The Dawn of a New Day

Hello there! I maybe new to the gunpla blogging world but definitely not new to gunpla. Oh I am forgetting my manners. I'm Pio Garcia, 21, from the Philippines. Yeah, that's the country where the great DC23 hails from. I am an aspiring journalist who wants to be known as a feature writer and not as a news writer, I like telling all kinds of stories instead of just boring ramrod fact-telling. I dabble in drawing, gunpla, futbol, American football, and basketball, with a side of MMA mostly of muay thai.

I was introduced to gunpla accidentally by a godmother of mine. See, for my 7th birthday, she gave me a 1/144 NG Wing Gundam kit. At first, I was like, what? Isn't this the new cartoon show being shown on GMA 7 (a local channel)? It's funny to look at now since then, I was twisting the parts from the sprues, typical childish stuff of being impatient and rushing headlong to a project. When it was done, I told myself, it doesn't look quite like what I watch. Turns out, when I grew up, you have to improve those NGs yourself. Paints, plaplates, panel lines, you name it.

At first I was skeptical on trying it out. I just snapfit the rest of my kits then. Leaving them alone, scared of breaking them or even dirtying their shiny plasticness. That had to change. And voila, I read up in various Gunpla and modelling forums on what to do, fearing to join at first for being laughed at for the noobishness. Eventually I joined Zero-G, a Malaysia-based gunpla forum. Here i saw the works of masters. from the admins Genosider, Rayloke, to SB King Julius Lim, to the resident car master Entau and to the lord of weathered builds, sir Don Carlos Suratos, or more widely known as DC himself. Not to be left out are resin kit genius Matt Tomczek, lady Gunpla builder and idol toy photographist Beckylaw, Alphaleo (the genius modeller who makes MS in beast modes), David Ceremonia who is a fellow Filipino and fondly called as DC Jr and the guy with a 31 year old modeller's hands: Gianshapao, and of course, super Toymaker. I've got to say, all of them are really amazing modellers, but I like Toymaker the best (no offense guys hehe). Since I'm a fan of OOB and clean builds, it is to him that I look up to the most.

Soon enough, talking with fellow Filipinos in Zero-G led to MAC. Or Mech Arts Community. Here I met Zero-G members as well. Then in MAC, that's where I saw Jonathan Kaminski, or Kamm, a hand-painting god! There are a lot of good modellers in MAC as well, make no mistake. Well, what do you expect when it was started by the best in the business, Philippines-wise, DC23. 

And that's how I ended up starting this blog. Since Ngee-Khiong shut down, there aren't enough Gunpla news blogs i can turn to save for gunjap and GG. And that's where my ambition kicks in. I'll try my earnest that everyone who will follow this blog will be up to date on gunpla news, toy news, and of course, sports news. There will be reviews, galleries, and if lucky, links to the great ones' sites. And with that, I end this winded-up first post. Stay-tuned for features, reviews and galleries by various builders, and of course, me. In an Out Of Box Zion specialty of course. :P 

...wait for this... :P