Back in the 90s, it was rubbish being an anime fan. Pre-web2.0, if you liked something you had to hope there was a magazine dedicated to it or else that was you left in the dark- bar the odd tv special about the “adult cartoons from Japan'. Which was only slightly worse than having to scour all your local newsagents for Manga Mania, so you can be drip fed video release dates once a month, and maybe get the address of people who import anime merchandise. And let me tell you, most of said merchandise was pretty bad (don’t act so high and mighty, those old Dragon Ball Z figures were big, yeah but barely moved). Despite it seeming like the apocalypse has just started, this is the golden age of anime fandom in the west. Shows are translated to English within a year, highstreet bookshops sell multiple volumes of manga, and the merch is so much better. Some of which are even sold at retail as well as multiple websites. The days of staying up all night to watch Legend of the 4 Kings and paying over the odds for a brittle model kit or a gashapon are long gone. And how apt that one of the best anime series of the 90s, The Vision of Escaflowne, is the basis for this new model kit from Good Smile Company- better known for producing the nendaroid and figma series of figures- who are now expanding into the world of plastic models with their new "moderoid" line of kits. So how does it fare in a market dominated by Bandai? Now, where did I put my side cutters...
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| Get some tweezers for stickers and waterslides. You're welcome. |
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| See the sticker about to peel off? |
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| Dip the point in the glue and apply along the edge you want to affix |
Checking out all the runners, I'm guessing Good Smile are aiming to give Bandai a run for their money. If you’re not familiar with Bandai kits, the majority of them are aimed at entry level or casual model makers. They require almost no glue and in the last decade have started making parts in multiple colours, requiring little to no painting. Well, this kit is aiming at the same ease of build as the majority of the parts that would normally need some paint or a sticker are already pre-painted. There’s a couple of little details on the plastic cape, as well as the reverse needing to be dark blue, so you might want to get some paint for full show accuracy. But the majority of what would normally need painting, or a sticker, has been done for you. Unless you’re super pedantic about how the kit should look, then Good Smile have done 95% of the work for you. That being said, not all the paint apps have gone on 100% clean but the details are raised so fixing or redoing them shouldn’t be that much of a challenge. It should be noted, the only stickers are silver ones for highlighting behind the clear parts. I would recommend applying them with tweezers as they’re really small. And like Bandai's paper stickers, they barely adhere to the plastic so you have been warned. Of course if you can’t be doing with stickers then you could hand paint the backing parts silver or use a silver pen instead. Which is what I’ll be doing. One thing I really should tell you is about the clear green parts. While the parts of the kit that need gluing require super glue, using it on clear plastic leaves a horrible frosted effect so use PVA glue (yes, the white glue you used in school) as it dries clear. The instruction manual is all in Japanese but is full of simple, easy to follow diagrams that let you know what parts will need a bit of glue to hold them in place, so don’t feel intimidated if you’re new to model making- just get some proper side cutters, a hobby knife, and a file or high grit sandpaper. Personally, I like to fit the parts together dry first to see they fit properly. Because some parts will need to be glued together due to the elaborate design of the figure. That’s not to say the build is difficult, yes there’s some fiddly bits that may require tweezers, especially if you have big old hands like mine, but it all goes together as well as any High Grade (HG) gundam. Just watch out for the sharp ends and edges when putting everything together. Escaflowne’s design is very pointy.
Once it’s all together you get a very detailed figure of the escaflowne standing at about six inches at the peak of the head fin. Granted, the mostly (off) white body may not float everyone’s boat because it’s a more pure white in the show. Perhaps the dirty, chewing gum white (like the white you want to base colour an x-wing in) was chosen over plain white from the anime, to show off the details better? Nonetheless, the intricate design that looks more like a medieval suit of armour than a robot has been excellently translated into kit form. All the curves, divots, and panels are sharp and well defined, and there’s not a hint of flash (the excess of plastic you get from the injection molding process) which is quite impressive for a new model line. The proportions are close to the animation model, with the bulk taken up by the huge pauldrons and the flared out legs. Something that differentiates escaflowne from other robot kits is the cape, which comes in two options: there’s a solid, plastic cape that slightly bellows back. It certainly is show accurate as the gold (you have to paint them) corner protectors (for lack of a better term) are sculpted in. Of course, if you want 100% accuracy then the back half of the cape will need painting a navy or royal blue (tamiya royal blue in my case) and some gold for those corner parts (citadel shinning gold). Once done it really looks the part and, impressively, doesn’t make the figure particularly back heavy, though that’s mainly to its generous footprint keeping it steady. The plastic cape does, however, restrict movement, particularly in the legs so don’t expect to do super dynamic poses with this cape on. But if that’s not your bag there’s also a fabric cape. Which comes with a different surface and colour on each side. The soft cape is half PVC, half coarse fabric. The upside is it doesn’t restrict articulation (especially in the legs) at all, it allows you to plug a figma stand into the port hole in the back, and the two-tone colour scheme means no painting is needed. The fact that you even get the option of what cape you get is impressive, seeing as there’s a recent gundam kit of mobile suit with a cape, and all you get is a suggestion to cut out some paper. So fair play to Good Smile but the downside- maybe because of the nature of the PVC half- is the fabric cape doesn’t hang very well, nor does it have much span to it. Most of the time it looks like it might as well be a cut out piece of paper when you see how the fabric doesn’t fold around or drape down over the figure. Oh, and there’s no corner bits so there goes your screen accuracy. If I were more adept at crafts, I would use the fabric cape as a template to make my own from a more suitable material.
The body gives the impression of good posability- seeing as you build so many joints for it- but the figure’s design gets in the way. The head is on a ball joint but you only get a minimal amount of head-turning or tilt because of the elaborate neck and collar assembly which hugs tight around the neck. Same goes for the shoulders and elbows- which do offer nice movement via a ball joint in the shoulders, but the mother of all pauldrons get in the way. They themselves do pivot up and forward and back a touch to allow some posing, but they’re always a hindrance as you must always reposition them before moving the arms. Dynamic sword-holding poses are possible but it’s a real task to get there, especially if you didn’t glue the parts that are prone to falling off or detaching. The elbows bend 90 degrees and rotate on a socket and pivot joint. Both hands plug into the wrist via a ball joint and there’s a pivot joint as part of the hand assembly, which makes for great hand movement but the ball joints are prone to popping out. There’s a little bit of tilting in the waist, not a huge deal but welcome nonetheless. The legs are the same as the arms: they should move well but are bound by their design. The hips are on a ball joint but hardly moves outward beyond 45 degrees, although can come all the way forward. The knees bend about 90 degrees and both feet are on ball joints, allowing for some decent, dramatic stances but not much more than that. But, as mentioned before, you plug a figma stand into the back if you want a mid-air display. A tamashii stand also fits but the peg isn’t long enough to give the figure enough clearance to pivot on the joint. The clips hold it just fine though. Oh, and take extra care when moving some parts as there’s multitude of sharp points on the sculpt. Definitely not one for young children.
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| Here's a fun game. Try and guess how often the backpack piece fell off while adjusting the stand. |
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| The lightweight build means the figma stand holds it really well |
As far as accessories go, the selection is basic but essential. You have one extra set of hands in a splayed open look. Nothing hugely exciting but it’s always good to have optional hands as it looks rather dull to have a sword-wielding character’s free hand be a generic, closed fist. You get the sword itself and it’s a big one! The blade comes pre-painted silver so you’d only need a little paint touch up where the nub marks are. The handle is all flat grey, so if you want show accuracy then get your 4x0 brush out and maybe those magnifying glasses, because I found painting the blue part of the handle a real pain, as the section isn’t quite raised enough to get it how I’d like it. Also- and this shouldn’t be happening with a modern model kit- there’s no paint guide. Relying on the box art or a google image search doesn’t cut the mustard in 2020. I ended up missing a couple of sections that need painting because of this. I did the handle in Games Workshop shining gold with tamiya royal blue along the handle and the studs covered in silver, with a touch of GW seraphim sepia wash on the gold parts. You also get a sword handle, sans blade, that slots into the back of escaflowne to give the appearance of the weapon being holstered but without the blade getting in the way of articulation. That is a great edition and such a simple yet effective solution to making one display option work.
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| Size comparison with a HG Zaku Amazing |
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| With HG Gipsy Avenger |
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| With HG Petit'gguy |
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| With a Revoltech Eva unit-0 |
A bit of a pin wash to bring out the details and you’ve got great looking figure of the escaflowne that isn’t much of a challenge for the model making beginner but offers potential work for the expert- I can see a few people wanting to make their own cape with some wire in it. Either way, if you’re a fan of the anime, this kit is significantly cheaper than the kit or figure Bandai produced many moons ago, but costs more than your average HG Bandai kit, so do shop around for the best price. As kits go, I’m happy with it, the build was straight forward, little detailing was required, and the plastic is good quality. I’m displaying in an non-action pose so the plastic cape will do just fine. Hopefully Good Smile will produce the dragon form of the escaflowne, perhaps with a little Van and/or Hitomi figure in the future too? Let’s hope they make more kits based on old animes. Come on, who wants a Dairugger?
Company: Good Smile
Price paid: £30 (approx)
Bought from: Hobby Link Japan
Age: n/a
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