109: Gunpla

On our Nertificent Twitter page, we will be posting links to donations and funds that you can donate to to protect and amplify black voices. Black lives Matter. Here's the show. How are you doing? Everyone? Cocome to another episode of Nerdificent. I am one half of your host if you wa way, but sitting across from the digital space for me via zoom is Danny Fernandez. I'm here. Yeah, you're here. I made it. Get used to it. You know, I could be doing it. I could be really busy. My schedule

could be packed. You don't even know. Yeah, oh yeah, exactly. People don't know. I've been doing these zoom calls, been streaming podcasting, you know, all the all the EANs. Yeah, I've been subscribing all the stuff different YouTube channels. You know, why are you blushing? Why are you blushing different fans. I think I think I'm an if there's like a power user, uh, I think I'm gonna get it very soon. I'm gonna think I'm gonna be a power user, being the nerd that I am. I got a bunch of

badges on Audible that I'm very proud of. I have like twelve badges I went in there. You know, I'm competitive. It's like one of them was like listening to three books in twenty four hours. It was like sick. Nobody should be rewarded for this. You love books? No, No, they're taking it back. They saw that episode of twilight Zone and they said, no, books are tight. No for me, it's because I don't like being alone with my thoughts.

So I just like, like I said, have Tan France just like telling me about his life in the background. He's like, Hey, how's it going. I'm gonna tell I'm gonna talk to you talk that talk, king talk that talk. Oh well, today we're talking about something that is that is that is deep to me, that is that is wonderful. Uh deep in my heart been been so moist in it. And you know it seems like within this there's been warren factions. You know. There there's been lots of haters

talking about my commitment. Uh and I and I think we should bring on a hater to to even talk about this. This is a writer of of of do or do we say it now? Well? You tweeted it writer on she hulk uh podcast producer extraordinaire produced all types of your faiths. We're talking about scam goddess we're talking about yo? Was this racist, non NonStop smack talker online? People wonder if this man is my friend or my enemy? And that's why we call him my friend of me?

Cody Zigla, Wow, you set me up for such a You really set me up to come in here as a villain. See, this is why, this is why I can't mess with you. I'm the number one sweet boy you come when you're talking all this time? Well you you are who knows you as sweet? Because if people know you only from my reply, thank you Ny Salt Salt God spice king over here with the with the with the spice special zig has to put up with me and his d m s being like this guy

didn't reply to my thirst trap. Look, Zig's out there, he's there listening to us. He's there helping us build our gun. Plus he's there. You know, I'm nice. I know that you're just saying these things because you're coming from a place of hurt if he but I want to know that I see you, King, and I love

you King, even when you try. Oh this is what a reversal revers Kane came with the energy and flipped it on me like some straight up uh yeah no. So you know, you know, we have this delicious, delicious intro. I wanna I wanna go through and then we'll talk

about what we're nerding about. But according to William Ashberg of The Diplomat and even of the nineteen seventies, if someone wanted to discuss popular Japanese culture, undoubtedly the conversation would revolve around it's science fiction film icon, Godzilla no offense to the flying turtle Gamera and it's loyal legion

of followers. But Godzilla films not only rule Japanese popular culture, but we're shown around the world to much acclaim and sometimes good natured Derision Today in two thousand sixteen, when one wants to discuss Japanese culture, the topic immediately turns to anime, and among the titles, none permeans Japanese society, like the franchise mobile suit Gundam. Yeah yeah, that's yeah, straight up facts, straight up facts. Yeah, you know, we

had to put some respect on Gundam. You know, uh Cody for those none in Zoom wearing all black me, I'm showing my love. I'm paying my respects. You know where my anniversary guns. Wow, that is a tight that's a tight shirt. That was I was, I was, I was real happy with this one. Um, this is one. The new Gundam came out pretty hard. And then you know my unique Zaku, which was a good call. Zig was the one who said I should probably go for the zaku since I have enough Gundoms respect of my

name king. Yeah, well look, you know I'm gonna give credit where credit is due. I can't hear Godzilla without thinking, Yeah, some folks are like, I cannot believe you said that, But me, Danny, I fully support that because I will. I'm I'm I'm on the unpopular opinion side of I think that song slapped and there are a lot of things we were like an elementary school or middle school, like it was tight. Well, classic rockheads want to grow and be like I can't believe let Zeppelin shut up,

come with top five Godzilla bangers. You heard it here? Yeah, I remember I was doing um Hayleyman's scenes and Mannox this podcast about Godzilla and they're saying when they revealed the Godzilla design from that movie to Tohope, the company that does all the Godzilla, they said it was there was silence in the room for like five minutes. I mean,

it's a it's it's a very wild design. Yeah. I mean I haven't watched that movie recently, but I've watched it like maybe a year or two ago, and like all the decisions they make are like the most clichee American unculture things that you could make in a movie. Well, it's so funny because even with my problems with the newer Godzilla run, what made it better is the ability

to let go. Is this idea because you know now that we're pushing into you know, nerd media being captured in in film, they've there has been this understanding of being like, Okay, the fans of this like it for a reason, will kind of still follow the blueprint, will still give weird studio notes like completely adding this human element to Godzilla, even though because you know, once again that same podcast, I said, most Godzilla movies follow like

two simple formats. Either it's Godzilla versus another monster or Godzilla versus humanity, and and the Godzilla movies in America keep trying to combine those two things, but those are two separate movies. If you want this human element, you have to have it. And the problem too is America has a vin Diesel contract with all their movies. For for for people who do not know what I'm referencing, is it's it's a rumor that in Vin Diesel's contract,

he can never lose a fight if he's in a movie. Uh, And that's that's the same thing as in American movies. We can never just loose, like we have to win, and we have and I mean there's an arguments of that where it's like you don't want to be hopeless, but like considering that Godzilla is this allegory for the atomic bomb, you would see why it is this devastation and kind of surviving the devastation and not beating. It is the the through line of the movie. But I

mean this is not the Godzilla episode. This is the gunplay episode. Not to not to stay on this tangent one second longer, though, did you watch shin Godzilla? Did you? Did you have it right here in my DVD, my Blu ray. I think I think what I enjoyed most about that one is that like Godzilla was true be frightening again because it was such they take such a

like biological approach to like making it work. But also the way that the human element for that movie was just the bureaucracy of being in government was such a very funny. It's such a funny, unique perspective to take on. Like usually what you see is like it's a it's like a guy and his family trying to come together. Yeah. No, it's just like ways and ways of Japanese bureaucracy and politicians trying to like trying to grasp the situation that

they're wholy have their depths on. Very funny and also like that inning was just terrifying and frightening. Also just how they view us, which is hilarious. Like Americans, I'm always like please drag us. Please just continue to drag us. We deserve it. There's just one funny part where they they have like a map like these are the places like that they're gonna bomb, like Japan, like this Japanese city, and like they have like an American map, and it's just like all of the city is just blown up

like on the American map. Like they're waving to just blow up everything. That that sounds about right, uh, but a mobile suit. Gundam was developed by animator Yoshi Yoshi, Yuki Tomino and a changing group of Sunrise creators and with the collective pseudonym of the series. Was originally entitled Freedom Fighter, gun Boy or gun Boy for the robots

gun with boys the primary target demographic. The team combined the English word gun with the last syllable of the world word freedom to form the portmanteau Gundam, and Tomino changed it to Gundam because it was spelled gun d o m uh, and they changed it to d a m suggesting a unit wielding a gun powerful enough to hold back enemies like a hydraulic dam holding back water. And I think that was a great, great, great switch up. I don't know how I would feel telling people like

you gotta come check out my gun boys. There's no way that there isn't a kid in Bama whose name is gun Boy Numboy, come over here, pick up his uh. But yeah, but you know we're gonna get deep into into Gundamn. It's history and all that. But but this is about gun Plow. But you can't have gun Plow without talking about Gundam. And we'll do Gundam is, so

you can't do a Gundam episode. You have to choose, yeah, because you know definitely gonna hit Iron Blooded Orphans, but then we gotta hit you see, everyone's like you see if you keep you you see, there's some good stuff in there. Man. Oh yeah, No, I know there's some good stuff. I've been every it's so funny. You would think that, and this is a great transition into what we're nerding about right now. But you would think that with so much more time, it'd be easier to ingest

more anime. But it's it's just no, I just find more dumb stuff to get into. Yeah, I finished the series. I finished. You ever watch Parasite The Maximum? Oh? It's on Netflix. I just started it. Yeah, I did that on Netflix like last week, and it's the first anime series I've finished, I think in like a year. It's like it's like episodes, like twenty episodes in and out, and like I just had it on the background for like three or four days. Like it's really honestly the

first series I've finished in a very long time. I Mean there's just so every anime that someone wants to suggest to you as like to three episodes and you're like, yeah, short boys, Yeah, give me, give me them short boys. That's why I like that. My favorite is Gorn log On because that's twenty sins. It's twenty six and you're done. You know. If I tell somebody, yo, you gotta check out dB Z, they're gonna look at that episode listen to be like sir, but I'll tell you check out Gundam.

I mean going log On, You're gonna check that out. The same thing. No, I was gonna say. Somebody on Twitter was asking like, hey, I want to get into anime, and I kid you not. There was people that would list like six different series like you gotta do one piece, gotta do one piece, gotta do attack On, And I'm like Hunter Hunter. I was like, literally, just give the man, like a movie or something did start with. I was like, I love, I responded, I said, I as an anime fan.

I was like, I love the people that think that you're gonna watch your He's also a showrunner and like TV create. I'm like, these people are busy. Like I was like, I love the idea that you're going to

watch six series that each have two hundred episodes. I mean that, yeah, yeah, I mean Hunter Hunter I think comes in at to something and that at this point in my life, the Hunter Hunters of them all seem way more digestible because you have people people are begging me to check out one Piece, some like it is on its nine hundred episode. I will start Naomi on one Piece so she can finish it when she graduates high school. That's like Simpson's numbers. It's like it's too

much for my system at these days. I mean, like, I think Hunter Hunter was like the last long series I was able to like watch and like stay president, but like that was like three years three or four years ago, when I like the sunder Owner, like the idea of starting a series that has more than thirty episodes, right,

now fills me with such uh dread. Well. That's why I like doing Ginama because that one's like a three hundred boy, but it's like it's it's imagined like an anime version of It's always sunny, like it's just these three like and it will still have the anime elements, but since every episode is so self contained, you can just kind of take it piece by piece, you know, you don't have to sit down, because that's that's the trap, right is Like you watch and you get trapped in

an arc and you're like, I gotta see how this wraps up, and then you're like, all right, cool, and then at the end of that arc they hit you with a cliffhanger. You're like, next, I will say. I think that's the thing that I also appreciate about most of the Gundham series is that they're not really longer than like twenty six I think even think the original Room was like forty episodes or something like that, like

you Can, you Can. They're pretty digestible, especially like the series that I like, they're always they were like ov A, so like none of them went more than twelve episodes. What are y'all geeking out? About Okay, alright, So like, um, I'm restarting Avatar Glass Airbender. I watched the I re watched the pilot like I think two or three days ago, and I was like, oh boy, I'm back in it. I'm I'm about to be sucked back into this world. And I know I'm gonna we watch the Legend of

Chord too. It's like, I'm that's my main thing. Also, I've you know, this is the episode that we're talking about, but like gun Plaw, like I have been so into model making over the past seventy four days however long we've been in Quarantine. That's been like my there's been like my two main geeky things I'm getting back into.

And also video gaming, like I've like I uh, there's this game called Predator Hunting Grounds that just came out a couple of weeks ago, and me and a couple of friends have been playing that game, and like I have been rediving back into just the Predator franchise, like I did like the Seven Days Stars free trial on Amazon Prime just to like watch Predator one and two, and like now I'm jumping over to HBO to see if they have like uh, like Predators from Robert Rodriguez

and the Predators. Like there's been like my three main geeky franchises that I've been like doing deep dives back into love it. For me, this is relevant for all of us. Is uh Space Force dropped this weekend when this come out, and uh, some of our really great friends are in it. They I got to watch an early Uh I got to watch it last week and it's hilarious. Our friend Tawny, isn't it? Yes, my friend Roy Wood Jr. Which I literally screamed and I was like,

that's my friend. And I like took pictures of him with Steve Correll and I sent it to him and he was like, how did you get a screener? And I didn't get a screener. I was like, Tonny, put my name in Ben Schwartz, who I adore. It's really great. Um obviously making fun of the whole idea of Space four, but a lot of good people that worked on this, so definitely check it out. That is what I'm geeking

out about this week. And what about you, iffy Ah? Yeah. No. What what I'm thinking out about this week is the show that I've kind of jumped on I don't know if I talked about it on here yet, but I've really been enjoying it, which has been um good old uh Tower of God, which is a crunchy role original based off of a web tunes uh comic, and it's it's been good like after you know, it had like I had that startup being like, Okay, let's see what this web tunes anime guy, and now I'm like locked in.

They have lots of fun characters, very diverse, you know. You know, it's funny when people just go and make their animals how diverse it can get. But uh, but yeah, I'm I'm truly enjoying it. And outside of that, Valeriane, I've been playing lots of Valeriane, which if you if you don't know what it is, it's like counter Strike meets Overwatch. Very fun game, very frustrating game, as many

teammates competitive games are. But that's been it, and you know, getting back into my workout regiment too, I did some yoga, you know, that was yo. Doing These yoga videos though, are always so funny because it always starts off being like okay, okay, cool, and then they'll just crank it to ninety with hard and and not even like not even like guide. You be like, okay, it's gonna get advanced of like okay, now we're gonna do this next pose,

and then it's like the legs behind the head. I'm wait, wait, wait, what do we get to that I clicked? But yoga from beginners you I'm not beginning there. It's so I've never done out right yoga. They used to do it when I did, like karate and jiu jitsu, we would use it as like warm up and stuff. And honestly, nine times I'll attend yoga was way harder than anything we ever ended up doing in the and the actual classes.

Oh yeah, oh man, people don't understand. They think that you need to have external weight, but just holding your body weight in your arms out in a pose and a squat positions like doing a wall essentially in a squat like position for two minutes sometimes is how long? Or you know, they'll even do it longer. We'll just burn your muscle like it just burns. Alright, well, let's jump right into it. So uh so we're talking about

gun plaow today. H and gun play is short for gundam plastic models UH or Gundam plastic model UH and UH mobile suit. Gundam debuted in nineteen seventy nine, and the first gun play kits Uh, which came in at nineteen eighties, So like right around it was. It's so interesting because that's not uncommon for it to be like, Okay, here's a show, here's some toys, but they're like, no, here's some toys you can build um and uh and and the show was canceled. It was wild because the

show was canceled after forty three episode. So the show was pretty much the show was far ahead of its time. And you know, just to do a brief kind of overarching synopsis of Gundam because pretty much every Gundam follows this formula to some degree. It's usually a political war drama like that is essentially what all Gundams are usually

having to do with UH colonies versus earth bound. One is being oppressed by the other, and the Gundams are what they used to fight this oppression uh and and so I think, yeah, that might have been too deep for the eighties, but come around the nineties, we already in every which shape and form of that. Yeah, I

mean this the show like that I watched. I we watched the pilot recently, and it is such like I couldn't imagine being like a ten year old kid watching for the first time, because like in the first episode, like this, one of the main characters families just gets exploded by like a random rocket and then like the main character's dad gets sucked out into the space and dies, and you're like, I'm supposed to like watch forty more

episodes of this, this drama, this Game of Thrones with robots. Well, I remember when Gundam Wing was on too Nami and I just was like, um, cool, transformers, Like that's what I think I ever took anything away. I don't think I ever thought more about it when I was like in middle school. Oh yeah, no, you're You're totally right.

I think on the surface, if you watch it, especially the way it was being advertised onto Nami, where it's like Gundam Wing these Gundhams are fighting each other and so it's really focusing on the action, but it takes a while. And I think that's why it took so long for me to get sucked in, because this is like teen dbz Ifee and I remember sitting down from Gundam wing, I'm like, they're doing a lot and fun and funny coming from a DBZ fan, but I'm like, you're doing a lot of talking and not a lot

of fighting. So I'm a cop out. Ye, Like, at least at least my guys start fighting then talk and then they finished the fight. At least they charged with yeah, like I know the fights about to happen, where like there was just political discussion going on, just talking about the history of the relationships, and You're just like, yeah, no, I'm I thought they said this was robots fighting. Uh so we're talking a lot about royal bloodlines in this

TV show, can we get? But what's interesting about Gundam, which I which is the fun conversation to have about Gundam as a whole is like it is like synonymous to anime in general, Like you can't really think about anime without thinking of Gundham's. I would even post as far as some people don't even think about Japanese culture nowadays without thinking about Gundams. So I always saw the Gundam models, but I always was intimidated by it because I was in model, Like this was like doing gun plug.

Now it's so funny because like I just kind of laughed at myself and being like this would have a thousand percent been my thing because I had these things called modifiers, which were these model uh these It was made by tech Deck and they were usually like tuner cars, so like a civic yeah those yeah, and you were supposed to use tools to take off and add body kits and like the air intake to it and like different seats. And I was so deep into it that I was buying the like Bondo and like trying to

like use it and shave down. I wasn't that good. I didn't under like it's so funny because everything and you will if you look at any crafty online it pretty much everyone it's always presented as like and then this happened. And like as a teenager, as a teenager, when you're you're like, everyone's like, yeah, you just buy that, And then that's how I made this. They don't break down that. They like whittled down and shaped and made

it into a custom body kit. Like they were literally like essentially clay modeling that and they so as a kid, like I bought it, I put it on my body kit and I was like this, this ain't the same, a little different but different, but like for me to be that involved that I went out and bought the tools I knew I would have been into, like panel lining, and that would have and I think it would have been way easier to digest than what I was trying to do with these Like I took I took the

car a teenager put put my my popularity at the time online to take my car to my woodshop teachers so he can cut the top so it can be a convertible. And and like he cut it wrong because he didn't keep it like he didn't keep it on there. I was still I was kind of hurt, but but I was able to kind of like make it work. But like that's how deep into that I was that I was like Gundham, it would have been, it would been connected to anime. It probably would have lasted a

lot longer than these wildfires. So yeah, it's it's great, Yeah, it's it's it's the thing that I really enjoy about model building because like my dad didn't when I was a kid, like he should do like Star Trek and Star Wars and stuff, and like if you're like wait, we were pretty poor, would have a lot of money, so like like that being a creative outlet where like yeah, you spend twelve bucks and you can put get like a helicopter in your room and be creative without having

to buy like you know, I guess you could buy, but like you need to buy like paint, you need to buy like glue. You can just like buy this thing and like create something in yourself by yourself and

then like display it. Like I felt for me, like if I would have thought more about it, it probably would have been like a great creative outlet because um one, like like I did have access to like sculpting clay and like all that stuff like that, there's such a high bearer for entry for that type of like creative out create creative art form that like I feel like gunplot and just model making in general is like a very it's a very easy, in a very cheap and

effective way to like sort of like scratch that creative um itch without having to put a lot of money into it personally. So every nearly every Mecca in the series was made into a model kit from mobile suits to support aircraft and space battleships. Parts came in up to three different colored spruce. These early kids lacked articulation in detail and required glue and paint to build and finish. The first gun club, released in July, Night costs just

three yen or about three dollars. So it was like, uh, I was gonna say, it's like a babysitting tool. Just give it to your kids three bucks and like they're busy for hours. But actually, what age do you guys think this? Because I only know adults that makes model kids, you know, but I also don't know a lot of children being an adult. Well, that's what I was gonna say is and you you can let me know if you agree with this. I think anyone from if you can build, I feel like this if like this is

comes after legos. And the only reason I'd say after is because there are a lot of small parts that like kids might have a little hard time. And also, uh, something not being mentioned here is the translation between these

kids coming from Japanese to English. Sometimes it's just like you're looking, Yeah, you're looking at a picture and you're just having to use the best like i Q i Q test level images of like Okay, so it's saying it goes this way, scissors that are like not even facing towards it, and you're like, all right, I gotta go. But but I think one of the cool things is, like they mentioned, the first kits required glue and paint.

These do not require glue and paint. You can have a decent figure without glue without like you put them together. All you need are nippers, which are kind of like they look kind of like plyers, but they're like little Yeah, Cody's about to show you his, he has his very near,

but yeah, they're like little kind of clippers. And that's just to get them out of the runners and to kind of clean up because since these are plastic kits and they a lot of these kids are like filling into slots if they'll have if they have extra plastic, lots of times you have to trim it down and cut it, um, you know, cut it to just to make sure it's it's fitting better. But yeah, no, um, you can just kind of give it to someone and

they'll look fine. And then like the next level up, which is like i'd say SIMI in intermediate or early like beginner part two is panel lining, which is where you're taking um, these these usually either a gun to

marker or a kind of like oil very function. Yeah yeah, and you just kind of are putting black paint or black or gray paint within the lines and cleaning it up so that you can so the details kind of pop. Well, I was gonna say, are y'all because I see um like our friend Joe Starr who's doing separately but doing different like model painting. Are y'all using those like little microscopes or whatever it is that I see in movies?

Oh no, boy, I gotta tell you, uh no, I have not, but like so basing off the jumping off that they're like different tiers of difficulty for like model kits, Like I think they start like high grade and they go like master grade and inn real grade, like real grade being like one of the hardest, and like I just did one like two months ago, and I wish I had one because I got these big sausage fingers, like I can't grip these tiny pieces Like there are

points where like you have to take off like the tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny like piece of um like clear plastics, so if you drop it, you're just never gonna see it again. Yeah, And like I wish that I had like one of those little microscripts, because like my hand was shaken, I was holding my breath, I was getting all sweaty like that,

like that's that that's too much for my senses. But um, like to answer both of your questions, I think that like those sort of high grade stuff, I think if you're like basically can put together legos, you can put together like a high grade kid, But when it comes to like the real grade stuff, that, to me is it not nearly as fun because it becomes like work. You gotta like put together the elbow pieces and like

make sure the internal structure works and stuff. Yeah. And also furthermore, they're like they're the same size as high grade, and with me, like I want a bigger boy. So like so it goes high grade, then master grade, which is bigger, and then you have the real grade and the perfect grades, uh, which I'm not even gonna think about perfect grade because I just Leaven looking at him like, oh,

that's gonna be stressed out. But also like difficulty kind of ranges even within the levels, because like, for example, everything I've built has been high grade, but this guy right here, I'm holding up the Unicorn Banshee for those listening.

It has so many like different like subparts within parts, so that this was this is my highly recommended If you're like you've done a few high grades and you're like you want to challenge before master grade, I highly recommend the Banshee um uh Banshee uh Unicorn Gundam because the way that it just kind of has so many It took so long, but it looks so much more dynamic than anything else. You have such a fun like sense of accomplishment when you make like anything with your hands.

When like they go ahead and take the workout and make it a cool looking robot, it makes it seems so much cooler, like, yeah, I built that, I committed plastic to plastic. We have to take a really quick break and then we're gonna hop more into gun play right after this and we are back. We're still talking about gun plat. Wait, so, Cody, did you say your first introduction was it Gundam Wing or what What was

your first introduction to Sundom. It was definitely like Gundam Wing was the first one I actually watched, um like I had sort of like seen them before just because like I was like you know, obviously like we're nerds, like we were online like looking at anime stuff. But I was the first one that I actually watched, and then after I watched Gundam Wing, I really got into

uh the Universal Century, like the O G series. Like that's when like my personally, like my favorite series is uh um double O eight three Startus Memories, Like that's a great series. It's great animation. Uh the voice acting

isn't as good, but there's some great animation. There's some really cool intricate designs, and like the first half of the series was really inspired by top Gun, So it's just like a bunch of like blurring eighties guitar rock over like people in Giant Robots just jumping out and hanging out in the distich. Is a really fun series. I wanted to say, speaking of how we all watch anime, shout out to the problematic girl on Twitter who said if he watched anime, he's probably gay, and I said,

shout out to queer gay icon Samuel L. Jackson. I just hate all of those like fellas, if you microwave something, are you gay? Mad suspect taken nap, Yeah, you're taking nap I think the other one I saw the other day that had me dine was like, if I see two dudes eating breakfast, uh, then the name and then I'm I'm assumed they gay which all up so early together form like goodness, gracious, you have no friends? Uh, you have zero friends. No one wants to eat anything

with you. Man, what I would not give to give a get breakfast with the homies right now? Yeah? I know every time I end up doing an episode like this, I end up almost buying something expensive. Uh yeah. I think my introduction to Gundam was the same as your standing, which is seeing like Gundam wing and it was the same.

But the one that kind of really got me that I saw bits and pieces of was g Gundam because back then the idea of like operating the Gundam with your body versus like just the kind of like shifting

gears type stuff was way cooler to me. But in the end, um, in the end, I think I didn't like fully go double feet in until like you know, I saw zig Zig was building it up and I was like that is like it's so funny, Like this has been the year of me like revisiting stuff that I was really into, or wanted to get into, because I think we're just stuck at home looking for things to do. But like I saw Zick building the Gundams and I was like, oh, yeah, that's something I've always

wanted to do but always seemed so difficult. Let me just grab it. And I think I went to the Gundams. It was when I went to see my friend Lisa and I was in um. I was in like, what's what's that west side place kind of by um Less whatever, I Sautel. I was in Saultel and there was that and one of those it was called like Tokyo something, and it had all these Gundams, so I um so I sent it to Cody and then I ended up

getting Gundam for Cody. But then I ended up getting this little guy because I was like, I don't want to build one. I just want to get like a little chippy guy. You still had to build this. They give you Gundham, gives you nothing for you can't get it. I can nothing, No no free rides you got. So so after building that, I was like, Okay, I guess I can't. I'll build it, and then I think, um the second one I built was this pretty pretty dynamic h Gundham seed boy right here with wings. This is

the and this one I got from game Stop. I was in Game Stop just kind of cruising and I saw this and it was so funny because this is I remember this. Actually, I know this was my first build. The reason I knew it was my first build was I was still writing on The Great Debate and I was like, Oh, it'll be fun lunch activity to just crack this open and build it. And I opened it up and saw all the runners. I was like, oh,

this is not a lunchtime activity. I remember too, just to talk about how you are on that show, because like if You, which is coming out next month, um, I was on two episodes of it, and I remember I was writing jokes for my pit, like because I was about to compete and if He was like, oh, do you want to play a video game with me? I'm like, absolutely not. I'm about to go on air in front of a live studio audience, like I just remember. I immediately was like no and walked off. Yeah. Yeah.

So anyway, then me and Baron Von proceeded to play video games before he hosted that show and I wrote him, Yes, them. That was the funny thing because every time there's a nerdy show there there, they usually are like, here's a

nerdy thing to do around it. And I remember UM when at Midnight bought an arcade cabinet and it was and they were like, uh they it was one of those multi ar game arcade and then we ended up ended up getting shut down because the crew kept playing it when they were supposed to be building set and so they're like, like, what about us, I'm not crewing. So mad I had something I wanted to bring up going back to the nick because I keep thinking of the name Gundam like a gun plat and gun boy,

Like It's just fascinating to me. And one thing that it reminded me of is this cross culturally is the Iron Giant, which there's that scene where he was like, I am not a gun and he's like this massive robot, and so I just find it so fascinating the whole like culture and conversation around these essential huge b's being

seen as guns and weapons. Yeah, it's funny because I feel like there is a lot of commentary and some of those mainstream series about UM, like one it usually has scenes that the perspective of like a fifteen year old, six year old kid, like a lot of it is like I don't want to be here in the first place.

But also like there's a lot of questioning of like why do we even need these weapons in the first place, Like why do we need to have these these giants sixty ft tall invincible robots, and like what good does it cause, like because we're basically just in an arms race to make like every side, everyone is like spending all the resources and all their time and injury making these killer machines that aren't really doing anything to progress

human civilization outside of killing each other. It's like that is a very interesting point bringing up um iron giant and and gun because I feel like there is this sort of through line when it comes to like what's the cost and like what's the what's what if we're the super advanced civilization where we have space fair like why are we still falling back to like genocide in killing each other and like more profiteering and all this stuff. And also seeing it from a child's perspective or like

a young person's perspective. Yeah, I mean that's what's also interesting. To, which is why I like, you know, there's gonna be a lot of Iron Blooded Orphans praise on here. Is because one of the main things about Gundam is usually it is like a child operating this. And Iron Blooded Orphan was the first one to be like, yo, this is kind of like child soldiers. Let's kind of look

into that. And that's kind of the kind of the arc of Iron Blooded Orphans is like, oh, like using child soldiers, what what is the morals behind that how to? And what happens when they get the power back? What do they do with it? And it's this really beautiful story um, And that's the that's kind of just been the fun within Gundham because also one of the big things and Iron Blooded Orphans was that these Gundam's are

actually in in in the Iron Blooded Orphans universe. There there these relics of this long war and they were and they were the weapons that were used to one the Gundam Barbados and the the arrival Gundam that pops up, and they were hidden away and it's as it's begging the question of like, oh, why did all of a sudden we outlaw these Gundams Now that the people in power or in power, and I feel like that's just an overall statement just as um world powers, you know,

and how one really looks because when you do look at the major UH powers in in the in the UH in the world right now, and they're kind of being like, no nuclear weapons, and it's kind of like, well, y'all used them and one um and now you don't

want us use them anymore. And even though I am also a huge proponent of like, yeah, no nuclear weapons, I could see why if you were someone who kind of seen the devastation of that and had it used on you, you might beg that question an anime form of being like, well, what's what's the science behind if?

That was one of my favorite things And I forgot which one of the last this most recent trilogy of Star Wars, but when Benicio del Toro's character was talking to John Bliega, I hope I'm not getting this wrong because I haven't seen in a while, but like speaking of what Zig was talking about with an arms race, where he was like, oh no, I'm selling them to both sides, and you like forget, it's like such a social commentary that you think you're the good guys and

then you realize that you're you're using the same weapons as the other side. It's just so fascinating. It's from the best Star Wars would the Last Jedi. I think it's it's my favorite one because because they they added like you know that that's sort of like um Star was all about the black and white good versus evil, but like adding just a little bit of gray. Like

this is how like a universe works. Like these ships just don't appear from the ethereal well, I guess they do in the last one, but like they don't just sort of appear like people have to like make these things and people have to pay for these things. I don't know, very nice like world building it and like a nice little depth to like a universe that has up un to that point been very like good versus evil. Yeah, so what was remember what your first model was, Cody H When I do it was, I was like I

had just seen Gundam Wing. So I guess I was like fourteen and fifteen years old and I bought the Gundam Wing um the Wing zero, like that was the first Gumple I got, and like that was like you could like transform it. You go from like bird mode to like mobile suit mode, and then like I didn't do anything for like the longest time, Like I took like fifteen twenty years off. Like the only reason I got yeah, it was like, no, I put in my

I put in my eight hours, I'm gonna retire. The reason I got back into it was because when I started she Hulk, like, um, like I would I would. I got back into video games just because I needed something to think about that wasn't superheroes are like writing or comic books. So like I got into like this game called Gundham Battle Operations, which was like a free game with a PS four, and like through that, I was like, man, Gundam was fun. I'll start watching Gunham again.

And there's another writer on the show called zeb Wells who like was also in the Gumplow, and we just started talking about it. And then like through that, I somehow convinced if you to get me a Gundham and like it's just been like I just been diving back through ever since this boy understand you king, Yeah, but

like that's how I got back into it. And now that we've had nothing but free time for the past, like you know, thirty days or thirty days, ninety days, however long it's been, like it's just been a thing that's been keeping me saying like it's a creative a creative outlet that um, I don't have to necessarily like beat myself up about if I don't finish it when

I'm doing it, you know. Yeah, And I think that one of the things that's fun about it too is the kind of like zenness of it, because you like, because you have to be so focused on these small pieces and followed direction, you you almost, um, if this even makes any sense, you have to let go. You have to you have to let go and let this project guide you. You you don't make the rules, you have to do it step by step, and it's so it just it's so good to just just not think

follows step by step and build something beautiful. And that did uh speaking of that? That's sorready man to cut you off without that you made me think of Um, did either of you watch uh Six Days to Air that Jet the South Park documentary? Now? So it's just it's just about how they make an episode in six days. But there's this really really interesting part where I think

Trey Parker. You go into his office and it's just full of like Legos and he's like putting together a Lego kit and they're like, why do you do this? He's like, one, Uh, it's just I. When I spend all day telling other people what to do, it's nice to,

like one be told what to do. But also it's nice to like clear your thoughts and just sort of exist at the moment and just like read these instructions and know that after I do all these things together, no matter what, I'm going to have a piece of art that is nice and that like I didn't have to stress about it like that. That just reminded me of that. Um that's guess there's the there there's the truth to that, because yeah, that's exactly how I feel. The the nineties, we we get into um to to

some some more kids. The kids essentially are following like most of the time, a different uh A series that's round. So like in the nine you have the round Vernie and v Fam series UH and that's the mobile suits at the Gundam kit line that incorporated the use of polycaps, which were the soft UH plastic typically polytheline as connectors for better articulations of the joint, which is you'll you'll know,

it feels so different there. You can tell when you have an old kit and just like you're like Craig and get shoulder trying to get into where we're now. It just kind of pops in nice. And then the Night seven Gundam Sentinel model introduced the concept of snap fit models, reducing the need to use glue, and then starting from Mobile Suit Gundam Chars Counter Attack Line all gump Kids fee ured snap fit assembly so we no

longer needed glue. Yeah. Yeah. In band I introduced the High Grade line, which featured newer one one by one scale versions of the r X U seventy eight two Gundam, which is the Gundam you know, like like think of the the think of what you think of in Gundam

in your head. That's the r X the r X one seventy eight Gundam m K two and the MSc zero zero six Zeta Gundam and the ms Z ten zz Gundam, and each kit boasted exceptional detail and articulation, as well as features normally found in their larger scale versions, such as the Gundham's core block system and Zata's transformation feature, which is uh yeah, the transformation. Transformation Gundams are so intimidating to me because I was like, like, if it has to transform, it has to be really in. I

had to do. I made one with the core block system, and it's like you gotta like build the jet and then like put it into the actual body and like make all the stems to go into it. It was very stressful. Can you all talk about what a Gunham does like in the show and like just for people that have never seen it originally, like in the original like Mobile Suit Gundam seventy nine series, the whole idea was that like there were these two roaring factions like

Space and Earth. Uh and the Space there's space forces called Zion, and their whole thing was like they created these giant mex called mobile suits, Like that was their thing.

Like they were like technologically they were there was so for advanced when it came to um the Earth Science the Earth Federation, and like the Earth Federation was like, man, we've been getting worked for like months and like we need to come up with something, and like they're the thing that they came up with was a Gundam, which is like their highly advanced mobile suit that was like made out of like I think I think it was made of like gundanium. I think was what they called

like their special alloy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so like it was made a super advanced mobile suit that um, the Earth Federation built, and like every since then it's been sort of sitting as like a super weapon and all the series where like it's usually like either the first of its kind or the one the only one of its kind of it's a very limited number of series

that are made. That is usually palletd by like a fifteen and six year old kid, and then it's used to topple whatever the evil space people are or Earth people depending on the series. Yeah, and that's pretty much it. And to get really technical, if you're wondering what gun their giant robots that people sit in, usually there's there's been different modes of operation. Some you just kind of sit in, put in the helmet. Some you sit in

and you just use the levers. Some you sit in and they jack into your back, like the Matrix or Gundam. Some you stand in and your motions are copied. Uh, by the Gundam. You know what's really funny about that series is that there's one guy that has a giant robot horse and then you go inside and you see that it's just a giant horse that's inside the actual robot. It's very funny. Uh, it's it's it's it's yeah, Gunda Gundom. It seems like real fun, fun series that I'm definitely

gonna hell yeah, you're you're gonna love it. It's insane. I'm so dumb because I didn't know that Transformers was from Japan. I thought it was a Western show that was stealing or copying, but no, it actually originated it's a Japanese well I guess it's a Japanese American franchise. UM that looks like it was co produced by the

toy companies to Kara Tomy and Hasbro. But I was just like, to me, when I think of like for people at home who have literally never seen them, to me, it looks like straight off like a Transformers, Um, you know, obviously very different. Um and people forget Transformers are aliens, but um, that is true. I forgot. I'm literally dismember the yeah, the from like ting Yeah, yeah yeah, um, but I find that fascinating anyways, very I mean it's

all MEC. It's like MEC animation essentially, So that's the term for the suits that they were talking about. Okay, continue on what I'm going through. Some of these fun questions about builds and stuff, and uh, one is like are there any difficulties building or displaying the models? Um, I don't know, so I'm curious what Cody does. But

it's funny. IM sorry, I mean to cut you on ahead for me, Like I keep it so simple, like I one, I only make only do the kids of of the suits that I actually like, like that I've liked as a kid. So like I don't get anyone that are like those huge suits where they have where they're like one like there one forty four skill, but like they're enormous unit takes up so much space. Like I do suits that are like one, they're like usually humanoids with their bipedals so they can do stand up

on their own to begin with. Um. Also, I have a rule of like three, like if I I can't do more than three, I can't have more than three plastic robots in my room at any time because I just don't want I just don't want it taking up that much space, you know, because you see like these actual collectors and they just have like rooms dedicated to like you know, a forward to ceiling, these models and stuff. So like I keep it simple that way, but there are some like do you look at people that have

made those like dioramas and stuff. Yeah, yeah, I was. I was scoping a diorama. I got close. My My living room is currently the wildest. It's a choice. It's a choice. You gotta dedicated. Yeah, I think of what any woman who comes back to think, like you have to be a to date me, you have to, like I have one straight up. So so I have the DVD rack next to just gumpl of boxes of stuff. I have to build like just boxes, so it looks like to anyone it will be like, why you got

junk over there? That's not junk. Those are my builds. Then I have DVD rack where the top are just I've separate. I've organized is my DVD rack to be um anime up top and then and and then like just live action movies below it, and then PS four

games that I don't play at the bottom. So like all you''re gonna see first is just a rack full of anime, and then you look at the Then you look at this this this bookshelf where at the top it's like my friends so Foobie toy, which like you'll look at and you'll be like, oh, it seems like it's Wolverine and Colossus, and no, it's like Glenn Danzig and and Harry Henry Rawlins as a gay married couple, as as Astro Boy Tetsogen as Wolverine and Colossus, a hat on a hat on a hat on a hat,

Giant Godzilla like you know, DVD book from Criterion, Goku Spider Man. You go down, multiple gokus, a Goku glasses set, Joe Suke Sousk. Then we go down and we have World Warcraft, which is like known bad bad nerd info that goes all the way to Diablo titan Fall, two giant grimoires of Destiny too, and a model last word Switch Games. And you go down and it only gets worse because then we have magic the Gathering and a saying scouter. And then you look and if that wasn't

too much, you're already out of breath. You look over and there's plastic robot Max and big oh Si. Yeah,

let's see. That's I'm going off like like I don't want to bring like my girl over and she sees like I already got like a Captain America toy up and like, I don't know, there's like I think there's a threshold for like outward geekiness that I want to show when people are coming over to my like my house that uh, I try to limit myself to only three I That's not what concerns me at all dating someone. It's more that I am minimalist and like O c D. Like my place is so like clean and tidy that

just seen the ship. Her amount of physical media is overwhelming to me, like closets for a reason. I'm like, I don't I understand, like the flex of one I never want to see, but just I feel like, uh, like interior design, I'm like, there's a reason this should

need I'm Marie Condo. I'm like this should not be out like just my my brain is like just highlight a couple of pieces, like you just because I have O c D. I'm like anything else, I just need a clean, clear space to be also from the listeners at home. Danny is hot, so it doesn't matter what she had on her walls. She's good. So according to YouTube, if you like that from the record, it doesn't matter what she has on her wall, she can link. You know that that's not true. Why am I single? Then

I'm not going to get into this. I actually have a canvas portrait hand painted Baby Yoda on my its um I just don't have. I just don't like a lot. I don't like clutter. In my opinion, it just feels like for me, it feels like clutter. So I only have, like really, I have like three pieces like you that I'm like, this is super dope. Here's this like hand painted print of vegeta or campus of vegeta and Baby Yoda and then you don't need to see anything else. Oh well, U you know, we we can get into

vegetas and vegatas and what have you. Buta slander on this podcast. I wasn't going to slander him. I was just seging. I was just segueing into this break and we'll be back after these messages. You s You're gonna come for you if you talking about my king this guy. Welcome back to nerdificent. We're talking gumplot and I'm if you wide away here with Danny Fernandez and Cody ziglar um Iffy, I had one thing I forgot to say when you were talking about how Vin Diesel contractually can't

lose a fight. I feel like a curatore Yama made that, but the opposite for a vegeta. It's like, contractually, do not let this man win. Even if I'm no longer really involved with this series anymore, do not let him win. At he can get really close and he can power up where it seems like he's going to beat this person because he has the necessary level too, but do not let him win. He was like, this is y'all's punishment for making me keep this guy around even though

going to be a villain of the week. This is this is cyber building against my my keying vegeta also gay icon a CURATORI ama, um, but yeah, so you know, I think, you know, as we look towards the future of Kinnam, I think the one of the first things I want to uh kind of tackle before we even end this, which you know, I think both of me and Cody have ideas for this. But as the guests. I'll let Cody take this first, which is is there a model that is best for beginners? You know? Uh yeah,

I think um any high grade. If I was going to recommend one, I reckon men a high grade Zaku two or just the high grade like r X seventy eight Gundam like the original o g s like it's um I put together. Um. I think one of the second kids ever put together was the high grade chars Zaku Zaku two, and it was something you could snap together in like thirty or forty minutes. Um, it's it's, it's, it's it looks nice, it's got a cool like design

and cool color. Um. They're pretty cheap, they're probably like twelve twelve bucks. Uh and also like they're just it's it's. It's a good process to where like you can sort of see like it starts connecting those neurons in your brains if you haven't done like any type of model building before. Um. So like that either either Zaku two or like the original Gundam would be like my rex for like easy first first time um gun plus to

put together. Yeah yeah, yeah, I think those are great, but I think you just can't go wrong with any of the h g s, even if even for the more difficult complicated ones. In the end, there the hds

are built for you to start off. I think they did a really good job of keeping it simplistic, like just looking at the pieces from my all my h g s and then comparing it to like when I opened up my MG sniper, Like there's just a expanse level of how much more stuff there is in And I mean this zaku I had uh that I built from uh maybe the Unicola unique La because unique La did it's it's this year is the fort anniversary of GUNPLA and so they dropped you know sets that you

that you would get after you spent a certain amount of money. And it was an art Um who was an r X seven and a zaku. And I went with the zaku because I already had so many gun dams and this was probably the simplest build I've done. It was like three runners, which is pretty much unheard of. And I knocked that out and I and it was it allowed me to experiment with top coat. What you know, it came out. I but you know, I'm still I'm still trying to learn the kind of like more advanced techniques,

which is like panel lining top coat. I couldn't practice panel lining because it's all red, so you know, I just well, the fun thing is it's a it's a marathon, not a sprint when it comes to that part of it. And I know I have to start building this MG sniper because I was geeked up off the sauce and and I was kicking it with a with a gun play twitch builder and and spent and I got so many more uh on the way right now, so I

got it. Yeah, I just gotta Yeah, I'll do the rundown for the for the cast so so that people, you know, can know what I'm what I'm rocking with. But yeah, I was geeked up off the sauce. Right now. I have a MG Gundham Astray red frame coming. Uh, a Iron Blooded Orphans Hadgi Robushi, but it's an h G so that would be a little easy. And that's a pre order, so that's not gonna be coming. Then uh MG tall geese on the way. Um. And then I have a collection stage, which is like a three

layered stage so you can just let them stand in order. Uh. And then shin musha gundham uh sinoku no gin have you seen those? Zick? No, No, I don't know what that is. All right, I'm gonna send you. I'm a student has become. But I saw that and I was like, oh, this is a immediate cop, like, no questions asked, and I'm gonna drop I'm gonna drop the link so Zick can see it and you can hear hear his expression on air, but that that one dropped, and I was like,

this is an immediate cop. There's no questions asked. I need that in my collection. Just let you see what let me see what my man's working with it. Yeah, it's straight heat um and it comes with a with a diorama set. So that's also what attracted it to me, as I was like, okay, cool, Like I don't have to worry about getting a diorama for this because the heat's coming the two blades. Yeah, man, this cuts twice

as us. All right, Well, uh, I mean, Zick, thank you so much for coming on you, thanks for having me guys. Yeah yeah, is there anything that you'd like to plug before we head up out of here? Check me out on all social media platforms. At ya for zig. Uh that dude zig dot com if you wanna see I guess my website. I don't know. I she hoped room has ended. So any shot runners want to hire you, boy,

hit me up because I need some money. Uh than that. Um, check out the dark Weed podcast, both of both Danny and if you have been on, uh was where where me and my homie Brodie talk about nerd stuff. Uh, And we've stuff and it's a really fun just to creating like a space for like people of color, black people to talk about like their nerdy interests. So that's that's it for me. I'm at miss Danny Fernandez on all the things. Uh, still figuring out TikTok where I am?

I am Danny Fernandez. Well, the reason why I got on it is I justified. I love horror and I have like a horror script I'm writing, and I love just dicking around and in that space, and like I love the little sixty second videos that are terrifying. And I was like, I can justify getting on this if I'm using it to like frighten people. Um. And so I made a little horror short which maybe by the time this is out, I will have uploaded but I

did run into their copyright. I had a Michael Jordan's Selena bitty bitty bomb bomb that I made video and they immediately took it down. Thank you. Um I know that those two have a ven diagram somewhere in my head and in culture. Um so anyways, check me out on that. And uh, yeah, we have the great debate that if he wrote on in his appearing in that I am also in. A bunch of our friends are

in uh. And then I do want to give a shout out to Our show is produced by Joel Smith, super producer Joel, our engineer Zach McKeever, and our editor is Jack Kies Neil love them. Those are my friends. Yeah, yeah, what's up? And it's your boy if you way on Twitter and Instagram. Ifty's on Twitch super Punch nightly Monday through Friday, holding it down, getting lots of dope, great dope guests. We had myers Leonard from the Heat on

and we're we're giving them call of duty class. He It's it's so wild when you see these athletes and they are like gamers, like like you know, not not playing no games. Uh, and he was. He was killing it. And we have tons of great guests in the future, so make sure you're tuning in on that. I am also on tick top the Real Iffy, which is a pretty solid screen name. I think only because I created a TikTok. I think I created a musically and it

carried over something. Either way, it's if you was unable to be accessed and I recorded it as impersonating me instead, it's adding all my friends, but they're they're probably gonna be like, no, this is just you anyway, but yeah. Followed Nertificent on Twitter at Nertificent stay tuned. More hot apps coming and you know, uh, like we always say