Gunpla Chronicles OVA 1

Way back in the 90’s, my brothers became instant fans Gundam Wing, especially my older brother. Whereas I lost interest in the show almost immediately, my old brother remained a dedicated fan throughout the decades, to the point where he refused to watch any other Gundam show until Iron Blooded Oprhans.

If you have any brothers, you can imagine the kinds of petty squabbles, arguments and teasing we engaged in as we argued over what we each thought was the best Gundam show, best mobile suit, best character, etc. You can imagine which show all of my brothers’ choices came from. Since this effectively made our arguments two-against-one, I was generally on the losing side.

Now, sixteen years later, I’ve been hit with yet another counterattack.

Ever since I started building model kits, my brothers have been asking me to build one from Gundam Wing. I kept telling them that I had no interest, but eventually I decided to be a little cheeky. I told the that I would build a Gundam Wing kit, provided that one of them bought it for me.

Well, Christmas is almost here, and at the very least one of them called my bluff. In fact, he not only called my bluff, but raised it. One day in December I received the following package from Amazon, tastefully gift wrapped and everything:

It’s not just a Gundam Wing model kit. It’s a freakin’ Master Grade.

Of course he’d send me Wing Zero. When I talked to him about it, his response was something along the lines of “nothing but the best for you”. He also asked if this kit would be larger than the others I’ve built. When I reported that it would tower over my entire collection, he was pleased. Essentially my brother wanted his favorite mobile suit - and by extension his favorite show - to lord over my own favorites. After sixteen years of back and forth between us, I conceded our debate. He’s won it.

Wing Zero is love, Wing Zero is life.

If you think my brother’s gift sounds overly mean and cruel, I can assure it is anything but. This is actually one of the most thoughtful gifts I’ve received in years (from someone other than my wife of course). There’s a lot of meaning behind it, and it evokes many memories of our youth. Our arguments and debates back then were not always friendly, and at times they made me feel angry and frustrated. But now, as an adult, I look back at those days fondly. There are moments where I’d give anything to return to a time where the most important issue in our lives was which was the most powerful robot in a fictional TV show.

So yeah, I’m gonna build it. This will be my first ever Master Grade, and I’m not sure what to expect. I’m not worried about the piece count - that should roughly be the same as a Real Grade - nor the overall difficulty. I think I’ve built enough kits now to tackle this.

No, it’s the size that concerns me. Is this thing going to fit in my display case? And if not, where should I put it? This issue alone may ensure that Master Grades remain a rarity in my collection.

But we’ll worry about that when it’s time. For now, let’s talk about the kit itself. As usual I did my research, and I’m glad I did. I thought it was difficult trying to describe the origins of the Gundam Astaroth, but that has nothing on this guy. Here’s my best attempt at an explanation:

This is a redesign of the Wing Zero, drawn by Hajime Katoki. Katoki was responsible for a handful of mecha designs in the original Gundam Wing show, and then did all of the designs for the Endless Waltz film.

Fast forward to 2010, and the start of the Gundam Wing: Glory of Losers manga. A manga-based retelling of the story, Glory of Losers uses all of the Endless Waltz mobile suit designs as a starting point. However, they brought Katoki in once again to come up with designs for all the mobile suits that didn’t show up in the film. That way, all the mecha in the manga would be stylistically consistent.

This, then, is a Katoki redesign of the Wing Zero for the purposes of the Glory of Losers manga. Well, kind of.

You see, this is the Wing Proto Zero. In the manga, this is what the Wing Zero looks like in its initial schematics. However, when the mobile suit was actually built, it was redesigned in the “angel wings” style we previously saw in the Endless Waltz film. In other words, this version of the Wing Zero never actually shows up in the show or the film, and it only shows up in the manga as a sketch in a schematic. The model kit, then, represents what it would have looked like if it had been built to specification.

I can’t find a full color drawing of the Proto Zero, but I found a monochrome sketch on MAHQ.net and lined it up next to an image of the original TV design of the Wing Zero:

It is clearly the same mobile suit, but changes were certainly made - and in my opinion, they make a huge difference. The legs of the Proto Zero are thicker and longer; when placed in Katoki’s signature wide stance, they look like they could actually support the upper half of the unit. The chest doesn’t stick out as much, and the the giant honking crystal in the center (my least favorite aspect of many of Wing’s mobile suits) is shrunk down. The shoulders are better proportioned, and are positioned better on the body. Lastly, somehow Katoki makes the wings better by marking them larger. I’m not going to say this is a top 10 favorite mobile suit design for me, but I genuinely like it, which is more than I can say about all the previous iterations of the Wing Zero.

Next episode post will cover build setup.

Other Thoughts

• You may notice that the box art contains the Endless Waltz logo. What gives with that? As far as I can tell, any redesign of any Gundam Wing mobile suit that deviates from the way it looks in the TV show gets slapped with the Endless Waltz logo. It’s silly, but I guess it’s better to have some kind of classification system than not.