so funny story. this. yes this little piece of crap. is my first "gundam" model kit. why the quotes? well...


so i got this thing a long time ago waaaay back when i was in highschool. i had always admired the whole gunpla hobby from a distance since i was a teen in highschool and could never afford to buy a kit. let alone know where to get one besides comic shops that had them way overpriced. (this was before the closest hobby lobby started carrying gundam model kits. at that time it was just a bunch of car model kits and planes/tanks) so this was when i discovered amazon. after seeing the astray redframe and blue frame gundams had fueled my desire to finally save up and get a kit by saving up my lunch money. well i couldn't muster the patience to wait months just to have enough to get a decent kit. let alone a high grade. (my lunches were cheap ok?!) even then i didn't know what the grades even meant. so imagine my luck when i find a redframe for like 12 or so bucks! and all the pictures used on the store page shows pics of the high grade kit instead of what it really is. i buy it immediately completely blind of all the mistakes a gunpla beginner can make. well i made one of them.

i ended up getting this little bootleg piece of shit instead of an actual bandai model kit. some of the others i've shown this to thought it was just a entry grade/no grade kit. i searched far and wide and cannot find this particular kit anywhere on the internet. not to mention that i remember on the box it said that this kit required PAINTING. correct me if im wrong but i don't think a single gundam model kit requires any kind of painting. again please correct me if im wrong. so this thing is the cheapest feeling plastic i've ever held. the plastic is that really stiff and super brittle plastic. for some reason only the head and legs only have a decent amount of detail. the backpack is the back half of the torso so it can't be removed without taking the thing apart. it's missing parts. it only came with the shield and gun. not a single one of the big swords that the proper kit comes with. (i lost both the antenna and gun over time) the only detail stickers were the eyes, and a few other parts that supposed to glow. the """""""decal""""""""" stickers were all completely wrong and hardly fit on the thing. the only two that survived the passage of time is the two on the shoulders. which also are never seen on the proper kit. (seriously what are these numbers?) the only parts that articulate is the upper arms, head, upper legs, and feet.

so just imagine my disappointment when i was putting it together. i mean i literally built it in just a few minutes. after putting it together my heart just sank and i hated it. i still do. it fucking sucked. so because of that i was put off from model kits for well over a decade all because i got this shitty little bootleg as my first kit not knowing any better. i would've tossed this thing years ago but i held onto it as a reminder when getting hobby stuff. now when i said that the mg sinanju is my first kit. that's because it really is my first REAL gundam model kit. that's why i will always call this the ashtray redframe

anyways just wanted to share this thing since one: i can't find any pics of this specific kit anywhere. and two: i just felt like sharing the story that came along with it