After my shoulder got better it was time for me to prepare for my holiday... and work had become manic over the past few weeks! Anyway, all that's behind me now... and I am now on holiday in Japan... yay!
The land of short skirts, 20 degrees centigrade in November and AKB48 all over the place... however, it's also the home of the best plastic kits in the world.
I have been here for 5 days and have so far managed to buy the Aoshima reissues of the final Imai FAB1 and Mole.
FAB1 is the updated Imai produced before they went bust. They had produced such accessory sets as turned metal wheels and resin figures of Lady Penelope and Parker. Sadly the Aoshima version does not include the resin figures, but it DOES have etched metal dials and number plates.
It's also nice to finally have a large (1/32 scale) FAB1 with an accurate shape and a clear canopy... the older one was really an unbuilt toy with a clear blue canopy. The retool not only corrects the shape, but also includes a full set of headlights and tail lights, with optional machine guns and harpoons.
One oddity with this kit is the box, which clearly states that this is a 1/350 scale kit. That's some mistake!
I was expecting to see Imai's old artwork, which was always exciting and beautifully done. This one tries to look retro and ends up looking a bit weak.
The Mole is again a late Imai model and is a 10" long model in a nominal 1/72 scale, which is VERY handy for dioramas where HO buildings and cars can be used... time to hit the model railway shops methinks haha.
The model is intended for motorisation and includes all the wiring and battery connections... I find things like this make the model weak and compromises detail for accessibility. I will simply add a flashing red LED to the top of the Mole, with the battery being accessed through the rear plate.
This is a pretty accurate model by anyone's standards and includes such gems as individual plates for the tracks... you glue each plate to a rubber track. As mine will be a static model I will fix the track in place then add the plates after spraying them a basic steel colour. After that they can be weathered along with the rest of the model... and boy will it be weathered!
The tractor unit faithfully captures the shape and detail of the original toy tractor used in the series as well as the Airfix Girder Bridge used as a support cradle and the Atlas rockets used as detail parts. Wonderful stuff.
If only Imai had seen fit to do the same with their horrible Firefly and Recovery Vehicle models we could have had some really nice large pod vehicles as plastic kits at decent prices.
Talking of prices, these aren't cheap. FAB1 was ¥2100 and the Mole was ¥3185, both of them coming from Yodabashi Camera, a giant electronics shop. I got the Mole in the Ueno branch (near the station) and FAB1 in the Akihabara megastore.
The last of the kits I'm after is the 1/144 scale Thunderbird 1, which I think is an Aoshima original, but I could be wrong.
