The folks at Amiami recently got a chance to take a tour of Bandai's Hobby Center where all the Gunpla magic happens!

The Bandai Hobby Center is located in Shizuoka City, Shizuoka Prefecture.

When you walk in you are greeted by some very large Gundams.

The exhibition center is guarded by a custom Musha RX-78 Gundam.

A very tasteful display of model kit box art from the original 1980's Gundam line.

Huge displays full of model kits line the halls.

Bandai has a very long and storied history as a manufacturer of model kits.

Lots of Super Sentai, super robot, and Kamen Rider kits.

Some G Gundam kits from the early 90's.

Musha Gundam kits.

Large scale G Gundam kits and a their Macross 7 stuff.

Perfect Zeong and Perfect Gundam from Playmo Kyoshiro.

Xabungle!

Bandai's original full color kits that pioneered their patented System Injection technology.

Aura Battle Dunbine kits.

Magella Attack and Agguguy! Aggu Agguy Guy Guy!

Guntank and Zock. These old kits look amazing when done by talented model builders.

2003 marked a major Gundam renaissance.

Perfect Grades, High Grades, and a lone First Grade.

Lesser known kits from the 1990's.

Master Grade 2.0 Zeta Gundam showing its transformation.

An original 1/144th scale RX-78 Gundam next to its advanced Real Grade descendant.

The main offices where model kits are designed and engineered.

Engineers and designers toiling away at their workstations while surrounded by Gunpla.

The can't show you any trade secrets.

A rapid prototyping machine where all those gray test shots come from.

Some rough prototypes. I wonder if Bandai will ever produce that Skiure shown on the left.

The whole building has an appropriate sci-fi theme.

An employees wear proper Gundam style uniforms.

These automatic injection molding machines churn out a ton of Gundam kits per day.

These 1/60 scale models of the molding machines show the layout of the factory.

Here's an example of a steel mold used in the process.

Here's a diagram showing the basics of injection molding.

Historical photographs of artists working on models and the box art.

More examples of package designing in the 80's. On the left is an original illustration by Kunio Okawara.

Long before computer aided design, models had to be worked out using wooden mockups. Here is an example of actual parts used to make both a Zeta Gundam kit and a Walker Gallier.