Naturally, I became curious about model kits related to GIS and came upon one for the Stand Alone Complex series' Tachikoma, which was released quite a while ago by Wave Corporation in the 1/24 scale. Although out of print, the Tachikoma comes up used from time to time at an affordable price. Unfortunately, the classic Fuchikoma design I came to love was only made into expensive and hard to find garage kits back in the day. Its closest relative, the slightly bulkier Uchikoma, was released by Wave along with the aforementioned Tachikoma, but it too fetches a hefty price tag online and is hard to come by. At least the Tachikoma, which is still pretty nice, has been spoiled with many figure and model kit renditions since.
Since the aforementioned Wave kit has been discontinued, Kotobukiya released their own 1/35 Tachikoma kit in Spring of 2014 for a larger price tag and a much smaller scale. However, it boasted gimmicks of being able to open up at the back to reveal a detailed internal cockpit, which was definitely an improvement over the past Wave model that didn't open up at all. Still, given how small the scale is for the price, I'd say tracking down the Wave kit is both a wiser and more affordable option even if it takes a little digging. A friend of mine has the Kotobukiya kit so I should do a comparison some time.
Since the aforementioned Wave kit has been discontinued, Kotobukiya released their own 1/35 Tachikoma kit in Spring of 2014 for a larger price tag and a much smaller scale. However, it boasted gimmicks of being able to open up at the back to reveal a detailed internal cockpit, which was definitely an improvement over the past Wave model that didn't open up at all. Still, given how small the scale is for the price, I'd say tracking down the Wave kit is both a wiser and more affordable option even if it takes a little digging. A friend of mine has the Kotobukiya kit so I should do a comparison some time.
I purchased my first Wave Tachikoma kit some time ago and did some pictures of the runners and the initial assembly for a before and after comparison. I painted this kit quite some time ago, too, but only in the past few months did I finally get around to fully paint the small Kusaragi figure that came with it, thus finally "completing" the kit. I will share the finished product of both pieces later, but for now here is what you get right out of the package:
Manual
Runners
Comes in a number of runners plus polycaps. Nice little build to do in a day, the legs do get tedious, however.
Snap Fit
The kit definitely needs some painting to look even half decent, especially since it's only molded in two colors. The polycaps mean that it can do some great poses and take advantage of the spider-like leg arrangement. I don't recall having much trouble with anything else fitting on the kit and it does not require glue.
I did a really quick painting of the Makoto Kusaragi figure in scale with the Tachikoma before I took the picture but later scrapped it (many MANY times, over and over) when I wanted to properly give it some color. The figure initially was the flesh color that most figures come molded in and looks about to scale with the 1/24 Tachikoma beside it.
Stay tuned for the painted project!
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Chris
