Gunpla is for the girls

When Mobile Suit Gundam aired in Japan in 1979, its first dedicated fans were middle and high school girls, creator Yoshiyuki Tomino said in several magazine interviews. The show's big, realistic robots were a draw, sure — but female fans liked the show, he said, because it was good. It had complex relationships, a dramatic storyline, and girls were among the most active fans, he said, amassing outside the then-small company's recording studio. Mobile Suit Gundam, in which a cast of young people pilot massive humanoid mechas from cockpits in the robots’ chests, was canceled after 43 episodes, but the hobby launched after it — plastic model kits of the robots — took off.

The success of the plastic models, called gunpla, helped sustain the franchise after the original show was canceled; since then, dozens of official TV shows, video games, and films have been created. At some point, likely early on, Gundam and gunpla became known as a boy's thing — like video games, it was a hobby that wasn't considered something girls were into. Women and girls had participated in the hobby since the beginning, and yet, for decades, that perception persisted. It continued as Gundam expanded into multiple universes and timelines, spanning shows, books, and video games; it continued when Mobile Suit Gundam Wing started airing on Toonami in 2000 — a move that's considered Gundam's big break in the United States.

Gunpla, like lots of other stay-at-home hobbies, saw an international boost during the COVID-19 pandemic's lockdown restrictions. Not only were more people — including women — building models, but they were also livestreaming their processes and watching others do the same. That new group of enthusiasts continued to grow with the 2022 release of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury, which included the main series' first female, queer protagonist.

The Witch From Mercury, Bandai Namco president Masaru Kawaguchi said in a newsletter published in 2023, helped Gundam reach new fans, specifically "young people and women." Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX, released in 2025, is about two high school girls who are pulled into illegal, underground mecha battles. Gundam, as a franchise, is expected to make $1.5 billion in revenue in the 2026 fiscal year — 40% higher than estimates from earlier in the year.

Shortform social media video platforms, like TikTok and Instagram Reels, are perfectly primed for sharing builds and finding community. Women and girls are using those spaces to carve out space in the hobby, sometimes building explicitly feminine gunpla — sparkles, rhinestones, frilly lace, and lots of pink. Ari, who posts her Gundam builds on TikTok to more than 10,000 followers, told Mothership that social media has been essential in bringing the hobby to new people. "People are discovering the hobby and realizing the barrier to entry is pretty low," she said. "People create and post their stuff, and it inspires other people to start doing the same."