Bandai Recreated a Fictional Anime Metal For This Obscenely Expensive Gundam Model

If you ’re going to endeavor to win over collectors , who ’ve already dropped hundreds of dollars on various model kits , to pass another $ 2,000 on just a undivided midget example , this is the way of life to do it . At just five - inches magniloquent , thisRX-78 - 2 Gundamjustifies its obscene damage shred by swapping credit card for afictional metal alloythat premature only existed in the Gundam anime .

quite a little of ware helped fete the 40th anniversary of the Mobile Suit Gundam Zanzibar copal serial last twelvemonth , but 2020 or else marks the fortieth day of remembrance of Gunpla , or Gundam plastic models . Thousands of these sets have been get over the years featuring an endless army of mammoth robot mechs , but none quite as alone as this 1/144 - scale of measurement RX-78 - 2 Gundam . It ’s one of the most placeable and iconic Gundams of all time , and in the anime series , it help win a critical battle thanks in part to its special armor made from a Luna Titanium Alloy , after rename Gundarium , that was refined and manufactured on the surface of the moon .

No such material live in real life , nor does the lunar manufacturing plant demand to acquire it . So Bandai Spirits had to make do with what we have here on Earth . To earn Gundarium , it create an alloy from titanium , atomic number 13 , and a rare - solid ground element do it as yttrium which was previously used to produce the red phosphors in one-time CRT television set , but is now used in the production of LEDs and lasers . These metal were powdered , mixed , and then turned into solid material using a process called sintering where uttermost heat is applied to fuse the molecule together without actually melting and change state them into a liquidity first .

Image: Bandai Spirits (Other)

It was a complicated process , made even voiceless by the utmost manufacturing preciseness need to produce a model in private portion that could actually be assembled into a full Gundam mech . By comparison , charge plate is a very forgiving stuff for model that flick together , as it can bend , flex , and give .

All of the enquiry and ontogeny take to turn Gundarium from fiction to fact helps explain why a five - inch tall model outfit cost 220,000 Yen , or a small over $ 2,000 . What it does n’t explain is why obsessive Gunpla fans almost directly claim all of the pre - orders for the outfit once they became uncommitted a few day ago . That ’s a heap of money to spend on a automaton that wo n’t vacuum-clean your flooring .

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Image: Bandai Spirits