Cyber Monday is a great time to give yourself a first dose of Gunpla brain poison with $18 Gundam kit deals and 20% discounts on hobby supplies
We here at PC Gamer love a mech. Whether we’re looking at a big stompy battle hulk in the Battletech tradition or something closer to the Armored Core school of air-dashing, hover-skating war machines, we’re an outlet more than willing to say “wow, cool robot.” For some of us, it’s a fascination that runs deep enough to bleed over into the physical. If you’ve found yourself (or someone you love (sorry)) wishing for a more material mecha pastime, Gundam plastic models—or Gunpla—will get you there.
A word of warning: Gunpla sickness settles in fast. I only built my first kit about a year and a half ago, but as I write this, there are two displayed mobile suits, three assembled models in boxes, and one unopened kit awaiting assembly in my field of vision. But if you’re ready for your first dose of mecha-building brain poison—as brain poisons go, it’s a pretty good one—there are some great Cyber Monday deals to get you on your way to unsealing a fresh set of runners to nip.
To start, Bandai’s own Cyber Monday deal is a 16% discount on its HG GQuuuuuuX kit at Amazon, featuring the flagship robot from the recent Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX anime. Normally listing at $22, the $18 kit is what Bandai calls a “High Grade” model, one of its mainstay 1/144 scale models that—while not as intricate as the more expensive Real Grade, Master Grade, and Perfect Grade kits—are great entry points for first-time Gunpla builders that still feature plenty of detail once put together.
Modern Gundam kits feature fully snap-fit assembly; there’s no glue required. And while more experienced builders often add their own finishes and detailing, the pieces come attached to runners that have been injection-molded using different colors of plastic, meaning there’s no painting necessary unless you want to get fancier with it.
You will, however, need some supplies, and for those I’ll point you to USA Gundam Store, a stateside purveyor of Gundam kits and hobby supplies that’s currently offering a 20% sitewide discount through December 1 if you use the code “Thanks2025” at checkout.
The most crucial thing you’ll need for your first Gunpla kit is a pair of nippers—or side cutters—to snip your kit’s pieces free from their runners. If you’re starting out, Bandai Spirits Entry Nippers are perfectly suitable for HG kits. There’s plenty of room for upgrade in the future if you catch a bad case of Gunpla fever, including the fabled GodHand Nippers.
A pair of nippers is the only real requirement for putting together a kit, but it probably won’t leave you with the neatest looking model. It’s a good idea to have something to trim or sand down unseemly bits of plastic flash leftover from cutting your pieces from their sprues. I just use a trusty Xacto knife, but USAGS sells their own hobby knife, too.
You could also opt for a toolset like the Apex Hobby Tool kit, which includes both a pair of nippers and a hobby knife, as well as tweezers for delicate decal application and sanding boards for smoothing down blemishes—both of which are good to have.
That’s just scratching the surface. It starts with nippers and tweezers, but before long you’re looking at Gundam Markers for panel lining and display bases for posing. Next thing you know, you’re browsing airbrushes and compressors because the allure of a matte topcoat has grown too strong to ignore. And, of course, USAGS has plenty of actual models to browse, too. I’ve already got a backlog of kits to finish, but surely adding a Sinanju Stein couldn’t hurt.
If you haven’t pulled the trigger on a robot-centric fugue state of wanton model excess by the time USAGS’s 20% sale ends on December 1, you’ll still have more time for discounts. Rather than ending on December 2, it simply drops to a sitewide 15% discount if you check out with the code “Thanks1525”.
There are worse vices, after all. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got an RG Hi-Nu Gundam to ponder.
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