We've all been there: a new Gunpla releases that you just HAVE to have, but you haven't finished the model you started 3 weeks ago, and you haven't even started the other six(ty) that have been in your closet since 2020. There's a certain "point of no return" where your backlog moves from a series of unfinished projects to a mythical fixture in your home, but we're here to help you come back from that! Here are our tried and true methods that have helped us stay sane and keep on clippin' after over a decade in the industry:
1. Clear out the riff-raff!
If you've been accumulating model kits for over a year, there's a good chance you have some that you're not even interested in building anymore. Take a good look and be honest with yourself about some key questions: will i be building this because I want to or because I feel like I have to? Where will I display it after it's done? Do I even want to display it after it's done? Am I only holding onto it because it feels "valuable"? Once you've effectively Marie Kondo'd your model kits, you can either find community members who want the ones you no longer do, or you could give them to friends or sell them on third-party market places like Mercari for extra cash toward something you want!
2. Rekindle the love!
A lot of times you can forget what made you want a model kit in the first place. For us, it helps to go back and rewatch a show you used to love. Whether you want to check out the dub after only watching the sub, or you just want to go back and appreciate the amazing animation in a particular fight scene, you can almost always get yourself excited to build again by revisiting the source material.
3. Make the selection process a fun activity!
If you find yourself with 10-20 minutes of free time and aren't sure what to do with it, open up some of the boxes! It's always enjoyable for us to look at the runners and see what kind of gimmicks you can see in the box, whether it's translucent plastic in unexpected places, innovative color separation through layered molding, or just seeing how BIG some runners at the bottom of the box are. There have been plenty of times when we decided to build kits because of one fun unexpected surprise we found while checking out the runners!
4. Don't overextend!
Sometimes people will look at their backlog as a series of obstacles to overcome, and that leads to taking a problem-solving approach to something that should be a hobby and not a problem! Many times people like to deal with the largest problem first so they don't have to think about it anymore, and that will lead to building either the largest or the most complicated model first to "get it out of the way." Usually this will just backfire! Pick a small-to-medium build that you genuinely WANT to work on first, and don't feel bad about leaving The Big One in the closet till you're good and ready to take it on!
5. Try building the weapons and accessories first.
We've seen it happen a lot and had it happen personally to us to: You're working on a really awesome mobile suit and it's coming together like a dream. You put the finishing touches on the body, stand it on your table, look at it proudly, then suddenly notice the instruction manual is only half done. "Now I need to build a ton of weapons, interchangeable hands, the massive backpack, and a stand?" Nothing takes the wind out of our sails like having to spend literal hours on the backpack of a Gundam after the Gundam itself is done (looking at you, Hi-Nu and Justice). If you've had this same feeling while building, switch up the order of operations so that the best comes last!
6. Just watch the dub guys, it's really fine.
Look, we've been around the anime crowd long enough to know there's a certain level of "respect" that people assign subtitled anime versus dubbed anime. However, we've watched a lot of really excellent dubs in the last year, and we've been able to build a lot of model kits while doing so! The worst part of watching Witch From Mercury when it was first airing was that we couldn't build Gunpla and watch the show at the same time because we had to pay attention to the subtitles. Just imagine how many models you could build in a 25-episode anime season while still picking up on everything that's going on!
7. Don't make it a job!
So many times we hear the phrase "I want to (x activity) but I really SHOULD build," and that makes the hobby into homework! If you want to play a game or read a book, do that instead! Don't undertake a hobby out of a sense of obligation. Alternating your hobbies helps keep all of them fresh and in rotation so you don't burn out of any of them!
8. Do it for YOU.
Social media is a great thing in many cases; it lets you connect with people who share interests in ways that we never could have imagined even 15 years ago. The fact that all of us can log into discord or a website and instantly find people who share this niche hobby is basically a miracle! That said, a lot of builders let it poison the way they interact with hobbies into a popularity contest. We've talked to people who enjoyed building a kit immensely and were very proud of how it turned out, only to become sad and discouraged when it didn't get noticed online. Whether a picture of your build only gets 4 likes on Instagram does not determine whether you enjoyed your time building it or whether YOU are happy with the finished product. It's your hobby and if you're happy with it, that's all that matters!
9. Try not to let it get out of hand in the first place.
We understand that putting this here is like when you search for hangover cures and the first one is "Always be careful to hydrate enough that you don't become hung over at all" and you want to reach through the computer and strangle the author, but hear me out: If your backlog gets out of control and you manage to wrangle it down to say, 20 kits, set that as a hard limit for the future! If you stay on top of it and only allow yourself to buy a model kit after you've built one from your existing collection, you can prevent it from ever becoming a problem again. Then if you get motivated and build 3, you could treat yourself to 3 more without feeling bad!
10. If all else fails, throw a dart.
If you are truly stuck, want to build a model, have exhausted all possible tips for selecting, and have complete choice paralysis, it's time to break out a nerf gun, turn around, close your eyes, and shoot behind you. Whatever box the dart is stuck to is what you're building next. Congratulations, you're taking on your backlog!