Gundam style comes to town

DUBAI Over 40 anime hobbyists will compete for the title of the best Gundam model at Al Ghazal Mall in Satwa this Friday.

The Gundam series is based on a Japanese anime, the first episode of which was aired in 1979 and features human-piloted giant robots made of the space alloy Gundanium. The first Gundam model build-kit was released in 1980 and available only in Japan.

“I have been a fan of the show since the mid-90s,” said founder of the local Gundam association, Mark Jason Ygay.

“There were a few models available then too,” he said, “but at Dh100 they were too expensive. Now, thankfully we have both the time and money to pursue our hobby.”

Friday’s competition is the third with the first one held in July 2013. “We started out just for fun,” the Filipino designer and father said, “but then the competition increased with the widening fan base. The competitors are mostly Filipinos but there are some Emiratis as well.”

The competition is divided into intermediate and advanced categories. “Intermediate is for people who like to do straight builds by the instruction manual. We take into consideration the finesse of the assembly, the alignment of the decals and the overall finish.

“The advanced category is for those who want to be creative and personalise their models. There have been some cool Gundam dioramas,” he said.

“We decided to give out Gundam models as prizes,” he said, adding, “they’re probably the only prizes that would make winners happy.”