2019 was a big year for Gundam. I mean how many animated franchises can you think of can say that they have been around for 40 years?

I know Pokemon is coming up on their 25th anniversary. If I’m still doing this in 15 years I can blog about them. Dragon Ball has been around since 1986 but is it fair to say that it’s been around continuously since then? The original saga ended with Dragon Ball GT in 1997 and from there we have Dragonball Z Kai which are basically just reedited Dragon Ball Z episodes and Dragon Ball Super and Super Dragon Ball Heroes which I feel are just extra episodes they crammed into Dragon Ball Z. Hop across the Pacific you have the Simpsons going on for 31 years (33 counting the shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show). Compare those to Gundam who in 40 years has stretched itself across over 40 films, TV series, and videos as well as mangas, novels, and videogames.

There’s a reason why Gundam has been around for so long and that’s because it basically built the whole mecha-genre of anime. It is estimated that the Gundam franchises has generated over $20 billion in total revenue making it one of the top 15 highest-grossing media franchises of all time with Gunpla (plastic Gundam models) making up 90 percent of the Japanese character plastic model market.

Gundam was something I never got into. As a kid I was really into cartoons and movies that had robots in them so you would think that I would have been all over Gundam, but things just didn’t work out for it when I was a kid.

I remember when Cartoon Network starting showing Mobile Suit Gundam as part of their Toonami programming block it coincided with this big push from Toys R’ Us as they started carrying Gunpla sets made by Bandai. Unfortunately for me, when Mobile Suit Gundam was on Toonami it was during the years I didn’t have access to cable to TV and at the time anime DVDs were really expensive so I couldn’t talk my parents into getting them for me so I could watch them on my own. As for the Gunplas, I had a few that I got from Toys R’ Us but the ones that Toys R’ Us were small and didn’t really impress me. I eventually did come across some of the larger and cooler Gunpla sets but they were too expensive for me to justify asking my parents to buy them for me. This was also during the time where I grew out of buying toys to play with but before I got into buying toys to collect.

Gunplas have been something I’ve debated doing for my site similar to what I have been doing for my Lego builds, and I’ve also debated doing some creative photoshoots with them. The main reason why I haven’t decided to do Gunplas for my site are costs and storage space. As I said earlier, high-quality Gunplas aren’t cheap and even if I did buy them I’m not sure where I would display them. I might consider doing a few builds in the future if I come across a must-have set but until then this is another thing I’m hoping I can either find a sponsorship for-or at the very least find a Gunpla-head who would be willing to let me use his collection for my own purposes.

With all that ranting out of the way I do want to get back to the 40th anniversary spread Gundam had at San Diego Comic Con. This is a post that I am regretting on multiple levels. Originally I wasn’t going to spin this off into it’s own post but after looking at my photos of it and realizing it might be good for SEO purposes, I decided I should just spin it off into its own post rather than lumping it in with the rest of my generic SDCC content. The second thing I regret is rushing my way through the Gundam anniversary booth and not taking my time to take a good look at what was on display.

I chalk this up to still being such a Comic Con noob and being so focused on seeing as much as the convention as I could. Putting together this post taught me that I should never assume that I can see everything at a first glance and that I should always consider giving things a second look. It’s a lesson I had to learn the hard way but at least it’s a lesson I learned.

Sorry for not having too much but please enjoy what I brought back from the Gundam 40th Anniversary setup.

This centerpiece is the thing that really caught my eye when I was wandering around SDCC. A statue of the robot that started it all, the RX-78-2 Gundam from the original Mobile Suit Gundam.

Here is a toy of the ZGMF-X42S Destiny Gundam, Shinn Asuka’s mobile suit and the titular Gundam from 2004’s Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny.

I’m not 100% on this one but I believe it is the GNT-0000 00 Qan [T] aka 00Q, Qan [T] from Mobile Suit Gundam 00 The Movie: Awakening of the Trailblazer.

A collection of Gundam heads that you can buy. At $2.99 each these are probably some of the cheapest Gundam pieces you can get.

Here are a couple figures from Bluefin Brands’ Gundam Universe line. From right to left you have RX-0 Unicorn Gundam 02 Banshee, ASW-G 08 Gundam Barbatos and XXXG-01D Gundam Deathscythe. Unfortunately due to me not thinking to take a closer look at things I never got to see what the ones in the back are.

I’m not 100% sure on this one but judging by the coloring and details I believe this bust is supposed to be based on the XXXG-01W Wing Gundam aka Gundam Zero-One, Heero Yuy’s mobile suit and the the titular mobile suit from Mobile Suit Gundam Wing.

Closing this out with a timeline of all the Gundam TV series, films, and OVAs over the years.

Thanks for checking this out. Sorry it seems so halfassed but like I said earlier this hard lesson I had to learn in content gathering. I only hope that the opportunity to redeem myself comes up soon.