Okaaaaaayyyy.
Time to get down to the good stuff…..this particular episode I'm gonna touch on the buying of Gunpla……the rush!!!!
I think this is a story everyone will be able to relate to in one way or another. Let me start with how this newb’s last Thursday/Friday went because of Gunpla.
So, on Thursday, I knew I had a parcel coming. The RX-78-2 Ver Ka. A short time ago I realized I’d built 20 odd kits over the past 3 months and I wasn’t paying tribute to where it all began….Gramps. So I gave myself an uppercut and sought out my Gramps. I’d been waiting for it to turn up in stores for a while now….outa stock everywhere. But a buddy builder found it on eBay and hooked me up (owe ya a beer Dave). So, I’m at work and I’m getting messages from my postal service via the app….. parcel at post office….parcel with driver….attempted delivery….parcel awaiting pickup at post office. And I’m watchin these come in like my wife was expecting a baby or something.
Towards the end of the afternoon (Thursday) my wife texts me and says there’s an assembly at my daughter’s school tomorrow (Friday) and was there any chance I could take the day off and go watch her perform some song and dance thing?
Oh My God…… “Darling I would love to do that for her!!!” Muhahahahahaha.
Hehehehe…… boom. Guess what I was doing Friday!!!!
So I tell my boss I’m needed at a school function the next day and I clock off work at 4pm and I’m driving to the post office running all my short cuts and sneaky rat runs, with a mix of excitement and anxiety in my stomach….as I hurtle my vehicle (safely ofcourse) through peak hour traffic, and every second I’m getting closer and closer to my Gramps Ver Ka. And as you may or may not know….I’m 45 years old. I’m a freakin grown man. I have a wife and a kid and I pay taxes and could go to jail for stuff right. And here I am driving in a giddy delirious state because of this model robot. And I’m loving it. I’m alive. I’ve got a goal. A purpose. Like a school girl enroute to a ‘One Direction’ concert (are they still a thing?).
So, I get to the post office and show my identification, the post office lady hands me the package and I look into her eyes in the creepiest way and I say thank you, slowly and emotionally…..cherishing the moment like I’m being handed my new born daughter. She may have been creeped out but I didn’t care. I had in my arms my Gramps Ver Ka. The universe was in balance. Anyways….from there I take it home, I open it up, taking a deep breath of the air inside believing that the last time this lid was off the box it was in the magical Bandai castle where all the little Bandai elves forge the parts on runners from mythical materials found only on the moons of Jupiter yadda yadda yadda, and I paw over the runners and flick through the manual and understand nothing juicy as its in Japanese. But it occurred to me, that is part of the magic. The mystery of what will it look like once once I get my ham fists on it.
So I take the box down the hall from my hobby room to show my wife and somehow try to explain to her how special this kit is.
“It’s where it all started, this is the first Gundam. And this kit, the Ver Ka version…there’s this Katoki guy that just takes rad stuff and multiplys it by awesome to the power of insanity, it’s just really special babe”.
She looks at me the way she looks at my daughter when she’s trying to show her something amazing and babbling crap and she says to me….
“You are very special”.
She loves me, but she just don’t get it like a Gunpla builder gets it. And the way a newb like me see’s it is a magnitude higher again. It’s all so new and fresh and awesome and every time a newb has a question answered, the newb has 5 more questions. It’s a heavenly spiral that has no ending ever. An infinite spiral of Gunpla awesomeness.
And this is just one kit. One adventure. Then there’s the wonderful experience of wandering in to a store that sells Gunpla with money in your pocket knowing full well you’re not leaving without something incredibly fantastic. And the other version where you drop past said store to grab a couple of brushes and a can of clear coat and before you know it you are back in your car buckling your seat belt and you look at the seat next to you at the $100 worth of Gunpla which you had no intention of purchasing but had no way of stopping it from happening. Once you picked those boxes up and the boxart mesmerized you and the weird persuasive ingredient Bandai puts in the ink gets up your nostrels and puts you into a zombie like trance.
”Must….buy…..this….gunplaaaaaa”.
It's when I started shopping for Gunpla that I realized how my wife can walk around a shopping mall or sit on the iPad or phone for hours looking for shoes and clothes. Except, she has excellent self control and can walk out empty handed. Not this guy. I CAN NOT enter a Gunpla store without buying SOMETHING!!!! Maybe some paint, I don’t need. Maybe an action base….I don’t need. Likely, a kit….I don’t need. But I am just under the spell. And I’ll be 100% straight with you. I am totally OK with it. Totally. And you should be too!!! There’s way too much in our lives these days that feels like we’re doin it for someone else. Like we are a pawn in their game of chess, helping them pay off their house, make them rich…put their kids through college.
But Gunpla is where I’m in charge. Right? Hehehehe. You know what I mean. I’m on a drug free high lookin for just the right fix, enjoying the hunt, badly needing to get just the right kit to satisfy my addiction. Always out looking for something I realized I needed…….whilst laying in bed around 10:30pm the night before. So next time you’re in a Gunpla store or scouting online for the kit thats got your heart at the moment or your at a swap meet or convention snappin up bargains or exclusives…savour that feeling. Embrace the rush. For those fleeting moments you sir and/or madam, are in control of your own destiny!!!!!!
Yeah right! Good luck with that!!!!
Until next time my fellow builders of brilliant fantasy bipedal 18m robots…… embrace your Freedom.
