For what it's worth, the guys wear the exact same outfits. Domon's butt gets the exact same focus during his own "transformation" scene. Granted, he's a little less... submissive about the entire process.
Anyway, the Terror Mirage and A-toll look kinda cool. What is that from, anyway? And I'm not sure who Volks are.
They're from Five Star Stories, a manga that's been going on since the mid/late 80s until now. It had one movie that the author hated and never let animate it again. Volks are just one of the model companies that makes kits for various less known series, I think they did some in resin too.
Another company, Wave, also made plastic kits from it.
Volks is one of the old-school garage kit companies. They've been around since at least the mid to late 80s. I've got an old issue of Hobby Japan from 1988 that has a bunch of Volks ads in it. They seem to have been making Five Star Stories garage kits from the start, so they've been around at least as long as Five Star Stories has. It's only the last few years that they've started making plastic models. Aside from garage kits, they're also known for making high-end dolls.
Anyway, the Terror Mirage and A-toll look kinda cool. What is that from, anyway? And I'm not sure who Volks are.
They're from Five Star Stories, a manga that's been going on since the mid/late 80s until now. It had one movie that the author hated and never let animate it again.
Is Nagano still doing new manga releases in this series? The English release got most of what was out at the time (everything but the last two volumes), but that ended a while back. And I don't know if anything new has been released in Japan since then.
And because Gundam, Nagano also did some of the designs in Z Gundam, including the Rick Dias and Hyakushiki.
For what it's worth, the guys wear the exact same outfits. Domon's butt gets the exact same focus during his own "transformation" scene. Granted, he's a little less... submissive about the entire process.
For what it's worth, that's a clip from episode thirteen of the series. The proceeding twelve episodes include various guys going through the same suit up process, and include trips to fight an American boxer Gundam, an Egyptian Mummy Gundam, and a drug induced flash back episode.
I think at some point the writers made a check list of everything they could possibly include in the series, penciled each item in for one or two episodes, and then started writing.
Wow...this thread is full of so much design bad that you'd swear it was of all Gw. From the design team that brought you space vikings who stole Santa's sleigh, comes robospacevikingXXL! Some assembly required. MechaMoustache sold separately.
warboss wrote: Wow...this thread is full of so much design bad that you'd swear it was of all Gw. From the design team that brought you space vikings who stole Santa's sleigh, comes robospacevikingXXL! Some assembly required. MechaMoustache sold separately.
I'm inclined to believe you, but it's useful to remember that these are pop-culture designs coming from a country that has very different history of design, and aesthetics in animation (and in most everything else for that matter).
That said, I personally, find most mecha in the "Gundam-ish" style to be a bit over the top for me. My mecha aesthetic leans much more towards Macross/Battletech, CAV, Votoms, etc.
It is definitely a matter of opinion. I recently had a friend who couldn't stop laughing at the Macross Valkyrie design when looking through my Robotech Tactics book. I grew up with it and think the original VF-1 is one of the coolest robot design out there but to him it was just ridiculous.
Anyway, the Terror Mirage and A-toll look kinda cool. What is that from, anyway? And I'm not sure who Volks are.
They're from Five Star Stories, a manga that's been going on since the mid/late 80s until now. It had one movie that the author hated and never let animate it again.
Is Nagano still doing new manga releases in this series? The English release got most of what was out at the time (everything but the last two volumes), but that ended a while back. And I don't know if anything new has been released in Japan since then.
And because Gundam, Nagano also did some of the designs in Z Gundam, including the Rick Dias and Hyakushiki.
He started working on his OVA (Gothicmade), and then did some crazy redesigns and is re-releasing the series from the start.
I think the English ones weren't complete to the latest story though.
They're actually going to do a new Dijeh kit? Talk about nostalgia.
That was one of the very first kits Barzam and I's other brother ever built- he got a Dijeh that I helped him put together, and I got a Rick Dias. Heck, Barzam could probably count how old he was on one hand at that point!
warboss wrote: Wow...this thread is full of so much design bad that you'd swear it was of all Gw. From the design team that brought you space vikings who stole Santa's sleigh, comes robospacevikingXXL! Some assembly required. MechaMoustache sold separately.
I'm inclined to believe you, but it's useful to remember that these are pop-culture designs coming from a country that has very different history of design, and aesthetics in animation (and in most everything else for that matter).
That said, I personally, find most mecha in the "Gundam-ish" style to be a bit over the top for me. My mecha aesthetic leans much more towards Macross/Battletech, CAV, Votoms, etc.
Personally I find that replacing giant, hand-held swords and rifles with integrated weapons ala Battletech goes a long way towards making Gundams look non-slowed, together with a sensible military paintjob.
Please tell me he's on Dakka Dakka - or will be soon!
Nah, our other brother is far too high falootin' to play games any more. He's much more into fashion and design, cutting edge art, or obscure bands and records from decades past in lesser known parts of the world. His wife is a total enabler too since she's into the same exact stuff.
Which is a shame, because with both of their senses of design and tastes in art, they'd probably both be pretty good figure painters/ modelers.
Plus they've got a lot of local players in Nagoya, so I'm hoping at least while Barzam is there visiting he can do some Inception- like messing with our brother's head and bring him back in to the fold.
Daba wrote: Which arc did the last English one go into?
The arc where the story shifts into slapstick comedy and idiots.
It's been a while since I last glanced through it, but iirc the last arc translated was the arc after Jabo Beat's death. IIRC, we were introduced to a bunch of kids with rather misguided notions of how a headliner should act.
warboss wrote: Wow...this thread is full of so much design bad that you'd swear it was of all Gw. From the design team that brought you space vikings who stole Santa's sleigh, comes robospacevikingXXL! Some assembly required. MechaMoustache sold separately.
I'm inclined to believe you, but it's useful to remember that these are pop-culture designs coming from a country that has very different history of design, and aesthetics in animation (and in most everything else for that matter).
That said, I personally, find most mecha in the "Gundam-ish" style to be a bit over the top for me. My mecha aesthetic leans much more towards Macross/Battletech, CAV, Votoms, etc.
Personally I find that replacing giant, hand-held swords and rifles with integrated weapons ala Battletech goes a long way towards making Gundams look non-slowed, together with a sensible military paintjob.
For what it's worth, battletech mechs look plenty ridiculous, with their complete lack of agility and overall clunkiness making them feel like poor replacements for tanks. Additionally, short of main character suits (executive meddling and all), most MS, at least in the UC universe, are fairly militaristic in their paintjobs.
The original creator of Gundam actually went on to write essays explaining why humanoid mecha would be used within his universe, using the limbs to control orientation and direction in space (MS were only intended to space operation up until executive meddling kicked in), allowing for a finer degree of movement, similarly to how astronauts orient themselves in space. As for why they don't use integrated weapons, both Zeon and the Federation use a standardized system of weapon attachment (at least as of UC 0096), allowing most MS to connect with and operate most weaponry in a pinch and giving improved modularity and versatility to any given MS. As for why they use hands instead of simplified locking mechanisms... well... it looks cooler, I guess.
Also keep in mind that, due to Minovsky particle (fictional physics principles developed for the UC universe, which interferes with electronics) interference, long range targetting and communication systems were left extremely unreliable, pushing combat into closer quarters where camo-based paintjobs were largely ineffective. Colours were generally used to denote affiliation in order to avoid friendly fire, or for psychological effect (for example, after the One Year War, the Federation painted most of their flagship MS white in order to scare Zeon pilots, due to the stories around the original gundam).
It should also be noted that most Mobile Suits do have integral weaponry. The weapoms mounted internally on Mobile Suits can vary wildly, but nearly every one of them has something built into it. This is even moreso the case in Gundam The Origin and in the novelizations.
I happen to like the carried weapons. We *get* them very intuitively because that's the same as what people do. An externally carried rifle or sword or shield is very intuitive to the viewer while a little gun port on the shoulder doesn't necessarily give the same effect. The gun ports also often require set up shots where you spend a scene showing it shoot for no other real reason than to let the viewer know to expect it to be able to shoot like that in the future, for when it matters to the story.
This probably won't see much action in 40k.. But was browsing HLJ and noticed that the new Bandai X-Wing kit comes with proton torpedos included. Not sure if they thought this one through
I saw that very same Sd tank today at the Volks hobby shopnin Osu along with Fujimi's other SD military kits. There's a bunch actually. Various ships, planes, and tanks. There's a few based on the old Capcom game, 1943, too.
Also saw a display sample of the Shamrock from Valkyria Chronicles. It looked really nice, but fairly small.
prowla wrote: This probably won't see much action in 40k.. But was browsing HLJ and noticed that the new Bandai X-Wing kit comes with proton torpedos included. Not sure if they thought this one through
Now I am unable to get the idea out of my head that the entire Battle of Yavin might have been one giant sperm/ovum metaphor.
Now I am unable to get the idea out of my head that the entire Battle of Yavin might have been one giant sperm/ovum metaphor.
What has been seen cannot be unseen!
Totally off topic, but this was the very first thing I thought of when they explained the concept of fertilization to us way back in grade school in the post Star Wars 80s.
Complete with Wilhelm screams and those awesome Star Wars blaster sound effects.
"Stay on Target!" Indeed....
Also- as an SD aficionado, I am interested in those tanks!
Now I am unable to get the idea out of my head that the entire Battle of Yavin might have been one giant sperm/ovum metaphor.
What has been seen cannot be unseen!
Well, the X-Wing pretty much is a phallos with wings..
We were discussing the sperm/ovum metaphor with friends, and we came to the conclusion that the whole SW:eIV is a metaphor how Princess Leia is sexually liberated after being brainwashed into following overly-victorian moral code (represented by the Evil Imperium), after encountering a young man with a 'special skill'. At first she makes fun of her rescuer, but starts to believe in him after he takes her to places she never thought of going (garbage chute, tentacles..)
Price: $6.00+$2 international postage
Contents: 1 Bronekorpus Battle Tank with weapon options and some accessories
Delivery estimate to UK: 2-4 weeks
This kit came to my attention when it was shown off in a Mantic thread a few weeks ago, and for the price of £5 including postage, I figured it was worth a punt and ordered one. Two weeks later, on the first day of the two-week delivery estimate window, it arrived.
What you get:
The kit came packaged in a jiffy bag with all the parts clipped from the sprue. From what I could see, there was no danger of anything breaking in the post. Here is a shot of all the parts in the set, after about 10 minutes of cleanup:
From left to right, top to bottom:
Track unit, hull unit, track unit
Radar Dish, small turret, gun with single or multi- shot barrels, hatch, large turret, energy gun, flamethrower
Hatch, small missiles, large missiles
So lots of stuff. Some closeups of the specific parts:
Treads:
Hull:
Turret:
My only issue here is the slight gap between some of the guns and the turret housing, but that's easily solved with just a simple plasticard plate. Other than that, I remain very impressed with the details for the price, and the plastic is much sturdier than I expected, much closer to GW plastic than the toy type stuff I imagined I'd be getting for the price.
Assembly and versatility:
Assembly including cleanup of the parts took no more than 15 minutes, and not a single drop of glue was needed! Everything fits snugly together once the flash has been trimmed away, and there is a huge degree of variability in how you can put the kit together. First, I went for a Hellhound in the classic Turret-forward Chimera style, using the flamethrowers and small turret at the front, the treads pointed that way and a flat hatch at the back:
Next, I used the Radar and missile parts to build something like a Manticore. If I had them (and I will soon) I'd add another set of missiles on top to bulk up the arsenal, and maybe elevate them a bit, but as it stands, it's still perfectly servicable:
And just to show off how different you can make to it, here's an alternate gun, the treads and hull reversed and the Dozer blade added:
And should you ever need an obscene amount of firepower, behold the wonder that is Missiles on Flamethrowers on Rockets on Treads on a Dozer Blade:
In short, I rate this very highly in terms of assembly and versatility; out of the packet it has a ton of setups, and it should be easy enough to mount other kinds of weapons or turrets on the hull. Simplicity is certainly not to be confused with lack of quality here!
Scale:
This aspect is where so many kits fall down if you're planning as I am to use them in 40k or other systems, but here, I think it fits perfectly. I intend to use it as a stand-in for Chimera hulled vehicles, and here it is alongside a Russ, Rhino and a scratch-built attempt at my own slightly beefeir Chimera pattern:
So it matches up nicely, I think. Even the guns fit in with 40k's heroic scaling, so that's good.
And finally, some shots of the turret on other hulls. I may experiment with some other turret types for counts-as Chimera, in which case I'll have turrets left over...
Predator?
Alternate Russ turret?
Overall, this is a great kit, especially given the insanely low price point, and offers a great basis for conversion as well. I will be picking up another half a dozen in the new year, and thoroughly recommend it to anyone in the market for a cheap tank. Hell, combine a few of these with some Mantic or Dreamforge infantry and you have a mechanised Guard army for under £100!
prowla wrote: We were discussing the sperm/ovum metaphor with friends, and we came to the conclusion that the whole SW:eIV is a metaphor how Princess Leia is sexually liberated after being brainwashed into following overly-victorian moral code (represented by the Evil Imperium), after encountering a young man with a 'special skill'. At first she makes fun of her rescuer, but starts to believe in him after he takes her to places she never thought of going (garbage chute, tentacles..)
Amusing.
But one quick clarification - *SHE* is the one who takes *HIM* to places that he never thought of going.
Apart from its possible use as a hunter killer, the various parts (tracks, body, arms and head) could all be used in conversions and scratch-builds of other models.
A bit pricey though, perhaps.
I would confirm the scale before buying it you are interested. Their kit of the aerial hunter killer is also billed as 1/32 but in reality is much more like 1/48. Still very useable for 28mm SF Games, of course.
It’s been a while but, after the hectic pace of the Forge World office over Christmas, I’m finally able to bring you another bulletin to keep you up to date with what’s going on behind the Forge World Studio doors. I spied something pretty awesome the other day and managed to get a quick picture. Looks to me like a new class of Dreadnought. What do you think? Take a look...
Just nabbed a 10 pack of these tanks for $68 shipped to the US, from Russia.
Has anyone here tried using bits from the Gundam kits to modify 40K / other Wargame miniatures yet? Blend East and West, as it were? Although the Gundam scale is very large next to 40k stuff, each robot is composed of seemingly hundreds of highly detailed, smaller bits that could make for great conversion fodder. I've built a couple now for my son and I'm very impressed with them, and tantalized by the possibilities.
Regarding the Tehnolog Bronekorpus tanks:
I bought one for $8 shipped when he was selling them individually. (Hopefully he'll do that again, as I could see getting a couple more. But not 10 - that'd put my wife around the bend, even though the price is so cheap.)
I think you'll be pleased with your purchase. In internet pictures, most of Tehnolog's vehicles and miniatures look to me like a cross between Warhammer and G.I. Joe, or Warhammer and He-Man; most of their kits seem just a bit too much like kid's toys to look good with my miniatures. I'm also less than impressed with their tendency to use a cockpit and slap wings on it and sell it as a flyer, then slap legs on the same cockpit and sell it as walker.
The tank, though, is a real gem. You can kit it out to look silly and over-the-top if you want to - some of the turrets / launchers would fit right in with G.I. Joe - but the many alternate parts you're given also let you tone things down to mature adult sci fi wargamer (oxymoron?) standards too. It's not hard to make a sleek, deadly-looking, but decidedly sci-fi tank.
For $6 a tank, you'd think these things would be garbage that you just might be able to salvage with a lot of bits from 40K and even more elbow grease. That's what Tehnolog's walkers look like to me; maybe worthwhile as a conversion project if I wanted to invest a fair amount of time, but silly as they are. While the Bronekorpus tanks are not quite up there with the best kits on the market with their generally simpler detailing, they're actually cast very well, they look good right out of the bag, and they assemble in any configuration in about a minute, no glue required. I did manage to break the mounting stem off of a missile rack while twisting it free from the tank, but that's been the only piece I've had any problem with (and it would still be easy to mount with glue.) The turret connection is strong but swings easily and holds its place, making posing simple. (Actually, it's more like a G.I. Joe toy in that respect, but in a good way.) Depending on your taste, the Tehnolog tanks may be even better than 40K's stylistically, if you prefer a less boxy / gothic look than the one favored by the Emperor.
Sorry for the long, long post. I gambled $8 to try one of these for Christmas, and I've been very pleased.
Incidentally, the tanks scale great with Mantic's Deadzone line. Man-sized figures look like they'd easily fit inside, and the tanks look properly impressive next to walking troopers. Unfortunately my collection is spotty - I have Skaven but not a single Space Marine - but I could post some scale pics here and throw in a ruler so you can work out other company line comparisons for yourselves. If anyone's interested, let me know.
@Vermonter
I'd be interested in some pictures if you don't mind. I've got a side project going on that I might need all the bits, bobs, and doodads from these little tanks.
I apologize that my collection is unusually sparse on 40K figures . . . I don't even own a single space marine. I also regret favoring the inches side of the ruler - my American upbringing showing - but the metric side is still visible and it should be fairly simple to figure out the metric measurements from the images.
So my selection of figures is esoteric, but hopefully still useful. I'm also including a comparison shot with a Gundam Mech I just assembled for my son, just for fun and in the spirit of the thread.
Left to right: Mantic Enforcer, Studio McVey Kara, Mantic Rebel, Mantic Martian. The first three miniatures are not on bases.
Left to right: Rackham Therian Golem trooper, GW Skaven Warpfire thrower
Left to right: Heroclix SWAT, WOTC Stormtrooper, Heroclix Predator
with Mantic Strider Mech
with Mantic Deadzone scenery terrain tile
with Gundam 00 - Gundam Astraea Type-F 1/144 Scale HG Model Kit No.62
When I hit the Volks shop in Nagoya, they had one on display. Very nice looking kit. I don't recall exactly how big it was, but I seem to recall it was a pretty good size.
You're sure it was the Hecate and not Klim's Jahanam? I hadn't heard anything about the Hecate actually getting a kit yet, but I'll glad if it does. It's a cool design.
One of the best PS3 games ever - if not one of the best games on any system - ever!
I might need that tank too...
Yeah, I recently played that game and I have to agree- it is awesome. I was dosappointed to find out the Edelweiss is on back order, and all the bits and bobs are too.
Barzam wrote: You're sure it was the Hecate and not Klim's Jahanam? I hadn't heard anything about the Hecate actually getting a kit yet, but I'll glad if it does. It's a cool design.
It was in the latest Hobby Japan, and it said Hecate.
Crackle the free video site has the anime Valkyria Chronicles, And yes, I agree, it looks like Gallia,,,,,,Gaul? is making German/French hybrid looking tanks.
The Empire tanks look the oddest, and of the 1920's-1930's multiple turret ideas that were abandoned by WWII as they were more a manufacturing and practicality nightmare then the one turret machines.
fox-light713 wrote: Kinda curious but is there any plastic modular mech kits that out there?
What do you mean by Modular?
Most Bandai kits have the same joint connection points, so you can customize your models if you wish, and there are weapons upgrades for many Gundam and Macross kits that I'm fairly sure can be used without gluing. Robogear mechs also tend to have the same connection points so they can be customized, but IMHO, they really need to be glued in place to get the most out of the kits.
If you want modular, then Kotobukiya's Frame Arms kits are what you're looking for. They're 1/100 scale, so they're a bit larger, but they're fully modular with internal skeletons that can be configured however you want and armor that plugs on over the skeletons. The armor panels are fully compatible between all of the kits in the line and they all have ports on them for extra weapons that Kotobukiya makes as well.
Barzam wrote: If you want modular, then Kotobukiya's Frame Arms kits are what you're looking for. They're 1/100 scale, so they're a bit larger, but they're fully modular with internal skeletons that can be configured however you want and armor that plugs on over the skeletons. The armor panels are fully compatible between all of the kits in the line and they all have ports on them for extra weapons that Kotobukiya makes as well.
Looked up the Frame Arms and yeah that's pretty close what I had in mind for a plastic Modular mech kit. A couple of them have a really nice armored core / rugged military look to them which is very nice.
Aoshima's 1/48 JGSDF kits are pretty great - because they are modern military vehicles that are not easily recognizable, so work well for near future armor (either as-is, or slightly converted)
Wow, just found this thread.. and spent the last 2 hours bookmarking and otherwise searching for stuff..
I actually ordered a 1/48 patlabor kit about a week or two ago, so I'll have that guy in soon and can get some good scale pics.
I also picked up a 1/48 Macross a while back to use as a fighter aircraft in my Killzone army. It's pretty much perfect.
There is a 1/48 walker you guys posted about halfway through the thread that has 4 legs.. I think you were listing it as the tequila walker or somesuch.. it was originally a Robotech Defenders Commando. I own one and it's massive. That kit is from the 80s but it looks like they re-tooled it. The original kit was pretty good except for the 1/48 people.. maybe the retooling fixed them though.. dunno.
I know a lot of people are looking for 40k stuff.. but I'm trying to get into other systems like Tomorrow's War or 5150 for a little more flexibility with using stuff like Mecha and Kaiju and Dropships etc etc.. So far I haven't been overly impressed with any of the rulesets I've looked at so I'll probably end up having to mash a bunch of them together unless anyone knows a good one for that sort of thing (pref in 28mm)
Thought I would point these out..
http://www.toywiz.com/18cherno.html 18".. holy cow. There are 7" versions all over amazon as well for about $35.
Sideshow Collectibles has 20" collection of Pacific Rim.. they're statues and 3-4x the cost of those action figures.
Also, there's a Cherno Alpha Halloween costume.. so if you want, you could just get a kid to dress up and cosplay a titan like someone mentioned a few pages back
Pacific Rim is the shiz. I wonder how the heroclix will look next to Robotech Tactics minis. Hopefully the sequel will get the merchandising going full steam. I want model kits!
yep, that's the recentish model kit Bandai put out a few months back. It's based on the Ingram design from Patlabor: The Next Generation live action series. The Squalo is a TAG from Infinity. It's an obsolete figure since Corvus Belli just released their redesign of it, so this one's been pass on to the police to use.
Oh, I think Aoshima makes 1/48 Full Metal Panic kits, if you're interested.
The Laevatein wasn't in the show. It shows up in the novels. Also, that figure you linked to, it isn't 8" tall. I have that Arbalest, and it's about 5" tall.
Aoshima didn't make a Savage, either. As far as I know, only Bandai did.
Alter made some larger sized action figures, they're the ones that are going for $100 and up, though I did see a few ridiculously priced Aoshima kits. The Aoshima kits were actually very affordable at around 3,000 yen, which puts them around $30ish. Unfortunately, they're either sold out or out of production. But, I'd stay away from Ebay sellers of the kits as they're all way overpriced.
Hobby Search is currently sold out, but they may wind up getting more.
Ah.. Thanks for the info on the kits! I was just going off of what I saw searching Ebay and Amazon and half the time I was distracted by (glances over at other monitor)
Oh wait..
Yeah, at first I had a really hard time finding mechs that didn't look like a stereotypical Gundam (the tall skinny samurai kind of look) but man.. there's a lot out there (thank you DakkaDakka thread!). Guys like you (Barzam) and all the others that have posted are beyond helpful.
You're right about the savages Bandai.. I was looking at something else that looks like a savage (also Bandai I think).
http://www.amazon.com/Full-Metal-Panic-Savage-Color/dp/B002G01EHU/ref=sr_1_14?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1423624515&sr=1-14&keywords=bandai+full+metal+panic These savages say they're almost 8" tall.. but I don't know if that's accurate or again.. a box measurement. And that price is a bit steep.
There's a Tamashii RK-02 Scepter for 33 bucks (I don't recall that yet from the show either).
I saw these guys that say they're 5" and I don't think it's a FMP model..so I don't know about the size or the origin but I would hapilly substitute it for a Savage at that price if the size is correct
Anyway.. I'm rambling.. Thanks for the info and if you do know about the stuff I was asking about I look forward to hearing
Those dimensions are most likely for the box, not the figure. I can assure you that the Bandai Robot Spirits toys from FMP are NOT 8" tall.
Here's my Arbalest compared to my Sceptor. You can see for yourself that they're both just under/over 5"
By the way, my Arbalest is actually the v.1, but there's not really any actual sizing difference between the v.1 and the v.2. You'll also notice my Sceptor is a different color and has a different loadout, too. That's because he's a web exclusive release I got really lucky in finding for a reasonable price while I was in Japan. The regular release is purple and has giant claw things.
Speaking of the Sceptor, I believe it's either from a comic or a novel side story. I think it was a comic. The Blaze Raven comes from the same side story and had a limited release color variant released with a volume of whatever it was. I'd show you mine along with my Savages and Laevatein for further size comparisons, but they're all at my parents' house. Sadly, they got left behind when I moved out.
Now, I don't actually know how big the Aoshima ones are once built. I've never actually seen a built one in person. I'd wager that they're around 7-8 inches though. I never bought any of them myself because I didn't really care for the proportions on the models. The 1/60 Laevatein Kotobukiya did and the Bandai action figures all look much nicer to me.
Speaking of the Bandai action figures, that Turn X you linked to is also a toy, not a model. The Robot Spirits line is Bandai's collector aimed robot toy line. Most clock in at around 5-6 inches.
The Revoltech action figures are roughly five inches tall, the box is about maybe eight inches tall.
Edit: Yep, found one of the boxes. 5.5" by 7.5" by 2.5" box for a five inch tall action figure. (The boxes for the Legend of Revoltech line are even slightly taller, almost 8.5" inches...)
Hrmm.. thanks Solkan and Barzam.
While the figures in the pic Barzam took are serviceable for gaming.. they don't quite hit the scale to represent their actual counterparts IMO :/
Both of those packs stood out to me because they are both 1/48 and pretty affordable... which.. also makes me dubious as to the quality. Would you guys happen to know anything????
I thought I would mention also:
There's a tank put out by Tehnolog. It was mentioned a few pages back in this thread (I ordered some for super cheap). I actually spoke to the person who makes those for Tehnolog. There is a Mk2 coming out soonish. Currently the person (a woman named Ann) is sorting out money issues with the kit and then it'll be available. From what I saw, it looks like there will be a hydra-like turret. Check it out in the banner here http://www.souldark.ru/magazin/Netshop/Plastic-terrain/
You're going to be disappointed. Those Xabungle kits aren't 1/48. I don't know why the seller is calling them 1/48 since it even says 1/144 right on the package. Despite their age, Xabungle kits are surprisingly cool and I'd recommend getting them anyway just because they're basically weaponized industrial mecha.
The Nadesico kits are supposed to be 1/48 though. I think they're actually a little on the small side though. I used to own some of them and I think they were somewhat undersized. The kits were decent quality when they came out, but they're fairly old now and it shows. If you're just looking for Nadesico kits, Kotobukiya put out a few non-scale kits based on the designs from the Prince of Darkness movie that were overall much better quality.
Barzam, I'll be perfectly honest.. I'm looking for big fighty robots that look badass and preferably on the cheap. I don't watch a lot of anime. I used to watch all the time in the 90s.. I'm just not that into most of the more recent stuff.. it tends to be be too j-pop for me. I've been skipping through a LOT of Full Metal Panic because of the High School scenes (not automatically but if they turn into saved by the bell I look for a way out fast). I enjoyed Full Metal Alchemist and Sidonia is alright but a lot of the other stuff I've tried to watch is either weepy overly sentimental mush with occasional mecha porn or it's over-caffeinated waaaaaay too happy unicorn princess stuff (bi-polar anime syndrome?).
Anyway.. I guess my point was, neat kits are the important thing. I know guys who actually collecting Gundam Models (who are snickering because I didn't say GunPla or whatever) probably see that as heresy.. but my goal is mecha-themed gaming. The rest is secondary
Thanks for the heads up on the Xabungle. I googled a bit before I even found those and some of the kits (not those) legitimately are 1/48..but they are mostly not mecha.. and I think I saw some 1/35 or 1/32 or something.. I did see one of the models from that set built and I did a little eyeball math.. it seemed like it was somewhat close (probably closer to 20mm). I learned from old Star Wars kits that a lot of the time the sci-fi kits have scales that are a wild ass guess (at least the older ones).. and I was hoping that would be the case.
On the Nadeisco kits.. I will look into the Koto kits.. most of the stuff those guy puts out is amazing. When you say undersized, I am thinking you mean something like the 5" range. I'm really trying to find kits closer to the 10"+ range.
Why 10"+ ? Well, I did some research and I found that average buildings in a major city like Downtown LA, when scaled to 1/48 are approximately 10". This is discounting skyscrapers and is really just an average (or median.. I'm sure a math nerd will shake his fist angrily at me). I'm planning on making my scenery at that scale and would like my big stuff to look suitably big and stompy
The thing you have to keep in mind is that the scale of a giant robot depends on how big the fictional giant robot is supposed to be.
For example, a 1/60 scale Mobile Suit Gundam model like the Zaku II is a foot tall. A 1/48 scale Full Metal Panic Gersnback M9 is way smaller than that because the fictional robot is 8.4m tall, so the model in scale is only about 6.9 inches tall. On the other side of things, I've got a partially assembled 1/100 scale L.E.D. Mirage from Five Star Stories that's 8 inches from bottom of foot to shoulder.
So you do really need to know whether you're dealing with a "large tank" sized giant robot show, or a "Gundam size" giant robot show.
Yeah, that's why I ask so many questions I knew up front that Gundams were among the larger robots (something like 18 meters or so at 1:1).
I think my big dillema is that 5-7" mecha are fairly easy to find but the bigger ones (especially at 1/48 scale) are seemingly rare and expensive. I think for a lot of gaming, the smaller mechs are probably fine (still haven't gotten to 5150 with mechs but soon). I plan on later, adding in some scenarios though that have Kaiju (Reaper Bones2 are shipping so pretty soon on that one I think ) or maybe something to fight off the ridiculously large tripod from Pegasus Hobbies.
That, and I'm itching to make a mech bay with my deadzone terrain and have a big ass robot with it's cockpit open waiting to be boarded.
EDIT: Also thanks for the rough estimate on the M9's height.. I scaled it down to 1/48 and it's ~6.9" Good to know
"five to seven inches tall" is definitely a common sweet spot, or target product size, due to whatever combination of manufacturing factors.
I mean, faced with the choice between making something ridiculous like the 1/144 Neo Zeong from Gundam Unicorn in the same scale as the rest of the models, you'd expect a company to choose to bend the scale rather than produce a model that weighs (and costs) ten to twenty times as much as the lesser 1/144 kits. http://www.hlj.com/product/ban989507/Gun
You've got to keep in mind that these models are dealing with the square/cube law as far as the number of additional molds (and the number of additional parts) required as the size of the model increases. Because those hollow robot models aren't really hollow, but instead have all sorts of internal supports and places for things to connect.
Yeah, I actually have built a dozen or so 1/144 Gundam kits and a handful of the SD kits. I've always found it to be rather inventive for them to have found a way to make a model kit that functions like an action figure.
I don't expect tabletop manufacturers to do that but I would hope they would have at least learned some of the tricks used by Tamiya and Dragon on their military kits by now (edit: I meant if they aren't going to learn from makers like Bandai) :/
I do think that the limit is an arbitrary thing.. not by guys like Bandai mind you..but whoever makes the industrial equipment that handles the tooling and molding process. I only say that because I can walk down to Wal-Mart and buy a generic oversize helicopter for like $8-$15.. one of those that's like 2' long with all the "not-GI Joes".. or those massive Star Wars (I have Vader.. I think he's like 2' tall). I think I paid $15 for that and the quality is not bad at all. Granted, he doesn't have a lot of smaller aspects to him, as he's all scaled up, but the edges are crisp and the proportions and form are exactly what I would expect of a Darth Vader. Pegasus Hobbies is another example.. those guys have some really massive figures at extremely reasonable prices.
Please keep in mind, I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you, just trying to have a conversation about all of this. I've been gaming and buying and building models since the late 90s. I've just not really paid that much attention to this specific market of kits, toys, and assorted whatnots I'm eyeballing a 3' Godzilla toy that looks
I looked at some of the large spaceship type models for conversions.. granted they'd need modification and have to be something else.. like a large lander or what have you.. but man that's an impressive amount of beautiful plastic!
It looks to be roughly 7-9" and has an opening cockpit with some kind of pilot guy. The stuff they're showing on Facebook is insane.
I subscribed to all of their stuff to get news on this guy's release. To say I'm excited about this would be silly >_>
EDIT: Herpaderp..
The mecha is 9" tall and the pilot is 2" tall.. The pilot has stuff on his shoulders so I'm thinking that guy is roughly 1/35 or smaller... at that close it probably won't matter for conversions. I just hope this thing's pricepoint isn't ridiculous..
It looks to be roughly 7-9" and has an opening cockpit with some kind of pilot guy. The stuff they're showing on Facebook is insane.
I subscribed to all of their stuff to get news on this guy's release. To say I'm excited about this would be silly >_>
EDIT: Herpaderp.. The mecha is 9" tall and the pilot is 2" tall.. The pilot has stuff on his shoulders so I'm thinking that guy is roughly 1/35 or smaller... at that close it probably won't matter for conversions. I just hope this thing's pricepoint isn't ridiculous..
The Leynos suits I use for not-knights are 6" tall at 1/35 scale cost was 50-60 a pop, still cheaper than the 140bucks for the GW Knights.
Presently Out of stock, but they get resupplied every so often
Scale shot with an Eisenkern trooper and a light tank I made [/img]
It looks to be roughly 7-9" and has an opening cockpit with some kind of pilot guy. The stuff they're showing on Facebook is insane.
I subscribed to all of their stuff to get news on this guy's release. To say I'm excited about this would be silly >_>
EDIT: Herpaderp..
The mecha is 9" tall and the pilot is 2" tall.. The pilot has stuff on his shoulders so I'm thinking that guy is roughly 1/35 or smaller... at that close it probably won't matter for conversions. I just hope this thing's pricepoint isn't ridiculous..
As a professional pessimist, I'm expecting that to have a ridiculous price point.
It does look neat. Although, looking at one of the reviews for the action figure, I realized that I'm actually a bit disappointed that it's a pre-assembled action figure. I like putting stuff together, I don't want to pay a factory worker to do it for me.
I ended up watching one of the review videos on the Facebook page, and two dates got mentioned:
- Preorders in March
- Release in "third quarter"
Cool, I'm going to be doing chargebacks on Kickstarters that haven't delivered.. hopefully that'll free up some funds so I'll be ready when this thing goes to pre-order
So, going back to something I was curious about..
Out of the various mecha toys..
It seems like Frame Arms tend to be on the larger side outside of toys like the Pacific Rim 18". Are there any that come to mind in that 8-12" pocket? I've been looking at them for days but I can't tell which ones are what since a lot of sites are listing box size instead of figure size.
I found some backordered 1/48 gundams on HLJ for somewhere around 50 bucks. Are there other places to source 1/48 mecha that aren't going to charge ridiculous prices? A lot of the stateside retailers are 2-3x that price. I'm mostly looking for 1/48 that have either a cockpit or are big enough to have that modeled in via conversion. A massive diorama is in my future. EDIT: I see 1/48 Aura Battlers and they look like they might have cockpits.. but I can't tell.. the pictures I've found are super unhelpful. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OC0TN7U/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=OI12WDV6PLVS&coliid=I2UX6BJR71DLXD
Yes, actually. The Armarauders started making the rounds on various toy sites when they were first announced two years ago. The guys working on them are former Hasbro Transformers designers.
Thanks Platuan, that actually helped me decide against buying this guy. It's extremely cool as a toy but it seems like he'd be a giant PITA for gaming. The display platform is very cool and the opening cockpit gives me a lot of ideas, I think I'm just going to have to find a kit that is perhaps a little less poseable
So after seeing a picture of it in this thread last year I purchased my son an MG Jesta which I put away for his 7th birthday because he loves giant robots (I guess they all do at that age!). His birthday was on the weekend and while I was initially surprised by the parts count, he was undaunted and very keen to get clipping! All those years playing with lego have obviously paid off because he's building it faster than I can clean up the parts!
Now I want one for myself! Does anyone make a 1/100 - or bigger - version of the Jahannam from a few pages back?
Siygess wrote: So after seeing a picture of it in this thread last year I purchased my son an MG Jesta which I put away for his 7th birthday because he loves giant robots (I guess they all do at that age!). His birthday was on the weekend and while I was initially surprised by the parts count, he was undaunted and very keen to get clipping! All those years playing with lego have obviously paid off because he's building it faster than I can clean up the parts!
Now I want one for myself! Does anyone make a 1/100 - or bigger - version of the Jahannam from a few pages back?
That's impressive.. I got my 1/48 Patlabor kit in and holy cow.. there are quite a few pieces to that kit. I am definitely daunted.
Lol, you thought the Ingram had a high parts count? You'll be in for quite the surprise if you ever get a Kotobukiya model.
Sorry Siygess, Reconguista in G actually has no 1/100 scale kits. Only the smaller 1/144. But, if you want a complicated Gundam kit in the MG class, Bandai just announced an MG 2.0 Hyaku Shiki.
Also, they announced new Reconguista and Build Fighter kits. If nobody beats me to it, I'll post pics once i can get on a proper computer.
adamsouza wrote: I've been following this thread, but I haven't kept up with anime in a decade, so I have no idea how big these things should be.
What is the physically largest robot/mecha model you know of for under $50 ?
Hobby Link Japan has some 1/48 gundams that say they're right around $50ish (if I'm reading it right) but they are seemingly never in stock.. I imagine those are something like 18" or more..
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Barzam wrote: Lol, you thought the Ingram had a high parts count? You'll be in for quite the surprise if you ever get a Kotobukiya model.
Sorry Siygess, Reconguista in G actually has no 1/100 scale kits. Only the smaller 1/144. But, if you want a complicated Gundam kit in the MG class, Bandai just announced an MG 2.0 Hyaku Shiki.
Also, they announced new Reconguista and Build Fighter kits. If nobody beats me to it, I'll post pics once i can get on a proper computer.
lol, well to my defense, I kinda expected it to be less like my military model kits and more like my 1//144 gundam kits.. I've got a pair of airfix 1/48 Landrovers that are in just about as many parts. My 1/48 Hasegawa YF-19 might have a few more pieces.. I need to build it too.. (starting to see a pattern here.. )
adamsouza wrote: I've been following this thread, but I haven't kept up with anime in a decade, so I have no idea how big these things should be.
What is the physically largest robot/mecha model you know of for under $50 ?
Hobby Link Japan has some 1/48 gundams that say they're right around $50ish (if I'm reading it right) but they are seemingly never in stock.. I imagine those are something like 18" or more..
Thank you for the suggestion.
It drives me nuts that they give you the box dimensions, but no real indication of how big the actual model is.
USD $20. and it's actually in stock
Doesn't say the size, but it has a 1/48 pilot sitting in the chest
some of HLJ's descriptions do give the actual model sizes.
Adamsouza, check some of my posts further back. I've got a pic of that Ingram next to some 28mm figures and Deadzone scenery (or just check my gallery).
Adamsouza, in that price range, I think you're generally going to find most robot kits to clock in somewhere between 6"-8". Kotobukiya's kits are all generally fairly large, so you can't go wrong there. But, if you can find them, you may want to check out Bandai's short lived Real Robot Revolution model kit line. There's only about four kits in it though: L-Gaim Mk.II (1/100), Layzner (1/48), V-Max Layzner (also 1/48), and the Walker Gallier (1/100). The Layzners are probably the easier kits to find. There's not too much difference between the two variants though. But, that 1/100 L-Gaim? That thing should be pretty damn big. Plus, I'm pretty sure it has a full internal skeleton.
Alternatively, if you don't mind 1980's engineering, you can actually pick up a lot of Bandai's old model kits for just a few bucks. Some of the 1/100 Vifam models, particularly the bad guy ones are pretty large.
I mentioned I would post some pics of the newly announced bandai kits. Pics are probably going to be kind of big.
MG Hyaku Shiki v.2
HGBF Gundam The End (spoiler due to size)
Spoiler:
HGBF Denial Gundam and HGBF Bolden Arms
Spoiler:
HGBF Tryon 3 (ZZ redesigned into a 3 animal combining super robot) and HGBF ver. Crossbone X1 Full Cloth
Spoiler:
Reconguista in G Cait Sith & Jusdia (Jusdia looks really cool)
Bandai also announced, completely out of nowhere, that they're redoing some of their early HGUC releases with brand new sculpts.
HGUC RX-78-2 Ver.2
Spoiler:
HGUC RX-77-2 Guncannon ver. 2
Spoiler:
the new sculpt is VERY apparent on the Guncannon. The Gundam doesn't have those ugly proportions the original release did, either.
Kotobukiya is also continuing their Majestic Prince releases with Gold 4. I'm kind of surprised, since Blue 1 belonged to the secondary hero character, I figured that would've come next. Very curious if they're going to do Purple 2 and Rose 3. Rose 3 especially, since that thing is around the size of the GP-03 Dendrobium when its got its full loadout. Gold 4
Barzam, the RX-78-2 Revive version appears to be a remold based on the Amazing Red Warrior, so that's why it seems to be out of nowhere. I guess they figured it would be easy to crank out another kit.
adamsouza - I just got that kit in.. it's what we were talking about.
The pilot is a tiny bit smaller than a 28mm.. but it's not something you're going to notice honestly. I plan on leaving the pilot out.. when you have it closed you can't see if there's someone in it and I will have it open for display in an open mechbay scene so empty seat is better for me.
MLaw wrote: adamsouza - I just got that kit in.. it's what we were talking about.
The pilot is a tiny bit smaller than a 28mm.. but it's not something you're going to notice honestly. I plan on leaving the pilot out.. when you have it closed you can't see if there's someone in it and I will have it open for display in an open mechbay scene so empty seat is better for me.
Thank you for the feedback.
That is what worries me with these kits. 1/48 Model railroad people are usually bigger than 28mm, 32mm heroic etc...
MLaw wrote: adamsouza - I just got that kit in.. it's what we were talking about. The pilot is a tiny bit smaller than a 28mm.. but it's not something you're going to notice honestly. I plan on leaving the pilot out.. when you have it closed you can't see if there's someone in it and I will have it open for display in an open mechbay scene so empty seat is better for me.
Thank you for the feedback.
That is what worries me with these kits. 1/48 Model railroad people are usually bigger than 28mm, 32mm heroic etc...
Are you talking about O scale Model Railroad? Remember that those are not a perfect match and a lot less care is given to making them size appropriate than the O scale trains. They are intended to be background elements on a table or barely visible inside a building or in a train car. I mentioned having a 1/48 Hasegawa YF-19 earlier.. I matched him up more or less perfectly to quite a few of my 28mm figures. GW stuff is clownish and oversized.. I'm sorry.. heroic scaled.. so it doesn't always match properly. I also have some Revell, airfix, and Tamiya 1/48 kits and have compared things like seat size, height of windows, diameter of wheels, and where possible, size of people. A lot of 1/48 stuff seemed small at first due to all the heroic scale I had worked with but if you pay attention to guys like Dwartist or some of the others out there, you see them using the kits and it looks natural when photographed. That said, there are some 1/48 kits.. especially slightly older ones, that just don't match up. I do have an old Tamiya 1/48 troop transport truck (I'd have to look at the name) and it seems to be closer to the 1/56-1/60 side of things.. but I believe it was originally tooled before the advent of digital model planning as it currently exists.
When I start assembling the Patlabor kit I will set the pilot aside. I have a GW gunner from the old IG stuff who is in a similar position along with an I-Kore void 28mm chaingunner who is curled into a firing position... it should give you a good idea of the size difference. Someone else posted the 1/48 Ingram kit we're discussing a page or two ago. It has a nice, substantial feel. If you see the show or movies, these vehicles are large but they're not really Gundam or Ultraman sized. More like Stay Puft Marshmallow Man or maybe the newer King Kong sized.
That was me that posted the Ingram. It's standing next to some Mantic Enforcers so you can get a sense of the scale. Check my gallery if you want to see more pics.
Currently I'm pondering the Bandai Hobby Alexander Type-02 Ryo Custom 1/35 Code Geass
It's only 6" tall, about the same as an Imperial Knight, but it has a feminine, agile form, and big choppy weapon that reminds me of a Necron Warscythe.
Lol, I have that one too. It isn't a very good kit though. It's arms are extremely floppy and poorly designed. Plus, all of the blue bits are stickers. Stickers that don't fit well. on the plus side, Bandai underscaled them and they're actually closer to 1/48 than 1/35. If you're after a Code Geass kit, I would recommend either the Vincent or the Gurren. Those two are much better models.
Barzam wrote: Lol, I have that one too. It isn't a very good kit though. It's arms are extremely floppy and poorly designed. Plus, all of the blue bits are stickers. Stickers that don't fit well. on the plus side, Bandai underscaled them and they're actually closer to 1/48 than 1/35. If you're after a Code Geass kit, I would recommend either the Vincent or the Gurren. Those two are much better models.
Ah Crap, I went and ordered on from Amazon after posting that.
On the plus side, I plan on gluing and painting it, so I guess I don't have to worry about it being floppy, and the stickers, too much.
Hmm.. borderline off topic but do you guys know of a place that has tutorials for re-painting the mecha toys? I've been watching videos on painting gundam kits but finding a tutorial covering getting one of these articulated toys to become permenantly posed and/or prep it for paint (probably not in that order) could be helpful.
It seems like step by step assembly kits are either painted in individual pieces or in similar sections. I'm thinking the toys would be painted more traditionally (maybe?)..
Either way, it's cool to see all these links for kits and toys and stuff but not knowing how to get them into a suitable perma-pose for gaming could be a hindrance.
Eh, most kits and toys these days are actually molded in those colors. Paint apps aren't cheap, after all. I wouldn't recommend painting Robot Spirits or the older Mobile Suit In Action toys though. Or really any Gundam toys at all. The PVC they use does not take paint well. I tried customizing some MSIA back in the day and wound up turning them into gooey messes.
What about the ones like Revoltech or Lost Planet or Yamato? Oh.. or Zoids? There are some of each of those that I was specifically wanting to buy and paint in specialized colors.
Is it spray paint that messes them up? I have an airbrush but I don't know if that matters..
Automatically Appended Next Post: Oh also.. This is roughly 1/48 scale from what I understand. I didn't see it mentioned in this thread.. and it's kinda cool if you like GitS
I ordered one.. It's going to be here in roughly.. a while.. If I had not read an actual review of it, I wouldn't have trusted it at all. I will be building it pronto when it comes in.
Zoids are models. You're fine painting them whether they're the TakaraTomy wind up ones, the TakaraTomy 1/144 poseable ones, or the HMM Kotobukiya ones.
Revoltech... hmm. I know I tried painting some years ago, but I don't remember if it worked very well. I think it did work on them.
Lost Planet only has a pair of mech toys Kotobukiya released (with repaints). They're using a softer PVC feeling material, so I wouldn't recommend painting. They look nice out of the box anyway, so why bother? There's supposed to be some 1/18 figures, but who knows if those will ever actually see a release.
Barzam wrote: Zoids are models. You're fine painting them whether they're the TakaraTomy wind up ones, the TakaraTomy 1/144 poseable ones, or the HMM Kotobukiya ones.
Revoltech... hmm. I know I tried painting some years ago, but I don't remember if it worked very well. I think it did work on them.
Lost Planet only has a pair of mech toys Kotobukiya released (with repaints). They're using a softer PVC feeling material, so I wouldn't recommend painting. They look nice out of the box anyway, so why bother? There's supposed to be some 1/18 figures, but who knows if those will ever actually see a release.
Re- The Lost Planet stuff.. what scale are the current ones? I want them for a kind of Neo-Soviets type of thing for Tomorrow's War and possibly other systems. The Neo-Soviets I'm doing will be mostly in olive green but will have red stars and hammer and sickle type things as well as various hull markings.
I think I'm going to be able to do the diorama I want with this Patlabor kit.. I'm going to be building a mechbay with Deadzone terrain and probably a movable maintenance ladder type thing mounted on the back of either the Ratgard or Puppetwars sci-fi utility type vehicles.
I've been looking at the One-Page 40k rules for this type of thing.. since so much of it is abstracted for that system, I'm contemplating using it for my Sci-Fi stuff that isn't 40k.. like Mecha, cyberpunk type stuff, hard sci-fi, Halo stuff etc etc.. I've been trying to crack into Tomorrow's War and 5150 (I bought the books for both) but I keep feeling like they're both a little over-designed and a bit hard to get around. Any recommendations?
MLaw wrote: Hmm.. borderline off topic but do you guys know of a place that has tutorials for re-painting the mecha toys? I've been watching videos on painting gundam kits but finding a tutorial covering getting one of these articulated toys to become permenantly posed and/or prep it for paint (probably not in that order) could be helpful.
It seems like step by step assembly kits are either painted in individual pieces or in similar sections. I'm thinking the toys would be painted more traditionally (maybe?)..
Either way, it's cool to see all these links for kits and toys and stuff but not knowing how to get them into a suitable perma-pose for gaming could be a hindrance.
Perma-pose is easy.
1-Buy some water-thin superglue (I prefer BSI "Instacure") or plastic solvent (I prefer orange label Plastruct "Plastic Weld"). I usually use plastic solvent, but if any of the joints have the vinyl flexible joint pieces you will have to use superglue instead.
2- If using the superglue Pierce the tip with the smallest pin you can (a craft store will sell you really fine pins for really cheap).
3-Simply drop a tiny drop of glue onto each joint. A water-thin glue will be drawn into the joint and will freeze it up
4-repeat the process a few times for big joints or those that suck up alot of glue, However, if you wait between drops to let the previous drop dry you'll actually get a faster drying time.
If the joints hold their pose pretty well, you may want to leave a few major joints moveable (shoulders and waist for example). Being able to lower the arms can make it alot easier to store the models for transport and they will take up alot less room. One last tip, instead of buying plastic glue, you can just buy MEK at the hardware store. It's the main ingredient in Plastic Weld and you can use a needle to apply it. Stinks to high heaven but works a charm. If I run out of Plastic Weld sometimes I just pour some MEK in the bottle.
I've got a variety of toys and models for mech gaming and there's really not much difference between the two. Sometimes toys are even easier because they come pre assembled and or pre-painted and often don't have as many points of articulation. Also, toys that screw together are often easy to disassemble to convert or paint in sections.
The Kotobukiya Lost Planet toys are 1/35. The Hardballer you could fudge the scale on since it's fully enclosed, but the Drio would be a bit harder since it has an oopen cockpit very clearly scaled to 1/35.
Barzam wrote: Unicron ought to be in head mode being worshipped by Chaos Cultists.
nice collection. I see more than a few Japanese Teansformers in there.
Thanks. Yeah, I go with TakTomy versions when they have the clearly better/more accurate scheme(Henkei Astrotrain, Legends Windblade, etc.) or have no American release(Prime Unicron, Jet Vehicons, Go! Predacons, the Mountain Dew bot, etc.).
MLaw wrote: Thanks for that!
I have plasticweld.. that MEK tip is a life saver though since plastic weld can be hard to come by.
What do you typically use for Mech gaming as far as rules?
Happy to help! The MEK is super volatile. Doesn't much affect using it to freeze joints or when applying to already joined pieces, but if you use it as a regular glue (as I often end up doing) you have to put it on a bit thicker and get the pieces together a bit quicker.
As for rules we use "Mech Attack!". It's nominally 15mm, but doubling the ranges works quite well for 28mm play. It's really fast play, but has enough BT'ish elements (heat, customizable mecha, varried weapons, damage grid, etc) that it feels kind of BT'ish even though it plays in about 1/4 the time with 1/10th the rules.
I bought an printed Mech Attach, but gave up on it after assembling a few printed mechs. Using the box of Mechwarrior clix I have collecting dust seems like an attractive alternative
adamsouza wrote: I bought an printed Mech Attach, but gave up on it after assembling a few printed mechs. Using the box of Mechwarrior clix I have collecting dust seems like an attractive alternative
I never bothered with the paper mechs. They're nice enough if you're into that, but I've got no interest in paper gaming and bought it specifically for use with Mechwarrior clix figs which were both plentiful and cheap at the time (about 4 years ago). The club bought some huge lots and we divided them by faction so most of us didn't even have to do any painting beyond the basing and ballast. There are still deals to be had, but you have to do some searching.
Mech Attack is good for up to about 10 units per person. For bigger games, we use either Alpha Strike or our version of the 2 page ultra-light free ruleset "Panzer 8 Sci-Fi". I cleaned up the layout, made some army lists and slightly modified the indirect fire rule for our club's variant. I uploaded it to Dakka in this topic.
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/504811.page It's extremely streamlined, but makes it possible to fight out really massive battles in a reasonable amount of time.
Adam that picture you posted up toward the top of the page makes me interested in watching Code Geass! Definitely moved it up in my "to watch" list, as that mech model looks awesome.
ultimentra wrote: Adam that picture you posted up toward the top of the page makes me interested in watching Code Geass! Definitely moved it up in my "to watch" list, as that mech model looks awesome.
I tried watching it last night.. it's a little .. I dunno.. it's like Voltron but all the team members take themselves waaaaay too seriously..Maybe that was just 1st episode syndrome but I went back to watching Psychopass. I've just finished up GitS 2nd Gig as well.
Thanks for the links to those rules. Has anyone checked out the rules for Mechadrome? The way it plays, it kinda seems like mechs maybe in the 7" and under range could fit in..
Do you mean table top or electronic games? The only one I really know of is electronic game called Gundam Breaker, although it isn't really tied into Build Fighters as it is set in that type of universe (build your gundam any way you want and fight). The issue as you can imagine with any game of this nature is proper balance.
Is level 5 involved with Build Fighter like they were with Gundam Age?
The Gundam Age games on the PSP were pretty decent they made- they used the Daball Senki games as a base they built upon.
I saw in the latest Coro Coro my kid got some new mojibakeru kits that would make for some pretty sweet golems. They look a little larger than the regular mojibakeru (these are shin mojibakeru zeta series, so yeah, they're a bit bigger) and a bit more articulated.
Mojibakeru if you don't know are model kits that usually look like kanji/ hiragana/ katakana letters, and then transform into whatever their words/ letters represent.
You guys can have your expensive 7000+ yen plus Kotobukiya kits. I'll stick with my 200 yen supermarket crack.
Found an interesting old Hasegawa kit in Denden town Osaka,
Spoiler:
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Not sure what size it will be as the parts are quite small, i will keep it as original as possible maybe only adding some magnets for
attaching weapons.
I'm still not 100% sure what Build Fighters is, but I do like some of the kits. I picked up Gundam Fenice Rinascita this weekend and it looks nice. The first Gundam I was ever exposed to was Gundam Wing on Cartoon Network and Wing Gundam was my first ever Gundam kit, so buying the super fancy version of it made me a tad nostalgic.
Sidstyler wrote: I'm still not 100% sure what Build Fighters is, but I do like some of the kits. I picked up Gundam Fenice Rinascita this weekend and it looks nice. The first Gundam I was ever exposed to was Gundam Wing on Cartoon Network and Wing Gundam was my first ever Gundam kit, so buying the super fancy version of it made me a tad nostalgic.
Build Fighters is just one of the more recent series, like Gundam Wing or G-Gundam. Just this time instead of being a political/war anime or super robot fighting anime, its a 'Lets use Gundams as a super advanced version of Ex Illis' series.
MLaw wrote: What is the raptor dreadnought.. it looks like the ED-209 from the new Robocop.
It is, it is a gashapon figure
Sidstyler wrote: I'm still not 100% sure what Build Fighters is, but I do like some of the kits. I picked up Gundam Fenice Rinascita this weekend and it looks nice. The first Gundam I was ever exposed to was Gundam Wing on Cartoon Network and Wing Gundam was my first ever Gundam kit, so buying the super fancy version of it made me a tad nostalgic.
I wouldn't say it's "Gundam kiddie version" That is grossly inaccurate.
Gundam Build Fighters is a series that takes place in the somewhat near future, Gunpla has exploded in popularity due to a company that produces a battle system for builders to "fight" their gunpla in. To understand some of the finer points of modeling the series demonstrates, you'd have to have some prior knowledge about modeling and the hobby in particular. Like for example the episode where Sei and Reiji fight against the Sengoku Astray they used Super glue in the joints to keep Star-Build Strike's arms from shattering in close combat.
More recently in Gundam Build Fighters Try, to fully realize how incredible some features are, you'd have to know how hard it is to model something the size of a piece of Nerds candy... (The Carel units from 00 are what I'm talking about) Also the scratch build stuff they show is really innovative. For example the Crossbone Gundam Full Cloth didn't have its' core-fighter modeled in the 1/144 HG kit, the build fighter using it modeled his own and it functioned perfectly.
I really like it, and I'm no kid. So I find the dumbing down of the series by calling it "kiddie version" kind of insulting to be honest.
00 before that was the last good Gundam series I had seen, 00 literally revitalized my love of Gundam. Especially since my first exposure was Gundam Wing and in my later years I realized how bad that series was. lol
Gundam Build Fighters is a series that takes place in the somewhat near future, Gunpla has exploded in popularity due to a company that produces a battle system for builders to "fight" their gunpla in. To understand some of the finer points of modeling the series demonstrates, you'd have to have some prior knowledge about modeling and the hobby in particular. Like for example the episode where Sei and Reiji fight against the Sengoku Astray they used Super glue in the joints to keep Star-Build Strike's arms from shattering in close combat.
More recently in Gundam Build Fighters Try, to fully realize how incredible some features are, you'd have to know how hard it is to model something the size of a piece of Nerds candy... (The Carel units from 00 are what I'm talking about) Also the scratch build stuff they show is really innovative. For example the Crossbone Gundam Full Cloth didn't have its' core-fighter modeled in the 1/144 HG kit, the build fighter using it modeled his own and it functioned perfectly.
I really like it, and I'm no kid. So I find the dumbing down of the series by calling it "kiddie version" kind of insulting to be honest.
00 before that was the last good Gundam series I had seen, 00 literally revitalized my love of Gundam. Especially since my first exposure was Gundam Wing and in my later years I realized how bad that series was. lol
I liked Gundam when it was about the horrors of war and not about sell as many as model kits as possible, I didn't mind Gundam wing that much, i didn't like the strange Gundam designs that came straight out of a video game instead of being practical
(ok practical is nonsens) but the original series had some basic design rules, those seem to been thrown out of the window. And i am not talking about the difficulty of the model kits i am talking about the concept of the anime gearing more to the kids, Gun pla fighting what the hell has that to do with Original Gundam, i don't like it, and it is my opinion deal with it.
And i am sorry but i live in Japan and this series is geared towards children, the model kits depend on the grade, but even kids here have no problem with more higher grade kits, they grew up on pla models and are drowning in that shi..stuff.
Gundam Build Fighters is a series that takes place in the somewhat near future, Gunpla has exploded in popularity due to a company that produces a battle system for builders to "fight" their gunpla in. To understand some of the finer points of modeling the series demonstrates, you'd have to have some prior knowledge about modeling and the hobby in particular. Like for example the episode where Sei and Reiji fight against the Sengoku Astray they used Super glue in the joints to keep Star-Build Strike's arms from shattering in close combat.
More recently in Gundam Build Fighters Try, to fully realize how incredible some features are, you'd have to know how hard it is to model something the size of a piece of Nerds candy... (The Carel units from 00 are what I'm talking about) Also the scratch build stuff they show is really innovative. For example the Crossbone Gundam Full Cloth didn't have its' core-fighter modeled in the 1/144 HG kit, the build fighter using it modeled his own and it functioned perfectly.
I really like it, and I'm no kid. So I find the dumbing down of the series by calling it "kiddie version" kind of insulting to be honest.
00 before that was the last good Gundam series I had seen, 00 literally revitalized my love of Gundam. Especially since my first exposure was Gundam Wing and in my later years I realized how bad that series was. lol
I liked Gundam when it was about the horrors of war and not about sell as many as model kits as possible, I didn't mind Gundam wing that much, i didn't like the strange Gundam designs that came straight out of a video game instead of being practical
(ok practical is nonsens) but the original series had some basic design rules, those seem to been thrown out of the window. And i am not talking about the difficulty of the model kits i am talking about the concept of the anime gearing more to the kids, Gun pla fighting what the hell has that to do with Original Gundam, i don't like it, and it is my opinion deal with it.
And i am sorry but i live in Japan and this series is geared towards children, the model kits depend on the grade, but even kids here have no problem with more higher grade kits, they grew up on pla models and are drowning in that shi..stuff.
Being a fun series instead of being uber serious does not equate to being meant for children.
I'm an adult and I like GBF. It's about time they did something fun rather than uber serious and "horrors of war" thing.
I greatly enjoy Adventure Time, but I'm not going to pretend that it's not a kids' show. Similarly, Transformers Prime was excellent, but it was a kids' show made to market toys.
I have no opinion on Build Fighters, but there's no need to take "kids' show" as an insult.
Frozen Ocean wrote: I greatly enjoy Adventure Time, but I'm not going to pretend that it's not a kids' show. Similarly, Transformers Prime was excellent, but it was a kids' show made to market toys.
I have no opinion on Build Fighters, but there's no need to take "kids' show" as an insult.
Its a kids show but some of us never grew up, so thats fine.
Frozen Ocean wrote: I greatly enjoy Adventure Time, but I'm not going to pretend that it's not a kids' show. Similarly, Transformers Prime was excellent, but it was a kids' show made to market toys.
I have no opinion on Build Fighters, but there's no need to take "kids' show" as an insult.
Its a kids show but some of us never grew up, so thats fine.
True, but it's important to remember that things made for/marketed at children can still be high quality fiction. Probably the best example of this is Avatar: The Last Airbender (the cartoon).
Frozen Ocean wrote:I greatly enjoy Adventure Time, but I'm not going to pretend that it's not a kids' show. Similarly, Transformers Prime was excellent, but it was a kids' show made to market toys.
I have no opinion on Build Fighters, but there's no need to take "kids' show" as an insult.
Frozen Ocean wrote:I greatly enjoy Adventure Time, but I'm not going to pretend that it's not a kids' show. Similarly, Transformers Prime was excellent, but it was a kids' show made to market toys.
I have no opinion on Build Fighters, but there's no need to take "kids' show" as an insult.
One might say Adventure Time has an underlying, very adult theme that no child could pick up on. It's not like it's very apparent but it's some subtle things you pick up on.
Being a fun series instead of being uber serious does not equate to being meant for children.
I'm an adult and I like GBF. It's about time they did something fun rather than uber serious and "horrors of war" thing.
It's a kid's show, to be sure, but it's a kid's show that only an adult will get all the jokes in.
I've never met many kids under the age of 16 that were very interested in plamo/Gunpla, or that could really understand many different techniques in modeling. GBF has no toy market, it's all Gunpla. Some of the HG customization kits they've released too would drive any kid insane trying to construct the customized Gunpla.
I've never met many kids under the age of 16 that were very interested in plamo/Gunpla, or that could really understand many different techniques in modeling. GBF has no toy market, it's all Gunpla. Some of the HG customization kits they've released too would drive any kid insane trying to construct the customized Gunpla.
Do i have to iterate again that in Japan they do and the amount of types of gundam kits here in Japan is staggering, they still sell the 80's style kids so kids can start on those, even SD Gundam kits are of higher level than the ones i had as a kid. And yes it is a kiddie show, The original Japanese power rangers have people die in them, and a lot of anime geared in the west towards young adults is considered is shown in the kids segment here.
I've never met many kids under the age of 16 that were very interested in plamo/Gunpla, or that could really understand many different techniques in modeling. GBF has no toy market, it's all Gunpla. Some of the HG customization kits they've released too would drive any kid insane trying to construct the customized Gunpla.
Do i have to iterate again that in Japan they do and the amount of types of gundam kits here in Japan is staggering, they still sell the 80's style kids so kids can start on those, even SD Gundam kits are of higher level than the ones i had as a kid. And yes it is a kiddie show, The original Japanese power rangers have people die in them, and a lot of anime geared in the west towards young adults is considered is shown in the kids segment here.
Again, what may be "kiddie" there isn't "kiddie" here, and the gross overgeneralization of GBF as "kiddie" anything is staggeringly inaccurate.
It's a good series, and in my opinion, when it's described as "kiddie" that makes it sound more simple than it really is. It doesn't do the series justice in terms of entertainment levels.
Sure, some of the humor is campy, but what the hell do you expect from a series whose entire purpose is to peddle plastic crack!?
And about Super Sentai, a lot of series before Zyuranger were really really adult-themed, almost to the point of not being meant for young viewers. They didn't really start toning it down until a couple series *before* Zyuranger.
Either way, You can't dismiss GBF by saying it's "kiddie" it has real entertainment value to adults, like me, and more. Before GBF, I hadn't even thought of touching gunpla ever since Gundam wing. They're making some really good kits now and as someone who likes background in addition to good looking mecha, I liked the series before the gunpla. There are some pretty decent personal conflicts in the story and overall you can feel the characters growing as the series goes on. Something a lot of "kiddie" shows lack these days.
Well in the west this maybe considered for young adults but in Japan this is geared at young kids and young adults. The gundam shows were always created to sell model kits, but the recent series have been even more focused on selling kits than on the story.
The whole concept of the anime makes it in the same line as Pokemon, Digimon, Yugioh, beyblade, bakugan, medabots, Duel Masters etcetera , so IMHO it puts it the children bracket, that in some countries that deem any children show that has some adult themes in at as being not for kids are being over protective IMHO. Gundam was always about the horrors of war and that there were no clear cut good guys or bad guys, turning Gundam into an "Angelic Layers" with mecha, really makes me cringe.
Jehan-reznor wrote: Well in the west this maybe considered for young adults but in Japan this is geared at young kids and young adults. The gundam shows were always created to sell model kits, but the recent series have been even more focused on selling kits than on the story.
The whole concept of the anime makes it in the same line as Pokemon, Digimon, Yugioh, beyblade, bakugan, medabots, Duel Masters etcetera , so IMHO it puts it the children bracket, that in some countries that deem any children show that has some adult themes in at as being not for kids are being over protective IMHO. Gundam was always about the horrors of war and that there were no clear cut good guys or bad guys, turning Gundam into an "Angelic Layers" with mecha, really makes me cringe.
Lets just agree to disagree.
Except "Angelic Layer" didn't last too long because it was kinda cruddy to begin with? Ooh, fighting dolls, [barf]
The idea of customizing Gunpla and etc has been around forever, Bandai is just now capitalizing on it. People have been craving better kits from them for a while, and they're finally doing it.
Trust me, I read the plot for "angelic layer" and it sounded like crap. I guess you could say one element from the plot was taken for the plot of GBF-Try, In that the main character has no clue about gunpla, but then learns to love it. Except the person tutoring him etc isn't the creator of the Battle system, etc. It's just an older student at the same school. (Which is far more believable than this "angelic layer" thing you keep talking about)
Plus, the idea is as generic as they come, people build models, it'd be cool to battle those models, BOOM, you've got a series geared around Gunpla building and fighting.
Seriously, there's like one or two parallels between the two series, and if it weren't good it wouldn't have returned for a 2nd season.
(Plus, I like the mecha being produced from the new series, I wasn't a big fan of the original Wing-Zero, but I absolutely love Wing Gundam Zero Honoo, Gundam Fenice, and Build-Strike, because I absolutely hated Gundam Seed)
Yeah, I get it, "horrors of war" blah blah blah, You know, that trope gets old quickly, right? Gotta change things up to keep it fresh. otherwise, you run the risk of stagnation. Look at GW, they've stagnated on 40K because they haven't advanced the plot and it's still the same war war war, blah blah blah.
There's a reason this "angelic layer" thing only lasted a short time, and There's a reason why GBF is so successful. Instead of writing it off, you should at least give it a chance.
Gonna do a little thread necromancy here, but this may be of interest to others (or maybe just me). Apparently, Kotobukiya is going to be making models of the mechs from the new Xenoblade game.
It transforms, too.
Previews of the game have shown some mechs with aerial alt modes, too. So, there's probably a very good chance we'll be seeing more mechs than just this one. No info yet though regarding scale or price. I'd love it if they also happened to grab the license for Xenogears, but I'm sure nobody's ever going to make models of the mechs from that game.
Automatically Appended Next Post: This Armored Core robot tank is 22 cm long. The hull could be used for some kind of SF vehicle (APC, etc) and the gun arms would be good for conversions.
-DE- wrote: Very, very nice. Is there an ETA for this?
There was absolutely no info given with the pics, so no clue about ETA. But, given that Kotobukiya tends to show things off well in advance of their release (crazy, huh?), the earliest I think we could expect this is probably September. But, I think it's more likely to be either October or November since their summer releases have already been announced.
Depending on the size I might be sold for count as!
Kotobukiya tends to scale their kits so that they generally clock in around the same size. Looking closer at the kit, it looks like it may be using a Frame Arm Architect as a base. So, it looks like it'll be the same size as the rest of the Frame Arms line. Kotobukiya used Frame Arms as a base for their Border Break line, so it's not surprising to see them do it again here.
Oh, and that Armored Core V tank type?
Looks pretty cool. It's been a while since they made some non-humanoid leg types. This thing is going to be pretty big though. And expensive.
It's also going to have bonus parts to allow you to mount non-Armored Core V torsos to it.
adamsouza wrote: I could use a Soulgrinder for my Chaos Daemons. Can anyone think of a mecha kit with 4 or more legs about the right size ?
Maybe the Dust Tactics Allied "fireball".
Here's one someone here at dakka repainted. The stock mech comes in plain green with two different choices for the main gun.
Barzam wrote:
Soul Grinder, Defiler, or Mechanicus super heavy tank!
Made by Kotobukiya. All plastic, 1/35 scale, fully articulated, too.
Small detail missing, what's it called ?
Eilif wrote:
Maybe the Dust Tactics Allied "fireball".
I had thought about the Dust Tactics stuff, but after looking at pictures in the Alternative AdMech Models thread, they seem too large. Although, it might be worth it just to rip a pair of legs off one, if they were sexy enough.
Barzam wrote:
Soul Grinder, Defiler, or Mechanicus super heavy tank!
Made by Kotobukiya. All plastic, 1/35 scale, fully articulated, too.
Small detail missing, what's it called ?
Eilif wrote:
Maybe the Dust Tactics Allied "fireball".
I had thought about the Dust Tactics stuff, but after looking at pictures in the Alternative AdMech Models thread, they seem too large. Although, it might be worth it just to rip a pair of legs off one, if they were sexy enough.
Kinex did a line of Titanfall toys. The Atlas and Ogre Mechs stand almost 11" tall and retail for about $40. The line is underperforming and can bought on clearance for around $20 for the mech kits (Target, Amazon, AC Moore)
Atlas
Ogre
I bought and built the Atlas kit. It's pretty close to a Forgeworld Cerastus Imperial Knight in size. Although it does, in truth, stand about a heads, height taller my Cerastus Knight.
I have the early Guntank in my shopping cart, but I'm waiting for a couple of other releases to ship it all together. The original Guntank is kind of goofy looking, but the Early type is an excellent example of how to revamp an old design and make it appealing to a new generation.
In other news, this summer Kotobukiya is putting out a proper injection kit of Shin Getter-1! Can't tell you how long I've been waiting for it to come out!
adamsouza wrote: Kinex did a line of Titanfall toys. The Atlas and Ogre Mechs stand almost 11" tall and retail for about $40. The line is underperforming and can bought on clearance for around $20 for the mech kits (Target, Amazon, AC Moore)
Spoiler:
Atlas
Ogre
I bought and built the Atlas kit. It's pretty close to a Forgeworld Cerastus Imperial Knight in size. Although it does, in truth, stand about a heads, height taller my Cerastus Knight.
Those are very nice. I'd been thinking about a hulk buster Iron Man as a knight but these are nice too.
Cyporiean wrote: built the Origin Zaku II today, this rifle is ridiculous.
very nice
i think i have a zaku or 2 somewhere i still need to build myself.....but then i'd have to once again face the fact i've yet to get around to repainting any of them
So, how awesome are the old zeon mechs for the adept us mechanicus robot! I have to get down and pick some up I say at a second hand/retro store I found. Might cost me $10 for three of them
I always liked the Space 1999 Eagle, it looked... plausible as a space craft in a way that few sci-fi vehicles do. All the exposed pipes, the flexible cargo bay, the prominent thrusters, it looks like something designed to work.
1/72 is a bit small but there aren't that many details on it that can't be fudged for 28mm.
I have a dream of getting like 5 of these and building a rural space port board where they'd just serve as terrain.
I always liked the Space 1999 Eagle, it looked... plausible as a space craft in a way that few sci-fi vehicles do. All the exposed pipes, the flexible cargo bay, the prominent thrusters, it looks like something designed to work.
1/72 is a bit small but there aren't that many details on it that can't be fudged for 28mm.
I have a dream of getting like 5 of these and building a rural space port board where they'd just serve as terrain.
Awesome! There was a book I used to check out from the library when I was a kid and I think it showed how to do a bit of detailing and improving this kit. Though compared to today it was a bit simplistic, I was really taken by the kit at the time.
I've also been dreaming about a spaceport board. I've finally got enough spacecraft'ish vehicles, but just no time to get it done. This would be another great addition.
Is the Star Trek Runabout still in production? That's another great large'sih kit that I wish I'd bought back in the day. It's bigger than a Valk.
lasgunpacker wrote: $20.89 at Hobbylinc Kyoto... so for a measly $100 you could have your rural spaceport.
5x Eagles (plus whatever Star Wars/Trek models I have)
Reaper shipping crates
Dust quanset huts
a crane from a construction toy
some picture frames or plates to serve as landing pads
Toy trucks, fork lifts, etc
Holy crap! A Tect garage kit! I don't think I've seen one of those things in over 15 years! You need to post more pics of that in your plog. I've always been curious how those late '90s. ear;u 2000's garage kits are. Tect's stuff was all non-poseable, right? If only you had some of Kotobukiya's Front Mission garage kits, too.
The Ishtar is a very nice kit. I've got the sister kit "Shinden". If it's like Shinden it's actually great for 28mm and with a bit of work you can fit a 28/25mm figure in the cockpit.
New Gundam series had its full reveal today. The show is going to be called Gundam Tekketsu: The Iron-Blooded Orphans. Bandai showed off a bunch of new models for the line as well. Much like Reconguista, it looks like this series will, at the very least have very cool designs. So, even if the show is total crap like Reconguista, at least the models kits will be good.
Bad guy suits, Grays
Land and space type Grays
Don't know what these are, but I want them all.
And, I guess there's a Gundam, too.
The Gundam itself is called the Gundam Barbatos and it looks like there's a theme of customizeability to the whole series. Apparently the Gundam itself is a salvaged wreck that will be getting frequent upgrades as the show goes on. Apparently the main cast will be scavenging and cannibalizing other Mobile Suits to upgrade the Barbatos. So, of course that means this will be represented in the line. There's already a weapon set announced (with a mini MS included) and the 1/100 Barbatos will have a full internal skeleton.
There was supposed to be an announcement about plot details in English, but all I found so far was a Google translated version. It sounds vaguely similar to the setting of Gundam X, being post apocalyptic, but with society rebuilding itself. The details I got mentioned that the Earth Federation or whatever its equivalent in this alternate universe is has collapsed, but society is on the mend. The main cast is a bunch of war orphaned child soldiers who are part of a PMC. There was mention of Mars in the details, but the translation was so bad, I couldn't make much sense of it. It's possible that Martians will be the baddies this time around. The preview showed some imperialistic looking Spacenoids, so I'm guessing they're the Martians. It'll be nice to see a Gundam series (that isn't AGE) leave the Earth Sphere.
Oh, I should probably mention, the kits are due to begin releasing in October.
Hopefully the show is better than Gundam X. I'm not sold on the new Gundam just yet (unlike G-Self, which was a love at first sight), but the grunts look cool and unorthodox for Gundam; no Zaku look-alikes this time, yeah!
Judging by the armaments, the show will focus on close quarters combat. Hopefully again, it won't be as lame as G Gundam.
After doing a bit of research - is it just me or is Bandai ripping off Kotobukiya's Frame Arms line?
By having the internal frames and modular builds? Nah, that same concept was used way back in G-Savior. They just didn't actually implement it with the one whole kit they made. Unless you're referring to the mechs' designs looking like Frame Arms? In which case, it looks like they might be using multiple mecha designers on this one.
The Grays are total Zakus though. I love their designs. They remind me of the Sleipnir from Aldnoah Zero mixed with a Leo.
I'm going to ignore those comments about X and G though. Blasphemy.
After doing a bit of research - is it just me or is Bandai ripping off Kotobukiya's Frame Arms line?
If the skeleton is anything like the one on the RG kits, the big difference between the Bandai kits and the Frame Arms line is that the skeleton in the Bandai model is going to be "all assembly required".
And that style of skeleton dates back to the 1/60 Perfect Grade models, and Bandai has been slowly adapting smaller kits to use the same sort of skeleton.
After doing a bit of research - is it just me or is Bandai ripping off Kotobukiya's Frame Arms line?
If the skeleton is anything like the one on the RG kits, the big difference between the Bandai kits and the Frame Arms line is that the skeleton in the Bandai model is going to be "all assembly required".
And that style of skeleton dates back to the 1/60 Perfect Grade models, and Bandai has been slowly adapting smaller kits to use the same sort of skeleton.
I know that. I was alluding more to the cross-compatibility between kits that appears to be the main feature of the new line (might be wrong, though). Which is coincidentally the selling point of Frame Arms.
Those really are nice! The Grays are particularly slick. Forgive my ignorance, but about what size and price will these be?
10-15 bucks in Japan and 12-13 cm tall for a regular 1/144 High Grade kit.
After doing a bit of research - is it just me or is Bandai ripping off Kotobukiya's Frame Arms line?
If the skeleton is anything like the one on the RG kits, the big difference between the Bandai kits and the Frame Arms line is that the skeleton in the Bandai model is going to be "all assembly required".
And that style of skeleton dates back to the 1/60 Perfect Grade models, and Bandai has been slowly adapting smaller kits to use the same sort of skeleton.
I know that. I was alluding more to the cross-compatibility between kits that appears to be the main feature of the new line (might be wrong, though). Which is coincidentally the selling point of Frame Arms.
So you meant "not ripping off", because the two companies are both competent at what they do.
C3 Hobby Show is going on right now in Japan. Most of what I've seen is uninteresting or we've already seen it. However, new Gundam stuff has been shown along with confirmation that this new show is actually going to be set on Mars and that the main cast are Martians. Earth is confirmed to be the bad guys.
But you don't care about a show's plot details, you're interested in the stompy mechs, and there's new pics of those funky bad guy mecha.
Feast your eyes upon these beauties!
A new variant of the Graze was revealed.
more conversion/weapon sets revealed as well. (spoiler'd due to size)
Spoiler:
There's new Build Fighters Try stuff too.
And this is a legitimate kit that Bandai is going to release.
There is supposed to be some cross compatibility between the 1/144 line. There's some pics floating around from the C3 Hobby Show showing the Barbatos wearing bits of Graze armor.
Vain wrote: Take off the Helmeted head and just put an Infinity scaled head in the chest cockpit area behind the plastic and it would look pretty bad ass.
As blasphemous as removing a zaku- style monoeyed head is, I agree- this thing would look great on the tabletop with a properly scaled head stuck in there.
Well, considering the Metal Gear is 1/100 scale, it's going to be significantly bigger than the Tau mech.
I'm not really a fan of that Metal Gear. It looks too much like the Rex and somehow manages to look far more technologically advanced despite being built a good 20 or so years prior to the Rex. They should've made that thing look more like the original Metal Gear.
It seems that the Gundam Barbatos is out now, or at least early samples have leaked. It looks to be very highly articulated and the 1/144 actually has a full internal frame.
Barzam wrote: Well, considering the Metal Gear is 1/100 scale, it's going to be significantly bigger than the Tau mech.
Shame on you Sir! When it comes to mecha there is no such thing as "too big"
But yes at 1/100 it'd be around 8.6 inches (22cm) in the standard mode if it's on par with the older 1/100 Rex kit and probably be taller than the new FW suit when standing. IMO that's not a bad thing.
Barzam wrote: Well, considering the Metal Gear is 1/100 scale, it's going to be significantly bigger than the Tau mech.
I'm not really a fan of that Metal Gear. It looks too much like the Rex and somehow manages to look far more technologically advanced despite being built a good 20 or so years prior to the Rex. They should've made that thing look more like the original Metal Gear.
Sahelanthropus is only 15 years older than Rex, and even then, Sahel cheated in its functionality.
However, Peace Walker and Metal Gear Zeke were produced 9 years prior to Sahel.
If you want a real wat, look up the Gear REX.
All that being said, I think Sahel would be fine in Rex mode.
Nope, it's actually a 21 year difference between Phantom Pain and Metal Gear Solid. Phantom Pain is set in 1984 and Metal Gear Solid is set in 2005. Sahelanthropus looks like it ought to be one of those Rex derived Metal Gears that was mass produced following the Sons of Liberty incident.
So.. I've been buying up 1:43 and 1:50 and similar die-cast cars for gaming. I was in Wal-Mart and had one in hand.. when I noticed that the vehicle forms for most Transformers ...are also 1:43 (or realllly close). Not all of them obviously.. but considering I'm making custom scenarios with a lot of pop-culture sci-fi, I've found this to be interesting and helpful.
I know that's not cutting edge news and some of you might have noticed it before but it's news to me and I haven't seen it mentioned here.. so there ya go. If anyone is interested, when I have purchased a few I can do comparisons with 28mm figures and die cast vehicles, listing the lines I'm buying from.
Because I think this is the right topic to find some help.
I have an RagingHeroes Iron Empire army and now I search for a heavy walker or battlesuit which fit the style of the army and make it playable as Tau and/or Mechanikum.
(Because I don't want to limit myself to one army or rule set with the models and make a generic SciFi Army sich Infantry, Tanks, Flyers and Mechs)
This is the original IE Mech https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/002/159/754/fcd48590130b03e8ef36e295e4cbf818_large.jpg?1403053385 I want to use the Paulson Games Weapons for the Tanks and Mechs.
For XV88/Dreadnought size I am going to use some old Penitent Engines I have purchased a long time ago.
I also have some Eldar Walkers here and mayor conversions are not the problem (like adding an Penetite Engine like Pilot).
I guess for a Riptide size Mech a 1/144 Gundam has the right size but I it should be a model which has a large jet back and main body. (or a 1/100 model with a small body) An internal skelett would be eine because it makes conversions easier.
For Crisis size I thought of using an 1/144 model sich a small body and cut the legs, hips and arm to Crisis size (but it should not be to extensive).
Did I read correctly that there was another Last Exile show? That was a good one. The CG probably hasn't aged well, but I remember really enjoying the whole show, especially when they started getting in to the detail about their world towards the end of the series.
I liked the flyers the other people used though. Way more funky.
kodos wrote: Because I think this is the right topic to find some help.
I have an RagingHeroes Iron Empire army and now I search for a heavy walker or battlesuit which fit the style of the army and make it playable as Tau and/or Mechanikum.
(Because I don't want to limit myself to one army or rule set with the models and make a generic SciFi Army sich Infantry, Tanks, Flyers and Mechs)
Spoiler:
This is the original IE Mech https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/002/159/754/fcd48590130b03e8ef36e295e4cbf818_large.jpg?1403053385 I want to use the Paulson Games Weapons for the Tanks and Mechs.
For XV88/Dreadnought size I am going to use some old Penitent Engines I have purchased a long time ago.
I also have some Eldar Walkers here and mayor conversions are not the problem (like adding an Penetite Engine like Pilot).
I guess for a Riptide size Mech a 1/144 Gundam has the right size but I it should be a model which has a large jet back and main body. (or a 1/100 model with a small body) An internal skelett would be eine because it makes conversions easier.
For Crisis size I thought of using an 1/144 model sich a small body and cut the legs, hips and arm to Crisis size (but it should not be to extensive).
If someone's worried about Gundam kits being "distinctive", Five Star Stories kits are probably the wrong end of the mecha pool to be jumping into.
If someone's looking at Gundam kits, it's important to know that there are two different types of internal framework being used. The Real Grade kits have a rubberized internal skeleton. Most of the regular kits are plastic frames and polycap rubber joints between the parts. Of course, the 1/60 scale models split the difference by making you assemble a plastic internal skeleton, putting in joints where appropriate, and then adding the armor plating on top.
But for a 1/144 scale model, if you're looking for a large jetpack or something, check out the Build Fighters option and accessory kits. Part of the whole Build Fighters push is to up sales by getting kids to buy customization kits and weapon packs.
For Crisis suit conversions from gundam kits I would recommend SD over 1/144 scale, the chibi style joke kits.
The main torso on a 1/144 kit is 50mm, even with shorter legs you're looking at 100mm high suit.
I picked up a SD kit, used the massive shoulder pads as upper legs and the over sized arms from the kit as lower legs. You would need to find a head, arms and weapons from somewhere else for this conversion, a bits store maybe. Main issue is the suit is quite wide, 28mm across the torso, and around 60mm high.
According to Wookiepedia, an X-wing is about 12.5 meters long. That kit is supposed to be 8.6" long which works out to roughly 1/57. That's close enough to 28mm for my taste.
Yeah, I have been earmarking SW kits that are roughly 28mm. Would love to be able to field an army like that. Some of those vehicles are out of scale and the eras are not right but whatever, it's still cool.
Is that an AT-AT toy, model, or other? It looks about right (I'm sure it's a touch small but it looks right ) I'd say it's close enough to put on my wishlist.
It's about the size of a Riptide. I was planning on using it in a homebrew army I made, but it would also work as a tau battlesuit. The large rifle could be a railgun, considering that the rifle is nearly as long as the model is tall.
It's so cheap too! I also want to grab one of the Astray models and use that one.
My recommendation would be to look to other companies as well. Kotobukiya in particular has risen to prominence in the field of mass market mecha kits. That's actually pretty impressive since they used to be a garage kit manufacturer and now they're pumping out kits that are as detailed and intricate as Bandai's.
Their Super Robot Wars line, though it runs a bit in the larger range of heights, is worth checking out for some seriously kick ass designs. The Guarlion and the Gespenst series kits might interest you.
Also, if you can find them, Kotobukiya's Nadesico line is really VERY nice and seems like it would scale decently. Bandai also put out a Nadesico series of kits based on the tv series. Their kits came out a good long while before the Kotobukiya movie based kits, but they're generally easier to find and cheaper. The Bandai ones are also supposed to be 1/48 scaled, so they'll scale well with your own 40k stuff. The only downside is, like I said, the Bandai line is much older and it shows. The engineering isn't the best on them and the overall mobility of the kits isn't as good as Kotobukiya's. Still, worth checking out, especially for the artillery frame.
Here's a couple of my Kotobukiya kits along with an IG Stormtrooper for scale. On top is the Wildraubtier from Super Robot Wars, a 1/144 scale transforming mech. On the bottom is the Alstroemeria from Kotobukiya's Nadesico: The Prince of Darkness line. It's supposed to be non-scale, but I think it'll blend in well enough. As a bonus, Kotobukiya threw in a pair of enemy drone mecha with the Alstoemeria, too.
I'd like to point out that some of the gundam models have actual working LED lights as well as actual GOLD PLATING. Not fake gold, a few of them have actual gold on them and actual, working electronics inside.
McNinja wrote: I'd like to point out that some of the gundam models have actual working LED lights as well as actual GOLD PLATING. Not fake gold, a few of them have actual gold on them and actual, working electronics inside.
Oh, and they're cheaper than a Stormsurge.
Very few... Generally just the PG/GG Kits that are a few hundred.
Don't recall ever seeing gold in a kit before though.
I assume he's talking about Unicorn unit 3 and the various Hyaku Shiki kits. In which case, no those aren't actual gold. Just chrome or metallic plastic.
Didn't the MG of the 00 have LEDs that could be installed into its GN Drives and head?
Barzam wrote: I assume he's talking about Unicorn unit 3 and the various Hyaku Shiki kits. In which case, no those aren't actual gold. Just chrome or metallic plastic.
Didn't the MG of the 00 have LEDs that could be installed into its GN Drives and head?
He's referring to the 1/100 MG RX-78-2 Gundam Ver.2.0 Pure Gold Plating Ver. whose runners were actually plated in real gold that you then built. There are a few other special pure gold (and silver) plated Gundams as well that Bandai has released for special occasions.
It's a Hasegawa kit, so the quality should be pretty good. They've already made several variants on that mech and they've been out for a while now, so you should probably be able to find one marked down a bit somewhere if you really want to get one. I've been tempted by it for a while as well. Strangely though, I haven't seen any photo reviews of it on the various Japanese sites.
All of those would be way too big to use as proxies for those specific 40k units. Your average Guardsman figure doesn't even come up to the top of the tracks on the Guntank and he doesn't come up to the knees of the regular Suits.
Barzam wrote: All of those would be way too big to use as proxies for those specific 40k units. Your average Guardsman figure doesn't even come up to the top of the tracks on the Guntank and he doesn't come up to the knees of the regular Suits.
I was worried about that, I hoped 1/144 was small enough.
Kid_Kyoto wrote: So yeah, darn, too big for Kastellions or crisis suits, too small for knights.
GW seems to have nothing in the middle (perhaps on purpose or am I giving them too much credit?)
Maybe Ghostkeel sized?
It will be really, really hard to find a gundam kit the size of a crisis suit. The 1/144 size kits are about the size of a riptide, so I'd figure the 1/60 perfect grade kits are about warhound sized at least.
Yeah, the problem is that 1/48 is not a popular scale in Japan for hobbyists. The lines you'd want to look into for stuff around that scale would be Kotobukiya's Nadesico line, which is long out of production, and maybe Bandai's Code Geass line. Their Code Geass series is supposed to be 1/35, but actually clocks in closer to 1/48.
I can however confirm that the Origin style Guntank's footprint is about the same size as the base of the Dunecrawler and is about a head taller than one. You might be able to get away with using the Guntank as a Dunecrawler, but you'd need to do something about the pilot's hatch on the front of it.
