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!

RoboBusiness 2008

I visited RoboBusiness 2008 in Pittsburgh, PA. I couldn't afford the full registration fee, but registered for the exhibition and attended the two "open" lectures. The exhibit was much smaller than I expected, using perhaps 10% of the main exhibition floor of the conference center. About 40 companies and organizations set up booths. Most of them are offering software or hardware components instead of completed robots. Fewer than half of the few completed robots on display were turned-on and demonstrating very basic capabilities.


I expected to see some impressive robots, especially from the universities. But this self-navigating car was representative of the academic showings. Not bad but there's no Wow-factor.


Koreans showed up in force. These Netoy/robots will be put on market later this year.


iRobot shows off their new Gutter Cleaning "Robot". Hmm it has only one single function and employs no AI, is it really a robot? Sadly this qualifies as one of the more interesting display in the exhibit.

There are other robots on display, military robots (primarily bomb disposal by remote control) are big business nowadays, but to me they are boring. The last one worth mentioning are self-navigating robots that picks up and deliver drugs, samples, supplies etc within hospitals. Unimpressive to look at, but at least they are true robots.

Newtype and Nirvana

Glad that you are back, Boaz.

Firstly I would say a connection between Newtype and Nirvana via Tomino's personal knowledge of Buddhism is quite plausible.

But I think it's quite wrong to attribute too much Buddhism influence into Newtype. Buddhism emphasizes personal enlightenment (Hinayana) and enlightenment of all (Mahayana). It's quite a stretch to find evidence of the teachings of either school in Newtype. Especially, Buddhism's Nirvana is the reward for escaping from Samsara. It is very tempting to compare the endless cycles of wars, destruction and suffering in Universal Century to Buddhist view of the material world. However, the Gundam heroes reject the idea that Samsara is an unbreakable cycle and Newtype Nirvana is an acceptable escape from the pains and suffering of the material world. So while he could "always go back to where Lalah is", he couldn't indulge in his own spiritual bliss and let the Samsara cycle continues in the Gyps War (Zeta) and CCA.

Somewhat OT: a stroke, near-death experience and other neurological conditions causing spiritual experience is well-known. Whether one experiences a Western or Eastern favor is very variable. One famous example is Hildegard von Bingen whose migraine caused profound religious experience of the Catholic favor.

Dr. Core

Newtype and Nirvana (experience of a stroke)

I got invited by Doc Core so I just joined without hesitation... so it seems like I am suddenly back on the GML ship.... :-)

I just blogged about MSG 5 min in my own blog before getting the invitation, so, hmm, sorry the first post is a cross post, and it's a far-fetched one....