A Tale of Two Destinies...
This tale begins in early November of 2010. It was a cold day, a damn cold day...
I of course, had the coldest, wettest day of the year off of work with nothing to do but sit in my home office and look out the window at the dreary gray clouds as water poured from the sky. With nothing to do and a wad of extra cash, I decided I would hit up my local hobby shop for a lark, knowing full well they specialize in R/C and have probably never heard of Gunpla. I drove up town wondering if I would find anything of use there; pla-plates, new paints that I don't have, maybe pick up some new hobby blades... I walked in and recognized the same guy I saw the last time I was there, ten years ago. Yeah, it had been that long since I had visited Slot and Wing in Champaign, IL.
I walked past the desk and just wandered around the scale train sets and scenery supplies. Woodland Scenics is pretty cool, maybe I'll finally make my first diorama. Nah, I'll go look at the scale models first. Maybe I'll see something other than Gunpla to spark my interest. Soldiers, tanks, planes, ships... nope, nothing special... and I'm not a car guy. I'll go look at the supplies and paints.
I found a Tamiya Clear Acrylic in yellow! Now that's a find! I've never used Tamiya paint before and Testors doesn't have a clear yellow acrylic paint. Cool, the trip was not a total loss. I walk around the other side of their desk island and see what looks like an aisle of junk. Spare parts for R/C I imagined. What the hell, I'll take a look. I'm walking down the aisle; crushed boxes, models with notes attached stating which pieces are missing, R/C cars with the motors hanging out, nothing but trash... and then!
MASTER GRADE DESTINY GUNDAM EXTREME BLAST MODE!!!
Okay, Joe, easy does it. It's in the scratch and dent section, expect the worst and calm down! I haven't bought a model in person since Toys R Us stopped carrying Gunpla around 2003 or 2004. I took hold of the box, slowly, tentatively, as if to scrutinize it's very existence.
It was real! and it was weighty, it must be nearly complete. But the weight was evenly distributed across the box; it was still on the runners! A slight shake of the parcel and I heard rattling. Ah-hah! Some parts are loose and the runners are out of their bags. Well, that's okay. I take it up to the desk and ask the man behind the counter if they frequently sell Gundam models. Bummer, they only get them as scratch and dents. But that was no matter, I may have just hit the jackpot! I tell him I want to look through the box and check the parts and he says that would be just fine.
I opened the box.
Oh my GAWD! It WAS mostly on the runners! I opened the manual and turned to the parts/runners guide in the front of the booklet. I went through all of the runners one by one. I compiled the runners that were complete and whole. Then carefully checked the runners with missing parts and the portion of the kit off the runners against the manual. The chest and head were both partially assembled. I took out a small and very sharp pocket knife and carefully took the chest and head apart. I laid the pieces in a pile and placed them with their respective runners. Almost everything was there!
The only thing missing was a tiny piece from the right shoulder; a piston for the joint, runner K, part 53. A tiny peice, it may have fallen out while I was taking the kit apart. I looked around and saw nothing; after all, I had been very careful when disassembling the kit. I told the man behind the counter that the kit looked pretty good; all of the parts, decals, stickers and the manual were there except for a part for the shoulder joint.
The man looks at me and says, "Well, let me check the price..." He looks up an online store: Tower Hobbies, based in Champaign, IL. The man turns back to me, "Looks like it goes for $65 online." I see he's looking at the normal MG Destiny Gundam, the EBM is right under it on the screen marked as $89 and I pray he doesn't see his mistake. He continued, "I bought it for $20, but I'll give it to you for $15."
I am BURSTING on the inside! But I am solid as a rock on the outside. I tell the man he has just made $15 plus tax. I purchase the Tamiya paint as well and head to the door. Once outside, I skip merrily to my car in the rain covering the box with a portion of my jacket. I drove home that day feeling like I had won the lottery.
The man looks at me and says, "Well, let me check the price..." He looks up an online store: Tower Hobbies, based in Champaign, IL. The man turns back to me, "Looks like it goes for $65 online." I see he's looking at the normal MG Destiny Gundam, the EBM is right under it on the screen marked as $89 and I pray he doesn't see his mistake. He continued, "I bought it for $20, but I'll give it to you for $15."
I am BURSTING on the inside! But I am solid as a rock on the outside. I tell the man he has just made $15 plus tax. I purchase the Tamiya paint as well and head to the door. Once outside, I skip merrily to my car in the rain covering the box with a portion of my jacket. I drove home that day feeling like I had won the lottery.
When I got home I went to Gundam Store and More and as luck would have it, they had MG Destiny Gundam EBM on the list of kits available for parts order. The transaction went very smoothly, within a week I had my part!
To be continued...
Until Next Time: Happy Building!
Until Next Time: Happy Building!
