Gundam is having a western renaissance right now. It’s always had a niche global appeal, but over the past six months it seems to have entered the public consciousness on a much grander scale, at the very least in my small part of the UK.
More and more people are signing up to build big robot baddies for numerous reasons. Some of this interest comes from influencers, whether organic or working as paid partners. Some of it comes from the sheer quality of the kits, which include pre-built jointed hands, multicoloured sprues, and magnetised or LED pieces. The kind of things that you really have to work for to incorporate into Warhammer kits come as standard in Gunpla.
Gundam is a wider franchise that includes anime, manga, and games alongside the Gunpla (Gundam Plastic) models.
These are big, beautiful models that barely count as miniatures. Sure, they’re not at a 1:1 scale with their fictional counterparts, but they’re big bois. Most tower over an Imperial Knight. Except now they’re getting smaller, as Bandai has announced Gundam Assemble, a miniatures game that appears similar to Warhammer.
What Is Gundam Assemble?
In short, we don’t know. All we’ve got to go on is the short teaser video and a sparse website. The miniatures look cool – as is to be expected from the Japanese company – but there’s very little about the rules, the gameplay, or anything else for that matter. People are just excited about mini Gundam.
And there’s a good reason for that. With all the recent Gundam hype, many people have joined the hobby, but many more have been left by the sidelines. From storing the massive figures to the exorbitant cost of buying them (although they’re still a fair whack cheaper than Games Workshop kits), many people are left out of collecting. Make it smaller, more affordable, and easier to store? You’ve got a recipe for excitement.
The website confirms that Gundam Assemble “is a tabletop game that uses approximately 2 Inch-sized Gunpla,” which is everything most Warhammer players could ask for. “Each unit has abilities that reflect their unique characteristics,” the description continues, “allowing players to enjoy scenarios that follow the original story, or diverge into situations that transcend the world of Mobile Suit Gundam series; thus providing both a sense of recreation and distinct battles.”
The problem is, this sounds like my own, personal hell.
Gundam Is An Escape From Battling
Let me preface this section by saying that the following is not only entirely subjective (as all opinion pieces are), but my personal experience of the hobby. This might not be true for you. If you disagree, that’s because we engage with this hobby in different ways. That’s great! It likely means that Gundam Assemble is Your Kind Of Thing, which is exciting! But for me, it’s not.
I enjoy Gundam because it’s specifically not a wargame. I love building miniatures, and I enjoy painting to some extent, but battles are just an opportunity to show off my conversions rather than a tactical affair. Playing is more like plastic Crufts for me, where I get to parade my work and have people appreciate it.
Despite this, I’m quite competitive. I love building lists, almost as much as I enjoy building miniatures. Using them? Nah. Building them? Yep. Imagine it’s the Drake meme. Or the swerving car meme. Are all memes the same? Anyway. I like building strong lists, and then trying to come up with creative conversions to represent those units. This is creatively stifling and a narrow-minded approach to sculpting, I know, but it’s how my brain likes to work.
This goes double as Games Workshop makes efforts to shift the meta regularly, meaning you need to buy more miniatures to stay competitive. Despite rarely battling, I find myself sucked into this capitalist cycle.
Gundam is an escape from this. I can buy whichever suit I think looks coolest and not worry about how it performs on the tabletop. I’ve never watched a Gundam show either, so the lore has no impact on what I build and paint. I’m a filthy casual, and that’s just how I like it.
I worry tying the miniatures to a game, and a meta for me to follow, would change my relationship with these models. Sure, I could still just pick the coolest suits, but that would require rewiring my entire brain, and I’m not sure I’m ready for that. New year, same me and all that.
I hope you all enjoy Gundam Assemble. It sounds like the perfect miniatures game for the majority of people. But I don’t need another Warhammer right now. I need Gundam to be Gundam. So I’m going to stick to the bigatures.
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