So... are anime robots (Gundams, etc.) sci-fi vehicles or "figures"?

I can see the case for going either way - they're presented kind of like figures and all, but I think most of us who build 'em don't think of them as "figures"...  That kind of runs counter to the whole fantasy behind them IMO.

Also, I tend to have a lot of kits that I've done some work to, but I don't consider to have actually been started because I haven't gotten far with them.  A perfect example would be the VF-0 I posted on the forum a month or two ago - it's been glue-assembled and that's pretty much it.  In other cases I might have a kit that's been snap-assembled only, or a kit that's had more work done than that already, but to which I'm going to add a significant amount of new work.  Does the build for the contest really have to be right at the zero-point when we date-stamp it?