Bandai moving backwards with kit designs?

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Jak Crow
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Bandai moving backwards with kit designs?

In the past few weeks, I've put together several MG kits; V Gundam, 00 Seven Swords, Qant, Delta Plus, Heavy Arms, GN-X, and the Duel. I've put together dozens of MGs over the years. While it's all well and fine for each kit to be different, there are multiple issues that Bandai has actually introduced with many of these kits, that had actually been generally fixed in previous kits.

With the 00, Qant, and Delta Plus, their waists sag to the sides, often do the weight of their weapons, yet that kind of problem was addressed on older kits with a tab on the back that locked the waste in place.

Waist skirt armor pops off the 00, Qant, Heavy Arms, and more, but was almost completely addressed on older kits like the Infinite Justice.

The thrusters on the GN-X are loose and pop off easily. The feet on it and the Delta Plus are so loose the kits can barely stand on their own.

Leg flexibility and sturdiness keeps going up and down.

The V Gundam is just plain HORRIBLE, loose limbs, lousy hands, armor popping off with any movement. The internal frame was a joke. It should have never been released.

Most of these issues were obviously addressed years ago, but now seem ignored, and new problems even introduced. New kits don't have to clone old parts, but there's no reason why they can't be adapted to new kits. There doesn't seem to be any consistency with regards to the quality of design, if that makes sense.
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neolordmaxwell
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Re: Bandai moving backwards with kit designs?

I'm sure you'll find people argue with this, since 'quality' is a relative concept, but on a whole, I'm inclined to agree with you. Unfortunately, I started to notice a downward trend in some of the models since 00's second season, and I'm inclined to lame things like the rising cost of plastic.

Certainly, complexity for many kits has increased, but on other kits it's actually decreased. The second season 1/100 scale line for Gundam 00 is a joke compared to the first season line, with rampant use of hollow molding and 'cheat' methods for polycap joints that are nothing like the sturdy construction I've come to expect from previous lines.

There've been direct design flaw problems that have come up as well, past minor annoyances like 'loose joints' or 'armor that pops off'- The wing support on the PG Strike Freedom is infamous for having a major support structure for the wings hollow molded so that it snaps with very little provocation.

Meanwhile, some of bandai's competitors, particularly kotobukia, continue to push their own internal quality standards ever higher- at double the pricetag. My suspicion is that Bandai's taken to cutting corners to keep their prices more in line with what collectors and consumers expect.
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DAG101
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Re: Bandai moving backwards with kit designs?

First of all, i'm not entirely sure how a Victory Gundam model counts as anything but old at this point (unless they're released new versions)

Second, I recently acquired the 00 Seven Sword G, and it's pretty high quality, there's only a couple VERY MINOR issues, one of which took me only a couple minutes to fix.
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Calubin_175
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Re: Bandai moving backwards with kit designs?

Jak Crow: May you post your verdict of the MG Duel Gundam? It appears to be better than the Gundam AGE-1 which was co-released in the back in February. I hope that the Bee-Craft MG Seed line reusing their frames won't suffer the same fate as the Wing EW and Gundam AGE ones.

If there is a decline since the end of 2008/09, then which models represent the prime of MG gunpla? Would it easily be the Zaku II J/F/S Ver.2.0 and the Sinanju?

I personally never buy transformable ones since the articulation and proportions are compromised, except for the Victory just for childhood nostalgia of playing with all the hardpoints.
DAG101
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Re: Bandai moving backwards with kit designs?

Just reread the thread, didn't realize it was only about the MG line, must have missed that part. Disregard what I said; I haven't touched a MG before
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blind_dead_mcjones
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Re: Bandai moving backwards with kit designs?

i can't say with 100% certainty as the only truely recent MG kits i've bought i have yet to put together, but i will agree that there has been a dip in quality control in recent years, its also interesting to note that there's also a correlation with that, level of internal/external detail and how many more gimmicky features they can cram onto a single design
Calubin_175 wrote:If there is a decline since the end of 2008/09, then which models represent the prime of MG gunpla?
i'd say the Red frame and Blue frame
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Compass
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Re: Bandai moving backwards with kit designs?

I have a (still incomplete, mostly unbuilt) 100th MG Turn-A Gundam. Are we seeing a decrease in quality of PARTS or final assemblage? I can understand stuff being overloaded and falling off, but all the Turn-A parts, I did a once-over and they looked to be pretty on par with what I expect an MG would be compared to an HG vs. the NGs.

Bear in mind, that due to real life, I am now mostly building SDs, which have thankfully been progressively getting better. I remember when SD Gundams had legs that consisted of a foot attached to a ball joint on the torso, and nothing in between, so you could turn the feet but no walking.

Now they have actual working mini-legs.

I'm not sure how the SD market is over in Japan, but it seems like they're spending a lot of time making the SDs actually equal if not better than their 1/144 counterparts. I had the full collection of 1/144 Wing, and comparing those to my SD Wing Gundam Zero Custom was close, but not laughable. Now, my SD Strike Freedom has almost as much articulation as the Wings, and to top it off, a joint to mount it on one of those pose stands.

I'll see if I can pick up one of each type (except the 1/60s, TOO BIG) when I visit Japan/Taiwan and see how those boxes are. Due to visit in May.
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Jak Crow
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Re: Bandai moving backwards with kit designs?

Calubin_175 wrote:Jak Crow: May you post your verdict of the MG Duel Gundam? It appears to be better than the Gundam AGE-1 which was co-released in the back in February. I hope that the Bee-Craft MG Seed line reusing their frames won't suffer the same fate as the Wing EW and Gundam AGE ones.
The Duel is pretty good, though it would have been nice if the shroud armor stayed on better. While old, I'm wondering if it wouldn't have been better to simply reuse the MG Strike's inner frame given new frame's range of movement. At least with the Strike's frame, the joints for the legs and the shoulders keep the arms and legs attached more securely than the Duel frame.
I personally never buy transformable ones since the articulation and proportions are compromised, except for the Victory just for childhood nostalgia of playing with all the hardpoints.
I tend to agree, though when I get a transforming kit, I don't care to transform it and if needed, I'll glue pieces to keep the kit together as a MS. The MG Victory has all kinds of problems beyond it's transforming gimmick that make it a truly sad piece of plastic.
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