The nipper that challenged the gods

The year was 2016 on a warm night in July. From the Chinese modelling community came a small company that has just released it's first modelling nippers for the world to see. A small nipper with promise emerged.

Prior to 2016, the gold standard of modelling nippers was the Godhand. A regal, refined piece of blade honed by the legendary craftsman hailing from Japan. Every inch of the small blade shone with the artisan spirit and fine skills of the Japanese manufacturing spirit, and justifiably so. The supremacy of the Godhand was unique and unchallenged. Every cut sliced through the plastic in a quick, unassuming manner : like hot knife to butter. Every modeller has accepted this high standard (as well as the high price tag that justifiably came with it).

Now don't get me wrong. Many great nippers have come and gone. Great nippers such as the Tamiya sharp pointed side cutters have been on the market for a while. But it wasn't great. It filled in the S$40 range nicely, but everyone conceded that it was a filler nipper for those searching for something better than a basic nipper, but less than a Godhand. Rather, the tamiya felt like a justification that 70 dollars for the godhand would be dang right worth it.

Then came DSPIAE (Dis-Pay is how you pronounce it). With their first nippers the ST-A 1.0 being released in July 2016, a new contender was born. Now, this wasn't Godhand yet. A blade that possessed a lot of potential has been created : this single blade nipper was clean, had good heft to it and felt so so good to use. And it wasn't just me. All the people I've known that used the ST-A 1.0 were incredibly impressed. Granted, it wasn't as clean of a cut as Godhand, it was only marginally worst off. One could even say that the cuts were almost indistinguishable. Even if the ST-A 1.0 wasn't as good as the god hand, everyone was confident this was miles ahead of the Tamiyas.

(The ST-A 1.0s thank you google. Mine is still in my friend's possession sadly)

Best part? The nippers were a little more than SGD30 (USD 25 or so)

Then came the 2.0s in 2017. A sharp improvement over the 1.0 in many aspects. While the 1.0 had slightly thicker (rounder melded) blades, this 2.0 was incredibly thin and well made. It cut better, had an "oomph" when cutting and gave you a really satisfied feeling when you melt through the plastic like it was nothing.

(The ST-A 2.0 Nippers. Once again thank you google)

Now you might be wondering. Dude who is this guy and it's so obvious that he's biased. Well yeah. You might be right. I truly like this brand and it's not hard to see why. It has a crazy affordable price, and it offers almost amazing cuts for your favorite model kits. I even love the fact that every one of their items have yet to fail me. They've been nothing but quality. What's there not to love?

It's crazy how fast time has gone, and the 3.0s of the ST-A nippers are already rolling into the market. With that in mind, do stay tuned for the next post. There, I would be sharing with you on my experiences on the new 3.0 nippers and whether they are worth the dough!

Thanks so much for reading, and I really hope you enjoyed this piece!

P.S

DSPIAE stands for Dream, Strive, Perfection, Innovate, Advance, Excellent. I had no idea!

P.P.S I'm not sponsored or paid to say any of the above. Seriously. I have been using the 1.0s and the 2.0s since 2016 and I absolutely love it.