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- Jun 17, 2018
Model kits are model kits, if you don't like it you can just ignore the posts.
Anyone into gunpla - Japanophiles unite to share tips on painting our toys (GUNPLA IS FREEDOM)
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- Jan 23, 2019
Alright, let's talk about WW2 halftrack models. The topic is "gunpla", not "building models".
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- Jun 17, 2018
Haven't seen you complaining about the countless other non-Gundam model kits people have been posting.
If you don't like these kits then good for you, but it's not your job to decide what's off-topic. If you're going to be pedantic about the specific definition of "gunpla", these are objectively as on-topic as Digimon or Eva or Frame Arms model kits.
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- Jan 23, 2019
Yeah, none of those are Gunpla, either. It's annoying to get a notification from this thread and it's just a faggot talking about the plastic waifu that he shoves up his ass.
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- May 3, 2015
loooooooooool you literally just admitted you take notifications seriously loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool nigga you have nearly 2,000 posts how are you this sensitive looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool
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- Jun 17, 2018
Maybe stop actively following the thread then. It's not everyone else's job to cater to your idea of what should and shouldn't be posted here.
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- May 3, 2015
Probably. I know r/gunpla threw an absolute authoritarian shit-fit over the riots and declared any kind of German symbol prohibited, including the German Cross because it was 'obviously just nazis trying to hide the real thing'. The model-kit community has a lot of autism and virtue-signalling.
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- Jan 16, 2020
Are there even any black gundam pilots? I can't think of any off the top of my head.
I'd love to get some of the BLM decals honestly. I think a BLM gundam would be funny.
EyelessMC
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2020
Lads and laddies, I am proud to present to you yet another exceedingly rare kit which I managed to find despite scalpers otherwise demanding blood oaths to purchase one. I give you the Ling Hu, aka the Zero Tora!
This is gonna be a longer post just because these kits barely have any proper reviews and I don't want you guys wasting money on mystery kits. Since it's so long, I'll SPOILER it to spare the thread a novel.
EDIT: I just checked and wanted to post this for clarity, but if you don't like/can't find the Zero Tora then the Shadow Tora is literally the same thing from top to bottom but with a different color scheme and no head armor pieces. Same accessories though.
This is gonna be a longer post just because these kits barely have any proper reviews and I don't want you guys wasting money on mystery kits. Since it's so long, I'll SPOILER it to spare the thread a novel.
Designed by Yoji Shinkawa aka the "Metal Gear" guy and the "Why do all his feminine robots have penis cockpits?" guy, this Frame Arms kit is the majesty of Shinkawa's mecha career (if only because it has feet, functional hands and doesn't have a protruding penile cockpit). Being the third iteration of his totally-not-Sahelanthropus "Tora/Tiger" robots, it's as modular as any Frame Arms kit (and has the same glaring flaws).
Here's a cool background of early artwork Shinkawa made to accompany his kit's earlier release (edited by yours truly):
Anyway, here's what it looks like after some panel lining and a can of Tamiya matte spray paint:
It's supposed to have four eyes, as you saw in the artwork, but due to how they were pre-painted (very well and durable paint, too) it looks more like two eyes with a tiger-like pupil.
The original two releases are the White and Shadow Tora (tigers). If you can't find this one but still want something like it, then you might be able to find the Shadow Tora for roughly the same price I got this one if it's on sale at the official KotoUS store ($70~ maybe a bit more depending on shipping). The Shadow Tora is better colored than the White despite being black (making panel lining a pain in the ass to actually show through) and has more weaponry, particularly that modular Beam Canon on its back-right (seen above). I think it also comes with the Laser Rifle (Canon?) on it's back-left, which can either be a back-mounted weapon (as pictured) or a hand-held rifle (below)
This latest (and likely last) iteration comes with enough runners to make both the hand-held and back-mounted laser rifles. I painted this one, then repainted it and ended up ruining it, but at least I got the one on its back.
Other accessories include several holding hands (gun, sword), closed fists and relaxed hands. These are plain but unique to the Tora design, being a bit bigger than usual Kotobukiya modeling hands. It also has a pair of attachable sword/rifle holders you can peg and spin into any of the many 3mm holes along its frame (you can see a pistol in one I attached to the left shoulder--the pistol is from an HG Evangelion kit)
The Zero Tora also comes with a nifty V fin (to pay homage to Gundam I assume (it's bent in my pictures because it broke)) which is exchangable for a flat surface instead. It also has another set of accessories I'll get into later.
Overall the kit stands at roughly the height of the MG Barbatos, although it's supposed to be taller according to the design notes. Kotobukiya 1/100 is always shorter than Bandai 1/100 because I guess basic arrhythmic is hard
Still, this is currently the tallest Kotobukiya kit and tallest Frame Arms by far, being a good head and shoulders taller than the MG Wing Zero ver. Ka.
However, you might be starting to notice all the nub marks. Well, as I said last time I talked up a Kotobukiya kit, their stuff is always riddled with nub marks and obvious seam lines. I doubt you'd be able to tell with the Shadow Tiger though.
The beam sword for the Tora is by far the most unique weapon which, like the Laser Rifle (Canon?), comes with every iteration of the Tora.
Dubbed the "Black Blade" (at least according to Yandex Image Translation), it has a sizable hilt, bit of a hand guard--which is nifty albeit pointless with energy weapons--and a bit of a thin pommel. Oddly, it also has a solid spine going up the back (which I painted gold to contrast the dark blade). It's a beast of a thing overall, being roughly the height of a 1/144 Gundam.
You attach the translucent plastic blade into the hilt via a circular joint hidden between the two connecting sides of the hand guard and fit its toothy back into the vent-like holes in the spine. It's a unique look (I keep saying that, huh?) but because of how the blade fits into it you can't just detach it to show the blade not in use, at least not as easily as you can a Gundam's beam saber. Ultimately it looks more like a giant glass black sword than a beam saber due to its design but eh. Imagination.
More curious than the solid spine or how it's fit together is the black plastic for the energy weapon. It's such a deep black color that, outside of direct light hitting it, you'd just think it was a black sword. Why make your energy weapon barely look like an energy weapon?
Anyway, don't be fooled by the appearance of the Tora. It has no inner frame, only the illusion of one, which turns out to be for its better since Kotobukiya isn't Bandai and the Frame Arms inner frame is notorious for breakage (ha...haha... foreshadowing). This kit is a year or two old and despite making Frame Arms kits for years they only just realized recently that pre-built inner frames suck. Trust me, the lack of an inner frame on any of the Tora releases is a bonus.
Almost everything is plastic-on-plastic with a lot of color-separated pieces fitting together. Whereas the Shadow Tiger is dark and brooding in appearance and the White Tiger is acumsicle canvas screaming for a paint job white kit, the Zero Tiger has that beige gray exterior contrasted by a lot of white and black. It's almost elegant thin body and mongoloid long arms beg for attachments and accessories, but even without them there's a lot of notches, crooks and designs for you to panel line and bring to life. The 3mm holes aren't just gaps, but a feature!
The shoulder armor (Left) is crap, though. It's attached via microscopic pegs which break at a breath and then you have to dig out the end from the shoulder, making the attachment point look awful. Thankfully the Orbital Frame-like giant shoulders won't give you trouble if you VERY LIGHTLY sand down the connecting peg which sticks into the ball joint segment which itself fits into the shoulder/chest (pictured Right, the black ball joint is fine but that connects to the arm via a peg which needs VERY LIGHT VERY VERY LIGHT sanding). If you don't then the natural tightness of the arm will make it pop out by the ball joint every time you try to raise or lower the arm. Speaking of...
The arms have two points of articulation by the elbow, appearing more like two elbows on each arm. Although it can do a full elbow bend and touch its shoulder, you'd think the second joint there, which adds to its rather cool gangly appearance, would give it even more bending potential, but it doesn't. In fact, the upper joint (second from the left in the picture above) doesn't bend forward at all. Instead it bends backwards and only a little bit. You can make a very cool "broken arm" look by twisting the forearm around (it goes all around), bending it forward at the bottom and backward at the top there. However, you can't do much else with it, making it largely pointless.
Why have two joints at the elbow and upper arm when you're only able to fully bend one of them?
The most unorthodox aspect of this design is its torso. Clearly bearing some IBO inspired design, the unorthodox torso has more articulation than you'd think. What we can charitably refer to as a "waist" can lift up (Lower Left) and tilt side to side ever-so. This coupled with neck movement (ball joint at base of the head + forward-back neck chicken movement) and the upper torso's ability to tilt very far back and all the way forward (until the inner sphere beneath the V chest is fully hidden) means it can do a hearty "crunch", making the robot able to look directly down at its toes.
Be ginger with this, though, since it's at an odd angle and on a tiny peg stuck into a rotating polycap thing. However, it also has a swivel at it's base on the hip (pictured below) which can make it tilt oddly side to side, more so than just lifting and turning the above pictured torso/waist. You...won't want to move this piece though.
This. This rotten monster of a connection. This thorny refuse from Beelzebub himself is your worst enemy. Whereas the front peg for the "waist" crunch is fine and can easily hold any pose, THIS thing can't do jack squat. Oh, it seems like it's fine. The peg coming up from the thin middle point between the two bulbous hip joints fits tight, even snug, into the hole at the bottom of the portion you see tilted above. Oh it seems nice. You twist it, turn it and it's all good, until one day it just feels a little...too fine. Almost...almost like it's...loose? Then you turn it once more only to see BAM!! THE THING BROKE OFF WITHOUT SO MUCH AS A SNAP!
Good luck getting it back to normal! No really, because you won't. The peg is stuck inside the hole like a hapless man discovering first-hand vagina dentata. You're never getting it back, and remember, Kotobukiya kits are notorious for being expensive once they're done with their initial run. But that's not the issue. The REAL issue is that this entirely special design was made from the ground-up according to Yoji Shinkawa's art concepts, but despite that they still snuck in a Frame Arms staple--the Frame Arms HIPS! Kotobukiya couldn't help themselves! "Thanks for the money, loser!"
You could always buy a Frame Arms inner frame separately and use the hips from that as a replacement, but that's a $15+ replacement just for a minor swivel on a peg that would just break eventually anyway. Screw that. Superglue the sucker and be grateful it wasn't the waist peg.
Next-to-last is the hips and the legs. These are absolutely incredible--the hips themselves being unique to the Tora but the hip connector being the little #(*%Y thing with the peg that broke on me. The hips are two giant Orbital Frame-like spheres, smaller but no less round than the shoulders, and give the kit some birthing hips, especially with such thicc thighs.
The legs aren't double-jointed but they can bend a bit backwards for a cool look. When properly straightened the kit is a bit taller than otherwise, but not by much. There's also a hidden piston gimmick in the "knee" area, and if not for the calf thrusters (the white things on the legs) they would have a full double-bend. As-is they bend well enough.
Another special aspect of the design is how the hip joints have an extra inner piece which unfolds as the legs split, which only emboldens the already free-range movement due to their design and lack of skirting armor. This is easily the most fun kit to pose and fiddle with that Kotobukiya has ever made, even despite the giant "screw you" with that hip peg (and super gluing that really doesn't effect much since you weren't gonna twist that often anyway).
This brings us to the really cool head and the extra armor. The Zero Tora has special head armor (like the V fin and a couple of armor pieces for the head) which the other Tora kits don't have, but the external armor you'll see in the pics below, on the arms and legs, are also in the Shadow Tora.
Lastly the head. You might notice an immediate resemblance to Metal Gear Ray...
Since this is from the same designer it's neat nod to his earlier work. However, unlike the Ray this mech doesn't have a cool Predator-like jaw effect. Instead it has a different secret. The face/chin armor detached (and reattaches perfectly countless times, no worries) to reveal a humanoid face.
The out-of-box experience is a bit jarring. It has a tiny terse expression with little pursed lips, all solid black color. I didn't like that since it's retarded, especially for this otherwise hardcore mechanical aesthetic, so I took a long time modifying it and you can, too.
Also I forgot to mention the white antennae you see on the head needs to be painted white. It's like the shoulder armor. It's stupid considering everything else white is already white but whatever.
With that we can put on the external armor and see how much this gangly, elegant mecha bulks up with it. A little bit goes a long way:
That's it for the review. I decided while working on another rare kit (which I'll dare to talk about another time) to take this baby apart and spray Tamiya gunmetal on all the black parts, which really adds depth to it and makes it look even more like it has some kind of cool inner frame beneath the armor. You can also see the kind of splits it can pull off.
If you want to buy this kit, do it at a cost of $70-80. No more than $80, including shipping and taxes. This is a great kit and I think the Shadow Tora would be fine too, even the White Tora. However this kit's coloration is more to my liking. Either way, it's a great kit if you can find it and afford it but DO NOT spend $100+ on this thing. It's not worth it. No kit is, really. But for a reasonable price it's not bad at all and again, I really do think this is not only Kotobukiya's best (at least for Frame Arms) but also Yoji Shinkawa's best.
Here's a cool background of early artwork Shinkawa made to accompany his kit's earlier release (edited by yours truly):
If at any point you begin to wonder, "Hey, where is the power pack/power cell/ammunition for X weapon? How does X generate power? etc." Please ignore these basic questions of realism from a thinking mind. Shinkawa is neither Tomino nor Katoki. The guy is a character designer foremost, mecha designer second. You've seen the "cock"pits of the Zone of the Enders robots (otherwise fun designs, honestly). Realism is appreciated for me, though, and this is the least retarded best invention by Shinkawa so the suspension of disbelief is easy.
Just imagine the Tora has some kind of friction-power generator where the more actions it preforms the more power it generates. There. All answers solved.
Just imagine the Tora has some kind of friction-power generator where the more actions it preforms the more power it generates. There. All answers solved.
It's supposed to have four eyes, as you saw in the artwork, but due to how they were pre-painted (very well and durable paint, too) it looks more like two eyes with a tiger-like pupil.
The original two releases are the White and Shadow Tora (tigers). If you can't find this one but still want something like it, then you might be able to find the Shadow Tora for roughly the same price I got this one if it's on sale at the official KotoUS store ($70~ maybe a bit more depending on shipping). The Shadow Tora is better colored than the White despite being black (making panel lining a pain in the ass to actually show through) and has more weaponry, particularly that modular Beam Canon on its back-right (seen above). I think it also comes with the Laser Rifle (Canon?) on it's back-left, which can either be a back-mounted weapon (as pictured) or a hand-held rifle (below)
This latest (and likely last) iteration comes with enough runners to make both the hand-held and back-mounted laser rifles. I painted this one, then repainted it and ended up ruining it, but at least I got the one on its back.
Other accessories include several holding hands (gun, sword), closed fists and relaxed hands. These are plain but unique to the Tora design, being a bit bigger than usual Kotobukiya modeling hands. It also has a pair of attachable sword/rifle holders you can peg and spin into any of the many 3mm holes along its frame (you can see a pistol in one I attached to the left shoulder--the pistol is from an HG Evangelion kit)
The Zero Tora also comes with a nifty V fin (to pay homage to Gundam I assume (it's bent in my pictures because it broke)) which is exchangable for a flat surface instead. It also has another set of accessories I'll get into later.
Overall the kit stands at roughly the height of the MG Barbatos, although it's supposed to be taller according to the design notes. Kotobukiya 1/100 is always shorter than Bandai 1/100 because I guess basic arrhythmic is hard
Still, this is currently the tallest Kotobukiya kit and tallest Frame Arms by far, being a good head and shoulders taller than the MG Wing Zero ver. Ka.
However, you might be starting to notice all the nub marks. Well, as I said last time I talked up a Kotobukiya kit, their stuff is always riddled with nub marks and obvious seam lines. I doubt you'd be able to tell with the Shadow Tiger though.
The beam sword for the Tora is by far the most unique weapon which, like the Laser Rifle (Canon?), comes with every iteration of the Tora.
Dubbed the "Black Blade" (at least according to Yandex Image Translation), it has a sizable hilt, bit of a hand guard--which is nifty albeit pointless with energy weapons--and a bit of a thin pommel. Oddly, it also has a solid spine going up the back (which I painted gold to contrast the dark blade). It's a beast of a thing overall, being roughly the height of a 1/144 Gundam.
You attach the translucent plastic blade into the hilt via a circular joint hidden between the two connecting sides of the hand guard and fit its toothy back into the vent-like holes in the spine. It's a unique look (I keep saying that, huh?) but because of how the blade fits into it you can't just detach it to show the blade not in use, at least not as easily as you can a Gundam's beam saber. Ultimately it looks more like a giant glass black sword than a beam saber due to its design but eh. Imagination.
More curious than the solid spine or how it's fit together is the black plastic for the energy weapon. It's such a deep black color that, outside of direct light hitting it, you'd just think it was a black sword. Why make your energy weapon barely look like an energy weapon?
Anyway, don't be fooled by the appearance of the Tora. It has no inner frame, only the illusion of one, which turns out to be for its better since Kotobukiya isn't Bandai and the Frame Arms inner frame is notorious for breakage (ha...haha... foreshadowing). This kit is a year or two old and despite making Frame Arms kits for years they only just realized recently that pre-built inner frames suck. Trust me, the lack of an inner frame on any of the Tora releases is a bonus.
Almost everything is plastic-on-plastic with a lot of color-separated pieces fitting together. Whereas the Shadow Tiger is dark and brooding in appearance and the White Tiger is a
The shoulder armor (Left) is crap, though. It's attached via microscopic pegs which break at a breath and then you have to dig out the end from the shoulder, making the attachment point look awful. Thankfully the Orbital Frame-like giant shoulders won't give you trouble if you VERY LIGHTLY sand down the connecting peg which sticks into the ball joint segment which itself fits into the shoulder/chest (pictured Right, the black ball joint is fine but that connects to the arm via a peg which needs VERY LIGHT VERY VERY LIGHT sanding). If you don't then the natural tightness of the arm will make it pop out by the ball joint every time you try to raise or lower the arm. Speaking of...
The arms have two points of articulation by the elbow, appearing more like two elbows on each arm. Although it can do a full elbow bend and touch its shoulder, you'd think the second joint there, which adds to its rather cool gangly appearance, would give it even more bending potential, but it doesn't. In fact, the upper joint (second from the left in the picture above) doesn't bend forward at all. Instead it bends backwards and only a little bit. You can make a very cool "broken arm" look by twisting the forearm around (it goes all around), bending it forward at the bottom and backward at the top there. However, you can't do much else with it, making it largely pointless.
Why have two joints at the elbow and upper arm when you're only able to fully bend one of them?
Be ginger with this, though, since it's at an odd angle and on a tiny peg stuck into a rotating polycap thing. However, it also has a swivel at it's base on the hip (pictured below) which can make it tilt oddly side to side, more so than just lifting and turning the above pictured torso/waist. You...won't want to move this piece though.
This. This rotten monster of a connection. This thorny refuse from Beelzebub himself is your worst enemy. Whereas the front peg for the "waist" crunch is fine and can easily hold any pose, THIS thing can't do jack squat. Oh, it seems like it's fine. The peg coming up from the thin middle point between the two bulbous hip joints fits tight, even snug, into the hole at the bottom of the portion you see tilted above. Oh it seems nice. You twist it, turn it and it's all good, until one day it just feels a little...too fine. Almost...almost like it's...loose? Then you turn it once more only to see BAM!! THE THING BROKE OFF WITHOUT SO MUCH AS A SNAP!
Good luck getting it back to normal! No really, because you won't. The peg is stuck inside the hole like a hapless man discovering first-hand vagina dentata. You're never getting it back, and remember, Kotobukiya kits are notorious for being expensive once they're done with their initial run. But that's not the issue. The REAL issue is that this entirely special design was made from the ground-up according to Yoji Shinkawa's art concepts, but despite that they still snuck in a Frame Arms staple--the Frame Arms HIPS! Kotobukiya couldn't help themselves! "Thanks for the money, loser!"
You could always buy a Frame Arms inner frame separately and use the hips from that as a replacement, but that's a $15+ replacement just for a minor swivel on a peg that would just break eventually anyway. Screw that. Superglue the sucker and be grateful it wasn't the waist peg.
Next-to-last is the hips and the legs. These are absolutely incredible--the hips themselves being unique to the Tora but the hip connector being the little #(*%Y thing with the peg that broke on me. The hips are two giant Orbital Frame-like spheres, smaller but no less round than the shoulders, and give the kit some birthing hips, especially with such thicc thighs.
The legs aren't double-jointed but they can bend a bit backwards for a cool look. When properly straightened the kit is a bit taller than otherwise, but not by much. There's also a hidden piston gimmick in the "knee" area, and if not for the calf thrusters (the white things on the legs) they would have a full double-bend. As-is they bend well enough.
Another special aspect of the design is how the hip joints have an extra inner piece which unfolds as the legs split, which only emboldens the already free-range movement due to their design and lack of skirting armor. This is easily the most fun kit to pose and fiddle with that Kotobukiya has ever made, even despite the giant "screw you" with that hip peg (and super gluing that really doesn't effect much since you weren't gonna twist that often anyway).
This brings us to the really cool head and the extra armor. The Zero Tora has special head armor (like the V fin and a couple of armor pieces for the head) which the other Tora kits don't have, but the external armor you'll see in the pics below, on the arms and legs, are also in the Shadow Tora.
Lastly the head. You might notice an immediate resemblance to Metal Gear Ray...
Since this is from the same designer it's neat nod to his earlier work. However, unlike the Ray this mech doesn't have a cool Predator-like jaw effect. Instead it has a different secret. The face/chin armor detached (and reattaches perfectly countless times, no worries) to reveal a humanoid face.
The out-of-box experience is a bit jarring. It has a tiny terse expression with little pursed lips, all solid black color. I didn't like that since it's retarded, especially for this otherwise hardcore mechanical aesthetic, so I took a long time modifying it and you can, too.
- All you need to do is gently sand it down horizontally and in circles before putting the head together.
- That cool toothy looking white lower jaw you see there connects in two halves with the black center piece fitting between. In the back of the two halves is the bottom of the upper face where the eyes, nose and mouth is.
- Once you sand down, panel line and polish away the dumb lips, you can then tightly, gently snip off that bottom piece of the upper face from underneath. Don't worry, the jaw will still attach tightly, but now only by the two connecting nobs at the corner of the helmet-like head
--- You see the pointy parts of the gray head which reach over the white jaw? That's the ticket. Snapping the two halves of the head together will fit the jaw together as well and keep the upper head in place, thus creating a make-shift hinge joint! But DO NOT do this yet!
- Now snip some plastic into extremely small, thin shards. Put that under the beaky forward lip (don't remove that) of the upper face where the mouth once was. Use a bit of Tamiya thin cement glue or some other glue to put them on. Put a double-layer of masking tape or a layer of tinfoil which you cut carefully to fit underneath, then glue it too. Light gluing.
- NOW you can connect it all together once the upper pieces of the jaw are glued and dried and the lower jaw (NOT glued) is ready. Once you do, that makeshift hinge joint will bring about a totally different, almost Evangelion aesthetic!
- That cool toothy looking white lower jaw you see there connects in two halves with the black center piece fitting between. In the back of the two halves is the bottom of the upper face where the eyes, nose and mouth is.
- Once you sand down, panel line and polish away the dumb lips, you can then tightly, gently snip off that bottom piece of the upper face from underneath. Don't worry, the jaw will still attach tightly, but now only by the two connecting nobs at the corner of the helmet-like head
--- You see the pointy parts of the gray head which reach over the white jaw? That's the ticket. Snapping the two halves of the head together will fit the jaw together as well and keep the upper head in place, thus creating a make-shift hinge joint! But DO NOT do this yet!
- Now snip some plastic into extremely small, thin shards. Put that under the beaky forward lip (don't remove that) of the upper face where the mouth once was. Use a bit of Tamiya thin cement glue or some other glue to put them on. Put a double-layer of masking tape or a layer of tinfoil which you cut carefully to fit underneath, then glue it too. Light gluing.
- NOW you can connect it all together once the upper pieces of the jaw are glued and dried and the lower jaw (NOT glued) is ready. Once you do, that makeshift hinge joint will bring about a totally different, almost Evangelion aesthetic!
With that we can put on the external armor and see how much this gangly, elegant mecha bulks up with it. A little bit goes a long way:
That's it for the review. I decided while working on another rare kit (which I'll dare to talk about another time) to take this baby apart and spray Tamiya gunmetal on all the black parts, which really adds depth to it and makes it look even more like it has some kind of cool inner frame beneath the armor. You can also see the kind of splits it can pull off.
If you want to buy this kit, do it at a cost of $70-80. No more than $80, including shipping and taxes. This is a great kit and I think the Shadow Tora would be fine too, even the White Tora. However this kit's coloration is more to my liking. Either way, it's a great kit if you can find it and afford it but DO NOT spend $100+ on this thing. It's not worth it. No kit is, really. But for a reasonable price it's not bad at all and again, I really do think this is not only Kotobukiya's best (at least for Frame Arms) but also Yoji Shinkawa's best.
EDIT: I just checked and wanted to post this for clarity, but if you don't like/can't find the Zero Tora then the Shadow Tora is literally the same thing from top to bottom but with a different color scheme and no head armor pieces. Same accessories though.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2018
Gotta say I'm not really a fan of the grey they use for most of the body. Great detail on this kit though, looks like it would be lovely to paint up. I definitely prefer this kind of more "humanoid" proportioned robot to the super blocky classic Gundam designs.
Looks awesomeLads and laddies, I am proud to present to you yet another exceedingly rare kit which I managed to find despite scalpers otherwise demanding blood oaths to purchase one. I give you the Ling Hu, aka the Zero Tora!
View attachment 2085296
This is gonna be a longer post just because these kits barely have any proper reviews and I don't want you guys wasting money on mystery kits. Since it's so long, I'll SPOILER it to spare the thread a novel.
Designed by Yoji Shinkawa aka the "Metal Gear" guy and the "Why do all his feminine robots have penis cockpits?" guy, this Frame Arms kit is the majesty of Shinkawa's mecha career (if only because it has feet, functional hands and doesn't have a protruding penile cockpit). Being the third iteration of his totally-not-Sahelanthropus "Tora/Tiger" robots, it's as modular as any Frame Arms kit (and has the same glaring flaws).
Here's a cool background of early artwork Shinkawa made to accompany his kit's earlier release (edited by yours truly):
View attachment 2085343
Anyway, here's what it looks like after some panel lining and a can of Tamiya matte spray paint:View attachment 2085377If at any point you begin to wonder, "Hey, where is the power pack/power cell/ammunition for X weapon? How does X generate power? etc." Please ignore these basic questions of realism from a thinking mind. Shinkawa is neither Tomino nor Katoki. The guy is a character designer foremost, mecha designer second. You've seen the "cock"pits of the Zone of the Enders robots (otherwise fun designs, honestly). Realism is appreciated for me, though, and this is theleast retardedbest invention by Shinkawa so the suspension of disbelief is easy.
Just imagine the Tora has some kind of friction-power generator where the more actions it preforms the more power it generates. There. All answers solved.
It's supposed to have four eyes, as you saw in the artwork, but due to how they were pre-painted (very well and durable paint, too) it looks more like two eyes with a tiger-like pupil.
The original two releases are the White and Shadow Tora (tigers). If you can't find this one but still want something like it, then you might be able to find the Shadow Tora for roughly the same price I got this one if it's on sale at the official KotoUS store ($70~ maybe a bit more depending on shipping). The Shadow Tora is better colored than the White despite being black (making panel lining a pain in the ass to actually show through) and has more weaponry, particularly that modular Beam Canon on its back-right (seen above). I think it also comes with the Laser Rifle (Canon?) on it's back-left, which can either be a back-mounted weapon (as pictured) or a hand-held rifle (below)
View attachment 2085394
This latest (and likely last) iteration comes with enough runners to make both the hand-held and back-mounted laser rifles. I painted this one, then repainted it and ended up ruining it, but at least I got the one on its back.
Other accessories include several holding hands (gun, sword), closed fists and relaxed hands. These are plain but unique to the Tora design, being a bit bigger than usual Kotobukiya modeling hands. It also has a pair of attachable sword/rifle holders you can peg and spin into any of the many 3mm holes along its frame (you can see a pistol in one I attached to the left shoulder--the pistol is from an HG Evangelion kit)
The Zero Tora also comes with a nifty V fin (to pay homage to Gundam I assume (it's bent in my pictures because it broke)) which is exchangable for a flat surface instead. It also has another set of accessories I'll get into later.
Overall the kit stands at roughly the height of the MG Barbatos, although it's supposed to be taller according to the design notes. Kotobukiya 1/100 is always shorter than Bandai 1/100 because I guess basic arrhythmic is hard
Still, this is currently the tallest Kotobukiya kit and tallest Frame Arms by far, being a good head and shoulders taller than the MG Wing Zero ver. Ka.
However, you might be starting to notice all the nub marks. Well, as I said last time I talked up a Kotobukiya kit, their stuff is always riddled with nub marks and obvious seam lines. I doubt you'd be able to tell with the Shadow Tiger though.
The beam sword for the Tora is by far the most unique weapon which, like the Laser Rifle (Canon?), comes with every iteration of the Tora.
View attachment 2085434
Dubbed the "Black Blade" (at least according to Yandex Image Translation), it has a sizable hilt, bit of a hand guard--which is nifty albeit pointless with energy weapons--and a bit of a thin pommel. Oddly, it also has a solid spine going up the back (which I painted gold to contrast the dark blade). It's a beast of a thing overall, being roughly the height of a 1/144 Gundam.
View attachment 2085591
You attach the translucent plastic blade into the hilt via a circular joint hidden between the two connecting sides of the hand guard and fit its toothy back into the vent-like holes in the spine. It's a unique look (I keep saying that, huh?) but because of how the blade fits into it you can't just detach it to show the blade not in use, at least not as easily as you can a Gundam's beam saber. Ultimately it looks more like a giant glass black sword than a beam saber due to its design but eh. Imagination.
More curious than the solid spine or how it's fit together is the black plastic for the energy weapon. It's such a deep black color that, outside of direct light hitting it, you'd just think it was a black sword. Why make your energy weapon barely look like an energy weapon?
Anyway, don't be fooled by the appearance of the Tora. It has no inner frame, only the illusion of one, which turns out to be for its better since Kotobukiya isn't Bandai and the Frame Arms inner frame is notorious for breakage (ha...haha... foreshadowing). This kit is a year or two old and despite making Frame Arms kits for years they only just realized recently that pre-built inner frames suck. Trust me, the lack of an inner frame on any of the Tora releases is a bonus.
View attachment 2085639
Almost everything is plastic-on-plastic with a lot of color-separated pieces fitting together. Whereas the Shadow Tiger is dark and brooding in appearance and the White Tiger is acumsiclecanvas screaming for a paint jobwhite kit, the Zero Tiger has that beige gray exterior contrasted by a lot of white and black. It's almost elegant thin body and mongoloid long arms beg for attachments and accessories, but even without them there's a lot of notches, crooks and designs for you to panel line and bring to life. The 3mm holes aren't just gaps, but a feature!
The shoulder armor (Left) is crap, though. It's attached via microscopic pegs which break at a breath and then you have to dig out the end from the shoulder, making the attachment point look awful. Thankfully the Orbital Frame-like giant shoulders won't give you trouble if you VERY LIGHTLY sand down the connecting peg which sticks into the ball joint segment which itself fits into the shoulder/chest (pictured Right, the black ball joint is fine but that connects to the arm via a peg which needs VERY LIGHT VERY VERY LIGHT sanding). If you don't then the natural tightness of the arm will make it pop out by the ball joint every time you try to raise or lower the arm. Speaking of...
View attachment 2085522
The arms have two points of articulation by the elbow, appearing more like two elbows on each arm. Although it can do a full elbow bend and touch its shoulder, you'd think the second joint there, which adds to its rather cool gangly appearance, would give it even more bending potential, but it doesn't. In fact, the upper joint (second from the left in the picture above) doesn't bend forward at all. Instead it bends backwards and only a little bit. You can make a very cool "broken arm" look by twisting the forearm around (it goes all around), bending it forward at the bottom and backward at the top there. However, you can't do much else with it, making it largely pointless.
Why have two joints at the elbow and upper arm when you're only able to fully bend one of them?
The most unorthodox aspect of this design is its torso. Clearly bearing some IBO inspired design, the unorthodox torso has more articulation than you'd think. What we can charitably refer to as a "waist" can lift up (Lower Left) and tilt side to side ever-so. This coupled with neck movement (ball joint at base of the head + forward-back neck chicken movement) and the upper torso's ability to tilt very far back and all the way forward (until the inner sphere beneath the V chest is fully hidden) means it can do a hearty "crunch", making the robot able to look directly down at its toes.
View attachment 2085568
Be ginger with this, though, since it's at an odd angle and on a tiny peg stuck into a rotating polycap thing. However, it also has a swivel at it's base on the hip (pictured below) which can make it tilt oddly side to side, more so than just lifting and turning the above pictured torso/waist. You...won't want to move this piece though.
View attachment 2085675
This. This rotten monster of a connection. This thorny refuse from Beelzebub himself is your worst enemy. Whereas the front peg for the "waist" crunch is fine and can easily hold any pose, THIS thing can't do jack squat. Oh, it seems like it's fine. The peg coming up from the thin middle point between the two bulbous hip joints fits tight, even snug, into the hole at the bottom of the portion you see tilted above. Oh it seems nice. You twist it, turn it and it's all good, until one day it just feels a little...too fine. Almost...almost like it's...loose? Then you turn it once more only to see BAM!! THE THING BROKE OFF WITHOUT SO MUCH AS A SNAP!
Good luck getting it back to normal! No really, because you won't. The peg is stuck inside the hole like a hapless man discovering first-hand vagina dentata. You're never getting it back, and remember, Kotobukiya kits are notorious for being expensive once they're done with their initial run. But that's not the issue. The REAL issue is that this entirely special design was made from the ground-up according to Yoji Shinkawa's art concepts, but despite that they still snuck in a Frame Arms staple--the Frame Arms HIPS! Kotobukiya couldn't help themselves! "Thanks for the money, loser!"
View attachment 2085711
You could always buy a Frame Arms inner frame separately and use the hips from that as a replacement, but that's a $15+ replacement just for a minor swivel on a peg that would just break eventually anyway. Screw that. Superglue the sucker and be grateful it wasn't the waist peg.
Next-to-last is the hips and the legs. These are absolutely incredible--the hips themselves being unique to the Tora but the hip connector being the little #(*%Y thing with the peg that broke on me. The hips are two giant Orbital Frame-like spheres, smaller but no less round than the shoulders, and give the kit some birthing hips, especially with such thicc thighs.
The legs aren't double-jointed but they can bend a bit backwards for a cool look. When properly straightened the kit is a bit taller than otherwise, but not by much. There's also a hidden piston gimmick in the "knee" area, and if not for the calf thrusters (the white things on the legs) they would have a full double-bend. As-is they bend well enough.
View attachment 2085800
Another special aspect of the design is how the hip joints have an extra inner piece which unfolds as the legs split, which only emboldens the already free-range movement due to their design and lack of skirting armor. This is easily the most fun kit to pose and fiddle with that Kotobukiya has ever made, even despite the giant "screw you" with that hip peg (and super gluing that really doesn't effect much since you weren't gonna twist that often anyway).
View attachment 2085805
This brings us to the really cool head and the extra armor. The Zero Tora has special head armor (like the V fin and a couple of armor pieces for the head) which the other Tora kits don't have, but the external armor you'll see in the pics below, on the arms and legs, are also in the Shadow Tora.
Lastly the head. You might notice an immediate resemblance to Metal Gear Ray...
View attachment 2085816
Since this is from the same designer it's neat nod to his earlier work. However, unlike the Ray this mech doesn't have a cool Predator-like jaw effect. Instead it has a different secret. The face/chin armor detached (and reattaches perfectly countless times, no worries) to reveal a humanoid face.
View attachment 2085823
The out-of-box experience is a bit jarring. It has a tiny terse expression with little pursed lips, all solid black color. I didn't like that since it's retarded, especially for this otherwise hardcore mechanical aesthetic, so I took a long time modifying it and you can, too.
Also I forgot to mention the white antennae you see on the head needs to be painted white. It's like the shoulder armor. It's stupid considering everything else white is already white but whatever.- All you need to do is gently sand it down horizontally and in circles before putting the head together.
- That cool toothy looking white lower jaw you see there connects in two halves with the black center piece fitting between. In the back of the two halves is the bottom of the upper face where the eyes, nose and mouth is.
- Once you sand down, panel line and polish away the dumb lips, you can then tightly, gently snip off that bottom piece of the upper face from underneath. Don't worry, the jaw will still attach tightly, but now only by the two connecting nobs at the corner of the helmet-like head
--- You see the pointy parts of the gray head which reach over the white jaw? That's the ticket. Snapping the two halves of the head together will fit the jaw together as well and keep the upper head in place, thus creating a make-shift hinge joint! But DO NOT do this yet!
- Now snip some plastic into extremely small, thin shards. Put that under the beaky forward lip (don't remove that) of the upper face where the mouth once was. Use a bit of Tamiya thin cement glue or some other glue to put them on. Put a double-layer of masking tape or a layer of tinfoil which you cut carefully to fit underneath, then glue it too. Light gluing.
- NOW you can connect it all together once the upper pieces of the jaw are glued and dried and the lower jaw (NOT glued) is ready. Once you do, that makeshift hinge joint will bring about a totally different, almost Evangelion aesthetic!
View attachment 2085846
With that we can put on the external armor and see how much this gangly, elegant mecha bulks up with it. A little bit goes a long way:
View attachment 2085854View attachment 2085856
That's it for the review. I decided while working on another rare kit (which I'll dare to talk about another time) to take this baby apart and spray Tamiya gunmetal on all the black parts, which really adds depth to it and makes it look even more like it has some kind of cool inner frame beneath the armor. You can also see the kind of splits it can pull off.
View attachment 2085881
If you want to buy this kit, do it at a cost of $70-80. No more than $80, including shipping and taxes. This is a great kit and I think the Shadow Tora would be fine too, even the White Tora. However this kit's coloration is more to my liking. Either way, it's a great kit if you can find it and afford it but DO NOT spend $100+ on this thing. It's not worth it. No kit is, really. But for a reasonable price it's not bad at all and again, I really do think this is not only Kotobukiya's best (at least for Frame Arms) but also Yoji Shinkawa's best.
but yea $100+ is a bit ridiculous price to pay (hell the aoshima kit cost about the same and was fragile as hell... I still am not making it transform i just can't fiddle with it...)Anyway the main touch up job of the heavyarms gundam is done, but I plan on touching up more (mostly the weapons as the main body is nearly to my expectations).
Now this is a lot better paint-wise! I decided I wanted it to look like something organic took over the suit hence the light touches of blue on the leg missiles and while it doesn't look like anime guyver I'm still happy with the paint job.
Kinda hard to tell but I painted the blade a slight tinge red on the cutting part, looks like he's been dissecting gundams/people because its a very dark red like oil mixed with blood. The build was very fun, I like master grade design wise because they are more detailed and in turn easier to build for me because of the small details. But, I did not have fun painting it too much mostly due to painting while building and this kinda soured the painting part, but as long as I build it till final assembly then paint I'm fine I just get weird when I'm in the middle of building then painting and trying to build other parts... can't do it. But still, this was a fun kit and I do plan on touch up the backpack and gatling laser but im not in a rush.
EyelessMC
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2020
You might be into the Shadow Tora then:
I don't know what kind of plastic this is but man, Tamiya matte spray is just pure magic. Although with a black exterior it could look even better with gunmetal or a metallic spray. Either way just out-of-the-box it's a good build and like you said it's got a cool humanoid look.
KotoUS seems to have this one. It was around for the last year-end sale so if the shipping and tax is too much it could be worth checking it out if it's still up by Christmas.
Definitely don't ever pay more than like $80, even if it's international shipping, and I'm already breaking myself by saying $80 because I still refuse to think a kit of any kind (PG excluded) is worth more than $65. MG Wing Zero ver. Ka really showed how it's done in terms of bang-for-buck. But rare kits are rare.
>Frame Arms Girls
>F A Gs
Although I disagree with your argument I respect your discovery of a troll-worthy acronym. This is genuinely funny.
However, when things like this exist....
...your argument is invalid.
Good, don't rush it. It's a hobby meant to relax and unwind. That said, dude a Guyver Heavyarms is the sickest. I like the idea how you're going about it. Hope you top coat, though, since some paints chafe off easy after fiddling with a kit (I learned that the hard way). I noticed the red on the blade, too. I really like it! Nothing like making a mecha your own.
Although considering how Guyver worked I wouldn't want to pilot that monster. With my luck I'd probably would end up half fused to its biomechanical interior.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2018
Tell me about it, the Kotobukiya Eva-02 is $80 MSRP for some goddamned reason (their other Eva kits are $45-50) even though the only extra accessory it includes is a giant plastic cloak. Are you telling me a fucking plastic cloak (that literally covers up 85% of the body... that blocks almost all posability by virtue of being a solid hunk of plastic... justifies a $30 price bump over the default?
Of course I still bought it cuz I'm an evafag but god damn Kotobukiya, your prices are fuckin' insane.
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2016
Aren't there bikini waifu anime robots with titty missiles? Like Venus A from Mazinger. And that's old anime shit. She also has kits
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2020
you should boil this one, tooLads and laddies, I am proud to present to you yet another exceedingly rare kit which I managed to find despite scalpers otherwise demanding blood oaths to purchase one. I give you the Ling Hu, aka the Zero Tora!
View attachment 2085296
This is gonna be a longer post just because these kits barely have any proper reviews and I don't want you guys wasting money on mystery kits. Since it's so long, I'll SPOILER it to spare the thread a novel.
Designed by Yoji Shinkawa aka the "Metal Gear" guy and the "Why do all his feminine robots have penis cockpits?" guy, this Frame Arms kit is the majesty of Shinkawa's mecha career (if only because it has feet, functional hands and doesn't have a protruding penile cockpit). Being the third iteration of his totally-not-Sahelanthropus "Tora/Tiger" robots, it's as modular as any Frame Arms kit (and has the same glaring flaws).
Here's a cool background of early artwork Shinkawa made to accompany his kit's earlier release (edited by yours truly):
View attachment 2085343
Anyway, here's what it looks like after some panel lining and a can of Tamiya matte spray paint:View attachment 2085377If at any point you begin to wonder, "Hey, where is the power pack/power cell/ammunition for X weapon? How does X generate power? etc." Please ignore these basic questions of realism from a thinking mind. Shinkawa is neither Tomino nor Katoki. The guy is a character designer foremost, mecha designer second. You've seen the "cock"pits of the Zone of the Enders robots (otherwise fun designs, honestly). Realism is appreciated for me, though, and this is theleast retardedbest invention by Shinkawa so the suspension of disbelief is easy.
Just imagine the Tora has some kind of friction-power generator where the more actions it preforms the more power it generates. There. All answers solved.
It's supposed to have four eyes, as you saw in the artwork, but due to how they were pre-painted (very well and durable paint, too) it looks more like two eyes with a tiger-like pupil.
The original two releases are the White and Shadow Tora (tigers). If you can't find this one but still want something like it, then you might be able to find the Shadow Tora for roughly the same price I got this one if it's on sale at the official KotoUS store ($70~ maybe a bit more depending on shipping). The Shadow Tora is better colored than the White despite being black (making panel lining a pain in the ass to actually show through) and has more weaponry, particularly that modular Beam Canon on its back-right (seen above). I think it also comes with the Laser Rifle (Canon?) on it's back-left, which can either be a back-mounted weapon (as pictured) or a hand-held rifle (below)
View attachment 2085394
This latest (and likely last) iteration comes with enough runners to make both the hand-held and back-mounted laser rifles. I painted this one, then repainted it and ended up ruining it, but at least I got the one on its back.
Other accessories include several holding hands (gun, sword), closed fists and relaxed hands. These are plain but unique to the Tora design, being a bit bigger than usual Kotobukiya modeling hands. It also has a pair of attachable sword/rifle holders you can peg and spin into any of the many 3mm holes along its frame (you can see a pistol in one I attached to the left shoulder--the pistol is from an HG Evangelion kit)
The Zero Tora also comes with a nifty V fin (to pay homage to Gundam I assume (it's bent in my pictures because it broke)) which is exchangable for a flat surface instead. It also has another set of accessories I'll get into later.
Overall the kit stands at roughly the height of the MG Barbatos, although it's supposed to be taller according to the design notes. Kotobukiya 1/100 is always shorter than Bandai 1/100 because I guess basic arrhythmic is hard
Still, this is currently the tallest Kotobukiya kit and tallest Frame Arms by far, being a good head and shoulders taller than the MG Wing Zero ver. Ka.
However, you might be starting to notice all the nub marks. Well, as I said last time I talked up a Kotobukiya kit, their stuff is always riddled with nub marks and obvious seam lines. I doubt you'd be able to tell with the Shadow Tiger though.
The beam sword for the Tora is by far the most unique weapon which, like the Laser Rifle (Canon?), comes with every iteration of the Tora.
View attachment 2085434
Dubbed the "Black Blade" (at least according to Yandex Image Translation), it has a sizable hilt, bit of a hand guard--which is nifty albeit pointless with energy weapons--and a bit of a thin pommel. Oddly, it also has a solid spine going up the back (which I painted gold to contrast the dark blade). It's a beast of a thing overall, being roughly the height of a 1/144 Gundam.
View attachment 2085591
You attach the translucent plastic blade into the hilt via a circular joint hidden between the two connecting sides of the hand guard and fit its toothy back into the vent-like holes in the spine. It's a unique look (I keep saying that, huh?) but because of how the blade fits into it you can't just detach it to show the blade not in use, at least not as easily as you can a Gundam's beam saber. Ultimately it looks more like a giant glass black sword than a beam saber due to its design but eh. Imagination.
More curious than the solid spine or how it's fit together is the black plastic for the energy weapon. It's such a deep black color that, outside of direct light hitting it, you'd just think it was a black sword. Why make your energy weapon barely look like an energy weapon?
Anyway, don't be fooled by the appearance of the Tora. It has no inner frame, only the illusion of one, which turns out to be for its better since Kotobukiya isn't Bandai and the Frame Arms inner frame is notorious for breakage (ha...haha... foreshadowing). This kit is a year or two old and despite making Frame Arms kits for years they only just realized recently that pre-built inner frames suck. Trust me, the lack of an inner frame on any of the Tora releases is a bonus.
View attachment 2085639
Almost everything is plastic-on-plastic with a lot of color-separated pieces fitting together. Whereas the Shadow Tiger is dark and brooding in appearance and the White Tiger is acumsiclecanvas screaming for a paint jobwhite kit, the Zero Tiger has that beige gray exterior contrasted by a lot of white and black. It's almost elegant thin body and mongoloid long arms beg for attachments and accessories, but even without them there's a lot of notches, crooks and designs for you to panel line and bring to life. The 3mm holes aren't just gaps, but a feature!
The shoulder armor (Left) is crap, though. It's attached via microscopic pegs which break at a breath and then you have to dig out the end from the shoulder, making the attachment point look awful. Thankfully the Orbital Frame-like giant shoulders won't give you trouble if you VERY LIGHTLY sand down the connecting peg which sticks into the ball joint segment which itself fits into the shoulder/chest (pictured Right, the black ball joint is fine but that connects to the arm via a peg which needs VERY LIGHT VERY VERY LIGHT sanding). If you don't then the natural tightness of the arm will make it pop out by the ball joint every time you try to raise or lower the arm. Speaking of...
View attachment 2085522
The arms have two points of articulation by the elbow, appearing more like two elbows on each arm. Although it can do a full elbow bend and touch its shoulder, you'd think the second joint there, which adds to its rather cool gangly appearance, would give it even more bending potential, but it doesn't. In fact, the upper joint (second from the left in the picture above) doesn't bend forward at all. Instead it bends backwards and only a little bit. You can make a very cool "broken arm" look by twisting the forearm around (it goes all around), bending it forward at the bottom and backward at the top there. However, you can't do much else with it, making it largely pointless.
Why have two joints at the elbow and upper arm when you're only able to fully bend one of them?
The most unorthodox aspect of this design is its torso. Clearly bearing some IBO inspired design, the unorthodox torso has more articulation than you'd think. What we can charitably refer to as a "waist" can lift up (Lower Left) and tilt side to side ever-so. This coupled with neck movement (ball joint at base of the head + forward-back neck chicken movement) and the upper torso's ability to tilt very far back and all the way forward (until the inner sphere beneath the V chest is fully hidden) means it can do a hearty "crunch", making the robot able to look directly down at its toes.
View attachment 2085568
Be ginger with this, though, since it's at an odd angle and on a tiny peg stuck into a rotating polycap thing. However, it also has a swivel at it's base on the hip (pictured below) which can make it tilt oddly side to side, more so than just lifting and turning the above pictured torso/waist. You...won't want to move this piece though.
View attachment 2085675
This. This rotten monster of a connection. This thorny refuse from Beelzebub himself is your worst enemy. Whereas the front peg for the "waist" crunch is fine and can easily hold any pose, THIS thing can't do jack squat. Oh, it seems like it's fine. The peg coming up from the thin middle point between the two bulbous hip joints fits tight, even snug, into the hole at the bottom of the portion you see tilted above. Oh it seems nice. You twist it, turn it and it's all good, until one day it just feels a little...too fine. Almost...almost like it's...loose? Then you turn it once more only to see BAM!! THE THING BROKE OFF WITHOUT SO MUCH AS A SNAP!
Good luck getting it back to normal! No really, because you won't. The peg is stuck inside the hole like a hapless man discovering first-hand vagina dentata. You're never getting it back, and remember, Kotobukiya kits are notorious for being expensive once they're done with their initial run. But that's not the issue. The REAL issue is that this entirely special design was made from the ground-up according to Yoji Shinkawa's art concepts, but despite that they still snuck in a Frame Arms staple--the Frame Arms HIPS! Kotobukiya couldn't help themselves! "Thanks for the money, loser!"
View attachment 2085711
You could always buy a Frame Arms inner frame separately and use the hips from that as a replacement, but that's a $15+ replacement just for a minor swivel on a peg that would just break eventually anyway. Screw that. Superglue the sucker and be grateful it wasn't the waist peg.
Next-to-last is the hips and the legs. These are absolutely incredible--the hips themselves being unique to the Tora but the hip connector being the little #(*%Y thing with the peg that broke on me. The hips are two giant Orbital Frame-like spheres, smaller but no less round than the shoulders, and give the kit some birthing hips, especially with such thicc thighs.
The legs aren't double-jointed but they can bend a bit backwards for a cool look. When properly straightened the kit is a bit taller than otherwise, but not by much. There's also a hidden piston gimmick in the "knee" area, and if not for the calf thrusters (the white things on the legs) they would have a full double-bend. As-is they bend well enough.
View attachment 2085800
Another special aspect of the design is how the hip joints have an extra inner piece which unfolds as the legs split, which only emboldens the already free-range movement due to their design and lack of skirting armor. This is easily the most fun kit to pose and fiddle with that Kotobukiya has ever made, even despite the giant "screw you" with that hip peg (and super gluing that really doesn't effect much since you weren't gonna twist that often anyway).
View attachment 2085805
This brings us to the really cool head and the extra armor. The Zero Tora has special head armor (like the V fin and a couple of armor pieces for the head) which the other Tora kits don't have, but the external armor you'll see in the pics below, on the arms and legs, are also in the Shadow Tora.
Lastly the head. You might notice an immediate resemblance to Metal Gear Ray...
View attachment 2085816
Since this is from the same designer it's neat nod to his earlier work. However, unlike the Ray this mech doesn't have a cool Predator-like jaw effect. Instead it has a different secret. The face/chin armor detached (and reattaches perfectly countless times, no worries) to reveal a humanoid face.
View attachment 2085823
The out-of-box experience is a bit jarring. It has a tiny terse expression with little pursed lips, all solid black color. I didn't like that since it's retarded, especially for this otherwise hardcore mechanical aesthetic, so I took a long time modifying it and you can, too.
Also I forgot to mention the white antennae you see on the head needs to be painted white. It's like the shoulder armor. It's stupid considering everything else white is already white but whatever.- All you need to do is gently sand it down horizontally and in circles before putting the head together.
- That cool toothy looking white lower jaw you see there connects in two halves with the black center piece fitting between. In the back of the two halves is the bottom of the upper face where the eyes, nose and mouth is.
- Once you sand down, panel line and polish away the dumb lips, you can then tightly, gently snip off that bottom piece of the upper face from underneath. Don't worry, the jaw will still attach tightly, but now only by the two connecting nobs at the corner of the helmet-like head
--- You see the pointy parts of the gray head which reach over the white jaw? That's the ticket. Snapping the two halves of the head together will fit the jaw together as well and keep the upper head in place, thus creating a make-shift hinge joint! But DO NOT do this yet!
- Now snip some plastic into extremely small, thin shards. Put that under the beaky forward lip (don't remove that) of the upper face where the mouth once was. Use a bit of Tamiya thin cement glue or some other glue to put them on. Put a double-layer of masking tape or a layer of tinfoil which you cut carefully to fit underneath, then glue it too. Light gluing.
- NOW you can connect it all together once the upper pieces of the jaw are glued and dried and the lower jaw (NOT glued) is ready. Once you do, that makeshift hinge joint will bring about a totally different, almost Evangelion aesthetic!
View attachment 2085846
With that we can put on the external armor and see how much this gangly, elegant mecha bulks up with it. A little bit goes a long way:
View attachment 2085854View attachment 2085856
That's it for the review. I decided while working on another rare kit (which I'll dare to talk about another time) to take this baby apart and spray Tamiya gunmetal on all the black parts, which really adds depth to it and makes it look even more like it has some kind of cool inner frame beneath the armor. You can also see the kind of splits it can pull off.
View attachment 2085881
If you want to buy this kit, do it at a cost of $70-80. No more than $80, including shipping and taxes. This is a great kit and I think the Shadow Tora would be fine too, even the White Tora. However this kit's coloration is more to my liking. Either way, it's a great kit if you can find it and afford it but DO NOT spend $100+ on this thing. It's not worth it. No kit is, really. But for a reasonable price it's not bad at all and again, I really do think this is not only Kotobukiya's best (at least for Frame Arms) but also Yoji Shinkawa's best.
EDIT: I just checked and wanted to post this for clarity, but if you don't like/can't find the Zero Tora then the Shadow Tora is literally the same thing from top to bottom but with a different color scheme and no head armor pieces. Same accessories though.
View attachment 2086260
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2016
I do like the orange and black coloring, though the look like FAGs? Or are at least similar. Price is nice i will say, $25 for something I can kitbash wont hurt too bad
EyelessMC
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2020
Between the obvious Frame Arms Gourai rip-off and these 30MS girls it's clear that Bandai is trying to bite into Kotobukiya's turf. Frames Arms is a line with only two selling points: 1. Highly customizable and modular, 2. Unique robot designs not connected to an existing property. Bandai selling the 30MM kits was already them showing they can take that idea, make it a more solid build, sell it for half the price and make bank. Now they're testing the waters to see if they can get in on that girly kit action since Kotobukiya's biggest market is the FAGs (such a beautiful acronym).
But FAGs and Megami Device are their biggest sellers because Kotobukiya's only true strong point--and it is pretty much unparalleled in the market even with their more rickety kits--is detail, hence why their human/girly figures are such major contenders. They have their best working on the girly kits. They even sell statues of their popular FAGs characters. Mind you, they also have that other line of kits which is basically their own GI Joe line, but the real bank seems to be the girly kits and for obvious reasons...
I'm not even into this stuff but man I can see the appeal
Competition is only ever a good thing for us anyway.
The 30MS look cool but I'm not the type to kitbash models because I can't really afford the setups I would like to do (nor do I have space to do it) and I'm just kinda lost in my brain (mental health issues... it sucks but the hobby of building stuff makes me happy.)
Speaking of kits, I managed to get a Real Grade Zeong (sadly not the final fight version with the add-ons) so hopefully that gets over here soon.
Speaking of kits, I managed to get a Real Grade Zeong (sadly not the final fight version with the add-ons) so hopefully that gets over here soon.