A brief history of Kimi the builder

Hello and Happy Wednesday to my dear readers, I do hope that you all are well and to my readers that that is going through the month of Ramadhan I wish you a merry fasting month! Today I do want to touch on something more personal, a bit of a story and history of how kimi the builder came to be. So please do take a seat because we are going to go do some reminising together. Lol.

I have always loved building model kits, I think my first introduction to a plastic model is with a Tamiya kit (I think most kids growing up in malaysia during the 90s can vouch for this) tho not with the RC kit though as most of the kids at the time were. I was however leaning towards the military minitures, my first Tamiya military kit was the Tamiya 1/35 German Army Jagttiger. The thing I remember most of this kit is that it was a kit where both me and my dad worked on together. It was still until this day one of the best memories I’ve made.

Seeing it competed however leaves a very strange feeling to the 9 year old me, the feeling of accomplishing something that you yourself never thought possible (thanks in parts to my dad though) and it leaves you feeling really proud of myself. It was then I started developing a love towards building military plamo’s. It was when kimi started his journey in becoming kimi the builder.

As for my love for gunpla however it started a year after i started building Plamos. I remember buying my first gunpla during the 3rd day of raya in 1996 (23rd February 1996). The 1/144 RGM-122 Javelin was my first gunpla that was bought using my ‘Raya’ Ang pau money that i gotten from my family at the time. I have been making plamos for a year then so when I came across the javelin, it was the first kit that I made that didn’t actually requires me to use any glue.

It blew my mind away. It was easier then what I was accustomed to, and even its instructions were alot more thoughtful as compared to tamiya instructions (as a kid I really do find Tamiya’s instructions quite hard to understand). It was a kit that i really enjoyed building, but it wasn’t a kit that i fall in love with yet.

It took me awhile to get my second gunpla, the 1/144 First Grade RX-78-2 this was if I’m not mistaken was bought on the month of October 1999, I bought this kit when I was on a school trip to KLCC (right after our final primary school exam). I remember seeing this kit in parkson for an RM49.90 and thinking that I can blow my load all of my pocket money for this kit. Well, you can imagine what happened to me after making that decision, I got fucked in the ass badly for the whole day, hungry but content for some weird reason, haha.

This kit however is the one that manage to change my mind on gunplas, eventhough it was uncoloured to most parts but it was still as easy to get into as the Javelin. It was uncomplicated and it was a joy to make, eventhough it is a First Grade kit I started to get hooked by the lure of the Gundam Plastic Models. Oh it was fragile as fuck, I got it a week later the leg broke off, FML.

Thats when i really get into building gunplas.

Mind you, I was collecting the kits without ever watching the anime at all. I was more fascinated by the designs and how thoughtful the designers of these plastic model manufacturers in making something that everybody can just get into. The more gunplas that I bought the more that I feel like getting into the anime and my first introduction to the Gundam anime was the Char’s Counterattack.

I admit when I first watched the anime, I couldn’t understand the plot at all due to the fact I never touched any Gundam animes before. Regardless, what left an impression on me is the kind of relationship both Char and Amuro had between each other. I never watched anything at that time that could manage a feat where the audience can feel so strongly to their motivations in the movie. It makes somebody of a newcomer interested in knowing more about their past and it made me a fan not just the model kits but now as an anime fan as well.

The anime made me wanted to learn more of the kits that I bought and it made rewatching some of the anime and the new anime more enjoyable because you know and you learn of the massive lore surrounding the Mechas that was featured in the anime, no matter if it was a grunt unit nor a hero unit.

I do find that an amazing feat, because when I started building military plamos the one thing that I find amusing is the fact that there is always stories and history that comes together with the kit. So when Bandai pulls it off with gunplas it managed to impress me. I do think that the one thing that bandai managed to pull off really well until today is establishing the lores of the mobile suits. It never seems to amaze me the kind of effort they put in making it work and because of that it manages to pull people over to gunpla.

I think through out the years, I have manage to collect around 150 Gunpla kits and 20 non gunpla kits since I started on this hobby 22 years ago. It has it share of ups and downs, seen me going through my lowest of points to the best of times. There are alot of stories and memories that I’ve made since started on this journey in becoming a builder, and it took me awhile to realise that building its not just a hobby for me.

It was a big part of my life. Hopefully, I would have a long enough life to continue on this journey and write more to you guys.

Anyways, enough mad ramblings from me, hahaha! Do hope you guys enjoy this brief history of how kimi became a builder that he is today. Let me know if you guys enjoy this, or if you want to hear more stories like this in the future!

As well please do share your stories of how you guys got into gunpla or plamo building too! I would love to read your stories as well! Oh as well feel free to leave a like or a comment below! I do appriciate your inputs! 🙂

I do hope you guys have an awesome week ahead and I see you guys again on the next post! 😃

Cheers!