Ecopla: Green like a Zaku

At the Shizuoka Hobby Show Bandai's promo mechandise will include Ecopla (via Gunota). Ecopla is a line of HGUC (Gundam, Zaku, Gundam Mk.II and Gouf) made from recycled materials. From the dark color (all the kits are molded in the same dark green) it looks like pre-consumer recycled plastic. Or perhaps it's post-consumer material (i.e. the runners)? That would be more interesting.

In theory, Ecopla makes sense for hobbyists who prime and paint every kit anyway (including all the pros). In East Asia, this group might be large enough to make a difference. Of course this is just experimental phase for now. Any promo product at hobby shows are more likely to be collected so having these eco variants of the HGUC doesn't displace consumption of the non-eco variants. So in the end the net environmental impact is negative.

On the other hand, every year at Shizuoka Bandai put out promo kits, so this year choice is greener than, say, metalized version of 1/100 G00 kits (somewhat surprised that's not what we are getting).

Of course this is a small reflection of the bigger problem: the environmental movement have to play in the commercial PR arena to have any chance of success, but allows companies, organizations and governments to score PR points with fake eco initiatives. So every initiative meet the kind of mildly-cynical second guessing that I just gave.

It shouldn't detract from the fact that it's really a good move. Bandai!