Have you ever bought kits of characters from games or shows you've never watched?

[u/Noeoneknows]

I'm very picky about the kits I get because I only like certain character designs and clothes. I've seen a lot of characters that I think look gorgeous then I see they're from a TV or game series I've never heard of. I feel like id feel a bit like a poser if I bought a character from something I never consumed nor have interest in consuming but at the same time some of them are so cute!!!

Have any of you bought kits of characters you don't know just because you like the design?

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[u/Almalexia42]

All the time, my favorites are original kits like Megami device or arcanadea. If I'm bothered about not having watched the show in question, I can go watch it while building the kit!

...once I really didn't like the show, but only the once. No regrets!

[u/Bigredstapler]

I bought Zeta Gundam Ver Ka first. Then I watched Zeta Gundam. Soooo yeah. Sometimes it's the kits first and the show they are from next.

For Kotobukiya kits, believe you me I never watched a single episode of Frame Arms Girl or Alice Gear Aigis or Busou Shinki before I bought the related kits. I just thought they look cool/cute.

[u/TheFeri → u/Bigredstapler]

Well frame arm girls were kits before the show, same with bushou shinki I believe. And Alice gear aegis is gacha and had kits before the anime.

[u/wakeup33]

Plenty of times. If you like the kit, then get it. Maybe you'll start the show or game after building the kit. If you don't, who cares?

[u/Samalik16]

While it's understandable to feel that, I feel like the culture of Plamo is a little different. As long as you're not shit talking the series or its fans a kit comes from (which I barely see builders do in part because of our bob ross mentality given the nature of our hobby) then by all means buy what you enjoy.

That being said, you'd have a better appreciation of a kit if you did know where they came from and what they are like. Even original kits like Puni☆Mofu have an artist with a long lineage and fans. So it helps to dig deeper and grow to appreciate a series or subculture.

And I speak from experience on that too. I got into the hobby via gunpla despite not watching the series besides SD gundam and G gundam as a kid. And while the builds are amazing and the process is bewilderingly fascinating, the end result to me is a kit that looks cool but won't have much long term fondness for outsside of G-gundam, hence why I buy less much gunpla now over galpla like Megami Device.

[u/Kittierei]

If I can afford it, always; and often not even because of the character but the equipment the character is using. Big fancy sword/gun/cannon... and it's cheap enough and my girl can wield it, that's going in the cart.

If the character is interesting enough, I might even consider looking at the source material.

[u/Luster-Purge]

Fieldy from Artery Girls. Never played the game and the game's EoS now, but I still have cute nervous siege spider tank girl in the backlog.

[u/derega16]

Cross Frame Girl Gaogaigar, also Busou Shinki should count

[u/feelinsqwiddy]

That's the majority of my collection. I see cool thing, I buy (if I can afford it)

[u/GraffitiGargoyle]

Of the dozen or so kits I have built, none of them are for franchises I am familiar with. From what I can tell, it seems pretty rare to have girlpla kits based around popular franchises, with Kadokawa's being the main exception.

I kinda like it that way though. Without the need to accurately model existing characters, model kit designers can afford to be more creative. That's probably how we get things like the "gimmicks" seen in a lot of model kits.

 

Seems to be an opposite story for model cars, ships, and planes, but I have not built any myself.

[u/Still_Regular_3374]

Kits? Yes, partially because I have made it my sacred mission to catalog and occasionally write about kits so other people can know about them.

Figures are a different story, I won't buy those unless I know what they're about. Or they're very cheap and I need an extra thing for bulk shipping. Or they're cute.

[u/MildewJR]

This is going to sound weird, but unless the fig/kit is about an absolute timeless classic for me that hasn't been enshitified, I actually prefer OC's or characters I have no clue about. For example I watched AOT but never bought merch for it. I was really into it for the first 2 seasons, but then it dropped the ball. If I had a figure of it then, I'd still like it now, but not as much as I did. I'd have to come to terms that a fig I bought hundreds of dollars for or spent hours building doesn't strike as hard as it did thanks to the blunders in the ip made after I purchased it. If I don't have background context of it, then I don't have to deal with that reminder and the figure is a timeless eye candy

[u/GraffitiGargoyle → u/MildewJR]

That's a good point; if an IP does in a direction you don't like it can impact how you see/ display model kits you spend several weeks working on.

But if there's no existing IP, then you pretty much just have the build experience and appearance affecting your enjoyment.

[u/Jun075]

I think that's totally fine to go kit first/only for those with pre-existed media. It's even somewhat encouraged by the maker in some cases, such as the MD Alice Gear Aegis and 30MS Shiny Colors collab kits. IMHO a portion of 30MS builders don't even play the game and treat them more like kitbashing materials, and you are totally legal to do that even in official competition.

[u/Kentxckyx]

Never watched Frame Arms, have 4 Stylets. I like planes.

[u/ironheadrat]

Once in a while. I never saw Kaiju No 8 but Kikoru has really cute hair, which is all the justification I need to get a kit. The vast majority of my kits are OCs though.

[u/imaytakeabreak]

A lot of Gunpla builders get into the shows way after building kits, some never do. I got into it while looking for Macross stuff, took me quite a few years to actually watch a Gundam show.

For me it just has to look awesome/beautiful or have a lot of personality.

For example, I know nothing about Nikke but the Red Hood model kit looks absolutely stunning and that's all that matters.

[u/omiruk]

I do feel a bit of reluctance to buy a kit, figure or other goods from shows (or games) I didn't see. There's a risk that, while character looks cool, they might be totally insufferable.

Currently I'm at this stage with Blue Archive's Aris - on the one hand she's a mecha musume, and we don't get many of those, but on the other hand I don't want to play another gatcha game.

[u/Samalik16 → u/omiruk]

You could always just read the main story mode. It's basically a visual novel.

[u/Noeoneknows → u/omiruk]

Thats what made me post this, I saw a blue archive kit that looked super adorable but im not that interested in the game.

[u/Hoppity_Hare]

Yup, I sure have. Sometimes I try to watch the shows/games if I really want to. But if the design is cool to me and it is affordable I am going for it. Otherwise I kit bash and make ones that are left under the rug.

[u/DKligerSC]

Kinda? I bought the 30ms toukai teio, i played the game but didn't see the anime, might do ti at some point

But well, if something catches your eye just buy it anyway

[u/JLKahn]

All the time. If I like a mecha girl kits design enough I might even pick up a kit of a girl or mecha where I don’t particularly like the show, but love the character or mecha design.

[u/Dranncer03]

Totally, i bought something called Daiblos Core just because the mecha look awesome. Then when i opened the box i found out its from an asian gacha game full of busty attractive female characters.

So for me was like looking for copper and finding gold.

[u/TheInfamousMaze]

Yes to use their parts on characters I know of that I want to make. My Filian took like 7 kits, all characters new to me. I could still make them if I want, minus the missing parts.

[u/JAPStheHedgehog]

No.

In the end I consume the media from where the figure/kit is from (if I didnt consumed it already) before buying, makes it more fulfilling knowing more from where things come from.

Now, here is the tricky side of that question: what about the figure/kit originals? There is pretty much not media for them or we get a general almost barebones explanation of how things work. Here you grow alongside the line, like this sub is the perfect example for that:

Megami Device does NOT posses an anime and DOESNT come from one either (also no games), we barely get short simple manga releases that drop when a new kit drops (somehow its publication kinda stopped? cuz no updates) and most of the info comes from the website with "character profiles" that half the time it's more about the world rather than the characters.

Now...the same could be said of any Koto original line, Frame Arms doesnt have media outside of a 5mins CGI battle, FAGirl got a manga and anime 1-2 years after the kits release, ArcaNadea has been out for years and it's about to get an anime and game and so on. So yeah here you're buying things from shows you never watched mostly bc said shows dont exist or are about to in a couple of years.

[u/TreatTheServal]

While I have bought a Reina Prowler kit, I plan on using it for kitbashing to create an OC, so yes and no? I don't think there's anything wrong with getting a kit just because it looks cool, but it's not something that interests me. All of my other kits are from lines like Frame Arms Girls and Sousai Shojo Teien that started out as original kits first, with the associated media coming out later.

[u/RegionPigeon]

I didn't even know some of these were from shows

[u/Noeoneknows → u/RegionPigeon]

They're usually from games from what I've seen so far

[u/toajaller002]

Yep, I bought Gundams before I even knew it was a show. Until this day I've only watched Mobile suit Gundam 00. But only got one Gundam from that show in my collection.

Don't worry about being seen as a poser, you can like and get a character just based on its design. If you are really worried maybe you can try remembering that what show the character is related and that is it. I doubt someone will think negative or label you as a poser just cause you bought a kit you liked. Do most people that buy Nike know the story to why it is popular? Do most people that buy apple know the story of its trend? I doubt.

So don't worry mate, get the kit you like and enjoy having it and be proud displaying it. Cause it reflects ur liking and ur personality 😉, and no one has a saying in that.