The term Gunpla refers to plastic models of mecha, characters, or vehicles from the Japanese Gundam series released by Bandai. It is a contraction of "Gundam plastic model" and appeared in 1980.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF GUNPLA: MODELS FOR EVERYONE! "without glue or paint"

All Gundam models are characterized by two basic properties:

• the parts are interconnectable
• they are covered in color.

Gunpla are classified into categories (called "grade") according to their quality and/or size. The main ones are:

• NG No Grade (1980)
• HG High Grade (1990)
• MG Master Grade (1995)
• PG Perfect Grade (1998)
• FG First Grade (1999)
• HGUC High Grade Universal Century (1999)
• EX-model (2001)
• MS Mega Size (2009)
• RG Real Grade (2010)
• RE/100 Reborn One Hundred (2014)

Super Deformed Gundam or SD Gundam is a Japanese animation series where the works are parodies of the Gundam series, adopting the graphic codes of super deformed.

The exhaustive categorization is nevertheless much more complex, as it depends on the scale (from 1/550 to 1/35), the improvements (the master grade category exists in versions 1.5, 2.0, and 3.0), and special events.