Thousand Sunny or Going Merry: Which Ship Kit First?
You want a One Piece ship on your shelf. There are two obvious places to start, and people spend a surprising amount of time going back and forth between them: the Thousand Sunny, and the Going Merry.
Both come from Bandai’s Grand Ship Collection. Neither needs glue, paint or tools. Each one finishes at roughly the same display size. And they are absolutely not the same buying decision, because they are not the same ship and they do not mean the same thing.
Here is the honest comparison, followed by a straight recommendation.
What the Grand Ship Collection actually is
The Grand Ship Collection (偉大なる船コレクション in Japanese) is Bandai’s line of compact One Piece ship kits, built on a single premise: anyone can build one.
Thousand Sunny Grand Ship Collection Model Kit One Piece | Bandai
Set sail with the Straw Hat Pirates and build their legendary ship with your own hands. The Thousand Sunny Grand Ship Collection model kit by Bandai brings one of anime’s most iconic vessels to life in stunning detail, the beloved ship that carried Luffy and his crew across the New World, complete with its iconic lion figurehead and distinctive design.
The kits are non-scale: Bandai sizes each ship to look right next to the others on a shelf rather than to a strict mathematical ratio. They finish at around six inches, they use pre-coloured plastic so you never touch a brush, and stickers handle the detail work instead of decals.
The line launched in Japan on 11 February 2012, with the Thousand Sunny as number 01 and Trafalgar Law’s submarine as number 02, both at a Japanese list price of 1,680 yen. The Going Merry followed as number 03.
That original pricing tells you what Bandai was aiming at. This was never meant to be a modeller’s kit. It was meant to be the thing you buy because you love the show, and then discover you can actually finish in an evening.
The line has since expanded well past the Straw Hats: the Oro Jackson, the Red Force, the Moby Dick, the Nine Snake pirate ship, Marine warships, the Queen Mama Chanter, Marshall D. Teach’s ship. There are also commemorative colour versions tied to the films, including a gold-moulded Sunny released for Film Gold, which came with character plates of the crew in their film opening outfits, and a Film Red version released in July 2022.
Once you have built one, the shelf tends to fill up. Consider yourself warned.
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No tools, and they mean it
This is the part people underestimate.
Most snap-fit kits still expect you to own a pair of nippers to cut parts off the runner. The Grand Ship Collection kits use touch-gate construction: Bandai shapes the connection points so that you twist and pull each part free by hand. No cutting tool required, and no cut mark left behind.
The practical consequence is that you can buy one of these as a gift for someone who has never built anything, and they will not need a second purchase to open the box. That is rarer than it sounds.
For the Thousand Sunny, the box contains four runners of pre-coloured parts, a marking sticker sheet, a colour sticker sheet and the instruction manual. The Going Merry follows the same formula.
Thousand Sunny: the technical ship
The Sunny is the Straw Hats’ second ship, designed and built by Franky as the successor to the Merry, and it is a machine in a way the Merry never was.
The kit reflects that. You get the lion figurehead, the grass-covered deck with its citrus tree, and representations of the ship’s systems including the Soldier Dock System and the Gaon Cannon. Some elements have limited movement, which is unusual at this size and price.
Two features make it the more flexible display piece. You can build it with the sails unfurled or leave the sails off entirely, which changes the silhouette completely. And it includes a translucent ocean surface effect part, so the finished model sits as a waterline display, as though sailing, rather than perched on a dry stand. The kit is also compatible with Action Base 2 if you want it lifted off the shelf.
Build in one sentence: more parts, more going on, still finishable in an evening.
Going Merry: the emotional one
The Merry is the smaller, simpler, older ship, and for a very large part of the fanbase it is the one that matters.
If you know, you know. The Merry is not a vehicle in One Piece, it is a character, and its final chapter is the moment the series stops being an adventure comic for a few pages. Nobody puts a Merry on a shelf for the engineering.
The kit is correspondingly simpler: the same six-inch finished size, the same snap-fit and sticker approach, fewer mechanical features to represent because the ship had almost none. What you are buying is the shape, the sheep figurehead and the single square sail.
It is worth knowing that Bandai has produced the Merry across more than one product line over the years, at different sizes and complexity levels, and that the Grand Ship Collection version has been reissued periodically, including a production run in April 2024. If you are comparing listings, check that you are looking at the Grand Ship Collection version and not a larger kit from a different series.
Build in one sentence: the easiest possible entry point, and the one people get emotional about.
Going Merry Grand Ship Collection Model Kit One Piece | Bandai
Before the Thousand Sunny, there was the Going Merry, the beloved first ship of the Straw Hat Pirates and one of the most emotionally iconic vessels in all of anime. This Grand Ship Collection model kit by Bandai lets you build the legendary Going Merry in stunning detail, honoring the ship that carried Luffy and his crew through their earliest and most unforgettable adventures.
Side by side
| Thousand Sunny | Going Merry | |
|---|---|---|
| Line number | Grand Ship Collection 01 | Grand Ship Collection 03 |
| Scale | Non-scale | Non-scale |
| Finished size | Approx. 6 in / 15 cm | Approx. 6 in / 15 cm |
| Assembly | Snap-fit, touch gates, no tools | Snap-fit, touch gates, no tools |
| Paint required | No, pre-coloured parts | No, pre-coloured parts |
| Finishing | Marking and colour stickers | Marking and colour stickers |
| Ocean effect part | Yes | Yes |
| Sail options | With or without sails | Single square sail |
| Notable features | Lion figurehead, grass deck, Soldier Dock System, Gaon Cannon, some moving parts | Sheep figurehead, simpler hull, fewer parts |
| Build time | An evening | An evening, shorter |
| Best for | The technical, spectacular display piece | First build, gifts, the emotional pick |
So which one first?
Build the Going Merry first if this is your first model kit ever, or if you are buying it for someone who has never built one, or if the Merry is the ship that means something to you. Fewer parts, faster win, and no risk of a half-finished kit sitting in a box for a year.
Build the Thousand Sunny first if you want the more impressive object on the shelf, if you have built anything before, or if you plan to buy both anyway. It is the flagship of the line, it carries more detail, and the sails-on or sails-off choice gives you a display decision to make.
Buy both if you care about the story. Set side by side, the pair tells you something the individual kits do not: the crew outgrew a boat that loved them and moved onto a machine built to survive the New World. That is the display, and it costs less than a single mid-range figure.
The honest version: neither choice is wrong, both take an evening, and everybody who builds one ends up buying the other within a month.
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Figures, art toys & limited editions, shipped across Europe from France.
Building tips that actually matter
Do the stickers last, and do them dry. The colour and marking stickers are what make these kits look finished. Apply them with clean, dry hands, use tweezers or the tip of a hobby knife to place them, and press from the centre outward. You can lift a crooked sticker once, carefully. Twice and it stops adhering.
Don’t force the sail parts. Sails are the thinnest parts in the box and the most likely to stress-mark if you push them into place at an angle. Line up before you press.
Twist, don’t yank. Touch gates release cleanly with a small twisting motion. Pulling straight out is what leaves a rough nub.
Sort before you start. Lay the runners out and check them against the manual. It takes two minutes and prevents the classic ending where one part is missing and it turns out to be under the sofa.
Optional upgrade for a better finish: a panel line marker in dark grey, run into the recessed lines of the hull. It is not needed and the kit looks fine without it, but it is the single cheapest thing that makes a snap-fit kit look deliberately built rather than assembled.
Displaying them
The ocean effect part is the reason these look good with no effort. It reads as water, it hides the underside of the hull, and it gives the ship a direction of travel. Angle the ship rather than squaring it to the shelf edge, and it reads as sailing rather than parked.
Keep them out of direct sunlight. Pre-coloured plastic and stickers both fade, and the sails are the first thing to go yellow. Sticker adhesive also gives up faster in heat, so a sunny windowsill will eventually curl the edges of every marking on the hull.
If you are lining up several ships from the line, keep them at a consistent height and let the size differences show. That contrast is the whole point of the non-scale approach.
Explore the full collection
Figures, art toys & limited editions, shipped across Europe from France.
Frequently asked questions
Do the Grand Ship Collection kits need glue or paint?
No. The parts are pre-coloured and snap together, and the detail work is done with the included sticker sheets. No glue, no paint.
Do I need any tools?
No. The kits use touch gates, so parts come off the runner by hand. A pair of nippers and a panel liner will improve the finish, but you need neither to finish the model.
How big are they when finished?
Both finish at around six inches, roughly 15 cm. The line is non-scale, so Bandai sizes the ships to display together rather than to a strict ratio.
How long does one take to build?
An evening. The Going Merry is the quicker of the two. Neither is a weekend project.
Are these suitable for children?
They are simple to assemble and need no tools, which makes them far more accessible than a typical model kit. There are small parts, so use the age guidance printed on the box.
Which One Piece ship kit is best for a first build?
The Going Merry, on part count alone. If the builder has any previous experience, the Thousand Sunny is the more rewarding build.
Are there other ships in the line?
Yes, many, including the Oro Jackson, the Red Force, the Moby Dick, the Nine Snake pirate ship and Marine warships, plus commemorative colour versions of the Sunny released for the films.
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