Bandai Plamodel

Bandai Hobby Division edited several plastic model kits, known in Japan as , dedicated to the famous ships that the Straw Hat crew has ridden during their adventures: the Going Merry and the Thousand Sunny.
They were never made part of an identifiable brand line apart from the obvious One Piece advertising. Upon completion, the non-scale model kits measure around 25–28 cm long and come with unpainted figures of the crew and a display stand.
As any regular model kits, they need a complete hobby toolset to get assembled and be painted:
*Building tools:
**Nippers, pliers or side cutters to cut parts from plastic runners.
**Utility knives to trim the excess plastic, also called nubs or sprues.
**Sandpaper or files to thin sprues further down in delicate areas.
**Tweezers to help applying stickers and decals on parts.
**Modeling putty (optional) to fill gaps, seams and unwanted crevices. It should be sanded down and painted over later, as it dries to a grey color.
**Scoring tools (optional) to make custom panel lines, mostly useful for robot/sci-fi kits.
**Glue or plastic cement (not required) to hold parts together. As Bandai produces snap-in parts, they are really of no use here.
*Painting tools:
**Mixing containers to mix paint with thinner or mix different paint colors.
**Syringes to suck and drip thinner or paint.
**Painting grips to hold parts during painting and drying processes.
**Brushes or airbrush set following your preferred way of painting.
**Paint and paint thinner.
**Primer (optional), base paint to smooth out scratches or neutralize a dark base color.
**Masking tapes (optional) to guard parts that do not need painting.
**Panel line markers (optional), an alternative to scoring tools, mostly useful for robot/sci-fi kits.
**Topcoat (optional) to apply a protective layer to the model and paint. As it adds thickness to parts, it should be applied carefully on joints.
Actually, the model kits are produced in a way that the assembled kits do not really need any painting to be displayed. However, painting still provides a huge visual enhancement compared to the initial bare colors.
==Going Merry==
===Regular Ed.===
Information
*Release date: mid-December 2010
*Price: ¥3,990 (VAT included)
*Japanese: ゴーイング・メリー号
Content
*Runner x11, water slide decal x1, marking sticker x1, foil sticker x1, nylon cord x1, manual x1
Accessories
*Figure x6 (Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Sanji, Chopper)
*Barrel x1, wooden box x1, cannon x1, anchor x1, orange tree x3, rope ladder x1, stand base x1
===Flying Model===
Information
*Release date: late July 2011
*Price: ¥5,250 (VAT included)
*Japanese: ゴーイング・メリー号 フライングモデル
Content
*Runner x15, water slide decal x1, marking sticker x1, color sticker x2, nylon cord x1, manual x1
Accessories
*Figure x8 (Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Sanji, Chopper, Robin, South Bird)
*Barrel x1, wooden box x1, rope ladder x1, cannon x1, orange tree x3, stand base x1
This version has some added parts to add wings and a tail.
==Thousand Sunny==
===Regular Ed.===
Information
*Release date: late March 2011
*Price: ¥3,990 (VAT included)
*Japanese: サウザンド・サニー号
Content
*Runner x12, water slide decal x1, marking sticker x1, color sticker x1, manual x1
Accessories
*Figure x9 (Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Sanji, Chopper, Robin, Franky, Brook)
*Shiro Mokuba I, Mini Merry II, Shark Submerge III, Gaon Cannon x1
*Paddle x2, trees x5 (including orange trees x3), stand base x1
===New World Ver.===
Information
*Release date: late October 2011
*Price: ¥3,990 (VAT included)
*Japanese: サウザンド・サニー号 新世界編Ver.
Content
*Runner x12, water slide decal x1, marking sticker x1, color sticker x1, manual x1
Accessories
*Figure x9 (Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Sanji, Chopper, Robin, Franky, Brook)
*Shiro Mokuba I, Mini Merry II, Shark Submerge III, Gaon Cannon x1
*Paddle x2, trees x5 (including orange trees x3), stand base x1
This version is identical to the previous one but with different included figures.
==External Links==
*Bandai Hobby Division site at http://bandai-hobby.net/
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