Hobby Complex GK01: Garage Kit Event Digest
- Categories: Anime Figures, Games, News
- Date: Mar 3, 2009 13:53 JST
- Tags: Events, Garage Kits, Hobikon, Image Gallery, Yamato
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.
Yamato.
She looks a lot like Sheryl at first glance, no?
Yamato.
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.
A Full Course Dream 3some “An Otaku Wet-Dream”
Dimension W “Both Cute & Grotesque!”
Monster Monpiece Naked Trailer Shamelessly Shameless
Digimon Adventure Tri PV Full of Promise
Tekken Moves Performed in Real Life
Energetic Lucky Chloe Figure
Otoko No Ko Harem – Will You Admit To Wanting This?
Dagashi Kashi Irresistibly Sweet
Oshiete Gyaruko-chan Pantsu-A-Plenty
Nitroplus Blasterz English Trailer Quite Rousing
Valkyria Chronicles Remaster Trailer Retells The Tale
Sickeningly Sweet Enju Aihara Miko Figure
Top 20 Anime Girls With The Sexiest Ponytails
Lovely Nekomimi Ero-MMD Quite Handy
Koukaku no Pandora “Nonstop Girl-Love!”
Shoujo-tachi Mezasu Total Ota-Anime
Guro Tossed Out The Gate
Shingeki no Kyojin PVs Swing into Action
Upskirt Umbrellas Stealthily Scandalous
Subarashii Sekai Wonderfully Worldly
Skimpy Sonico Cosplay Barely Contained
Kumiko & Reina Cosplay Hardly Blows At All
Skimpy Elf Bikini Cosplay by Saku Supremely Sexy
Gothic Lolita Hatsune Miku Cosplay Busts Out
Delectable Dizzy Cosplay by Lechat
Dark Elf Cosplay by Non Very Dark Indeed
Titillating Tamako Cosplay Perfectly Pink
Goddess of 2ch: “Full of Lust & Urges (& Also Videos)!”
Raunchy Reisen Inaba Cosplay by Tsuyato
Haruhi Bunny Girl Cosplay Rocks Out
pic 14-16
Lol at Mechwarrior (battletech) copying the designs of Macross robots.
T's system's works are pretty impressive
'レンタルスペース GILL GILL / Rental Space GILL GILL.
Dragons, I think?'
Monsters(Wyverns) from Monster Hunter, Velocidrome and Rathalos(right).
*Velocidrome(left)
The Saber doll has a really strange and unnatural position. What the hell is she supposed to be doing?
Drill Nia is awesomely cute and Taiga is a perfect rendition.
Keep up the great coverage of figures Quen!
*faces desk*
I want them all!!
Cammy from Orchid Seed locks very nice.
Yamato. Publisher is written under the image
galleryhobikongk01_25 1/7 Nanako is not by Millimeter Modeling but rather うどん工房.
http://www014.upp.so-net.ne.jp/udon-kohboh/
There is a trap among the figures....
Poison Kiss.
I want the Taiga one~
Wow, that lili Saber looks really good, and the pose is quite good too. And its not GSC or Max Factory or Alter o_o! (or alpha and omega)
Aside from that, please give me the Aisaka one, the nendoroid accessories, and omg is that a Nia figure I see! Finally :)
Some of these garage kits looked even better than the pvc figures, especially Hatsune Miku from T’s system. Also LOL @ no. 11 not being censored, hahahaha....
dunno if someone else said it but galleryhobikongk01_08 & galleryhobikongk01_12 are made by Orchid Seed (both in their GK version)
Thank you.
#12 is especially obvious...
Nude Horo WANT! Although I have no idea how to paint them, I've only done wargaming miniatures.
The dragons are bosses from Capcom's Monster Hunter series I believe.
The blue one is a Velociprey, the most common carnivore in the game, and the red one is a Rathalos, nicknamed the King of Wyverns.
Thanks. I didn't have a clue myself, but they were impressive enough to include regardless.
I think ミリメートルモデリング is best romanized as Millimeter Modeling.
Destroids and Taiga DO WANT! ;_; <3
I'll claim that I was tired while writing this...
There a lot of very nice figures shown, better than some of the PVC prepainted ones that have come out recently. I might have to try one of these kits sometime.
They look great. I want the nanoha and kyouran kazoku nikki figures.
I'm not sure if I thought that was Sheryl at first, or if because I subconsciously saw the text you put under the picture, Quen.
I can't do garage kitting.
My gunpla is still unpainted on my shelf. Assembled, but unpainted. It makes me sick! XP
Oh wow these all look really good :D
Always very wallet friendly. Will yours survive? Sude ni shindeiru?
I FAIL with analog painting... there's no "CTRL+Z"
Indeed, no CTRL+Z IRL :/
The Sky Girls one is nice, good paintjob too.. What's her name again? And why didn't they sculpt a figure of the other girl... the one in blue.. what's her name again..?
Blue one is Karen.
The one in white is...Otoha? It's been a while.
No, my mistake - the blue one is Eika.
Karen was my favorite, so her name pops up more easily.
The first Hatsune Miku kit is by T's System also.
That is, thanks.
Anybody know any good tutorials on how to paint these? What equipment to use? Brush techniques?
I updated the "Brief Intro to GKs" link in the beginning of the post to include some links.
Basically, an airbrush and appropriate paints (like Mr. Color or Gunze) are required, although many beginners do start off by using brushes.
Those are some nice garage kits I see and some are modded like the yoko and zange combination.