It’s been a long time since I’ve built a Gundam model.

I’m not sure when I found my love for giant robots. I would assume sometime in the fourth grade, when Mighty Morphin Power Rangers were the hit then. Sure the fighting scenes were good, but the giant robot fights? Every kid then had to have the toys, and I was no exception. Sadly I missed out on the original Megazord, but managed to somehow coerce my parents into the Dragonzord, the White Ranger’s thing that looked like a turtle, and the new one from the next season. Eventually I passed on from them and to this day they might still sit in a bin up north, unless my parents tossed it off years ago. They’d be worth a lot of money now, but being a kid, you want to play with toys, not keep them in boxes.

Gundam was naturally one of my first attractions when I got into anime, starting with Wing. But Super Robot Taisen/Wars got me into so much more beyond Gundam, into Super Robot Series like GaoGaiGar, Overman King Gainer, Mazinger, and more. I bought a 1/100 Strike from Gundam SEED from the mall up in Holyoke and built it in a night. I had built model starships before from Star Trek and watched my father build model cars as a kid, so building a model, albeit sans glue and paint, was such a satisfying thing to do. I kicked off a long-running habit of buying and building Gundam models, mostly from SEED at the time, and eventually filled a shelf full of them.

What eventually led to me boxing up all but a couple and storing them in the basement was sadly, cats. As cute as cats are, they are as deadly to models as rabbits are to live wire. They would chew the beam sabers off, find small parts and bat them around, or just jump into the shelves and knock all of them over. After losing Freedom twice, and with moving from apartment to apartment, I gave up on trying to display them proper. I kept Strike Freedom out to display at work, which I intend to supplement with Exia at some point, but they remain in the basement in a plastic bin, along with most of my SEED-related figures and collectables.

It’s also been a somewhat important memory for me in some ways. Model acquisition was my primary reason for going to anime conventions in the mid 2000’s. Aegis came from the very first Connecticon when it was at University of Hartford, and one or two others came from Connecticon when they first moved to the CT Convention Center. Buster and Duel, I believe, came from Otakon 2004, the second to last Otakon I would attend before 2006. The 1/60 Freedom was co-built by my ex, somewhat against my better wishes, and my ultimate trollface.jpg moment, METEOR, which was built the night she wanted me to drive to PA to pick her up when her father’s car flatted in the middle of the state. Drive a bunch of hours for your girlfriend, build METEOR. Only I would put the first nail in my relationship’s demise, but it all worked out for me in the end, so haters gonna hate.

But you know, the one thing Gundam related that reaches back into years of memories was Haro. I don’t always put forth a lot of effort with my Christmas gifts, but when I do, I try to make them something worthwhile, worth wanting, and worth keeping. Sadly the Pink Haro from SEED was something I had another guy help me get imported, and while it wasn’t expensive, it wasn’t cheap. My ex lost it, and didn’t think anything of it. That probably hurt the worst from back then, because all these years later, Blue and Yellow still sit on my shelf, unpowered, the batteries they had in them since right around the time she lost hers, that I just never bothered replacing, though mostly because I don’t know moon language to set the time on them correctly and don’t want it on during the night. I’ve always wanted to find a new Pink for Ashlynn, because she actually takes care of her things, but it’s so rare and hard to find now that it would be near impossible. If anyone ever does, let me know.

But eventually one of these days I’ll get back on track and finish the five or so year backlog I’ve accumulated. There is at least four or five SEED models left, plus Exia. I’d also like to finish the 00 set and the second set from 00’s second season, then maybe backtrack and do Wing. But I need to find someway to display them without the cats destroying them. Maybe some crafty engineering.