Gacha-nen 1/35 Ma. K. kit
In Japan, lots of things are sold in vending machines, including toys. The toys are sold from vending machines called gashapon or gacha-nen for the sound the machine makes. The toys are called "capsule" toys (for the plastic capsules the toys are packaged in) or "blind boxes" because the buyer doesn't know which toy of a particular series will come out of the machine. One of the manufacturers of capsule toys, Kaiyodo, collaborated with Kow Yokoyama to produce 3 series of 1/35 Ma. K. kits to be sold in the gacha-nen machines. This kit is from the 3rd series.
Contents of the 7cm dia. capsule: a complete 1/35 scale Ma. K. kit, including display base, decal sheet, and instruction sheet.
The kit consists of 8 small sprues and 3 loose parts (44 parts total), a display base with stand, a decal sheet, and instructions. The parts count is smaller, and the parts are somewhat less detailed than the Hasegawa 1/35 scale Ma. K. kits, but the Kaiyodo dacha-nen kit is about 1/3 the cost of a Hasegawa kit.
The instruction sheet shows that this particular kit is the Fliege. The models available in series 3 are the Fliege, the Kauz, and the Raptor, each available in 3 different colors of plastic: white, purple, and yellow, and there are 3 different decal sheets in the series.
The instructions are in Japanese, but the graphics are easy to follow.
Parts (except for pilot) base-coated. High humidity here means several days for paint to cure enough to handle for detailing, weathering, and final assembly.
I converted my Ma. K. Fliege from a space soldier to a space construction worker. I turned the weapon arm into a welder, and painted the suit construction yellow.
The feet can be posed to display the figure standing or flying. I chose to display mine flying. I also snapped the base onto one half of the capsule to make a larger, more stable base.
Commenti
10 11 September 2020, 16:50
Johnny BYes, very cool! Question: are they injection-molded styrene? Looking forward to seeing this MaK built up and painted. 🙂
12 September 2020, 17:43
Mike SzwarcJohnny B, the kit parts and the base are styrene, the spherical capsule is polypropylene. The kit is also snap-together, like Bandai or some Hasegawa kits. Both male and female heads are included, and the figure can be displayed standing or flying.
12 September 2020, 17:55
Mike SzwarcJD, I first became aware of these from a review I saw online, though I don't recall where-- maybe Cybermodeler Online. Anyway, I searched on eBay, which is where I got this one. There's only a couple sellers in the US selling single kits, but some Japanese sellers are selling boxes of 9 kits. I don't know if there are 9 random kits to a box, or if you get each of the three models in each of the three colors. I won't be doing anything special with this, just a practice build for my Hasegawa kits. I plan to display it flying, but not sure of a paint scheme yet. I'm trying to think of something useful to bash his weapon arm into-- maybe a welder.
12 September 2020, 20:48
Nathan DempseyInteresting for sure. I wish we had vending machines with little models here in the US.
26 September 2020, 08:29
Mike SzwarcI'm with you, Nathan! As far as I've been able to discover, though, the only actual model kits available in this form have been the 1/35 Ma. K. power suits. I've found all manner of miniatures, action figures, animals, insects, and even something akin to eggs planes and tanks available as capsule toys, but all of these are assembled and painted. Since this kit is from the 3rd and final series of kits in collaboration with Kow Yamayodo, I'll be interested to see if Kaiyodo does any more mini-model kits for the capsule toy market.
26 September 2020, 11:56
Album info
Capsule toy "blind box" 1/35 scale Ma. K. kit from 3rd series of Gacha-nen kits produced by Kaiyodo in collaboration with Kow Yamayodo.
