Gundam Plastic Model Kit Series Has Shipped 500 Million Units

BANDAI SPIRITS announced today on May 2 that its plastic model kit series inspired by Sunrise’s Mobile Suit Gundam anime franchise, commonly called as “Gunpla” in Japan, has shipped more than 500 million units in total in 39 years.

Its first kit “1/144 Gundam” was released in July 1980, six months after the broadcast of the anime franchise’s first TV anime series ended.

Despite of the cancellation of the TV anime, cut down to 43 episodes from the originally planned 52, the kit series immediately sold one million units in six months, and created a huge “Gunpla” boom in Japan.