is not mass-produced and is made out of genuine resin. The ability to recast a kit significantly lowers the cost, but there are some recasts that are fairly expensive if the recast and recast method is very good. I have actually considered getting this kit despite the price tag.

This price may seem unfair to a lot of people who don’t particularly understand the background behind resin kits, let alone event exclusive kits, but you’re dealing with a group’s limited in quantities work. Whenever anything is limited to a certain amount at an exclusive event, the markup for the product is very high and this type of behavior is not unheard of within pvc. Plus, the cost to purchase a ticket to the event, to line up early enough before the event begins, line up to purchase the kit and other things factors into markup on the second market. For kits, you need to strike fast before the remaining kits are sold and the rest is inflated to an even higher pricetag. So, I already know that this kit will be purchased, since Yamato isn’t going to do a great job of it. My husband jokingly said, “What if Yamato actually does a good job?” We both laughed at the same time. The only problem is that I wasn’t able to strike early, so the markup for the remaining kits is astronomical. In the end, we might, dare I say it, have to go with a recast and just be sure to give this Velvet as much love and effort as we possibly can.

So, this Velvet kit and the building event were the missing pieces to the puzzle to hasten our downward descent into kit building. I wouldn’t say that “avoiding” accurately represents the stance I was taking with kit building, but prolonging the inevitable would probably be more accurate. So, at this moment, I’d love to be able to finance an original Velvet kit and show some support to Caramel Dice Circle for the fine job they did in bringing out that character, but I can’t see it happening. It makes me sad because I love supporting the origins inasmuch as I can, but if this is going to be a serious thing for us, we’d have to invest in a lot of tools, materials and kits. My mother-in-law is a sculptor/painter/artist with many talents and she can attest to how expensive of a trade it is. Just the wrong timing, I guess. Places such as e2046.com  and Hobbyfan.com primarily deal with kits. While e2046 has the Ori Project with a group of talented, dedicated artists bringing out unique statues, I can’t help but feel that that group would not be possible without the funding of recast kits. I understand that a lot of these kits give collectors and kit builders a chance to be able to own some of these extremely limited kits, but where do you really draw a fine line? On Tsukiboard, all e2046 affiliated merchandise was completely wiped out from the database because the creator took a firm stance on not advocating bootlegs. Even the original creations were wiped because funding for those original creations came from selling bootlegs. In instances where there is no way to get a certain kit due to financial circumstance, recast offers avenues in being able to work on a kit at an affordable cost, thus faciliating the hobby. In the same token, collectors are less likely to want to buy original products when there is a hassle to procure the kit as well as a hefty pricetag, making it difficult to own said kit when a recast version of the same kit can be available for 3/4 the original cost. This is the bottom line – there is a very small chance, if at all places that recast the original are paying to license the product or are giving royalties to the creators. I am very unhappy with that. A bunch of people owning recast versions of a kit doesn’t help the creator in any way and it should be the creator that people should be thankful for in the first place. For example, it’s understandable if you go through the recast route if the markup on a kit is just astronomical and there is no other alternative to owning that kit. If the kit is still readily available from the creator and you can order it from their site, then show your appreciation to the creator by purchasing directly from them if possible. Will it cost more than a recast? Of course, it will, but there is no fixed value in knowing that you not only gave money to the sculptor who came up with and worked hard in bringing out the piece that you admire, but your contribution can lead to even greater projects in the future. At the end of the day, unless it is an original, piracy will always be piracy and bootleg is always spelled as b-o-o-t-l-e-g.

So, for the time being, recast will, unfortunately, have to do until a change of career occurs and funding towards original creations can be supported. So, here is a summation of things that happened and were discussed at during the gathering as well as my stance on the subject matter. As an ending note, here is a lighthearted segment on goodie especially Pocky!

So, I was taking pictures of the Pocky whilst driving to our destination. There was so much Pocky that I have never even heard of, let alone tasted such as the Blueberry Pocky or the Tapioca Pudding flavored Pocky.

Pocky comes in a wealth of flavors and boxes. Regardless of what appearance Pocky takes, they all taste delicious.

Ah, it’s 2:45 am, so I should get some sleep, since it is going to be a hectic Monday.