I was thinking, when I build bandai gundam kits there are almost no injector marks, if there are they are where they wont ever be seen, there is no flesh, there are no fit problems. There crisply molded perfectly designed kits with some absolutley amazing detail.
Then I was thinking about when I tried to build some armor kits... There are company names in places that can be seen when the kit is finished, giant injector marks, flash (even on modern kits) parts that dont fit together and need to be boiled and pressed back into shape.
Not to mention that the kits can cost the same amount depending, the HG gundam kits can be 1/3rd the price of some tanks.
Is it just that bandai has enough money from dvds, tv, toys, and kits that they can afford the best stuff, are they magic, or do the other companies just dont care?
Even with bandai's new hard graph kits the figures are very nicley molded, not the highest quality of a new gen dragon figure, but there atleast easier to assemble, heads not being in two pieces and such.
All the above!
Kit design is first. There has to be a sense of "how will this thing go together with the thing that mates to it?"
Tool design is next. How can this thing be cast so that it not only fits, but has no marks, flash, or other "defect", inherrent in the casting process.
Employee satifaction with their work conditions. "I can do this, that well because I want to produce a quality product, and my employer agrees with that concept.
A little "pricy"? All the above, takes time, effort, and money.
Are people buying our kits, and are they excited about the quality, and ease of assembly? Success!!!
Gee! What a concept! Quality actually does sell!!!!
sumpter250 wrote:All the above!Kit design is first. There has to be a sense of "how will this thing go together with the thing that mates to it?"Tool design is next. How can this thing be cast so that it not only fits, but has no marks, flash, or other "defect", inherrent in the casting process.Employee satifaction with their work conditions. "I can do this, that well because I want to produce a quality product, and my employer agrees with that concept.A little "pricy"? All the above, takes time, effort, and money.Are people buying our kits, and are they excited about the quality, and ease of assembly? Success!!!Gee! What a concept! Quality actually does sell!!!!
Your right quality does sell, and its not only that, bandai is such a not stupid company in general. For gundam kits, just those, there are the 3 grades of kits the HGUC MG and PG all just diffrent scales respectivly, they all have close to the same level of detail give or take. They also have a series of 'speed kits' designed for younger builders that are pre painted and have limited parts, while its not great, but it can get kids interested, especially for younger kids who want it as a toy, ya know?
Not only that, but there MASSIVE on the fan service, as of late they have been releasing, in the 1/144, the majority of the kits fans have been ranting for Nu/Hi Nu, sazabi, Jaegan, etc, as well as making new versions of the vintage variation kits that you normally dont see, like the just relased Zaku with the EWAC
I've got a couple of the Bandai Gundam kits - tho haven't built them - and got them on something of a lark when someone in the local model club mention their high-end quality for such great prices. Out of all the plastic kits I've purchased, they're consistantly the best when it comes to overall quality. I think they really do care about what their customers want and how their kits look pretty much straight OOB.
IMO it's not a matter of "magic" - it's simply Bandai chooses to accept a different set of compromises than most other kit manufacturers.
For instance, if you look at a Kotobukiya Armored Core kit: Specifically the C75 "Close Combat Type" - the chest on that thing is basically a big blue block. There's details, there's facets, but you could think of the thing as a big blue rectangle and not be too far off.
Now, despite this, the part is built up out of not just two or three parts, but actually something like twelve parts, just for the blue bits of the chest. The reason for this is that when parts are injection-molded, the steel molds have to be removed along a single direction: thus, parts can't have undercuts relative to the direction (or directions) in which the mold parts are separated. So to mold a part with detail on all sides of it, you need to either split the part into multiple, smaller parts (thus introducing seam lines) or else use more than two parts in your mold. The latter technique is used by various manufacturers including Bandai. It tends not to be used for most parts, however, because of the extra cost and complexity it adds to the model's mold.
But because Bandai prioritizes ease of assembly and cost-cutting above detail on their main-line Gundam models, they don't usually break down parts into too many smaller parts unless there's a color boundary. Instead they'll mold that detail from an unfavorable angle (for instance, the panel lines on the old Master Grade Zaku and Gundam, and many other Gundam kits for that matter) giving panel lines a poorly-defined appearance - or change the detail to suit their mold designs, or omit it altogether.
In general with Gundam kits, Bandai tends to adjust the design to fit the model production rather than the other way around. If they have a seam line between a couple parts, they'll introduce a panel line that coincides with the location of that seam. This gives them a huge advantage over manufacturers who choose to represent an existing design faithfully.
From my perspective it's Bandai who's "cheap" - not as in "stingy" but in the sense that they cheat - with the Gundam line at least. In a more general sense, their ideas of what make a good model kit don't generally jive with mine.
Of course, not everything Bandai makes is Gundam. They have even made models of properties over which they do not hold creative control of some kind... For instance, their Star Trek kits (from what I've heard, these are notoriously problematic in their parts fit, prone to light leaks in the gaps that form, etc.) I don't know of other examples offhand, of what happens when Bandai makes kits of non-Bandai, non-Sunrise properties...