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I was out with my kids looking at nerdy statues and figurines today.

Stumbled upon a tiny hole in the wall "game" store I'd been to in the past- mostly a few shelves and table space for card games.
This place used to stock 40k stuff but stopped mostly due to the customers not liking the designs and preferring a more Japanese aesthetic.

It continually blows my mind that in a country that most people are mindful of how their space is used and optimized we don't see smaller scale stuff more often that fits that design style.

Some companies get it. RN Estudio and Kingdom Death are two that pop into my head pretty quickly. Sodapop newer stuff as well if they'd get their act together. My problem is I want MOAR.

As I go through painting withdrawals for the next few weeks and look for new models to pick up, I need Dakka to help me find the most animu looking character models you can think of.

Hopefully y'all can point me towards things I'm not already familiar with!

Infinity or Tau.

For Gamesworkshop you'll want to look in to the Tau race. They're similar to the Gundum Wing anime tv show that plays all the time.

You can also buy a lot of solo models from anime's that arent fully legal with the IP. I have a handful of Overwatch character rip off models (Mercy) in 28mm and Guts from the popular Berserk comic books (https://forum.reapermini.com/uploads/monthly_01_2017/post-15208-0-32470200-1485371952.jpg)

I'm not really into the culture but most of my friends are Asian. (I prefer Battle Tech +Titanicus aesthetic over Zoids and Gundum Wing)

Infinity, all day.

 DarkBlack wrote:
Tau.

I finally realized I don't like Tau because they're an anime uncanny valley to me. I know they're supposed to look like anime and they kind of look like anime, but the non-genuine qualities just don't sit right with me.

the hard part is thinking of a model range you haven't bought, painted, and sold already.

They're more chibi or video game style, but have you seen the World War Toons tanks from Meng?


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PS: Guys, this is Highlord Tamburlaine, creator of Obscurities in Miniature. Why are you all suggesting Tau and Infinity like you think he's never heard of them?

...Tau? ...Infinity?

Bob's right guys, c'mon. I thought I could get away with not stating the obvious stuff!

I already own plenty of Klukva models, and they're even posted on Dakka already! Hell, they plumbed the depths that is Kingdom Under Fire for their Regnier figure.
I want Korean MMORPG grinder game models even more than anime stuff, and that's probably as close as I'm going to get.

I was somewhat aware of the World War Toon Tanks, but thanks for reminding about them! I may have to get one of those now!

If your checking out the Meng Toon kits have a look at RetroKit https://retrokitonline.net/?s=toon&post_type=product who do resin conversion kits for them,

up till now they've been 'real' stuff but they showed this on facebook with a promise that it's coming soon




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You could also check out the Middara boardgame

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/succubuspublishing/middara

you might be able to pick up a copy in the wild, but if not there's a new KS coming this summer for all the old stuff + more new content

"PS: Guys, this is Highlord Tamburlaine, creator of Obscurities in Miniature. Why are you all suggesting Tau and Infinity like you think he's never heard of them?"

Maybe because I've not previously heard of Obsurities in Miniature, and I for one have no idea what Tamburlaine may or may not be familiar with?

Relic Knights was very anime, even down to having little "chibi" robot aids, but whilst I followed their KS ages ago (followed but didn't pledge at the time) I think its fallen into the KS trap and had troubles since then?

Yup, already own Middara. One of my projects I plan to tackle when I'm home. Even backed their earlier canceled project as I could definitely see where their influences were coming from.
Planning on checking out where they take the further sets, as the art and models shown so far look pretty wild.

I backed the 2nd Relic Knights campaign, but it seems to have disappeared from Ninja Division's website. Instead I'm left with a Super Dungeon pledge that I actually had canceled and gotten refunded.
Neither situation is ideal.

Debating between a Sherman and a Panzer from Meng. Both are very Metal Sluggish... although my daughter is pushing me towards getting a pink one just to shake up all the colors on my shelves!

The Sherman is 'small' compared to the other toon kits if that pushes you one way or another



(Sherman vs Panther pulled from the web)

Anima tactics and Endless Fantasy Tactics

Impact miniatures has some pretty anime-ish chibi models. I wouldn't say they are inline with the Korean RPG vibe though. Some of the single fig kingdom death expansions might fit that look.

Didn't Yugioh have a bunch of heroclix released for it ?

I'm not sure if they with from the 'ok with a repaint' era or the 'just plain awful' one though

 spaceelf wrote:
Anima tactics and Endless Fantasy Tactics

+1 for Anima Tactics. Some of their characters look super anime.

My biggest gripe with Anima Tactics is that a lot of the models just didn't live up to the artwork.
I owned a few, painted up a couple, but was never very satisfied with how well the artwork translated into three dimensions.

I haven't seen any Endless Fantasy Tactics models (or Brushfire/ On the Lamb) in ages. I thought they were talking about bringing those lines back?

There were Yu Gi Oh Heroclix at one point. I know I have some in a big bin at work for rainy days, along with Godzilla, Ninja Turtles, and Pacific Rim stuff. I actually have a few trading figures from Japan quite a few years back that were bigger and more detailed than the Heroclix stuff. and not the typical blue or red dragons Haven't seen those in years though.

Impact I hadn't considered, mostly because I've stayed away from the SD stuff after clearing out my Sodapop collection in a fit of rage a few years back.

Bloodborn on Kickstarter definitely came to mid some of the Zombicide stuff as well.

I'm surprised Japan has never really gone for meshing their amazing hobby kits with their amazing games.

A well-developed and marketed Gundam or Macross TTG using existing models would be fantastic.

One reason GW is a billion pound company is that, unlike collectors, gamers will buy 10 of the same kit to build an army. The Chimera is not a great model but I don't know how many I've build because my army NEEDS them.

Similarly Bandai might sell 1 Gundam Uber Huge Gun Missile Dude to a collector, but if there was a game said collector might buy 10 of them.

As for the OP question, have you heard of a game called Infinity?

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
I'm surprised Japan has never really gone for meshing their amazing hobby kits with their amazing games.

This question is probably born out of a lot of ignorance but isn't Japan rather frugal when it comes to living space (and space in general) due to population density? If Bandai were to make such a game it would probably be aimed at the home market first and war games with all the terrain and huge armies are maybe not as widespread over there as they are in the US/Europe. It might be harder to establish such a game when most people don't have too much space to stow everything away.

The market over there seems to focus more on figurine collectors and less on war gamers. Is there anywhere comparative data on war games and/or boardgames in Japan/US/Europe?

There's been a lot of really fun turn based games out of Japan in that type of "genre" (TRPGs/SRPGs), games that could be converted into tabletop war games with some work. I think an early Fire Emblem ad even had a diorama and some miniatures but there were no official table top games as far as I have looked into it.

Heavy Gear is inspired by the Armored Trooper VOTOMS anime series.

Heayv Gear seems to have gleamed a lot of inspiration from not just Votoms but all sorts of 80s Sunrise shows- Xabungle seems to have been a big influence as well.

Plus mechs are pretty easy to spot where they got their influence from.

Speaking of influences, were there ever any cases of companies applying for a direct license to make models rather than just make homage models? I know Ground Zero Games made models for Bubblegum Crisis, but that's about all I'm aware of.

Also I don't think home gaming would really be possible for a lot of people here outside of smaller boxed games or things like Kill Team. There is the option of having local venues to play at though. There's all sorts of local halls and venues people can rent space out or use to play in. My inlaws have some relatives that own a place that does just this- they hold monthly shogi and go tournaments along with pickup games every few weeks. A lot of the materials are stored on site too.

Mario wrote:

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
I'm surprised Japan has never really gone for meshing their amazing hobby kits with their amazing games.

This question is probably born out of a lot of ignorance but isn't Japan rather frugal when it comes to living space (and space in general) due to population density? If Bandai were to make such a game it would probably be aimed at the home market first and war games with all the terrain and huge armies are maybe not as widespread over there as they are in the US/Europe. It might be harder to establish such a game when most people don't have too much space to stow everything away.

The market over there seems to focus more on figurine collectors and less on war gamers. Is there anywhere comparative data on war games and/or boardgames in Japan/US/Europe?

There's been a lot of really fun turn based games out of Japan in that type of "genre" (TRPGs/SRPGs), games that could be converted into tabletop war games with some work. I think an early Fire Emblem ad even had a diorama and some miniatures but there were no official table top games as far as I have looked into it.

In terms of board games, there are actually quite a few really obscure board games or some of the random sci-fi shows that were around in the 80s

e.g.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/6098/heavy-metal-l-gaim
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/6148/armored-trooper-votoms-battling
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/15968/arion

I would guess it would resemble the Avalon Hill chit games that were around at the time, which take less space than a minis game.

Thanks for the Tsukuda reminder. I'd totally forgotten about them. Despite no minis, those are still things I'd love to track down.

I'm sure I can talk Barzam into playing a Gundam hex & chit game so we can recreate our childhood of SD Gundam Gachapon X battles!

Either that or Dragonar. We loved Dragonar.