Going Merry (ゴーイングメリー号) | One Piece - Unboxing & Pre-Assembly Review

 Going Merry holds an extremely special place in my hobby-life because it is the first scale model kit I had bought in my adult life, about 12 years ago. And yet it was a kit that I never had the confidence to tackle ... until now. Only after a fair amount of years since I first picked up a brush to paint miniatures did I find the self-confidence to attempt work on the iconic pirate ship Going Merry from the One Piece anime. Below then is an unboxing of the Bandai plastic model kit as well as a pre-assembly review of the runners, sprues, and parts that make up this iconic One Piece pirate ship.

Bandai plastic model kit of the One Piece Going Merry pirate ship (front box art)

Top, side, front, and back views of Going Merry, plus a Luffy kit that's sold separately (side box art)

A painted build of Going Merry: isometric and detailed closeup views (side box art)

Box art on short end of the scale model kit box/package; shows poses of the figures included

 Looking back at an old photo (see below), it was understandable why the kit was so daunting to a newbie like me way back then. The main reason I got the kit was to paint the crew and captain of Going Merry in the anime's early seasons - namely miniatures of Luffy, Zorro, Usopp, Nami, Sanji, and Tony Tony Chopper. Unfortunately I had no idea how to go about it and through lack of info back then ... I just gave up. To add salt to the wound, a fair number of the plastic parts in this kit were not color accurate, and required painting. Is was too much work for a newbie that was also a perfectionist.

A 12-year old photo image of the runners/sprues etc. included in the Going Merry scale mode kit

 Opening up the box now, the gears in my head is constantly turning as my mind throws up a myriad of suggestions for painting the Going Merry ship and its pirate crew. Moreover armed with a better understanding of the basic techniques helps me to approach projects like this with greater confidence. And that simple feeling can be the difference between a project starting or getting shelved. And I'm not getting any younger so I had better finish this kit before my old hands give out on me.

Reopened after over a decade in cold storage with all the runners/sprues already out of their bags

Front cover of the Going Merry instruction booklet; showing a painted build of the ship

Back cover of the Going Merry instruction booklet; with color guide for the ship and its crew

Instructions are in Japanese but the diagrams are easy to understand without having to use Google Translate

 For a scale model kit that's more than 12 years old, the parts found inside is kind of a mixed bag. The quality ranges from great to disappointing. Some things I love about this kit are the wood grain texture molded onto the wood parts, the semi-opaque main sail with its semi-gloss finish, and the detailed miniatures of the crew of Going Merry aka the Straw Hat Pirates. Things I hate are the lack of color accuracy in a lot of the parts, for example the ship's hull, masts, secondary sail, and rigging. Now I don't really consider the miniature figures to be color inaccurate because they are too small to be molded in the correct colors hence they will always require painting to look halfway decent.

Sprue A: Multi-colored parts comprising the ship's crew, shed, cannons, and miscellaneous items

Sprue B: Semi-opaque part that is the ship's main sail

Sprue C: Ship's side/rear hull and its rudder; all of it is in brown meaning low color accuracy

Sprue D: Parts for the ship's deck with good wood grain texture and base color

Sprue E: Parts for the ship's masthead and railings in an adequate matte white color

Sprue F: Parts for the main/secondary masts, crow's nest, and pirate flags; all have low color accuracy

 A lack of color accuracy translates into more work during the painting stage. And I don't just mean the obvious work of having to paint the parts. For example, the side hulls of the ship actually have many different colored sections to it e.g. white, brown, and metal. Unfortunately these side hull parts were molded entirely in one color i.e. brown. Lots of work lie ahead if I am to make it color accurate.

Sprue G: Single part making up the bottom hull; low color accuracy as spine should be white

Sprue H: Single molded piece that makes up the secondary sail; it also has low color accuracy

Sprue I: Parts making up the display stand/base; color accuracy decent but needs repainting regardless

Sprue J: Riggings and ropes; all have low color accuracy and needs to be repainted

Sprue H: Parts that make up three orange trees; good base color but still needs additional painting

Miscellaneous part: a string that makes the anchor rope

 Bandai's idea of achieving color accuracy is to provide lots of sticker decals (see below) to compensate for parts being molded in the wrong hue. They did that for the white/metal sections of the ships hull, the cabin windows, the masthead's eyes, the label for the display base, the red stripes of the secondary sail, and the pirate flags. That is a lot of sticker decals.

Sticker Decals: Used for white railings and spine of hull; for cabin windows; for masthead eyes, and for base label

Sticker decals: Used for pirate flags; red stripes on secondary sail; and metal bands on side hull

 Meanwhile, Bandai also provided water and sticker decals as an alternative to stickers for the Straw Hat Pirate symbol on the flags. Water decals are self explanatory. But the pirate symbol sticker decals differ from the earlier pirate flag stickers in that only the symbol is a sticker decal and you would still have to paint the flag black. You would've noticed the earlier stickers were for the entire flag i.e. symbol together with the black background. There is also a water decal and sticker decal for the huge pirate symbol that adorns the main sail of Going Merry. What I aim to do is use all the water decals provided, and paint the color inaccurate sections instead of using the sticker decals.

Water decals of the Straw Hat Pirate Symbol on the main sail and pirate flags

Sticker decals of the Straw Hat Pirate Symbol on the main sail and pirate flags

 Below is a video of the Unboxing and Pre-Assembly Review for those of you who prefer to watch the process instead of reading about it. Please do subscribe to my YouTube channel i.e. FourEyedMonster Miniatures if you find my content of interest to you. 

 Where previously trepidation took center stage, I now look forward to getting started with a painted-build of the Going Merry. My plan is first to complete this pirate ship before the live action version of One Piece airs on Netflix by end-August. Following that I will start work on the miniature pirate crew one figure at a time. But I am getting ahead of myself. First the ship, then the crew. And I'll have to get started soon as there is lots to do, and always never enough time to do it. Speaking of time, thank you for spending yours to read my blog. Until my next update, please be well and be happy.

Kamado Tanjiro | Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (鬼滅の刃) - Unboxing & Pre-Assembly Review

 While the plastic figure of Kamado Tanjiro is actually Bandai Namco's first model kit from the Demon Slayers: Kimetsu no Yaiba (鬼滅の刃) anime series, he is the second kit from this line that I'll be working on. Before I start though, here is my customary unboxing and pre-assembly review of the model kit figure of Nezuko's younger brother and main protagonist, namely Tanjiro.   

Bandai Namco plastic model kit figurine of Kamado Tanjiro from the Demon Slayer anime

Side Box Art shows Tanjiro in varios poses & indicates stickers will be needed for color accuracy

Other Side Box Art showcases the pre-painted parts namely Tanjiro's eyes and checkered cloak

Stated clearly in red letterings is the fact that this is a plastic model kit, not a completed figurine

 Box art (see above) for this Tanjiro figure follows the standard pattern seen in the previous Demon Slayer model kit that I had worked on (i.e. Nezuko). This time though, the box art highlights the unique feature of this kit which is the extreme detail of Tanjiro's eyes. It also points out that color accuracy is obtained via color-molded parts as well as sticker decals. Apart from that you can see some dynamic poses from a completed Tanjiro figure. Meanwhile, a quick glance at the instructions (see below) tell me that this build should be fairly straightforward and easy to complete for beginners. 

Inside the box are lots of plastic bags with parts/runners/sprues

First few pages of the pamphlet guide are in color, showing the parts/runners/sprues included as well as some basic assembly instructions for beginners ...

... continuing with more colored pages showing the assembly Tanjiro's head, shirt, and cloak ...

... followed by black and white pages with instructions for the assembly of ...

... arms, hands, legs, feet, trousers, sword/scabbard, and the rest of his cloak.

 It shows that this is Bandai Namco's first Demon Slayer model kit figure. You only have to look at the effort put in to mold Tanjiro's facial features, especially his eyes, which were molded using three colors: clear red, black, and white. The glossiness imbued into Tanjiro's eyes give it a lifelike quality that was absent from the later Demon Slayer model kit figures, and their flat pre-painted eyes .    

Runner/Sprue A: Tanjiro's face with pre-painted scar; Runner/Sprue B: Tanjiro's eyes molded in three colors

Runner/Sprue C: Multi-colored parts for Tanjiro's head, hands, clothes, belt, scabbard, etc.

Runner/Sprue D1: Multi-colored parts for Tanjiro's clothes, slippers, scabbard, sword hilt, and mouth

 Meanwhile, the rest of the runners/sprues were of good quality but largely unexceptional except for the parts making up Tanjiro's cloak. Now these were excellent both in their semi-gloss green finish to their pre-painted checkered pattern. Another part that was above average in quality was the black katana blade which sported a fine glossy finish, which came in its own runner/sprue.    

Runner/Sprue D2: Black part for Tanjiro's katana (i.e. sword)

Runner/Sprues E1, E2, E3: Pre-painted parts that make up Tanjiro's checkered cloak

Runner/Sprues E6, E7, E8, E9: More pre-painted parts that make up Tanjiro's checkered cloak

 Similar to Nezuko, sticker decals (see below) were also provided with the Tanjiro model kit figure in order to enable color accuracy for hobbyists who do not want to paint their kits. Unlike Nezuko, I can see myself using some of the stickers decals that have been provided, specifically the ones for Tanjiro's earrings, for the kanji on the back of his shirt, and for the hilt of the katana as well as scabbard. Other sticker decals like the shirt stripes/collar and buttons as well as slipper straps will likely get ignored. I would rather paint these white, silver, and red respectively.      

Sticker decals for the earrings, shirt collar, shirt buttons, kanji on the back of the shirt, sandal straps, sword handle, and sword scabbard ... to ensure color accuracy

 At first glance it seems there are a lot more things to paint for Tanjiro compared to Nezuko because there are a lot more sticker decals in the former model kit figure. But because I'll actually be using a fair amount of the sticker decals provided, coupled with good color accuracy of the molded plastic parts, there is an expectation less work will be involved leading to a quicker turnover of the project. Long story short, I look forward to completing my second Demon Slayer character faster. Until that goal is realized however, it's time to bid you goodbye for now. And as always, be well and happy!