Bootleg Gunpla

I don’t condone buying unofficial Gundam model kits. It’s still copyright infringement, after all.

Gunpla is model kit of mecha and characters from the Gundam franchise, produced by Bandai. Because Gunpla is very popular outside of Japan, a lot of chinese toy manufacturers create counterfeits of Bandai model kits, often called bootlegs. Most of the time, they blatantly copy everything, including the box design. The counterfeit kits can be as cheap as 50% of the real deal, while also giving bonus parts. But when it comes to quality, original kits are just better. Original kits have better plastic, more accurate colors, and parts that actually fit together.

Now, confession time: I bought a bootleg Gunpla. An Entry Grade Strike Gundam

But why? ¶

But why, you might ask. I mean, aren’t bootlegs bad? Not to mention, the original is less than US$10, which is already very affordable, compared to other model kits. You see, I started my Gunpla hobby by buying counterfeits, It wasn’t until I bought an original Gunpla that I realized the differences. Since then, I only bought original ones.

Well, my curiosity got the best of me.

Few weeks ago, I looked at Gunpla for sale on an online marketplace. I didn’t really intend to buy one, but then I stumbled upon a seller that almost exclusively sells bootlegs. The price was so cheap, so I got tempted to buy one. At that point, I didn’t even care about the quality. I just want to see how it is.

Check this out:

Honestly, it doesn’t look too bad, does it? All credit goes to Bandai for designing the model kit so well, that even the counterfeits cannot completely mess it up. There are some imperfections, if you know where to look at. There are very noticeable seams that are not supposed to be there, obvious molding line, and cheap plastic finish.

Customizing the bootleg Gunpla ¶

While at a glance the bootleg Gunpla looks fine, it looks very plain out of the box. But to be fair, that’s on Bandai, as bootleg manufacturers simply copy (and sometimes modify) Bandai kits. Entry Grade Aile Strike actually has excellent colour accuracy for its price without relying on stickers. See how plain it is:

There are also some glaring defects. Take this torso section, for example. The seams between the parts are huge. It is less obvious from the front, but you can easily spot it from other angles.

Some parts also look really plain with no color separation:

So what is the solution? Get over it, and move on with life Double down and customize the model kit to my liking, of course!

After watching some YouTube videos and a bit of googling, I bought some model kit markers, clear matte spray paint, decals, cements, and some other tools and supplies.

I’m pretty happy with the result. The decals really made the difference.