| nvdoyle | 30 Oct 2006 7:12 a.m. PST |
From HLJ, some of their show coverage: Bandai's 1/35 hovercraft (Gundam): link I'm going to have to get one – great 28mm potential there. Bunch of tachikomas here: link At 1/24, they should make neat 28mm robots/vehicles. |
dampfpanzerwagon  | 30 Oct 2006 7:22 a.m. PST |
I think the hovercraft is just fantastic. Tony |
| The Hobbybox | 30 Oct 2006 7:33 a.m. PST |
WOW, I love the Hovercraft.
Might be a little big for 28mm though. |
| PeteMurray | 30 Oct 2006 7:57 a.m. PST |
The Japanese are our masters at plastic models. I welcome our styrene-model overlords. |
| tnjrp | 30 Oct 2006 7:58 a.m. PST |
Suppose the hovercraft could be a little unwieldy as a gaming piece. Would look impressive as a superheavy 28mm scale vehicle tho. Got me an older 1/24 scale tachikoma that I'm planning on using as a Vobian Cybermecha in Defiance: Vital Ground. After some conversion obviously. |
| aka Mikefoster | 30 Oct 2006 8:07 a.m. PST |
The hovercraft was very cool. I liked the other set the had the 1/35th scale Zeke(?) head. I can alway find a use for a giant mecha head. |
| Hundvig | 30 Oct 2006 8:37 a.m. PST |
I've never been able to understand why model kits are so popular in Japan and so…well, not over here in the US. I've had Japanese gamers tell me that they avoid miniatures games because they don't have enough storage space for them, but those kits must take up a huge amount of room. Even assuming that most of them sell to Japanese non-gamers, how do they find the space for them all? Or do Japanese gamers not have any room because their apartments/houses are already full of model kits? |
| jpattern2 | 30 Oct 2006 9:15 a.m. PST |
Wow, thanks for those links. The hovercraft is a must-have, since one of my other hobbies is 1/35 armor models.
And those tachikomas look like they'll make a good base kit for a Japanese OGRE kitbash. |
| Augustus | 30 Oct 2006 9:32 a.m. PST |
That is the great irony. Japan has all the injection tech, but has never had a strong miniatures wargaming community. |
| alien BLOODY HELL surfer | 30 Oct 2006 9:49 a.m. PST |
Wow, could certainly mod that hovercraft – it's awesome. Must get some. Anyone in the UK going to be supplying these? |
| mweaver | 30 Oct 2006 11:28 a.m. PST |
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 Dentatus  | 30 Oct 2006 11:41 a.m. PST |
Yup – the hovercraft is cool. How do I get one in the US? |
| Hundvig | 30 Oct 2006 11:48 a.m. PST |
"That is the great irony. Japan has all the injection tech, but has never had a strong miniatures wargaming community." Be pretty funny if some Japanese company woke up and realized how much market share they could grab in the worldwide minis industry by producing gaming pieces with similar quality and better prices than GW, wouldn't it? A company that did nothing but plastics from day one would have a rather large advantage with no "legacy" pewter minis to deal with, and as you said, the casting equipment is already there. Injection molds are expensive, but not *that* expensive… |
| Thieses | 30 Oct 2006 2:20 p.m. PST |
I have been buying Japanese Gashapon "candy toys" for use in gaming for years. The problem with Japanese products is the they are super expensive in the West. Unless the products are imported by "big box" stores like Toys R Us. The prices in hobby stores are crazy. I've seen a single Godzilla candy toy go for almost $20. USD They normally cast about $2.00. If the minis are brought into toy stores like all the Gundam models, the prices will come down. If the minis stay in hobby/gaming stores the prices won't be any better. (They will still be cool) |
| Sargonarhes | 30 Oct 2006 3:22 p.m. PST |
That's the Feddies hover truck from Gundam 08th MS Team, not a tank. It's a support vehicle for a mobile suit team. Would have been nice if they made it to scale with most Gundam models. And Hundvig, all Bandai would need to do to realize that is start making plastic infantry for it's Gundam model line and they'd have a lot of wannabe mobile suit commanders ready to shell out the bucks. |
| wolvermonkey | 30 Oct 2006 11:56 p.m. PST |
Some of the Gundam action figures came with vehicles that were in scale to the mechs. And I believe the action figures were also the same scale as most of the model kits 1/144. |
| Sargonarhes | 01 Nov 2006 5:32 p.m. PST |
No the Gundam MSiA figures are much smaller than the 1/144 scale models and let's not even talk about the 1/100 scale models. I can compair a 1/144 scale Gundam Ez-8 with it's MSiA figure and the figure barely comes up to the model's shoulder, it's actually an 1/8th of an inch under the shoulder. 1/4th if you don't count that pole antenna on the Ez-8 figure's head. |
| Typhoon | 01 Nov 2006 8:19 p.m. PST |
Ahhhh, the joys of living in Japan. I get to see all that stuff and get to buy it cheap if I want to. Yes, life here can be pleasant for a guy like me. Shall I add more to your pain? ;-) Okay, since you all nodded "yes"! If I wanted to I could buy tons, no make that TONS, of 1/400 scale Gundam minis including the Hover truck, increasingly hard to find recently but I have a few. I could get these at 3 for $5. USD If I wanted larger size then I could buy Gundam Chess pieces at 3 for $7.00. These do not have as wide a selection but there are a lot. If I want larger size yet ….. Had enough? No? ;-) Well, let's just say my wallet can take a beating if I go into the store I can get all this and more. Some days the car just turns in the store's direction by itself. Yes, living in Japan has its perks. |
| Sargonarhes | 02 Nov 2006 3:32 p.m. PST |
The Gundam Chess pieces can be found at any anime convention, only complaint I have about them is they come in a sealed random box. I don't like buying any miniatures that way, especially if they're over priced due to them being an import. If I'm going to pay that much for them I want to know what they are. And the large size, you wouldn't be refering to the 5 foot tall Zaku II and Gundam RX-79 re you? |
