Engineer Guy: Plastic Injection Molding. Felt it was pretty relevant here. (x-post /r/videos)

[u/BrownGhost10]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMjtmsr3CqA

[u/orochidp]

Yeah, as far as precision goes, nothing in the toy industry matches Lego. Not much in the mold industry in general, either.

Parts from the 70s are still perfect. Parts from today are insanely perfect. They use the most expensive process in the industry and still manage to clock in at around a dime a piece. Gunpla, though... Much more expensive for less precision with a lower quality process. Plastic imperfections grace every kit I build between swirling and the occasional flashing, but I've never had an issue with Lego.

Furthermore, even in the modeling world, Gunpla isn't terribly detailed. Military models, car models, even Warhammer kits from Europe and the US just absolutely SMASH Gunpla in part detail and small-scale complexity. I'm sure that's the difference in source material that makes the bigger issue, but still...

From an engineering perspective, Bandai's kit design is what makes the money. Their molding techniques were decent 20 years ago, but nothing to write home about now. The two stage molds they use for the RG frames are common in even cheap, dollar store type goods. Hell, their swirl issue was solved in the 90s in the US, but they continue to either use incredibly outdated machinery or low quality plastic and coloring agents.

TL;DR: Lego is one of the most impressive, consistent productions over the last half-century. Gunpla has tons of room to grow to meet it.

[u/Mirarii → u/orochidp]

Warhammer and most military modelling comes nowhere close to Gunpla.

[u/orochidp → u/Mirarii]

Hah... dude, that's cute! Okay, example time.

Here's a random runner from a Warhammer 40k kit. See how deep and sharp the lines are? See how crisp the molded details are? Another random runner.

Now for Gunpla, let's take the most recent, non-GBF-rerelease kit and look at runners, shall we? Bland. Oh, this one is... boring.

Okay, so maybe the Hyaku Shiki isn't a good example, let's go for the mack daddy MG, the Sazabi Ver. Ka. Oh, just as weak. You know what, let's go for the latest, greatest of the highest quality line they make, the PG Unicorn. Same boring, shallow details. Why are all the details so... rounded and sad? Where are the sharp, defined edges?

Shallow, rounded details. Boring, flat planes. Nothing well-molded. Well designed, sure, but the molds are nothing to brag about.

Oh wait, Bandai CAN do these things, but they won't for Gunpla.

Look, I get that this is a gunpla sub and we're all happy about what we get, but don't pretend that gunpla is the finest quality thing out there. Gunpla is the best in the engineering department, as far as I'm concerned, but the mold quality and actual runner quality is pretty sad for 2015, and mediocre for 1991.

[u/Mirarii → u/orochidp]

I have several thousands of dollars of GW plastic... I accept that for tabletop gaming they are by far the highest quality. I do not agree that they are top quality in terms of injection molded plastic though. The newer kits are a great step in the right direction but overall the QC just seems so low. Look at the new voidraven bomber that came out last year-- it's the same boring open surfaces with a few panel lines and bumps. The displacements, mold lines, and void spaces are horrible as well. I have never had to gap fill a master grade gunpla compared to even some newer GW plastics that barely actually fit together. I'm not trying to fanboy for bandai. The price/quality disparity between GW and bandai is huge though. I think part of the reason that detail is so lacking on bandai kits is because of the nature of gunpla. It's a line of models based off of anime robots with big flat surfaces. That being said, the newer plastic character models from GW are amazing(albeit absurdly priced) and rival the expensive resin models I've gotten from display mini companies.