This was another year where I got to pick my own Father’s Day Gift. So Happy Father’s Day to me. Again!
This, of course, is the Zeta Gundam, but more importantly, this here is my very first “Ver. Ka” Master Grade. And I thought it would be good to talk a bit about what a Ver. Ka kit is, and why they’re so widely loved.
What’s a Ver. Ka Kit?
“Ver. Ka” stands for “Version Katoki”. Hajime Katoki is an artist and mecha designer with a long professional history, including a long history of designing mobile suits for various Gundam stories.
His designs have a particular style that people really seem to like, and at a certain point Bandai decided they wanted him to come up with redesigned, “Katoki-fied” versions of classic mobile suits to sell as model kits. Thus the “Ver. Ka” line was born.
As far as I know, there are a few trademark characteristics of a Ver. Ka kit:
- Katoki is heavily involved in the entire process. He doesn’t just throw together a couple sketches and call it a day. According to the official Gundam website, his supervision “spans from elements such as the color of the plastic parts to the designs of the marking decals. The product photos, package illustrations, and instruction manual are also manufactured under the direction of Hajime Katoki.” Basically, everything about these kits are exactly the way he wants them to be.
- Ver. Ka kits are apparently very heavy on decals. Maybe not quite to the same extent as a Real Grade, but close.
- On a related note, Ver. Ka kits seem to be some of the only Gunpla that come with a full sheet of waterslide decals in the box.
- I’ve read reports from other builders that sometimes a Ver. Ka will have slightly more parts than other Master Grade builds.
- They tend to be a pretty big deal any time one of them is announced (though to be fair, these days it’s a big deal when any new Master Grade is announced).
What’s the “Katoki Style”?
I honestly don’t know!
I’ve looked around, and the only thing I was able to determine is that no one seems to agree on exactly what the man’s signature style actually is. In fact, in some cases the opinions are entirely contradictory.
For example, some people say that his designs are highly mechanical and “realistic” looking, while others say that they play around with proportions in order to look more cartoonish and “super robot”-y.
Another example - some people say they’re defined by being very skinny, with narrow (almost feminine) waists, while others say they’re big and blocky.
I admit that this is going to sound like a copout, but I don’t think any of these alleged Katoki-isms are anywhere close to universal truisms. In addition to his Ver. Ka redesigns, the man has a lot of other MS designs under his belt, including (but not limited to):
- The Victory Gundam and its successors
- The Devil Gundam, Master Gundam, and Nobel Gundam from G Gundam
- The GP03, and all the GM variants from Stardust Memory
- Pretty much all of the mobile suits used by OZ in Gundam Wing, including the best design in the entire show
- All of the redesigns seen in Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz
- A bunch of designs from Gundam Unicorn, including the Unicorn Gundam itself (as well as the Byarlant Custom)
That’s a lot of different styles of mobile suits, from a lot of different shows. The guy clearly has a lot of range. If there are any universal truisms about Katoki’s designs, I’d say they are more general ideas, rather than specific flourishes. For example:
- He seems to have an eye for proportions. He knows how long or thick any body part ought to be in relation to the rest of the body.
- His designs tend to look like humanoid robots, as opposed to the “giant person in a suit of armor” aesthetic that you sometimes get from Okawara designs.
- On the model kit front, he probably does enjoy coming up with lots of extraneous decals and markings for his mobile suit redesigns. But his original designs don’t feature any more (or less) markings than usual.
- … okay, maybe he does like giving his mecha long legs ….
Beyond that, I imagine that most of the traits that are typically attributed to him are probably things his clients ask him to focus on, rather than things he insists on including. But I could be wrong about that!
So Why Get THIS Kit?
My fourth ever build was the Real Grade Zeta Gundam, and it suffered catastrophic damage during assembly.
You can go back and read the original post, but I’ll reiterate the story here. This is a shot from the instructions showing a pair of small, thin parts that come together like a pair of handcuffs in order to create a hinge joint:
This tiny, fragile hinge makes up the model’s entire hip joint.
That’s it. There’s nothing else.
Granted, this design is the way it is in order to accommodate the mobile suit’s transformation feature. But it’s also structurally unsound. When I was assembling the left leg, both parts of the hinge broke into multiple pieces. All I did was apply a little bit of pressure, and they shattered.
It took a lot of trial and error, but I was finally able to glue the tiny broken parts together. That at least allowed me to salvage the model, but the poor Zeta’s been stuck on an Action Base ever since, unable to move or pose, much less transform into Wave Rider mode:
I’d like a second chance. I want to see the Zeta transform. I want to see it pose. And this Ver. Ka version is probably my best chance to do both.
To be Continued
In the next post, we’ll talk about the Zeta itself.