Gunpla Inochi 2010 Review

明けましておめでとうございます！HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! WELCOME TO 2011!!!!1.1.11! This was supposed to be my last post of 2010 but… New Year parties, you know how it is ;). Anyway, here’s a recap of 2010 on Gunpla Inochi.

Master Grade models reviewed: 6 (Astray Blue Frame, Acguy, Astray Red Frame, Shining Gundam, Infinite Justice, Strike Freedom)

A bit disappointing on the MG front this year with only having six models reviewed… three of which were built in just one month xD. Lack of time aside, I was also drained of motivation to work on my MG projects as I kept procrastinating and prostinating while the real Gunpla masters out there pumped models after models that look better than anything I can muster up.

High Grade models reviewed: 4 (Cherudim, Arios, 00 7S/G, Nu)

Well… I finished all my 1/144 models so I’m guessing this is a good thing? I still owe you a 00 Seven Swords omake though ^^;. I really only opened up to 1/144 models in 2010 so look forward to more in 2011…

Perfect Grade models reviewed: 1 (Strike)

Given my limited free time, I didn’t really expect to be able to build two in one year so I’m glad I was able to work on one heh. Maybe one PG per year from now on? I definitely have one in mind for 2011…

TOTAL: 11

My goal every year is average one model review per month… guess I failed by just a bit this year u_u.

KAMEN RIDERS REVIEWED: 9 SH FIGUARTS, 2 SIC KIWAMI TAMASHII

A new review section was created in the form of “Kamen Rider”, where I cover mainly SHF for now… there WILL be more SIC (both regular and KT) in the future. Just out of pure curiosity thanks to Bandai’s summer announcement of the MG CycloneJoker, I was recommended by quite a few to check the series out… and the rest is history xP.

SUMMER

This was supposed to be my time to rock out the majority of my future projects but I ended up taking 15 summer credits so I was going to school everyday, studying, and whatnot so there was really no time to build models. Another thing that was leading me Astray from Gundam was my personal life… I won’t elaborate but I was really unhappy. I was pissed. I was frustrated. My attitude was really negative during this time and though I tried to hold myself back, I think some of that negativity slipped in here… so I am truly sorry if at some point, I sounded like a douche/ass/whatever you thought of me at the time. Consequently, I was not able to enjoy the 4koma contest as much as I wanted nor did it went as smoothly as I would have liked. It was just… BLAH. This accumulated into me taking that long break during October.

ANIME EXPO/ LOS ANGELES/ MEETING DANNY CHOO

I had a tiny break during my summer chaos when I went to LA (and California as a whole) for the first time in my life. I went to attend Anime Expo for the sole purpose of meeting Danny Choo. The rest was an awesome bonus.

Attending AX was not in my plans at all until it was announced that DC was attending. I’ve always wanted to meet the man… not because he is famous or popular, but because he has had a huge influence on my life and I was able to thank him personally for a lot of things. I’ll write a detailed post about his influence later. AX was just plain awesome… sad that I couldn’t absorb the fact that I was surrounded and meeting “celebrities” who were the talents behind some of our favorite characters (Kamina, Ranka Lee, Ami Kawashima, Zack the black ranger…). It was surreal… what do they call that? Awestruck?

Special Shout to fellow comrade JOSE whom I met during the DCxFakku meetup. He was simply awesome… drove me all over LA to show me around and pointing me in the right direction on where to eat! And we only just met! I had a blast after AX all thanks to him. Thank you, Jose!

LA was a much needed sunny break from the mundane gloomy Portland life at the time. Even though it was my first time there, I felt right at home… I am from NYC after all ^^;.

“PLAYING WITH PLASTIC”- Gunpla Competition

I didn’t have time to finish the MG Red Frame to join the Straight Build category… so I submitted my Blue Frame instead. I think I kinda forgot that this contest was running until someone came with the news that I won first place in Straight Built… I wa SHOCK. I was aiming for the RG 1/144 RX-78-2 but ended up with the MG V-Dash instead ^^;. No complaints though… I’m quite thankful to HLJ for this model since I initially wanted it anyway but was put off by the price.

BLOG STUFF

Since the month I started, my traffic has been more/less on an upward slope. Higher on busy months and lower on slower months- it makes sense. September proved one famous rule of blogging- contents help bring in the traffic. “Contents” being actual stuff that your readers want to read… in my case, I am guessing MG reviews ^^;. September topped out as the busiest month of all time from my MG reviewing spree (the WIFP month). I would like to be able to pump out MG reviews every week if I can, not to beat my traffic record but simply it was engaging for me and it seemed like everyone else also enjoyed the speedy contents as well and had a lot of fun being here during the rush. I doubt I can pull that off again. At the end, it’s not just about speedy contents…  I got to make sure the quality of it is also up there as well to go with it :). Quality>Quanity.

FOR 2011

– Main goal: Work and complete at least one model in a way that is out of the norm of my usual gunpla-building style. Simply put, it’ll be more than just flat topcoat…

– Work on the blog’s layout… maybe remove and combine some pages that rarely get updates.

– More SH Figuarts review before I get SIC of Kamen Rider… ;)

– One Perfect Grade

– Finish up the rest of the MG Future Projects

– Review older models

– Implement some of the feedback I received from you during the Gunpla giveaway.

LAST NOTE

One year goes. Another year comes. I’ll skip the cliche” time” speeches and get to the point. I’ll be honest- there’s a high chance that 2011 might be a much slower year than 2010. I am beginning to make substantial progress in my college career and I want to keep up my academic momentum so “fun” priorities will have to take a backseat. I can almost see just a dim speck of that wonderful light called graduation so I do not want to screw up now. This means there will be more inactivity and disappearance from me. There will be less post but each post will be more significant. Again, quality over quantity. If nothing else, I’ll at least complete my “main goal” for you all… which I promise you that it will be quite refreshing to see on this blog ^^;.

Lastly, I thank you all for your support in keeping Gunpla Inochi alive for yet another year. I know it must’ve been tough so I am very grateful and I’ll make sure to continue to deliver just as I promised :D.

Again, Thank you! Let’s all look forward to another great year of Gunpla!