Otaku USA Magazine
Number of Gunpla Models Shipped Surpasses 500 Million

Ever wondered how many plastic Gundam models (Gunpla) exist in the world?

Over 500 million, apparently.

Gunpla first debuted in July 1980 with a 1:144 scale model of the original RX-78-2 Gundam. There are now over 2,000 variations, reports Mantan Web.

According to Bandai Spirits, if you lined up the packages of every model sold to date, they’d wrap around the earth four-and-a-half times and weigh about 350,000 pounds. That’s a lot of Gunpla.

There have been many improvements and variations on the line over the years, including in 1987, when Bandai released the first model that could snap together without glue.

In 2010, the number of units shipped reached 400 million.

Here’s looking forward to the next 40 years of plastic Gundam models.

Source: Mantan Web

Matt Schley

Matt Schley (rhymes with "guy") lives in Tokyo, and has been OUSA's "man in Japan" since 2012. He's also written about anime and Japanese film for the Japan Times, Screen Daily and more.

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