Your first Gundam experience
 

In this thread, we discuss the first Gundam-related thing you saw. I'm not necessarily asking for the first Gundam show you've ever watched. It can be a picture, an ad, a toy, anything.

For example, the first Gundam I've ever seen in my life was the Gundam Mk II back in '94. I saw it when my mom and I were shopping for school supplies. A certain pencil case caught my eye and I was amazed by the cool-looking robot printed on its front, which was different from what I was accustomed to (Voltes V and Daimos). I think I even saw a Victory pencil case a few months later. Needless to say, I bought the Mk II pencil case. But it was only after four years that Gundam would make an impact on me, when a local TV station aired Gundam Wing.

So what's your story?

The first Gundam experience I can actually remember was watching an episode of V Gundam way back in 1993, while visiting my family in Japan. I had no idea what the heck a Gundam was, but I watched the episode and loved it. Back then though I wasn't even an actual anime fan and was a complete and total newbie, and had no idea how to find more of the show I had watched. I later saw some V Gundam toys in a store that same trip to Japan, but did not have the money to buy it.

My next experience was the Gundam Wing model magazine a few years after my encounter with V Gundam. The magazine was a present from my Japanese family, and I was fascinated by the mecha depicted in it.

Sometime after that, I got the 1/144 scale Wing Zero model from the Sakuracon. I still had no actual idea what the show was. At that same Sakuracon event though, I saw the last 5-10 minutes of the Endless Waltz movie version.

Then finally, several years later again, I rented Gundam Wing VHS Volume 1 edited version from a Hollywood Video store. I was immediately hooked, and bought the unedited version from a Suncoast Video.

Thus were my first couple encounters with Gundam leading to my addiction. Sometime later again on another trip to Japan, one of my cousins lent me the Gundam 0079 movies to watch, after they saw I was addicted to Gundam from my model-buying spree. :)

Mine had been watching Gundam Wing shown a YTV (a Canadian channel) and at first, I really wasn't into it. Sure, the action scenes somewhat appealed me. But at tht time that I started to watch Wing, which I was about 13 years old, I wanted more gory and blood. (After I watched the D-Day landing scene in Saving Private Ryan, that just spoiled me and grew my desire for more violence).

I had never thought about getting any models back then, but I'd love it if I had a 1/100 HG model of Freedom at least.

If there were any experiences I had before 2000, I cannot remember. However, what is clear is that what led me down this path was seeing a GS MV to Linkin Park's "Breaking the Habit" and deciding to give it a go.

I simply saw Gundam Wing on CN. That introduced me to Gundam and to anime addiction. (Oh, and Kou Uraki rocks.)

Gundam Wing on kanaal 2 ( A Belgian TV network) was my first encounter with the incredible world of Gundamism. I didn't like it at first but after watching a full episode I had to change that opinion :)

I saw Gundam Wing DVDs on a shelf at Virgin Megastores a few years ago. Thats the first time I'd ever seem anything Gundam related.

It was watching Gundam Wing on cartoon network for me.

My first was actually Gundam models. Not exactly gundam but the chibified models. I believe its called bb-senshi or something. Gundam Wing airing in a local channel was what got me watching Gundam anime though.

I saw a lot of Gundam toys since I was a kid. I only remembered that those robots are cool but never get to watch the series or know more about them. Until few years ago I started downloading Seed and then started to watch other Gundam series as well

Chronologically not sure but from memory...
-Mobile Suit Gundam Laser Discs in 1990
-Bought SD Zeta/Musha, Hyaku Shiki, Nu Gundam, Sazabi, Char's Zaku II dress up toys in Hong Kong in the same year in HK.
-Bought lotsa SD Musha series between 91-94, sd gundams were cheaper than the scaled models for some reason...

Gundam Fandom grew after 1994 where I had some friends from Japan who recorded some episodes of Victory Gundam, I got to watch it. Also watched F91 and Char's Counter Attack durring that year.

1995-2000
Lots and lots of gundam models, finally watched most of the Gundam series and OAV.

Present
Series I haven't watched are ZZ, Turn A and G-Gundam.

Oddly enough, Evangelion introduced me to the world of mechs. I even have a model of the Eva 01. That made me appreciate mechs even more because it could do so many cool poses. :heh: Then it was after Evangelion that I saw Wing. Then my life was never the same again. :heh: :heh: :heh:

I've heard of the name of gundam when I was a kid but I never knew what it was. Then in fall of 2004 I moved in to the dorm as a college freshman and one of my roommates had the Endless Waltz DVD. One day during the year he was showing it to my other roommate and I was just sitting in my bed and I ended up watching it.

Watching my cousin play Super Robot Wars 4.

That's what got me into anime in the first place, so SRW4 will always have a special place in my heart.

the first contact i had with gundam was (like 90% of the members here) gundam wing, they kept showing previews of it on ytv before it aired that i had to wach it,

then several years later they show gundam seed and i go wtf there is another gundam serie beside wing and endless waltz, i then started watching destiny

i found out about this forum(i dont remember how thoug:confused: ) and i was again like wtf the gundam i watched are not the "original/true" gundam and there are others(lots of others):heh:

I recently aquired the original msg and victory gundam and i'm planning to wach all the gundam i can get my hands on
(maybe not g-gundam, i dont quite like the idea of a "super robot" show where the power of love can defeat some other mecha(well i am curious about it though but only for what i heard about master asia on this forum)

reply
 

The first Gundam experience I ever remember was after watching episodes of Robotech and Macross and such quite a few years back and I did a search on the internet for similar topics (giant robots, transforming robots and such) and came upon Gundam. After that I bought videos online for them (DVDs weren't that huge back then, mind you, lol) and got hooked and kept looking up all the info I could find.

By the time Gundam Wing aired on Toonami in the US, I was pretty much a diehard UC fan so that's why I didn't really like Gundam Wing, Gundam SEED and Gundam SEED Destiny too much in terms of characters, story and such. Mainly because of the cool-looking Gundams and all, lol.

When I was young, I watch the super robot genre. I stumbled into Gundams when I saw the original MSG kits and I thought they kinda look cool.

You're from Belgium? ;)

I first discovered Gundam Wing when I was in the USA, it was shown on Toonami, but didn't really like it back then. Then I watched it again on Ka2 when I came back to Belgium, got addicted to the Gundam world.

Don't worry, that's not so odd. Evangelion was the first full anime series I actually saw, and the first anime series I ever bought. :D I never saw any Gundam until a few years after either.

Bandai's Battle Dodge Ball was my first experience. Gundams were cool there too!

But my real first experience was with Victory. I knew what Gundam was before I watched it, and although I thought the designs were cool, I thought I grew out of giant robots so I never wanted to watch a Gundam series (I was in 4~5 th grade at the time). Randomly watched V Gundam and I was blown away by the grittiness of warfare. I was vastly taken by the enemies pt of view and the reasons why they fought. Then G Gundam came out... and I was disgusted as it was nothing like the Gundam I saw.

Later, my friend was watching 0083 and my faith return to the series. Gundam X was airing at the time when he showed me this and I love the that series. Too bad it was ended abruptly. But it had tough competition that year