An Interview with the creator of Gunpla Base

Char’s Zaku II built by Calum Gunn.

I keep track of my friends on Facebook and my anime on Anime Planet, but if I wanted to keep track of all my Gunpla online, I was out of luck. Until now, that is.

Meet Gunpla Base, a site that’s part Gunpla wish-list, part social network. It’s designed to help you list all the Gunpla you’ve built and all the Gunpla you want to build, and check out other people’s finished builds.

It’s a really useful tool that I wanted to learn more about, so when I leapt at the chance to interview its creator, web developer and Gunpla builder Calum Gunn. Here’s what he had to say:

How long have you been building Gunpla?

Believe it or not, only since November! I bought the Revive RX-78-2 at Gundam Front on a trip to Japan, built it when I got home – and immediately started getting more kits. It’s become an obsession, to say the least!

How did you get the idea to launch a Gunpla collection site?

I’m quite a fan of similar sites that let you keep track of things like films you’ve seen, or TV programs you’ve watched – especially where’s there’s a collectability to what you’re tracking. I also wanted somewhere to have a wishlist I could refer to in my moments of idle Gunpla browsing, so I thought I’d combine the two to create Gunpla Base. Once I had that together, posting photos of builds was an obvious next step.

What’s some of the feedback you’ve heard so far from fans?

Feedback so far has been great – and really valuable! I’m super keen to hear any ideas of features people would like to see on Gunpla Base, and there’s already been a few great ideas that I would never have thought of myself.

What are some of your favorite user-submitted builds on the site?

There are some amazing builds on there, and I rotate the ‘featured builds’ section as more come in. A few personal favorites, though:

How can I follow you on Gunpla Base?

Check out the Twitter at @Gunpla_Base for the latest submissions—and some amazing Gunpla tweets from all around. Anything I see that looks cool gets a retweet. Also, please get in touch with me via admin@gunpla-base.com with any feedback!

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