[Kit Insight] Kotobukiya Megami Device 1/1 Sol Hornet - Straight Build

It's quite refreshing to build a Mecha Girl model kit every once in a while, and the Megami Device line is a pretty good getaway.

[Kit Insight] Kotobukiya Frame Arms 1/100 JX-25F Ji-Dao (Straight Build)

A pretty unusual design, even for Frame Arms standards!

[Kit Insight] Kotobukiya Hexa Gear 1/24 Governor Armor Type: Pawn AI (Light Build)

This new line of model kits may be tiny but it is big on gimmicks!

[Kit Insight] Kotobukiya 1/144 PTX-003-SP1 Alteisen Riese (Straight Build)

Before this, I have never built a Super Robot Wars kit all my life, even if I religiously played the turn-based strategy games on the very first PlayStation when I was but a tyke. Perhaps the more grounded, militaristic look and feel of the Gundam series captured my heart more, relegating the more outlandish and flamboyant Super Robots to a less-accessed corner of my mind. The release of SRW model kits only in Kotobukiya's format turned me away even more, as Kotobukiya kits are priced loftier than Bandai's and make you do so much more work.

An old pal of mine passed me some of his old model kits a few years back as he couldn't find the time to finish kits while juggling ten thousand other hobbies. One of the kits in the mega-haul was this Alteisen Riese, one of the main characters of Super Robot Wars. Coincidentally, a mobile game that I was fooling around with at that time featured the Riese as your first playable character. Naturally, I was stoked to build the kit, but the machinations of life delayed its construction till now.

[Kit Insight] Kotobukiya Frame Arms Girl - Materia (White Ver.)

Bandai may have its Super Fumina, but Kotobukiya has a whole range of Frame Arms Girls to give Bandai a run for their money!

[Kit Insight] Kotobukiya 1/144 Vardant [Linebarrels of Iron] (Straight Build)

To be honest, I've only seen like five minutes of the Linebarrels of Iron anime series, but it looks slick, polished and quite awesome for a mecha series. This particular Linebarrel however, looks to be the meanest of the lot, with a samurai-esque appearance coupled with the patron limit break of all calm, collected pilots: coffin swords.

Kotobukiya kits build similarly to Bandai kits, but their instructions are very much more condensed and the quality of the parts feel a tad fragile as compared to the solid Bandai molds. Nevertheless, the finished product is quite the sight to behold - especially with the arrayed coffins - but suffers from some fitment as well as articulation issues.