Gundam! That's a Cool Model

I return to work tomorrow for the first time since December 16, and I am not ready for the Christmas experience to be over yet. Let me dwell on the holiday a bit longer by reflecting on a gift I received.

Fenya was invited to be a bridesmaid at a classmate's wedding in Japan last summer, and ended up spending around three weeks there, having a number of amazing experiences. Before she left, she asked me if there was anything I would like her to bring back, and I said, "A Gundam - just kidding though" as I knew she had limited luggage space.

When I opened my gift from her on Christmas morning, I was astonished to see a spectacular-looking giant robot model from the Gundam range. This particular one was designed to recreate the life-sized statue that appeared outside one of the pavillions at the Osaka Expo 2025 (World's Fair).

Now, despite having watched only the barest handful of the many Gundam movies and series out there, I have always loved giant robits like it (mecha) going back to the Shogun Warrior comics I encountered as a kid. Mobile Suit Gundam pretty much started the 'real robot' genre in 1979, which has been replicated many times since in media like Robotech and wargames like Battletech. 

Unlike many humanoid robots that appeared before, Gundam brought engineering sensibility and military purpose to what had been essentially humans in costumes. A cockpit space in the chest, clear depiction of joints and actuators, and a clean, NASA-like aesthetic with water channels and removable panels to give a distinct style. I was looking forward to building one for the first time!

And one night over Christmas, while Audrey and Glory worked on a gingerbread house at the same table, I opened the box:

Good heavens, what have I committed to here? Seven frames of teeny-tiny parts, and seven pages of instructions, as well two of the tiniest decal sheets ever.

On the other hand though, the coloured plastic meant my Gundam would require no painting, and the push-fit construction meant no glue was needed either. With side-cutters, tweezers and x-acto blade at the ready, I donned my magnifier and got stuck in.

Unlike the majority of wargaming models I've built, the Gundam is fully articulated and posable. This does mean that you are essentially building a skeletal system with joints prior to adorning it with the shell and assorted doodads. 

The pictorial instructions are pretty clear, and I was usually able to find the optimal fit with only a bit of fiddling. On those rare occasions where a piece was assembled incorrectly, the lack of glue meant I could wedge my x-acto blade into the gap and separate them with very little difficulty. 

After a page-and-a-half of assembly, I had a decent looking torso, two arms and a head to show for my efforts. The instructions for applying stickers are given along the way, not at the very end like I was used to (although the 'marking' decals were left until after assembly). Since some of these shiny foil decals are approximately dandruff-sized, not having to handle the entire model while positioning them makes good sense.

I managed to get the base model (the classic RX-78 Gundam) completed before bedtime, perhaps 3-4 hours of work. Crisp, clean and eminently posable, it only represnted the mid-point of my construction!

The multi-coloured plastic in this kit looks absolutely marvelous, and I cannot say enough good things about Bandai's sprue design and production - phenomenally detailed, clearly labelled and even pieces from different frames (and three different types of material) fit together like a foot going into a shoe. At times, it really felt like I was putting together an immesnely detailed toy from a massive Kinder Egg; this model scratches the puzzle-building itch a little bit as well.

But the first thing I needed to do the following day was to remove the existing shoulder pads and waist-plates, so they could be upgraded to the beefier, shinier RX-78F00/E version!

Before any of the many clear blue plastic panels could be assembled, one of the 40+ shiny foil stickers had to be affixed to the space underneath. This was probably as tedious as you imagine it to be, but soon I found a sort of zen calm in my sticker placement.

And to be clear, the stickers are a very worthwhile endeavour, increasing the reflectivity underneath the translucent panels, and making it almost appear like they are generating their own light.

I also appreciated the additional rocket thrusters on the leg pieces.

After this it was on to the final, immense accessory - the wings.

"But Stephen," I hear you cry, "even if physical wings were capable of lifting an 18m tall mecha, surely there is no need for them in the airless void of space?"

And you are probably correct, but even if the G.L.R.S.S. Feather system was designed for mobility and not solar power collection for long range, low-support, deep-space operations, I would still love it just because it looks so Gundam cool. Tragically, this incredibly sensible application has a far less plausible acronym (Gundam Leaping Recursive Spangle Swarm), but there you go.

The backpack that supports the wings also contains even more rocket thrusters with venturi-style nozzles, as well as a pair of very smart and highly flexible manipulator arms, with clamping jaws that open and shut. Ostensibly this is to assemble the modular feather unit itself. Perhaps the pieces all fit into the long tail-like extension that also props the model up very effectively.

Once the feather unit is stickered and assembled, then attached to the back pack, the pack mounts onto the back of the Gundam and you're done!

Well, I mean, as done as you want to be. There are tons of options and accessories, including multiple hands (one of which emulates the gesture of the Osaka Expo statue), an energy rifle and an enormous shield. I kept all of them, and the original shoulder pads and such in the incredibly unlikely ocurrence that I should need a 'stock' RX-78 for some reason or another.

I photographed the box as they crammed a lot of info into the side panels and I will keep the instruction sheet for similar reasons (or if, God help me, I should drop it and need to rebuild). By the end of it, I was using my wearable magnifier just to read the instruction sheets...

This was a fairly intense 7-8 hour build, although I think my next Gundam would go more quickly, should that happen. But I am in no hurry - despite having scratched an itch that has persisted since, what, my late teens maybe? I do not feel compelled to seek out another kit, nore to add paint for 'more accurate coloration' to this one.

But heaven help me if I should come across Bandai's new Gundam miniatures game project...

(Christmas) Village People (and Creatures)

One of the highlights of Christmas decorating in our house is the setup of the girls' Christmas village, hand-painted by their Oma and gifted to them over many Christmases when they were younger. It is a pretty immense setup and Audrey has added a larger display area, some fluffy snow, lampposts and trees.

In addition to setting it up in an aestehtically pleasing way, Fenya and Glory add an intriguing narrative to the arrangement of buildings, with an upper-class and lower-class side, interpersonal intrigue and undertones of corruption and comeuppance. 

One year for fun I dropped in an immense, evil-looking action figure and some zombies, much to the delight of Glory's friend Ally, but this year I started sneaking in one miniature per day from my collection, starting on December 1. No one noticed until the ninth, and since I was not explicitly told to stop, I continued all the way through Christmas. Thankfully my family shares my sense of whimsy and are all great sports.

I shared my progress over six instagram posts during the holidays, but wanted to document them here as well. Please enjoy Advent Incursion 2025!

Old West fiddle player

Old West pugilist

Old West uh...saloon worker

Old West chuckwagon cook

The Mirror of Galadriel (LOTR)

Celeborn of Lorien (LOTR)

Queen Galadriel (LOTR)

Stormtrooper

A yeti tyke (D&D)

Chwinga nature spirit (D&D)

Yeti parent

Reghed Glacier nomad (D&D)

Stor- you know what this is

Snowy owlbear (D&D)

Wolf (D&D but not exclusively)

yes, another one (they look cool in snow)

The White Moose of Lonelywood (D&D)

Duergar King, Xardorok Sunblight (D&D)

Saoirse The Beloved, Warlock (D&D)

Invisible Frodo (LOTR)

Saoirse's familiar, Nivius (D&D)

Algetha Dawnseeker Ogolakanu, Barbarian (D&D)

Goliath werebear Oyaminartok (D&D)

White Dragon (Arena: the Contest)

A Third of a Century

Audrey and I went out for our anniversary on Friday, taking two seats at the bar at a little French spot called Partake, just off High Street. Cozy spot, small, rustic plates ("how do you say 'tapas' in French?"I asked the bartender, who did not know) as well as a robust and imaginative cocktail menu.

The staff were all delightful, and watching everything that went into making some of these drinks was like dinner and a show - slicing, scorching, smoking and shaking. After watching her mix drinks with a bottle in each hand, Audrey asked at one point if she played the piano. "No," she replied wistfully, spreading her hands on the bar. "Look at these fingers - it's like when I got to age ten, my hands said, 'y'know what? I'm good here' and just stopped growing."

In turn, she asked how long we had been married, and when we told her 33 years, she mused, "hmm, you know, I have only been alive one year more than that - well done!"

I mentioned how impressed I was with one of the cocktails (no. 70), telling her that I certainly did not have "smoky Mexican After Eight drink" on my bingo card ever, but really enjoyed it.

The food was great as well, particularly their coq-au-vin drumsticks (that sauce!) and the prosciutto-wrapped dates, but the dutch bitterballen made with short rib were a delight as well.

Glory graciously agreed to drive us and pick us up which meant we could go pretty deep into the cocktails for a change, and they comped us a swet vermouth as a desertif when we asked for the bill, which was sweet of them.

But as most anniversary dinners go, the best part of it was the person I got to spend it with; the card really does say it all.

Surprising Finale - Deathmatch Island S1

Thursday night we wrapped up our first ever campaign (or season) of Deathmatch Island that we began back in April, and let me tell you what a pleasure it is to witness so many surprises as the gamemaster!

Despite being touted as a low-prep, narrative forward system (based on the PARAGON system used in AGON, a game of mythical Greek heroes), it was challenging for all of us to adapt to a game where the results are so random, and the bulk of the narrative is created after the dice rolls.

I don't think any of us have ever played a role-playing game where player-vs-player competition is such an expected result. Players initially collaborate and work as a team on the first two of the three islands, and characters build trust through questions they ask each other in between rounds, which can be spent to give additional dice or prevent injuries.

Even while collaborating there is pressure to win, however; the highest roll of each competition is the winner and gets the most 'followers', which work like experience points in other games. Competitions involve players building and then rolling pools of dice and then adding the highest two, trying to beat the roll of the Production Player (or game master - me) as well as each other. Failing to do so builds fatigue and occasionally injuries, but more followers can increase both the size (d6, d8, d10) and the number of dice you roll.

The real crux of the game comes when the team of players is split up on Island 3, and after they each overcome their individual challenges, they enter the Standoff. Here each player must secretly choose whether they want to Play to Win and win the Deathmatch Island competition, or to Break the Game and try to take the spectacle apart from the inside, but this only happens if all the players agree to it (without discussing it - a true Prisoner's Dilemma!).

Dexter "Crash" Knapp had become increasingly ruthless as the game progressed, leading players to think he was likely to 'play to win', and getting an advantage dice for being a backstabber. Some waffled but most of them gambled on Break the Game. One player, though, thought their best shot at escaping the island and returning to their family was to win it all alone.

(despite testing them beforehand I just could not get the cool Roll20 ballot cards to work, and the delays in trying really sucked the air out of the reveal in a lot of ways; thankfully the players were fine messaging me privately so I could reveal the results in our Discord chat).

The shock at the results was genuine for everyone else, including the Production Player, and was like nothing else I'd experienced in the medium I had enjoyed since I was 12.

The players (as well as two surviving NPCs) were put into two groups by the player whose character won the Scramble stage, but I had decided beforehand which one would Play to Win, and they ended up grouped with the game-breakers, so it turned into a melee. Strangest of all, the first cluster saw a conciliatory toy maker beat an overly intense martial arts instructor in a physical fight to the death.

Even the description of how this plays out is fascinating though, as the vanquished player has to consent to the ending described by the winner. Lyric's player rejected Harley dropping a Jumbotron on him, and then rejected her stabbing him through with a piece of wreckage, extracting the maximum pathos from the scene as he forced her to choke him out.

In the other pool, everyone expected Gus "Tough" Love to fall to Crash, who was not only less injured, but had achieved two additional tiers of followers. But in any game involving dice, surprising results can happen...

The players start the game as amnesiacs knowing nothing more than their pre-game occupation, then filling in the rest over the course of the game and during player-crafted flashback sequences between islands. In recent sessions, it had not only been revealed that Harley was a former member of Deathmatch Island's Production Team, but that Gus had been her guardian. (And the fact that the two players behind these characters are brothers in real life? (chef's kiss))

Despite being the only player able to use Trust in this final contest, Harley was unable to best Gus' amazing roll of 20 (the second of the night), making him our first ever victor of Deathmatch Island!

There is an epilogue that allows for a bit more group participation by all the players, and the potential to return to the same islands as different characters in "New Game +" mode, where the goal from the onset is to Break the Game. I am hoping we can come back and do this after a bit of a breather - this game is pretty intense.

And although the islands may be the same, the players and their new characters will be interacting with an entirely new cast, so there could be still more surprises in Season Two!

I stand by my assessment that Deathmatch Island is not a game for everyone - it is as much an exercise in shared storytelling as it is an RPG, and requires a certain degree of flexbility of all players (especially Production!). Once we wrapped our heads around the idea that the game unfolded in the 'Confessionals' that followed the dice rolls, and how much agency that gave the players, it became a lot of fun. 

And I cannot say enough good things about the Roll20 iteration of this game, from the quality maps, the brilliantly branded character sheets with easy inventory control and dramatic macros for dice-rolling, all the way through to the 14-track soundtrack, sound effects and even a video sting I could introduce each game session with. 

If you do remote gaming at all and are looking for a change-up, give Deathmatch Island due consideration. And remember: Play to Win™!