| Garage Kits and Figures based on Masamune Shirow's Works |
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Kit building is a really engrossing and interesting hobby to take up but again, it is expensive. There are cheaper version vinyl kits but these are usually common and lack detail. Personally I don't own any Shirow Garage Kits yet (or for that matter any garage kit)! But I've seen a lot of these at model shops I used to visit last time and they are amazing! Usually a Shirow kit would end up in the display window as they are pretty attractive. But the Net is vast (or so says Major Kusanagi) so it is not very difficult to buy one nowadays through all the online stores. Provided you have the cash of course. This fact never changes. Please note; Garage Kits are usually small scale productions and Shirow's work really isn't a popular subject for garage kit builders (Too difficult? Too detail? Too expensive? I don't know!) so there is a very high chance some of these kits are not in production anymore. And of course- price varies with the complexity, demand and availability of a particular kit. I'll probably get myself some kits in future- but at the moment I am more of a book/picture kinda guy! There are some garage kits which would be quite common, like the Motoko Kusanagi statues offered by Toycom (for US$ 160, and I am not sure if they are mass-produced or not) so at the moment I do not plan to put all the kit images I have online. Afterall, most of them I have come across from online catalogues and they should be quite easy to locate. Maybe next time when I do buy some kits for myself. So, what's here then? For the reasons mentioned above and in the interest of minimizing loading-time, I will put up just a few kits and images which are 'special' in some ways, either mentioned by Shirow, rare, official products etc, or simply because I like them very much! Sorry about the lack of informations.
Garage Kit #1: Bonaparte Tank from Dominion C-1
This has got to be one of the coolest Shirow-related kit! Check out the detail! You can actually REMOVE the gun pod from the tank and what's more it comes with a mini Sergeant Leona Ozaki actually tucked inside the pod. I think its a full-series kit, as I have seen pictures of the Bonaparte posed with the Newport Police Patrol cars (yes- they come with mini Suzuna, Rerika and Makina as well!). I like it very much!
Scale 1/35, Manufactured by TVC-15. Price 9600 Yen Garage Kit #2: Gundress Figures (Shirow-designed Characters)
Garage Kit #3: Based on Intron Depot 2
This here is not actually a garage kit, rather a 3D Relief. The picture on the left shows the original image (2014 in ID2) and on the right is the 3D Relief. The picture is related to the 'Griffon' Series. Not much details are known yet as the release date is set at May 20th 1999, but they are produced by TVC-15, the same people that brought you the Bonaparte in Garage Kit #1. Scale ?, Manufactured by TVC-15. Price ? Copyrights: TVC-15, Masamune Shirow, Seishinsha
That's all for now! More garage kits? E-mail me and if I get enough requests, I might add or update this page. And of course, if you come across any interesting Shirow-related kits, let me know! |
For those unfamiliar with garage kits- they are usually resin casts of a figure/ mecha, which has to be manually assembled and painted on your own. Therefore, how a kit turns out usually depends on the person putting it together. One can think of it like a resin 'statue'. A kit is usually casted or injection moulded from an original and come in parts. They are usually produced in small scale and hence the high price as opposed to 'figures' (or toys/ action figures) which are mass produced for sale.
