I don't think poseable hands could have worked without compromising the aesthetic, especially at this scale where the muscles are actually present and defined on the mold, breaks in that would looks rather jarring. Lest not we forget the time that Bandai tried on the PG with the body condom, and we know how that went

hey, is this the right place for model kit discussion??

I found this model kit at a convention a couple months ago- vendor said it was from the 90s, and I don't usually see kits where all the parts are entirely clear plastic, so i figured it was cool enough to splurge a bit ($80). After digging around a little bit i saw that this particular model sells for far less than that online, but I was surprised at how few listings there were, and even more surprised at how difficult it was to track down the particulars of this thing's production, even a specific release date/year.

Stumbled across this forum in my digging, and idk who better to ask for intel on a discontinued anime model kit than a nearly 2-decade old site called evageeks.org, lol

If you've seen this "Great Garage Injection" line of kits before or have any general info on their production/etc, lmk!

https://imgur.com/a/nZH9oxy

This is indeed the right place to ask about model kits!

I'm not personally familiar with the line at hand, but we can derive a couple of things from the title already:
1) it is a garage kit, which usually means that it was produced as a very limited run, likely with only a temporary license, but that doesn't appear to be the case here given the branding and current market prices, so it's either something that was repackaged for serial production or it had that name as more of a marketing term than an accurate descriptor
2) it is a plastic injection kit as compared to being a resincast, which is usually the case for garage kits
3) the manufacturer is Volks, they're a known quantity in the robot anime kit market; haven't built any of their stuff myself, but I hear that they're broadly pretty alright by the standards of anything that isn't Bandai or Kotobukiya
4) 90s is definitely about right for the time frame, do expect this to be a gluefit and probably some gap filling work
5) 90s clear plastic, this will be brittle. Handle with care
6) 80 bucks was definitely high, the prices I'm seeing on Mandarake et al for the Great Orient Hero Eva kits are all in the 1500-2000 yen range, so more to the tune of 12-16 bucks. Those are, of course, the Japan prices before shipping and imports, so realistically you're probably looking at 35-40, but that's still a lot less than what you paid

I have some friends who are pluged into the old model kit scene far more than I am, I'm gonna be throwing this their way, see what they make of it

Thanks a ton for the info!! especially 4+5, I dont have a ton of experience building kits in general, certainly nothing this old so i appreciate the headsup

That's interesting about its label as a garage kit too- I only was made aware of garage kits when i picked this up, where would you draw the line between a garage kit release / serial production ?

and yeah, after looking it up initially i was like "well shit, probably should have just ordered it..." lol

looking forward to your friends' takes too!

mtf_canti wrote:Thanks a ton for the info!! especially 4+5, I dont have a ton of experience building kits in general, certainly nothing this old so i appreciate the headsup

Just to be on the safe side, let me do My Usual Ramble here to cover the eventualities;
1) The first, and definitely most important thing to keep in mind is that a model kit is not a toy; it's going to require a degree of patience and careful handling. Don't be afraid to apply some force where necessary, but take care not to break anything
2) If something does break, that's generally fixable. There's a lot of techniques depending on what broke where, but as a general rule, you probably want both plastic cement (usually comes in a square bottle with a brush in the cap, melts plastic for chemical welding) and some superglue (just the regular stuff out of a tube; might run into trouble if the nozzle is entirely too thick, but there are ways to mitigate that), a couple of small drillbits and sturdy wire/metal rods to drill out and reinforce longer-than-wide points that did break.
3) It's a really old kit, so you probably want to wash it in soapy water before assembling, to get any dust, release agent and other residue off
4) when sanding, don't breathe in the dust; keep a window open and if there's a lot of it, consider a fan to redirect it or go straight to a facemask (and upgrade to a full respirator if you spraypaint or work with lacquers)
5) painting may look scary, but it's all a matter of practice; don't be afraid to make mistakes, you can just paint over them later and do it better
6) paint types are a whole conundrum, confusingly labelled and best explained on a case to case basis
7) your results aren't gonna look like the competition winning builds, and that is fine

Any more particular questions I will be more than happy to answer

That's interesting about its label as a garage kit too- I only was made aware of garage kits when i picked this up, where would you draw the line between a garage kit release / serial production ?

Unfortunately, I am entirely not the right person to ask about this, that's a corner of the hobby that I've only had secondhand contact to

and yeah, after looking it up initially i was like "well shit, probably should have just ordered it..." lol

Eh, it happens; I know I've had my share of kits I paid way more for than I should have

looking forward to your friends' takes too!

That one sort of fell off the table when I posted it to a group chat, I'm gonna go ask some of them directly

EDIT: Got a response

But it was the companies first foray into plastic models, I don’t have solid sourcing on this but it’s quite likely it was limited run injection molded (aluminum molds instead of steel, a lot more room for user error in the injection process

I got pointed to a different mutual who has actually built one of the things, will update accordingly once I have something on that front; but yeah, expect somewhat dodgy quality control, contrary to what I said earlier

EDIT2: I got a response from said different mutual and HO BOY

I haven’t built a whole kit but i built part of it. They’re injection molded kits but kinda a doozy for sure
they aren’t garage kits for sure
[...]
i may not be 100% correct cause i’m kinda going of memory but i think it was like pre-existing garage kits they had that they tried to mass market more by turning into injection plastic kits
they are a lot of work
you have to cut polycaps to size
there’s huge gaps and misalignments
definitely needs glue, probably even super glue, and some two part putty
there’s some amazing details in them but definitely a lot of work
[...]
i think a great example for what kinda experience it is, in the instructions for what i built it says “heat up the tip of a flathead screwdriver and melt the end of the plastic rod so that it will stay inside the polycap while being able to slide”

It's gonna be a hell of a project; likely will look good in the end, but gonna need some rather major work. If you're up for the task, great! If not, may be an idea to leave that one on the shelf for a bit and get some familiarity in with some other kits

i think a great example for what kinda experience it is, in the instructions for what i built it says “heat up the tip of a flathead screwdriver and melt the end of the plastic rod so that it will stay inside the polycap while being able to slide”

LMFAO THIS IS NUTS

you and your friends' advice is a great confidence boost, I think I'll get some of the supplies mentioned together and give this build a shot sometime soon. There's a certain appeal to the unpainted clear plastic to me, so I probably won't paint it and will keep sanding to a minimum- Getting this thing to stand sounds like it'll be plenty challenge for me for now LOL

thanks again! I'll post pics when i put it together.

i may not be 100% correct cause i’m kinda going of memory but i think it was like pre-existing garage kits they had that they tried to mass market more by turning into injection plastic kits

forgot to include in previous post, very very cool to me assuming it's accurate. idk why but the particulars of kit production fascinate me almost as much as the mech itself, I'd love to be a fly on the wall when it was decided to convert a garage kit to an object of the mass market, really I'd just love to see in-depth how these things are produced on varying levels of market distribution.



double post merged - staff

Good luck, and do enjoy the build! Looking forward to the results

Blockio wrote:I don't think poseable hands could have worked without compromising the aesthetic, https://sharpedgeshop.com/collections/gyuto-knives-chefs-knife especially at this scale where the muscles are actually tabletop miniatures present and defined on the mold, breaks in that would looks rather jarring. Lest not we forget the time that Bandai tried on the PG with the body condom, and we know how that went

You make a valid point.