Gundam Wing model kits

Here comes the second part of my achievement during my 1 week trip home. I built Deathscythe Hell 1/144 model which completed my Gundam Wing model kits collection! Yay!

The first time I got hooked to Gundam Wing models was during JC times. The first set that I bought was 1/100 HG Endless Waltz. To be honest, I never really like Gundam mecha. I prefer liking the human characters to the robots. But an exception was made for Gundam Wing thanks to the angel (Wing Zero Custom) and demon (Deathscythe Hell Custom) design which remains as my most favourite Gundam models of all times. I also love the box design with the pilots taking quite a large space of the box. Even Relena, who is a non-pilot, appears on the box of Serpent Custom. Cool stuff.

Gundam Wing Endless Waltz HG 1/100

The boxes for Tallgeese III and Serpent Custom are bigger than the rest so the photo looks quite akward. These boxes are arranged based on their serial numbers, EW-1 to EW-7, and I have no idea how they actually come out with the numbering. I thought the proper one should be Heero, Duo, Trowa, Quatre, Wufei, Zechs, and then Serpent Custom (Marimeia and Relena are not pilots for Serpent!)

The first set of Gundam Wing model kit HG 1/144 was released in 1995 and they were at least 10 years old by the time I started collecting. Thus it was not possible to complete this set and I only bought whatever available from the store. I remember having to visit Seiyu everytime there is a sale and I would hope for this "ancient" model kits to go on sale for $5 each. Yes, five bux :)  I only managed to get Altron, Shenlong, Vayeate, and Mercurius. The rest that I have is recent additions after I get addicted to online shopping. Haha.. 

I was still a newbie when building these model and 2 suffered a sad fate. I broke Vayeate's horn/antenna/whatever you want to call the thing which is sticking out from its head and I linked Mercurius' planet defensors wrongly. They do not close together and cannot form a nice defense system like in the anime! Bah!

Gundam Wing HG 1/144

Anyway I don't own the complete set as I already had Wing Gundam Zero, Deathsycthe, and Epyon in the HG 1/100. Not a fan of this set because the pilot is not shown on the box art and they do not come with the resin figure of the pilot!! I am *that* particular about the pilots that I chose the smaller 1/144 than the 1/100 simply due to the box art. Haha.. I mainly bought the HG 1/100 for Epyon which was not in the Endless Waltz HG 1/100 set and already extinct from the HG 1/144 set when I started my collection. I then decided to get Wing Gundam and Deathsycthe too as they look quite different from their respective Endless Waltz style. Deathsycthe Hell actually looks rather different from Deathscythe or the Hell Custome versions but I thought it looked ugly so I chose to only buy the original Deathscythe. Ironically, D-Hell is the last one that I get to complete my Gundam Wing model kits. By complete I mean to have 1 figure for each mecha. Haha..

Gundam Wing HG 1/100

So that's it for my Gundam Wing model kits collection. Unfortunately I am unable to show the actual built kits displayed in my cupboard as my dad has not fixed the lighting T_T I am quite bitter when recently Bandai released Gundam Wing MG 1/100 version. Sigh.. MG is much better in terms of quality and looks stunning. MG kits make my HG kits look like children's plastic toys :'( Plus these HG kits tend to have loose joints which are unable to bear the weight of the weapons. Posing Wing Zero Custom in full glory is only a dream as my HG kit can't even hold the Twin Buster Rifle nicely. Sigh.. Anyway, my consolation to stay happy with my HG collection is that the MG box arts do not include the pilots. In addition, MG kits are more than double the price of the HG. So I am fine with my HG. Haha.. Self-deception mode on.

Although I am already satisfied with my "complete" collection, I don't mind adding another kit: Wing Zero Custom PG 1/60! Haha.. Wing Zero Custom MG 1/100 is tempting because of its costs which is only ~1/5 of its PG's brother. But then I do not want to have so many versions of same robot. So if I have to choose another Wing Zero Custom kit, I might as well have the best i.e PG. Sigh.. If only I have unlimited space to display these things, I would definitely buy this PG 1/60 T_T