Hobby Complex GK01: Garage Kit Event Digest

The Hobby Complex GK01 (Hobikon GK) was held recently, and had as its name suggests, a focus on garage kits – kits of unpainted resin that require assembly and painting by the hobbyist, rather than the much more numerous pre-painted PVC figures that make up the vast share of the figure industry.

A niche  interest perhaps, but still an event worthy of notice for fans of figures, and especially so for garage kit enthusiasts who were deprived of this season’s Wonder Festival due to last year’s near-fatal accident.

First, a word of caution: Garage kits are quite removed from the world of PVC figures, so if you are unfamiliar with the term or the figure industry I would recommend reading this brief introduction (which we will likely put onto a wiki at some point) before venturing further:

A Brief Introduction to Garage Kits

If not, then suffice it to say garage kits are hobbyist items made in tiny numbers by producers often barely larger than doujinshi circles, and that they are sold unpainted and in pieces to be assembled by the consumer.

The Hobikon was held in Hamatsu this Sunday, and included a great many number of smaller producers of garage kits, and a few larger companies (Yamato, Orchid Seed, etc.)

Many of these figures are unavailable through regular methods, so I will mostly just list producer names and the occasional comment rather than providing the usual links and release dates.

Orchid Seed.

Yamato.

Yamato.

She looks a lot like Sheryl at first glance, no?

Yamato.

Tsuru no Yakata.

T’s system.

T’s system.

Yamato.

IWGK.

ムサシヤ / Musashiya

Zange-chan joins Asuka in the ranks of garage kit Yoko cosplayers.

diskvision.

Yamato.

ミリメートルモデリング / Merimeitoru Modeling

The following Macross kits are limited edition kits available through Yamato’s website:

レンタルスペース　GILL　GILL　/ Rental Space GILL GILL.

Dragons, I think?

ぐりむろっく / Gurimusokku.

T’s system.

T’s system.

もぐらのやま / Mogura no Yama.

ドリームクリエイツ / Dream Creates.

The products here are the cute Nendoroid accessories, not the Nendoroid figures themselves…

83℃

The little Kyoukas are not resin figures at all, but I couldn’t resist this shot.

makeplus.

Merimeitoru Modeling.

リベリオン / Liberion.

リベリオン / Liberion.

T’s system.

岡山エンジニアリング / Okayama Engineering.

It should be noted that garage kit producers do not always give their display kits the best paint jobs possible (weirdly enough), so judging garage kits by their paintjobs makes little sense, as they will come unpainted regardless.

Acquiring many of these kits would be a tough task for many outside Japan (with the possible exception of some of the Yamato kits), so use of auction sites and proxy services might be needed.

e2046 is the international customer’s best chance to acquire garage kits. Some of the above will undoubtedly be available at some point on their site even if, strictly speaking, they may not be original casts from the original producers but rather “recasts”…

That wraps up our article on Hobikon GK01; the next big garage kit heavy event should be WonFes, which will be making its triumphant return this summer.

See the rest of the hugely extensive coverage at  Akiba Hobby, Hobby Stock, Karu Nikki, GA Graphics and Moeyo.