Seriously, this is becoming a joke.
I have local lads coming to me every few days asking when is our GBWC. I have looked into my crystal ball several times but saw nothing. It's all smoke. All I can say is based on experience, year end competitions traditionally happen in late October or early November. So I assume Bandai will make announcements this month or the next, giving us a head start of about three months (and I sincerely hope they do it).
Then I saw Waylander's post. And I remembered. We do not have a Mid Year Competition this year. Nothing to rev up our engines and gain momentum for GBWC. Nothing at all. All smoke again. Probably mid year challenges are just not worth their while?
And so my counterparts in Malaysia had one recently. And I heard some Singaporean guy announced that GBWC is happening for them early October. That shook me. Why? because TRADITIONALLY, Malaysia GBWC happens right after Singapore GBWC. So if they are having one in early October.... Well, your guess is as good as mine.
And, like what Waylander said, it doesn't take a business guru to know that the modeling community keeps things going. Perhaps, concentrating on young children and getting their attention will keep the cash registers ringing. Parents these days have so much buying power. So it is all logical (or so they say). "New blood VS Old Farts". Old farts like us can be overlooked (or no need to give a damn sounds more like it). Well, just a gentle reminder, we, the old farts are parents as well.
To me, it's not a matter of "if" but "when" GBWC will happen. So based on my experience (again), I'm looking at October - November period. Any earlier will be ridiculous considering that no announcement has been made till now (and it's already mid-June).
AND If it doesn't, I don't have to look into the crystal ball to know how the community will react.
The worse thing a business can do is to piss off their hardcore supporters.
ReplyDeleteWith the current market situation, 3rd party kits are having nice quality and the competition is really tough. They should have spend more time nurturing the community rather than hit and run with anime.
Agree sia. They should spend more time on their supporters than mindless online exclusives and alienating customers more, or trying to break into the kids market. Someone in Bandai needs to get fired. Is a intern organizing our GBWC? LOL. How hard it is to just announce that there will be one, and then finalise rules later????
ReplyDeleteWithout GBWC we will still continue to do gunpla.
ReplyDeleteThis they know, maybe it'll make a few people mad, but not enough, i believe, to jeopardize their market here, which compare to other countries, is quite small.
And im not surprise if we don't have it this year, due to the backlash of judging by photos last year.
If they cant come down and do a proper judging, i rather they cancel it.
nice blog and information, keep up the good work. Can i check for GBWC, do all models need to be painted? sorry i am new to the competition
ReplyDeleteHi Exberger, nope, there are not rules that says you need to paint your kit. Feel free to ask :)
ReplyDeleteApparently, they have one for Singapore in September. Let's just hope they don't blunder again.
ReplyDelete