Hi! My name is Jamee and I am co-owner of Coastline Hobbies with my husband, Ben. While I really enjoy going to model shows and seeing everyone’s creations, I have NEVER built a model myself. That is changing now. As part of our very first shipment of model kits, we received a few of the 30 Minutes Sisters kits by Bandai. These really piqued my interest and I was excited to grab one and give it a try.
I chose Neverlia because I am a huge fan of purple and she is just super cool looking. Upon unpacking this kit, I was very impressed by how vibrant the colors were and also slightly intimidated by how many tiny pieces there were.
Also, the level of detail on the faces is impressive. I own a few Sailor Moon Figuarts (also produced by Bandai) and these models remind me so much of those with interchangeable faces and hands, plus pose-ability.
The only tool required to assemble the 30 Minutes Sisters and Missions kits is a sprue cutter. I was lucky that Ben owns enough sprue cutters to arm a small model making army, so that wasn’t a problem. If you purchase one of these kits, you’ll need to be sure you grab a pair!
The instructions start in full color with really nice illustrations. The first few steps of instructions are in full color, which is very helpful as a beginner for figuring out which piece they are referring to and locating it quickly.
However, after those first few steps you are launched into a world of black and white. We’ll get there in a moment. The color instructions got me through assembling the model’s head, torso, and hips.
I was happy to start with her head because it was simple and illustrated how the parts will snap and fit together, but also gave me a glimpse into how cool the end product was going to look. I was amused that the first actual assembly I had to do was cutting out and placing her tongue in the mouth of one of the facial expressions. The head pieces all fit together well and the instructions were easy enough to follow.
I quickly realized that the head assembly was easing me into something more difficult. Her torso/chest was certainly more difficult, but not unmanageable. The hips were ramping up again in difficulty and I encountered a bit of frustration as I put a piece in backwards and had to disassemble the whole thing to fix it. Ben was quick to remind me that it’s all part of the process with a laugh. In the end, I was able to reach the end of the full color instructions with a fully assembled head, torso, and hip.
I called it here for night 1 of “Jamee builds her first model” and was already 45 minutes in on my 30 Minutes Sister.