Ok, I need a little background information about BAKUC. So far, from my memory and a brief search, I know the following:
Bandai Action Kit Universal Cup (BAKUC) started out as a competition officially sponsored by Bandai for Bandai’s Gundam model kits. For several years, participation countries; back then mostly Asian countries such as Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, etc held individual regional competitions as single live events in their respective countries. The events were held at malls or gunpla shops on specific dates once a year, usually sometime in summer to give contestants ample time to build and prepare their entries. The winner of these events became representatives of their countries as the top gunpla modeler, and their kits or the modelers themselves were sent to a final competition usually held in Hong Kong at the end of the year.
And more recently we have the following for North America’s participation in BAKUC:
Since 2008, North America joined the competition with their own regional competition where a representative was chosen to compete against other representatives worldwide in the final BAKUC competition held annually in Hong Kong. For the past two years, the North American regional competition was done as an online competition through the http://www.bakuc.com website.
From my knowledge, http://www.bakuc.com belongs to Hobbywave based in Canada. It’s their site, they pay for it, etc. Bandai sanctioned it, but does not own or administrate it. That said, a US distributor has stepped in as the sponsor (specifically for the US) as a sponsor and spear head for the United State’s participation in BAKUC North America. And this is what they want to do:
For 2010, we plan to do live competitions similar to the events held in other countries. Our goal is to hold several preliminary competitions at various North American Anime Conventions held throughout the year where each preliminary competition yields a winner. The winners from the preliminary competition are then entered into a final regional competition which will select the top modeler that will represent North America in the final BAKUC competition event held at the end of the year.
The tentative schedule for upcoming preliminary competitions is as follows:
May 29, 2010: Fanime – San Jose, California
June 5, 2010: A-Kon – Dallas, Texas
July 3, 2010: Anime Expo – Los Angeles, California
July 24, 2010: Comic Con – San Diego, California
July 31, 2010: Otakon – Baltimore, Maryland
October 9, 2010: New York Comic Con – New York, New York
For the BAKUC events in other countries, there is no specific webpage with information. It seems like it’s a local shop/distributor with the backing of Bandai – and a single event is held at a shop or other specified location and the winner is selected to join the contest in Hong Kong. I know that this year, Australia is holding it’s first BAKUC competition in Sydney as a single live event. So folks who have participated in BAKUC in other countries, I’d like to hear some additional information.
And for you folks in the United States, would you be able to participate at one of the proposed events? And if you would, will you? Keep in mind that the above dates and locations are tentative and not confirmed.