This post is all about the plastic models used for UMBC and how they relate to the narrative!!

As mentioned elsewhere, the majority of plamo (plastic models) used for this series are from a model series produced by Bandai called 30 Minute Missions. It is a series that exists just as plamo. It wasn’t based on any pre-existing anime or video game, etc, and was made with the intent to allow builders to bash the kits together. 30MM is essentially Lego but for gunpla. They sell expansions upon expansions and it’s really cool, albeit very insidious from a business perspective, but alas at least there’s a physical good and it’s not like an anime girl .png.

UMBC uses these kits because of their customizability. The idea came to me when after I made my first real OC (the Last Call) I was hit with inspiration and couldn’t resist. That said, some actual gunpla IS compatible with 30MM parts. Particularly the weaponry but many of the joints, heads, hands, etc can be used and thus, could show up at some point. Basically if it has a 3mm hole or peg it’s fair game.

Now 30MM kits (and kits from Gundam/etc) have their own lore. I will largely be ignoring that. It involves aliens and three factions, blah blah blah. In UMBC the 30MM factions will serve as the three main manufacturing groups. The model names will largely stay the same. If I do end up using a suit from a Gundam series I will be making up a name inspired by its lore. The Witch From Mercury kits seem to be particularly compatible, but we’ll see! I did pick up a second set of the Demi Trainer expansion parts because those work great with 30MM kits.

Some other notes:

• The colors of the models are not their “canon” colors for UMBC. These kits come in a large variety of colors, kind of, but I’m not spending thousands of dollars trying to track down all the color variants nor am I going to spend a lot of time painting each kit. Think of the colors as differentiation markers. When color is a big part of a character’s theme then it will be mentioned in their post.
• Once an UMBC mech has a post and is made, the model itself is fair game for part pilfering. I plan on reusing lots of models for future characters. This is about space and money. As cool as it would be to do character and model updates as they progress through the story, that’s just not practical in my current living situation. The parts are so interchangeable I suspect you might not even notice when one is reused!
• Lastly, I originally planned on including the kits used for each model, but they can sometimes involve parts from several different kits and I can’t keep track of them! Haha. I should have made a spreadsheet.