When most of us think of collecting Gundam figurines, we tend to naturally think of gunpla, the fun, elaborate and highly customisable mobile suit model kits that have captivated generations of builders.
Mobile Suit Gundam is a remarkable franchise in a lot of ways, but one element that is particularly fascinating is that a model-making kit is the main type of merchandise you can buy for the series. Outside of perhaps Warhammer 40,000, almost no other major franchise is like this.
However, there are many people more interested in the collection side than the building side, and for these people, Bandai Namco have set up Gundam Collection, or GC for short.
Not a grade as such, Gundam Collection is a set of small, fixed-pose and prepainted figures designed to put as much detail as is possible in the extremely compact 1/400 scale.
For comparison, an Entry Grade or High Grade gunpla is 1/144, so a typical Gundam Collection figure is barely a third of the size.
Whilst technically sold as model kits, Gundam Collection kits are extremely simple to build, with a complexity comparable to gashapon or Kinder Surprise collectables.
There are fewer than a dozen pieces (often fewer than six), none of which are connected to sprues, all of which are prepainted and are perfect for fans of gacha-style small figure kits or those who want to build up a collection without a lot of space.
The original Gundam Collection figures were sold from 2004 up until 2010, primarily as collectable blind bags, with a rather rudimentary tactical game you could play with them.
What makes this incredibly interesting these days is that Bandai Namco are taking this idea further with Gundam Assemble and the integration of 1/400 scale figures into the Gundam Card Game.
This takes the already fun, already collectable miniature figure aspect of Gundam Collection and pairs it with two particularly interesting and remarkably deep games you can play with them if you so choose.
