Archive for the ‘Mecha’ Category
By now you all have heard plenty about the earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan, and hopefully have donated to the relief efforts. If you’re on this site or others like it, you certainly must have some vested interest in Japan, and they could certainly use the help. In order to help ensure that public awareness and support for Japan does not fade as soon as poplar media picks up the next big story, Troy Stith of Gorilla Mouth is organizing an online sale of donated works by a huge turnout of toy artists slated for late April. I am contributing a piece for sale, and I also already know of one donated piece that I will be gunning for, and I hope that everyone that reads this will also contribute if they can or at least keep an eye out for the for sale items and contribute to the donation by buying a piece.
Just a little proof that we’re still making progress… one set is done, but the Rollout colors require a little more prep. These are going to hit hard when they finally hit!
Mobile Police Patlabor might be my favorite mecha anime. I am all about down and dirty war shows like VOTOMS or Gundam 08th MS Team, but the combination of more civilized real robot action and the fantastic characters make Patlabor a fantastic series. In Patlabor, mecha (labors) have become an everyday thing for everything from construction to war. As with all new technologies, labors are abused, so special police divisions are created to combat labor crime with their own Patrol Labors (‘Pat’ ‘labor’).
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Things moved a little faster than expected…
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I saw this post over at Overkill Creations calling customizers to develop new MUSCLE style minifigures as part of an open collaboration to continue the line. I am too young to have played with MUSCLE figures, but I did love the heck out of Z-bots, a similar line of pocket sized robots that were fully painted and articulated. I had been beginning to brainstorm a set of micro robots designed to fight the Killer Culture macrobial threats, and Mad Joe’s idea pushed me over the edge. This is the sum of two evenings’ work, and the figure is now just waiting for the Apoxy Sculpt details to dry so I can clean them up and apply a primer coat to sand.
Sorry for the rough photos, but these are hot off the workbench from my iPod camera.
Fluff and more details will be forthcoming. This guy will not be like the second bacteria sculpt I teased, which proved a little too ambitious for my current setup, but there’s more in the future of that design. If all goes according to plan (and it likely will, since I will be snowed in most of the week), there should be casts of this guy by the weekend!
Classic Battletech is the quintessential American-born giant robot franchise, spanning tabletop games, video games, toys, books, role playing games, a cartoon series, and large-scale models. Armorcast made three battlemech kits in 1/60 (28mm) scale a few years back, the Timber Wolf (Mad Cat), Mad Dog (Vulture), and the Atlas, pretty much the three most iconic Battletech designs. These kits have been out of print for a while, but if you can find them they are quite good. Solid detail, simple construction, and a couple of white metal detail parts on each make them rugged and impressive kits worthy of display.
The Vulture is a solid all around mech, capable of providing long-range fire support with its Long Range Missile racks and Large Pulse Lasers, as well as fighting at mid-range with Large and Medium Pulse Lasers. Its sleek design really stands out among the usual bulky and blocky Battletech fare.
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I was given a fun little mecha kit from a video game to review on CollectionDX. You can check out the full review there, but here’s the painted pics for my site.
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Incubot Productions is the brainchild of ToyboxDX founder Alen Yen, and is his venue for his original toy designs. Incubot first released the PVC Nekobot USB Flash drive, with is an excellent little figure, and its USB-ness is a good excuse to leave it in your pocket or backpack. The Nekosaurus sofubi, however, is all toy, and an expression of Alen’s love and appreciation for classic Japanese toy funk. The actual figure is sculpted by Kiyoka Ikeda of Gargamel, and produced in the Gargamel factory in Japan, so it is a pure and perfect Japanese vinyl. This first release is the crystal Nekosaurus, complete with paper inserts featuring mechanical gut detail designed by Alen himself. The guts are just jammed pack with really well thought out detail, and crystal really is the right word to describe the vinyl… it’s perfectly clear and flawless. The vinyl and the guts are fantastic, but my favorite part of the toy is hands down the actual sculpt… it is a perfect melding of classic sensibilities and vinyl toy design, and just a phenomenal toy to play with. It’s bigger than a fight figure, but smaller than a standard sized kaiju, around 6″ tall, and fits in your hand perfectly.
Neko looks good and plays just as well, and there are just a few left after the December preorder, available at the Incubot site here: http://incubot.com/sofubi.html Nekosaurus triumphs over other vinyl toys, and is just plain fun. Pick up a Nekobot Flash drive while you’re there!
Phil Reed (battlegrip.com)’s latest 1/6 figure push inspired me to pull this figure out, which I bought back in 2004 or 2005 and have basically been sitting on since. Before Ashley Wood was pushing the 1/6 envelope with his little Hong Kong firm 3A Toys (expect lots more 3A toy pics forthcoming), Da Joint released small range of really unique sci-fi 1/6 scale figures. Da Joint is a small graphic design-type firm from Hong Kong that has done many interesting TV commercials and such now-a-days. The side of the box reads:
“2037 a.d. An Iron meteor shower rained down from the sky brought the known human civilization to an end. Years later, inside the enormous crater of Hongkong island. Some surviving scientists discovered a large meteorite floating in the air. The phenomenon was caused by the extreme force and temperature generated during the meteor impact, resulting a realignment of matter’s atomic structure. The scientists named the anti-gravity meteorite as “ZERO METAL”. 2067 a.d. The new Hongkong declared independence, named itself “Gang Dao”. A highly mobilized armour unit armed with Zero Metal technology is introduced as a force to police the region’s security. Anger and fearful Kowloon civilians united to fight these troops for their own sovereignty.”
Engrish aside, Da Joint’s little world sounds pretty slick, and it’s too bad more did not come out of it. Regardless of the setting, this Jiu Gang Zero Metal Defense Capsule figure is awesome, but was not perfect. Back in 2004, the base 1/6 person body used in this figure was loose and crappy, so the fantastic armored trooper never really stood up well or could his gun arm out, even though the actual armor was really well detailed and designed. After seeing the new Hot Toys True Type bodies for sale, the inspiration hit me to finally fix my ZMDC trooper, as the first step in expanding a 1/6 sci-fi collection. The new body fit perfectly, and is tight and articulated enough to finally breath some life into this impressive design. I also added a second belt with a pistol holster, and new hands.
Da Joint even went so far as to include decals with the figures for buyers to apply, which were really well printed, and happily, still went down great after sitting in the box for 5 years. Once all the decals were laid down (I used about 2/3 of the sheet, and the rest is just different numbers and artsy stuff to apply to individualize the figures), I did some weathering to beat up this guy a touch. I drybrushed the armor in just about the same color as the factory used to fade the decals in, and then did some sponge chipping with a few spots enhanced with some brush-applied marks. An oil wash brought out the details and added some grime, and then the boots (as well as the guy in the suit underneath) received some dirt and mud splatters using layers of both acrylic paints and weathering pigments. I added some grease leakage to the moving joints of the armor (mostly on the articulated feet) and some grease to the shiny metal pistons on the feet. Without going too over the top, I’m really happy with how this guy looks, and he’s just a blast to mess around with now that he can actually hold his gun arm up!
The Wave 1/24 VOTOMS kits are some seriously venerable pieces of plastic, reissued throughout the years with some occasional improvements. Out of the box, they are decently posable and have a bit chubby proportions, but are easy to build and can be vastly improved with a little TLC. I have seen many Scopedogs kitted out in Hobby Japan magazine with new articulation, adjustments to the proportions, and serious detail upgrades, so I wanted to try such an affair for myself. Adler’s Nest is a small firm that makes turned brass and aluminum gun barrels and hardware for scale models (tanks), and they for some reason also make a Scopedog gun barrel from turned brass and aluminum, as well as replacement machined aluminum eye cameras in the main VOTOMS scales (1/24, 1/18, 1/12 I think). I used the gun barrels and eye camera on this build, as well as a set of brass tubing smoke dischargers I made myself, and turned aluminum jet exhausts for the roller dash boosters. I also rebuilt most of the articulation from new parts to improve the articulation on the kit, especially on the shoulders, hips, wrists, and ankles. By the time I was done I also added some extra sensor bits to the visor (to work in a tight urban environment), some non-canon weld beads, stowage, and some etched metal details. With the new articulation, the Scopedog can hold its rifle realistically and be in some convincing ‘roller skating’ poses like the Turbo Customs do in the anime.
The paint scheme is a really ugly one I found while doing tank research, an urban disruptive scheme known as the ‘Berlin Brigade’ scheme. It features rectangular drab colors, and black paint straight across the lower portions of the machine (typically the running gear on an AFV) to try and blend in with both the urban structures and road. I filled out my Scopedog with a gamut of decals, and marked this guy as a special Red Shoulder unit, and threw in some battle damage to indicate he’s been campaigning for a while and has seen some heat.
Prometheus Rising Studios 