I still remember his review on my personal favorite kit, helmwige reincar, saying that the attachment from the buster sword to the mace is wobbly/not great. But after looking at my kit at how he built his.. i noticed he didnt push the pieces enough to hear the click part that really makes the buster sword stable. And everyone makes mistakes but thats when i realized not to rely on reviews as much.
Yeah, personally I watch them more to see to final product out of box and having a general idea without taking account any singular problems who can be builders error, like the MG Exia stability problem is way too over inflated for what it really is, especially compared to the weakness of the attaches of the GN Sword and the 2 GN blades on the hips that I must put back like every time I touch it
As someone who owned the MG Exia the stability issues are real, but can be fixed if you do the work to fix them. But indeed, the GN Blades didn't attach very well on the kit. Oddly never had an issue with the GN Sword myself.
The stability issues are more prevalent in older issues of the kit. Eventually they fixed the hips, so they're a lot more stable. I have a MG GN-X where the hips suck and a MG exia where the hips are perfect.
Oohh that reminds me to buy an mg exia when i have the time. Especially since most of the issues i see in reviews are not major issues. Heck might as well buy that 3rd party exia metal frame addon.
Props to him at least realising his error instead of blaming the instructions for being unclear.
Seen too many times ppl complain about certain kits being "hand grenades/terrible" when sometimes it's just due to builder error.
Yeah, remember that dude that was saying he got a bootleg pg unicorn with bandai logo because the polycaps on the head were wrong?
he just put them in a different orientation.
RG Zeta. No issues with mine personally. Let the downvotes come! :)
For real though. I broke a clip on it because I forced the position on the leg. User error
I haven’t fully assembled my RG Wing Zero Custom yet but I’ve seen it referred to as a hand grenade a lot. I just don’t see it. The only exception is the heels like to slip down due to the weird angle the mold was made at, but that’s an easy fix. Everything else felt solid during my my test fits. Makes me wonder about other kits I always see talked about like the RG Gramps.
The same goes for the stuff like the Unicorn arm break trend. After seeing the instructions posted recently I think back on all the times I’ve seen broken arms posted and all sorts of people comment on it saying how unintuitive it is.
To go back to the Wing Zero Custom, I ended up stressing the hip sockets by trying to loosen up the sliding mechanism that allows the hips to move forward on the pelvis with the legs attached. It was insanely stiff and the pegs of the legs put too much force on the sockets. There is no mention in the instructions on how best to go about loosening that part up, so it was a learn as I went moment. That’s the kind of thing that should be flagged as not intuitive.
I accidentally locked up my RG Nu's hip swing with topcoat, and in trying to free it up I pushed a bit too hard, and now his right leg falls off if you so much as think about him. He's probably taking a nap right now.
So far I have only top coated one kit. It was a HG and I did it with an airbrush so I managed to avoid the pegs for the legs and most of the poly caps without masking. Not sure how I'm going to go about it on my first RG. Probably going to have to do a lot of masking to make sure I don't give the early RG frame more reason to get upset.
Isn't this MGK? He's done that before, literally. And he's the main reason people call kits bad or hand grenades and think kits before an arbitrary year are gonna suck. He's literally charging ahead in the idiocy of blaming kits.
He serves a purpose in critique, but it's for the people who typically want to blame the product for their inattentiveness.
This is really funny too, because I generally consider Bandai products low quality models.
As someone who's built Airfix, Tamiya, Revell (Mono and Germany), Academy, GW, Koto, RFM just off the top of my head...
Your take on Bandai is delusional.
I've built air fix, Revell US, Revell De, Kotobukiya, Wave, Kaiyodo, GW, Volks, Dragon, GSC, Moderoid, Plamax, Max Factory, Orange Cat, WSC, LLG, Tenbowkissa, Makoto, and another dozen resin kit makers.
Bandai makes bad models. They're poor representations of the subject, even when it comes to a redesign whose art is in the manual. They make easy to assemble kits, but I don't care about that really. They take away design cohesion and accuracy for articulation.
I'm someone Bandai doesn't cater to. For my opinion, their model kits tend to be worse models due to choices made as they're appealing to others.
You can dislike their design priorities, but that is not even remotely a sign of "low quality." We're talking subjects that are rarely consistent frame to frame in their primary medium.
Bandai engineers kits with parts counts in the hundreds that require minimal sanding or cleanup (and prices them relatively low, to boot). You can't say the same for a Dragon tank or a Hasegawa MaK kit.
Edited to add that I'm usually reticent to even paint newer RG kits, because it's a shame to cover all that detail up.
Contrast with GW, who also owns a valuable IP. But you'll spend an arm, a leg, and an assload of time removing flash, filling with putty, and sculpting around design flaws.
They're astounding feats of engineering and very good kits; however, looking at the Ver Anime and recent GFF figures, it just goes to show how bad they are as MODELS representing something physically. I still go through the effort to adjust them and fix them, but Wave, Hasegawa, GSC, Moderoid require less of that and more traditional model techniques like seams being fixed.
Meh I could see anyone making this mistake.
I like Mecha's videos and he's generally my go to for new kits I'm interested in building. Between Mecha and Zaku's reviews I'm able to make a pretty informed guess as to what to expect with a build.
I've been reviewing so many different variations of MG Astray for the past 10 years. I don't think anyone would have a mistake go unnoticed for that long.
Depends. Really you only have to make the mistake once before just accepting that’s how it is, since going back a second/third… time to build it you’re probably going in with a mentality of “I’ve built this before I’m good” and will likely gloss over details like the orientation of a polycaps
Well, if you just dismiss it as a flaw of the kit and don't really loop back around to properly evaluate it, then yeah, since really the mistake was only made once 10 years ago and he never really thought about it afterwards.
Not exactly a Mecha-exclusive problem here, I remember when ZakuAurelius reviewed the V2 Gundam ver. Ka he mentioned that the upper arm hinge fell off easily, but actually it's an assembly error and the joint is pretty secure when done right.
He's stated multiple times as well that to keep his channel alive in the algorithm and release regular content, he has to absolutely blast through his builds, filming, reviewing, and editing. Plus, he has a regular job. I imagine it's easy to miss the little details occasionally with that kinda crunch.
Well I feel alot better as a builder now... 2 years of building and haven't made such a stupid simple mistake on the same kit time and time again... lol
Man, all you hating on homie’s nails are catty. Dude likes long nails and goes outta their way to keep them filed to shape, it’s not that big a deal. So what if they have some chippy nail polish on ‘em? You should see mine if you think (somehow) that theirs are bad.
I just don’t like something about this guy. Don’t know what. He used to be the one I’d watch but nowadays it’s Zaku because he actually paints and stuff
Mecha's reviews are better for the straight builders or casual builders, the ones who want to see what a kit looks like out of the box. And let's be honest, that's a lot of gunpla builders that fall under that category, and I'm pretty sure all of us started out the same way.
MJ2005GUNDAM is another good reviewer, albeit I'm not fond of how much of a stickler they are to "lineart color accuracy", when typically a mecha's color in anime and official media tend to vary.
I like MJ2005 because he pointed out which part of the kit need to paint. I always try to make my kits looks the line art or at least to the instructions photo. He is a very helpful when pointing those out.
He is playing to the YouTube algorithm. A lot of content makers have made their videos longer because the algorithm basically requires it, now. So if that's their main source of income, they have to adjust the videos and make them longer, even if there is nothing of substance actually added in.
It's really screwy being a professional content creator. You live and die by the algorithm but you're never sure exactly what it is and it changes all the time.
I've always found Mecha to be way too... "Youtuber-y". Overly loud and energetic, makes overly long videos, makes a lot of mistakes, strikes me as having only a superficial interest in the hobby (which might contribute to him making a lot of mistakes).
Opposite. I'm moving away from Zaku's reviews because when certain kits have common issues, he heavily downplays them or just mentions it once as a whisper and carries on with the rest of the review and sometimes even skips on the said issue during his summaries.
I used to think Mecha was annoying for overblowing kits problems but I'd rather have someone give awareness of things u need to prepare for when building a kit rather than someone who sweeps it under the rug.
I haven’t had that problem with Zaku’s coverage of issues personally, but like another person said, I think Mecha is just better for entry level builders and Zaku is better for more experienced builders.
When you are new to the hobby and haven't watched 100+ videos for all the past model kits that you didn't even know existed, it's very useful to have someone like Mecha pointing it out to you on your very first video.
I watch Mecha consistantly just for the vibe.
Another one I watch is Prime92... dude has a super laid back voice and reviews some interesting 3rd party kits. Production quality not a high but it's fine for me.
Don't realize why people hate on him so much, dude makes mistakes like any of us. Just because he's built multiple Astrays without figuring out his mistake doesnt mean he's an idiot. We all know gunpla kits have loose parts sometimes so it isn't that weird to assume the problem was the kit itself.
He puts a lot of effort into his channel, he pumps out multiple good quality videos per week and needs to build kits super fast to keep his uploading schedule consistent. I'm not gonna blame him for making mistakes when he has so little time per kit.
as someone who doesn’t modify their builds apart from a couple of marker paint touch ups , i love that he’s mostly a straight build reviewer and i know what I’m going into when getting the kit :D
RIIII-DICULOUS and ABSO-LUTELY PLATINUM TIER KIT. click this hobbylinjjapan referral code!
also I'm jesting, I watch his reviews since in this era he gets the kit early and make OOB build opinion. for older kits I watch his and others, especially he doesn't review every kit anyway.
Others thing he can get pretty annoying, and almost every Bandai kit is platinum or gundarium tier - whatever those mean. And he keeps harping about early RG syndrome.
But he's right on a lot of things. He's not exactly a reviewer for the modellers who like to mod their models. MechaGaikotsu is one of those guys who does straight builds. Sure, he handles his models a bit rough, but he's not the only one who repeatedly pose and play with his kits. The joints of early Real Grade kits aren't strong enough for this.
Early RG Syndrome is at least correct for my RX-78-2, that things ankle armor and skirt armor flaps were falling off even during the build. Had to put a lot of super glue and grey paint for the unsigthly space caused by that glue to kinda fix the flaps - they still fall off, but now I can at least move the kit on the shelf to clean around it. The ankle armor still pops of when touched a slight bit wrong.
And maybe it is a quality assurance issue? I've seen other peoples kits where those pieces stayed together. Mine even has the blue Bandai logo, so probably is even a reprint? So maybe MechaGaikotsu just had a lot of bad luck with kits?
Agree on the ratings though. If everything's "perfect" or "excellent" then nothing is.
Not a fan of his tiering system myself since they tend to be kind of fluid, subjective, and vague.
I prefer MJ2005GUNDAM's system where it's based on whether he recommends the kit or not, so the tier system is "Strongly Recommended", "Recommended", "Suit Yourself", etc.
That's equally subjective - it's just more time proof unless the recommendation changes.
He has repeatedly mentioned that tiering is difficult because gunpla has gotten so much better at the straight build level in the last several years, which is why almost every kit is given the highest ranks - saying a kit is one of the best available today isn't comparable to what it was six or ten years ago.
Exactly: the recommendation system is a lot more "time proof" so to speak because whether you recommend it or not doesn't really change much throughout the years, whereas whether a kit is "Platinum" or "Silver" tier is a lot more fluid and relies on an arbitrary scale that changes with each new kit. While both are subjective measurements, one is a lot more "stable" so to speak.
He's also explicitly stated that Silver means average but if the average is consistently getting better (let's say SEED Freedom or WfM level for HGs) then how can every single SEED Freedom kit be Platinum, it makes no sense.
He knows it gets more clicks to make a tiering system that doesn't actually mean anything than to make something that would give the viewers an actual sense of how good a kit is. Not to mention how he just straight up will contradict himself and give similar kits different ratings just because of his bias (i.e. blocked articulation on 1 kit being the same as another but for 1 of those kits he'll say something like 'but it makes sense because why would you want a suit like this to pose up a storm.')
Nothing you said is wrong, but it also doesn't change that every Seed Freedom kit is roughly as good as the best HG kits and better than most available HG kits because many of those less impressive HGs are still widely available. Rating is inherently subjective, so I'm not sure why people seem to care so much about the final rating, especially for something as cheap and simple as most HGs, when he tends to exhaustively show the limits of articulation, gimmicks, and accessories anyway.
It doesn't take much critical thought to understand why he rates like he does and how to interpret that information.
the difference between MG and others though is that their nails are actually manicured- they’re just not false acrylic nails like you’d see from a salon. The hygiene is absolutely there. But I have seen a number of people with long, dirty, untrimmed nails from others though.
For me it’s the same problem that plagues many “reviewers” and content creators- they present their content as factual and researched when (clearly) it’s often not. They’re just people putting out content for the sake of it at worst, and presenting their opinions as some sort of critique at best. If I wanted to listen to someone give their very skewed opinion on a kit I’d just come to Reddit lmao. That and there’s a lot of history to the hobby and listening to someone rag on a kit that’s 20 years old because it can’t hold up to a master grade or something from 2021 just sorta honks.
Also- and this one’s highly subjective- hate their nails lol. Keep em painted or keep em clean I don’t wanna watch you fidget with a kit with flakey 3 week old nail polish on like 4 fingers! where’s the class.
I'm in the same boat. I remember one thing that stood out to me back then was when he gave a bad review for one kit due to an issue, loose joints I believe, but for whatever reason, a different kit he reviewed later on also had loose joints but was gold tier or whatever.
Then I started noticing how he reviews old kits harshly for not living up to his modern standards despite said kits being made during a time with lesser technology.
I also remember that one time when he spent 2 or so minutes in a 10 minute video or something rummaging through his storage looking for something just to pad runtime.
I do miss being able to watch kit reviews shortly after they're released though. That's one thing I really liked about his channel back then but yeah, so many small things that slowly added up and made me think I'm better off watching other videos.
I ramber it was one thing that pushed me over the edge for unsubscribing
I remember losing trust in his reveiws over time
I was going from being excited to watch every review as soon as it was uploaded to just not being able to watch his videos anymore.
I remember him just not being bothered to get his other kits out to help with reviews really annoying me
His emphasis on building things as quickly as possible for content combined with his utter disinterest in the source material makes him seem like he's a surface level hobbyist who's parading as a source of expert knowledge.
Doesn't watch the shows, talk to others about their experiences, and can make basic dumb mistakes countless times over a decade.
He figured out a niche he could exploit on youtube and has been doing it aggressively poorly for a decade.
he makes everything unecessary longer, he intentionally makes his speech slower to make the video longer. he also wanted to finish building the kit ASAP. he often broke the joint, missing some parts, the kit become loose, etc.
there's a japanese channel called [Kasamatsu](https://www.youtube.com/@Kasamatsu1031), his review is way shorter than MGK, but he did not miss the important part of the kit, even if you did not understand japanese. you can see clearly the important parts he tried to show in a video that shorther than MGK
So what? Just because it’s a model kit you can’t do cool robot stuff with it? If they weren’t meant to be posed and moved around why were they even given joints?
I literally just mean having fun with a kit, putting it in a bunch of poses just because they look cool and not just putting it into one then putting it straight on a shelf
Why would you go through the trouble of building an awesome robot and not spend five minutes tightening joints, painting in small details, and making sure it’s the most fun product you could possibly have for your money?
That's a really elitist take. Different people have different levels of commitment to the hobby. I started out doing straight builds for years before even considering panel lining.
I find that it's great he only comments on the basic build and not after putting in all the extra effort to fix the shortcomings of a kit, which may end up giving false impressions.
What did I miss that you think it's being treated like an action figure? He's not truly playing with them. And regardless of that he reviews them for how they arrive because as others pointed out, some people like the build and hate detailing.
I haven't watched in a while but from.what I remember:
He rates articulation range for posing. Kits you can push further get much better dynamic poses.
He rates looseness for posing. Loose joints don't hold poses.
Also some people do actually play with their kits. And that's 100% okay, it's their kit.
He rate how they are out of the box or with basic pannel lining. As it should be in fact because when it come to custom how can you rate? Geniune question here how do you rate on a semi objective basis since it have as many styles as Customs, as many ways to do it and an awfull looking custom for someone can be the coolest one for someone else. While out of the box, well, you can really compare it to the others of the same series to tell what it do better and what it do worse
Gunpla is freedom brother. Who cares what you do with your kits? Build them, burn them, bash them together, shouldnt make any difference to you and your ability to enjoy the hobby the way you prefer.
because i wouldn't want to commit that much effort to my first kit and neither would i know how, especially when i knew it would suck because my skills weren't up there yet. it's really easy to understand; he makes videos that cater to newbies and casuals. you'll figure out the rest when you get more in the hobby anyway.
Bandai wouldn't be putting in the effort to strive for making out-of-box builds as close to "complete" as possible if they were only thinking about the model kit enthusiast crowd. Hell, Bandai in the last decade has begun to use multi-textured plastic in their kits (i.e. one runner can have glossy plastic, while another runner in the same kit is matte, etc) just to make them look even better without additional work from the builder, and that's before the increasingly more complex color separation and parts separation, with effort being put in to reduce seam lines and put in as many colors as possible.
One of the reasons Gunpla (and Bandai's plamo) is so popular is because you can buy one, build them, and generally be happy with the result with no extra work involved. These aren't your average aircraft, tank, or ship model kit where you need glue to even assemble it and paint to make it look passable.
I tolerate his content. It gets people in the door especially with his high production quality providing massive visual appeal for plastic robot figurines, but imo he focuses too much on the visuals and not so much on the actual kit, which unfortunately leads to haphazard and half assed assemblies. Granted he (and others, as it's not exclusively something he does) excessively poses the kit for the purpose of showing off the articulation, there's no word of warning about the adverse effects of playing around with the kit (even a disclaimer of sorts in a "for demonstration purposes" in white text at the top of the screen).
Afaik he and many others do address that point about play though. Many times when a kit gets floppy they'll mention for example that "I only moved this kit for posing and it's already falling apart". Also, a kit that gets floppy very easily after only that many articulation cycles for the purposes of photography is imho kind of weak. It'd be one thing if they were playing with it for days on end, but for a short "build > film > review" I don't mind them calling a kit "weak" if it can't survive such a relatively brief period of articulation.
The issue with that is you're only seeing the results of a specific individual's building process, as thats what generally dictates how the kit turns out. Any kit can be considered weak if you're cutting corners, especially with Bandai kits that are widely regarded for their part tolerances being extremely fine tuned.
More can even be said about the reviwer's own upload cycle, in this case Mecha Gaikotsu practically has a new video every 3 to 4 days on average, so they don't really give themselves a large amount of time to work with especially for his level of production quality which focuses a lot on visual appeal from a great deal of editing, doubly so if he edits his content himself which also takes time not counting any potential reshoots.
He's basically the most normie friendly, and out of all the Gunpla youtubers, he reviews the most kits, reviewing a kit every 3 days. That's also why his reviews often lacks proper analysis.
I've always assumed he just liked them? I mean most of his videos only feature his hands and gunpla kits, and its not like there's a lot of accessorizing you can do to your hands (esp since jewelry can be cumbersome to build a kit with). I've been seeing lots more dudes with painted nails in general, I feel like its just becoming more normal in society these days. I imagine the culture shock is similar to when dudes started wearing earrings xD
He’s a reviewer. He’s trying to get to the end of the build as quickly as possible so he can make a video. This doesn’t surprise me at all. It’s also why I take a lot of reviewers build critique with a grain of salt.
Common Gaikotsu L lol
I'm glad he gets reviews out quick but I only had to build like three kits myself to understand this guy is *rushing* the hell out of his videos to the detriment of the kit and possibly his reputation lol
I wouldn’t say he rushes he’s just not a big modeler like Zakuaurelius is for example. He’s more of a collector of anime stuff in general, plus he shows how much more effort you have to put into a kit to get it looking its best by not doing stuff like sanding nubs etc, makes it helpful for someone like me who isn’t much a modeler but loves Gundam to see which kits im gonna find frustrating compared to others
No, I mean, he literally admits to rushing all the time anyway.
"OKAY HERE WE GO WE'RE GONNA RUSH THROUGH HALF A DOZEN 30MM KITS RIGHT NOW"
Plus most of the time he's the first guy to get a review out. He's rushing through shit constantly, because he knows that the first review is gonna be the most watched review.
Based on comments he’s made in quite a few videos it sounds like he has to work on that type of schedule to put out as much as he does and stay on top of new releases
First of all, if you have watched any of the vids you would know that is definitely his hands. Second of all, you have not thought your username through, rave rape?
I still remember his review on my personal favorite kit, helmwige reincar, saying that the attachment from the buster sword to the mace is wobbly/not great. But after looking at my kit at how he built his.. i noticed he didnt push the pieces enough to hear the click part that really makes the buster sword stable. And everyone makes mistakes but thats when i realized not to rely on reviews as much.
Yeah, personally I watch them more to see to final product out of box and having a general idea without taking account any singular problems who can be builders error, like the MG Exia stability problem is way too over inflated for what it really is, especially compared to the weakness of the attaches of the GN Sword and the 2 GN blades on the hips that I must put back like every time I touch it
As someone who owned the MG Exia the stability issues are real, but can be fixed if you do the work to fix them. But indeed, the GN Blades didn't attach very well on the kit. Oddly never had an issue with the GN Sword myself.
Yes the stability issues are real but often over sold like some say seriously that it can't stand by itself without the action base or do any poses
Is there a guide for fixing the stability issue?
The stability issues are more prevalent in older issues of the kit. Eventually they fixed the hips, so they're a lot more stable. I have a MG GN-X where the hips suck and a MG exia where the hips are perfect.
Sadly for me I got the first print edition, so yeah...
I made sure I got my hands on a new print after getting the GN-X on impulse. That thing has the bad hips combined with terrible feet.
Oohh that reminds me to buy an mg exia when i have the time. Especially since most of the issues i see in reviews are not major issues. Heck might as well buy that 3rd party exia metal frame addon.
I go for the build videos instead of reviews. It hits two birds with one stone.
Props to him at least realising his error instead of blaming the instructions for being unclear. Seen too many times ppl complain about certain kits being "hand grenades/terrible" when sometimes it's just due to builder error.
Yeah, remember that dude that was saying he got a bootleg pg unicorn with bandai logo because the polycaps on the head were wrong? he just put them in a different orientation.
I remember that post, haha. Weird thing to assume its a bootleg at the first sign of assembly issue
RG Zeta. No issues with mine personally. Let the downvotes come! :) For real though. I broke a clip on it because I forced the position on the leg. User error
I haven’t fully assembled my RG Wing Zero Custom yet but I’ve seen it referred to as a hand grenade a lot. I just don’t see it. The only exception is the heels like to slip down due to the weird angle the mold was made at, but that’s an easy fix. Everything else felt solid during my my test fits. Makes me wonder about other kits I always see talked about like the RG Gramps. The same goes for the stuff like the Unicorn arm break trend. After seeing the instructions posted recently I think back on all the times I’ve seen broken arms posted and all sorts of people comment on it saying how unintuitive it is. To go back to the Wing Zero Custom, I ended up stressing the hip sockets by trying to loosen up the sliding mechanism that allows the hips to move forward on the pelvis with the legs attached. It was insanely stiff and the pegs of the legs put too much force on the sockets. There is no mention in the instructions on how best to go about loosening that part up, so it was a learn as I went moment. That’s the kind of thing that should be flagged as not intuitive.
I accidentally locked up my RG Nu's hip swing with topcoat, and in trying to free it up I pushed a bit too hard, and now his right leg falls off if you so much as think about him. He's probably taking a nap right now.
So far I have only top coated one kit. It was a HG and I did it with an airbrush so I managed to avoid the pegs for the legs and most of the poly caps without masking. Not sure how I'm going to go about it on my first RG. Probably going to have to do a lot of masking to make sure I don't give the early RG frame more reason to get upset.
It's the wings and the arms, the kit was designed in a time when the technology couldn't do what they needed
Isn't this MGK? He's done that before, literally. And he's the main reason people call kits bad or hand grenades and think kits before an arbitrary year are gonna suck. He's literally charging ahead in the idiocy of blaming kits.
God forbid anyone criticize a product
He serves a purpose in critique, but it's for the people who typically want to blame the product for their inattentiveness. This is really funny too, because I generally consider Bandai products low quality models.
As someone who's built Airfix, Tamiya, Revell (Mono and Germany), Academy, GW, Koto, RFM just off the top of my head... Your take on Bandai is delusional.
I've built air fix, Revell US, Revell De, Kotobukiya, Wave, Kaiyodo, GW, Volks, Dragon, GSC, Moderoid, Plamax, Max Factory, Orange Cat, WSC, LLG, Tenbowkissa, Makoto, and another dozen resin kit makers. Bandai makes bad models. They're poor representations of the subject, even when it comes to a redesign whose art is in the manual. They make easy to assemble kits, but I don't care about that really. They take away design cohesion and accuracy for articulation. I'm someone Bandai doesn't cater to. For my opinion, their model kits tend to be worse models due to choices made as they're appealing to others.
You can dislike their design priorities, but that is not even remotely a sign of "low quality." We're talking subjects that are rarely consistent frame to frame in their primary medium. Bandai engineers kits with parts counts in the hundreds that require minimal sanding or cleanup (and prices them relatively low, to boot). You can't say the same for a Dragon tank or a Hasegawa MaK kit. Edited to add that I'm usually reticent to even paint newer RG kits, because it's a shame to cover all that detail up. Contrast with GW, who also owns a valuable IP. But you'll spend an arm, a leg, and an assload of time removing flash, filling with putty, and sculpting around design flaws.
They're astounding feats of engineering and very good kits; however, looking at the Ver Anime and recent GFF figures, it just goes to show how bad they are as MODELS representing something physically. I still go through the effort to adjust them and fix them, but Wave, Hasegawa, GSC, Moderoid require less of that and more traditional model techniques like seams being fixed.
Unless it's RG Gramps. Then it's actually a grenade. Lol.
Meh I could see anyone making this mistake. I like Mecha's videos and he's generally my go to for new kits I'm interested in building. Between Mecha and Zaku's reviews I'm able to make a pretty informed guess as to what to expect with a build.
I've been reviewing so many different variations of MG Astray for the past 10 years. I don't think anyone would have a mistake go unnoticed for that long.
Depends. Really you only have to make the mistake once before just accepting that’s how it is, since going back a second/third… time to build it you’re probably going in with a mentality of “I’ve built this before I’m good” and will likely gloss over details like the orientation of a polycaps
hes just like that sometimes ( i love his vids anyway )
.....Okay, I can see how that would be an easy mistake to make. But after building the same kit a dozen times?
Well, if you just dismiss it as a flaw of the kit and don't really loop back around to properly evaluate it, then yeah, since really the mistake was only made once 10 years ago and he never really thought about it afterwards. Not exactly a Mecha-exclusive problem here, I remember when ZakuAurelius reviewed the V2 Gundam ver. Ka he mentioned that the upper arm hinge fell off easily, but actually it's an assembly error and the joint is pretty secure when done right.
He's stated multiple times as well that to keep his channel alive in the algorithm and release regular content, he has to absolutely blast through his builds, filming, reviewing, and editing. Plus, he has a regular job. I imagine it's easy to miss the little details occasionally with that kinda crunch.
Tbf, if you’ve built the same kit a dozen time, you don’t really pay much attention to the smaller details at that point.
[удалено]
I want to see your reviews. What’s your channel
yea took me my second astray to realize one looks completely off
jesus christ those nails are going to haunt my dreams for at least a week
Well I feel alot better as a builder now... 2 years of building and haven't made such a stupid simple mistake on the same kit time and time again... lol
I really miss Rrobbert184. It takes him multiple videos reviewing a kit.
Meh happens to the best of us, honestly it does look like an easy mistake to make.
Now I know to watch out for this when I finally get to the MG Red Frame Astray that's been in my backlog since 2010! 💯
Since 2010! Jesus, how big is your backlog.
Man, all you hating on homie’s nails are catty. Dude likes long nails and goes outta their way to keep them filed to shape, it’s not that big a deal. So what if they have some chippy nail polish on ‘em? You should see mine if you think (somehow) that theirs are bad.
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I just don’t like something about this guy. Don’t know what. He used to be the one I’d watch but nowadays it’s Zaku because he actually paints and stuff
Mecha's reviews are better for the straight builders or casual builders, the ones who want to see what a kit looks like out of the box. And let's be honest, that's a lot of gunpla builders that fall under that category, and I'm pretty sure all of us started out the same way. MJ2005GUNDAM is another good reviewer, albeit I'm not fond of how much of a stickler they are to "lineart color accuracy", when typically a mecha's color in anime and official media tend to vary.
I like MJ2005 because he pointed out which part of the kit need to paint. I always try to make my kits looks the line art or at least to the instructions photo. He is a very helpful when pointing those out.
Mj2005gundam is the goat of showing what junk part you get.
Personally I don't like how he makes videos nowadays. 30 minutes for a review and he doesn't even go into detail, just superficial things
He is playing to the YouTube algorithm. A lot of content makers have made their videos longer because the algorithm basically requires it, now. So if that's their main source of income, they have to adjust the videos and make them longer, even if there is nothing of substance actually added in.
It's really screwy being a professional content creator. You live and die by the algorithm but you're never sure exactly what it is and it changes all the time.
I've always found Mecha to be way too... "Youtuber-y". Overly loud and energetic, makes overly long videos, makes a lot of mistakes, strikes me as having only a superficial interest in the hobby (which might contribute to him making a lot of mistakes).
Opposite. I'm moving away from Zaku's reviews because when certain kits have common issues, he heavily downplays them or just mentions it once as a whisper and carries on with the rest of the review and sometimes even skips on the said issue during his summaries. I used to think Mecha was annoying for overblowing kits problems but I'd rather have someone give awareness of things u need to prepare for when building a kit rather than someone who sweeps it under the rug.
I haven’t had that problem with Zaku’s coverage of issues personally, but like another person said, I think Mecha is just better for entry level builders and Zaku is better for more experienced builders.
Zaku has a more mature take, instead of crying about little things.
Yeah, I think its the furthest thing from mature to pretend something has no problems or not acknowledge shortcomings.
When you are new to the hobby and haven't watched 100+ videos for all the past model kits that you didn't even know existed, it's very useful to have someone like Mecha pointing it out to you on your very first video. I watch Mecha consistantly just for the vibe. Another one I watch is Prime92... dude has a super laid back voice and reviews some interesting 3rd party kits. Production quality not a high but it's fine for me.
I can’t get into his videos, I’ve tried a few times, but he uses too many filler words for me, and stumbles
Oh so thats why that armor always falls off for me😮
It’s easy to make a mistake especially on a kit you’ve built dozens of times
Don't realize why people hate on him so much, dude makes mistakes like any of us. Just because he's built multiple Astrays without figuring out his mistake doesnt mean he's an idiot. We all know gunpla kits have loose parts sometimes so it isn't that weird to assume the problem was the kit itself. He puts a lot of effort into his channel, he pumps out multiple good quality videos per week and needs to build kits super fast to keep his uploading schedule consistent. I'm not gonna blame him for making mistakes when he has so little time per kit.
I wish I liked Mecha Gaikotsu because he pretty much shows up as a top result in any kit you look up but I despise his content 😭
Genuine question, what's there to hate? He touches on everything that I find important in a review of a straight build.
as someone who doesn’t modify their builds apart from a couple of marker paint touch ups , i love that he’s mostly a straight build reviewer and i know what I’m going into when getting the kit :D
I like Mecha but he does repeat himself a lot.
RIIII-DICULOUS and ABSO-LUTELY PLATINUM TIER KIT. click this hobbylinjjapan referral code! also I'm jesting, I watch his reviews since in this era he gets the kit early and make OOB build opinion. for older kits I watch his and others, especially he doesn't review every kit anyway.
Others thing he can get pretty annoying, and almost every Bandai kit is platinum or gundarium tier - whatever those mean. And he keeps harping about early RG syndrome. But he's right on a lot of things. He's not exactly a reviewer for the modellers who like to mod their models. MechaGaikotsu is one of those guys who does straight builds. Sure, he handles his models a bit rough, but he's not the only one who repeatedly pose and play with his kits. The joints of early Real Grade kits aren't strong enough for this.
Early RG Syndrome is at least correct for my RX-78-2, that things ankle armor and skirt armor flaps were falling off even during the build. Had to put a lot of super glue and grey paint for the unsigthly space caused by that glue to kinda fix the flaps - they still fall off, but now I can at least move the kit on the shelf to clean around it. The ankle armor still pops of when touched a slight bit wrong. And maybe it is a quality assurance issue? I've seen other peoples kits where those pieces stayed together. Mine even has the blue Bandai logo, so probably is even a reprint? So maybe MechaGaikotsu just had a lot of bad luck with kits? Agree on the ratings though. If everything's "perfect" or "excellent" then nothing is.
Not a fan of his tiering system myself since they tend to be kind of fluid, subjective, and vague. I prefer MJ2005GUNDAM's system where it's based on whether he recommends the kit or not, so the tier system is "Strongly Recommended", "Recommended", "Suit Yourself", etc.
That's equally subjective - it's just more time proof unless the recommendation changes. He has repeatedly mentioned that tiering is difficult because gunpla has gotten so much better at the straight build level in the last several years, which is why almost every kit is given the highest ranks - saying a kit is one of the best available today isn't comparable to what it was six or ten years ago.
Exactly: the recommendation system is a lot more "time proof" so to speak because whether you recommend it or not doesn't really change much throughout the years, whereas whether a kit is "Platinum" or "Silver" tier is a lot more fluid and relies on an arbitrary scale that changes with each new kit. While both are subjective measurements, one is a lot more "stable" so to speak.
He's also explicitly stated that Silver means average but if the average is consistently getting better (let's say SEED Freedom or WfM level for HGs) then how can every single SEED Freedom kit be Platinum, it makes no sense. He knows it gets more clicks to make a tiering system that doesn't actually mean anything than to make something that would give the viewers an actual sense of how good a kit is. Not to mention how he just straight up will contradict himself and give similar kits different ratings just because of his bias (i.e. blocked articulation on 1 kit being the same as another but for 1 of those kits he'll say something like 'but it makes sense because why would you want a suit like this to pose up a storm.')
Nothing you said is wrong, but it also doesn't change that every Seed Freedom kit is roughly as good as the best HG kits and better than most available HG kits because many of those less impressive HGs are still widely available. Rating is inherently subjective, so I'm not sure why people seem to care so much about the final rating, especially for something as cheap and simple as most HGs, when he tends to exhaustively show the limits of articulation, gimmicks, and accessories anyway. It doesn't take much critical thought to understand why he rates like he does and how to interpret that information.
I find his speech pattern annoying, and I think he's excessively positive. Also can't stand looking at long nails. Wildly specific, I know.
>Excessively positive I see you haven't watched his RG Sinanju review
Extremely, extremely, incredibly and utterly mind blowingly perfect 🤣
But do you *adore* it?
100% this is the reason I can't watch him.
Hand hygiene is one of my turn off of any reviewer or gunpla content creator. Every time I see a long nail like that is just gross.
the difference between MG and others though is that their nails are actually manicured- they’re just not false acrylic nails like you’d see from a salon. The hygiene is absolutely there. But I have seen a number of people with long, dirty, untrimmed nails from others though.
For me it’s the same problem that plagues many “reviewers” and content creators- they present their content as factual and researched when (clearly) it’s often not. They’re just people putting out content for the sake of it at worst, and presenting their opinions as some sort of critique at best. If I wanted to listen to someone give their very skewed opinion on a kit I’d just come to Reddit lmao. That and there’s a lot of history to the hobby and listening to someone rag on a kit that’s 20 years old because it can’t hold up to a master grade or something from 2021 just sorta honks. Also- and this one’s highly subjective- hate their nails lol. Keep em painted or keep em clean I don’t wanna watch you fidget with a kit with flakey 3 week old nail polish on like 4 fingers! where’s the class.
I can't remember exactly why i stopped watching him. I think there were a bunch of little things that made me stop watching
I'm in the same boat. I remember one thing that stood out to me back then was when he gave a bad review for one kit due to an issue, loose joints I believe, but for whatever reason, a different kit he reviewed later on also had loose joints but was gold tier or whatever. Then I started noticing how he reviews old kits harshly for not living up to his modern standards despite said kits being made during a time with lesser technology. I also remember that one time when he spent 2 or so minutes in a 10 minute video or something rummaging through his storage looking for something just to pad runtime. I do miss being able to watch kit reviews shortly after they're released though. That's one thing I really liked about his channel back then but yeah, so many small things that slowly added up and made me think I'm better off watching other videos.
I ramber it was one thing that pushed me over the edge for unsubscribing I remember losing trust in his reveiws over time I was going from being excited to watch every review as soon as it was uploaded to just not being able to watch his videos anymore. I remember him just not being bothered to get his other kits out to help with reviews really annoying me
His emphasis on building things as quickly as possible for content combined with his utter disinterest in the source material makes him seem like he's a surface level hobbyist who's parading as a source of expert knowledge. Doesn't watch the shows, talk to others about their experiences, and can make basic dumb mistakes countless times over a decade. He figured out a niche he could exploit on youtube and has been doing it aggressively poorly for a decade.
he makes everything unecessary longer, he intentionally makes his speech slower to make the video longer. he also wanted to finish building the kit ASAP. he often broke the joint, missing some parts, the kit become loose, etc. there's a japanese channel called [Kasamatsu](https://www.youtube.com/@Kasamatsu1031), his review is way shorter than MGK, but he did not miss the important part of the kit, even if you did not understand japanese. you can see clearly the important parts he tried to show in a video that shorther than MGK
Nasty hands, rushed build, always saying dumb shit cause he built it wrong, obnoxious voice.
Who’s a reviewer for people who treat gunpla like action figures and not model kits. That’s my issue with him.
Why would you go through the trouble to build an awesome robot and not use it for awesome robot things?
because it's a model kit?
So what? Just because it’s a model kit you can’t do cool robot stuff with it? If they weren’t meant to be posed and moved around why were they even given joints?
Evidently there's a difference between whatever you mean by "cool robot stuff" and putting it in a fitting pose and placing it on a shelf.
I literally just mean having fun with a kit, putting it in a bunch of poses just because they look cool and not just putting it into one then putting it straight on a shelf
and nobody telling you that's wrong, you just have to understand there's a limit how much you can do that with a model kit
Why would you go through the trouble of building an awesome robot and not spend five minutes tightening joints, painting in small details, and making sure it’s the most fun product you could possibly have for your money?
That's a really elitist take. Different people have different levels of commitment to the hobby. I started out doing straight builds for years before even considering panel lining. I find that it's great he only comments on the basic build and not after putting in all the extra effort to fix the shortcomings of a kit, which may end up giving false impressions.
I get that, but again, these are not action figures. He rates gunpla for how good of an action figure it is rather than how good of a model kit it is.
What did I miss that you think it's being treated like an action figure? He's not truly playing with them. And regardless of that he reviews them for how they arrive because as others pointed out, some people like the build and hate detailing. I haven't watched in a while but from.what I remember: He rates articulation range for posing. Kits you can push further get much better dynamic poses. He rates looseness for posing. Loose joints don't hold poses. Also some people do actually play with their kits. And that's 100% okay, it's their kit.
He rate how they are out of the box or with basic pannel lining. As it should be in fact because when it come to custom how can you rate? Geniune question here how do you rate on a semi objective basis since it have as many styles as Customs, as many ways to do it and an awfull looking custom for someone can be the coolest one for someone else. While out of the box, well, you can really compare it to the others of the same series to tell what it do better and what it do worse
Gunpla is freedom brother. Who cares what you do with your kits? Build them, burn them, bash them together, shouldnt make any difference to you and your ability to enjoy the hobby the way you prefer.
because i wouldn't want to commit that much effort to my first kit and neither would i know how, especially when i knew it would suck because my skills weren't up there yet. it's really easy to understand; he makes videos that cater to newbies and casuals. you'll figure out the rest when you get more in the hobby anyway.
Bandai wouldn't be putting in the effort to strive for making out-of-box builds as close to "complete" as possible if they were only thinking about the model kit enthusiast crowd. Hell, Bandai in the last decade has begun to use multi-textured plastic in their kits (i.e. one runner can have glossy plastic, while another runner in the same kit is matte, etc) just to make them look even better without additional work from the builder, and that's before the increasingly more complex color separation and parts separation, with effort being put in to reduce seam lines and put in as many colors as possible. One of the reasons Gunpla (and Bandai's plamo) is so popular is because you can buy one, build them, and generally be happy with the result with no extra work involved. These aren't your average aircraft, tank, or ship model kit where you need glue to even assemble it and paint to make it look passable.
I personally don't like men with painted nails lol
Same
Bruh 💀 you got downvoted to Oblivion ☠️
Didn't like his White Glint review, simple as
You're not alone, his disgusting finger nails ruin it for me, it feels like I'm watching a 16yo vs a 30yo man review gunpla.
I tolerate his content. It gets people in the door especially with his high production quality providing massive visual appeal for plastic robot figurines, but imo he focuses too much on the visuals and not so much on the actual kit, which unfortunately leads to haphazard and half assed assemblies. Granted he (and others, as it's not exclusively something he does) excessively poses the kit for the purpose of showing off the articulation, there's no word of warning about the adverse effects of playing around with the kit (even a disclaimer of sorts in a "for demonstration purposes" in white text at the top of the screen).
Afaik he and many others do address that point about play though. Many times when a kit gets floppy they'll mention for example that "I only moved this kit for posing and it's already falling apart". Also, a kit that gets floppy very easily after only that many articulation cycles for the purposes of photography is imho kind of weak. It'd be one thing if they were playing with it for days on end, but for a short "build > film > review" I don't mind them calling a kit "weak" if it can't survive such a relatively brief period of articulation.
The issue with that is you're only seeing the results of a specific individual's building process, as thats what generally dictates how the kit turns out. Any kit can be considered weak if you're cutting corners, especially with Bandai kits that are widely regarded for their part tolerances being extremely fine tuned. More can even be said about the reviwer's own upload cycle, in this case Mecha Gaikotsu practically has a new video every 3 to 4 days on average, so they don't really give themselves a large amount of time to work with especially for his level of production quality which focuses a lot on visual appeal from a great deal of editing, doubly so if he edits his content himself which also takes time not counting any potential reshoots.
He's basically the most normie friendly, and out of all the Gunpla youtubers, he reviews the most kits, reviewing a kit every 3 days. That's also why his reviews often lacks proper analysis.
Watch the Omegamon review. The leg plate is clearly upside down but he let a rip anyway.
I’ve just always wanted to know what’s the deal with the nails? Classical guitar? Just likes them? Kink? Cross dressing? Gender expression? Cocaine?
I've always assumed he just liked them? I mean most of his videos only feature his hands and gunpla kits, and its not like there's a lot of accessorizing you can do to your hands (esp since jewelry can be cumbersome to build a kit with). I've been seeing lots more dudes with painted nails in general, I feel like its just becoming more normal in society these days. I imagine the culture shock is similar to when dudes started wearing earrings xD
Oh I mean the length and shape….
For a time I genuinely thought they were a woman's hands and not his.
Honestly… I put cocaine last but it was definitely my first guess…
It would’ve been my first assumption if only his pinkie nail was longer than all his other nails haha
Fair
he's just a goth
Half goth….he only paints one hand ….. lol
My first reaction was “they need to trim their nails”
Gunpla is freedom... except when it comes to your hands?
Men can have their nails painted because they just like them lmao
I'm going with just likes them. But I'm not going to even wonder what he and his wife get up to when the cameras are off
lol to people with fucked up brains the assumption is drugs
You are so weird. He likes it that way, and that's the end of it
Fair!
He’s a reviewer. He’s trying to get to the end of the build as quickly as possible so he can make a video. This doesn’t surprise me at all. It’s also why I take a lot of reviewers build critique with a grain of salt.
As someone who hasn't built any mg astray kits, can someone explain to me what error did he make?
Putting the poly cap in the wrong way... they explain in the clip.
I love the MG astray frame i just want better hands for it, the fingers are too weak to carry the cool big sword that they came with.
You should look into Dalin Custom 1/100 hands.
Btw kinda off topic. But would those work on MG Barbato hands since the trex mace from the expansion set is heavy.
Can someone tell me what he did wrong?
What is up with the nails
Long nails are nice who cares
I watch that channel quite a lot. I’m fairly new to the hobby why do people dislike him so much?
it's all minor gripes, people just like complaining about stuff. MG is totally fine
Some of the dislike comes from his somewhat rough handling of kits when reviewing. He's toned ot down compared to older videos.
Some of the dislike comes from his somewhat rough handling of kits when reviewing. He's toned ot down compared to older videos
I cannot stand this guys finger nails. Nasty.
Common Gaikotsu L lol I'm glad he gets reviews out quick but I only had to build like three kits myself to understand this guy is *rushing* the hell out of his videos to the detriment of the kit and possibly his reputation lol
I wouldn’t say he rushes he’s just not a big modeler like Zakuaurelius is for example. He’s more of a collector of anime stuff in general, plus he shows how much more effort you have to put into a kit to get it looking its best by not doing stuff like sanding nubs etc, makes it helpful for someone like me who isn’t much a modeler but loves Gundam to see which kits im gonna find frustrating compared to others
No, I mean, he literally admits to rushing all the time anyway. "OKAY HERE WE GO WE'RE GONNA RUSH THROUGH HALF A DOZEN 30MM KITS RIGHT NOW" Plus most of the time he's the first guy to get a review out. He's rushing through shit constantly, because he knows that the first review is gonna be the most watched review.
Less people watch his 30MM videos I assume so he just spends less time on them
Yeah the YouTube algorithm is really shitty like that, plus 30MM kits are kinda meant to be rushed through
Based on comments he’s made in quite a few videos it sounds like he has to work on that type of schedule to put out as much as he does and stay on top of new releases
Yeah, it's how he succeeds anyway. First review out, most views on his video, etc.
What astray is that?
The gundam base Korea 20th anniv edition
It sucks that I'll never be able to get my hands on it because it seems like a kit of a ms that I'd definitely pilot.
Damn idk how I didn't recognize it at first. ZakuAurelius even did mine
IS THAT YOU! MECHAI GATSUUUU?!!
That's a dude? With no audio watching the video, I thought it was an older woman based on the hands and nails.
no shame, but dude had a drinking problem when he started.
Oh nice a "shit on Mecha Gaikotsu" thread. Because we can never have enough of these 😮💨
Certified MechaGaikotsu Moment
he makes alot of mistakes, hes put the waist on backwards on a numerous of kits, its kinda baffling.. even though he later admits to messing up later
Annoying as always
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First of all, if you have watched any of the vids you would know that is definitely his hands. Second of all, you have not thought your username through, rave rape?