Finally I've gotten myself around to posting the review of my first Ma.K walker. It was and is still, my favourite walker in the SF3D/Ma.K universe. First caught wind of it in the modeling video and immediately fell in love with it. Realized that it cannot be found in Singapore in 2007, decided to check out Ebay/Yahoo Auctions Japan. Found that the price of one is in excess of 150USD!!! Well, first time I've ever bidded on Ebay for anything, was for this kit, and it went all the way up to 215USD. I gave up at 180USD cos that was just plain crazy. Finally got one at Yahoo Auctions Japan, and that was after a bloody nose fight of a bid which the other bidding parties gave up at 186USD, and that's before shipping.
Anyway back to the review, this is a WAVE issue of the Gans, land version. I read somewhere that only 2000 was made. Not to be confused with the space version. (There is a space version
as documented by Ma.k in Action which is even rarer and contains resin parts. Even if you see this in YAJ, you can forget it because it went for in excess of 20000yen)
This kit is basically the Neuspotter head mounted on the Krote body, with a few additional parts and 6 rocket tubes.
The Gans was an AI unit and used by the Strahl for reconnaissance and attack purposes.
DetailsScale: 1/20
Type of material : injection molded, multi-media, khaki colored plastic
Number of parts: ? in many sprues
Decals: yes
Instructions: yes
Overall quality: Very good, virtually no flash
Overall accuracy: Accurate
Date of release: Jan 2005
Release price: 4800 yen (price from HLJ)
Current Running price in YAJ: 8000yen -
14100yen !!!
Pictures
Box
Box opened showing all the glorious stuff (Sorry I did not take pictures of individual sprues)
Camo card front
Camo card back
Decals (I really like the pumpkin head!)
Instruction manual front
Thoughts
I haven't build mine yet, but looking at the instructions, it looks a bit complicated to build. Very happy with the parts detail and such, my only gripe with this kit is the construction of the rocket tubes. Instead of giving us beautiful brass tubes like in the Nitto Krachenvogel kit, WAVE made 2 halves of rocket tubes for us to glue and sand. Imagine the huge ugly seam line to sand per tube. Also, I would appreciate if they could include an Eddy Amsel or some figure which this kit lacks. All in all, this is still THE kit to get and its one of my personal favourite. Hopefully WAVE or some other company would reissue it as one is definitely not enough for me!
Here's a picture of where I was at in January in my Ma.K modeling. Sanding the Gans rocket tubes. Apologies to everyone, especially those of you whose Ma.K kits are still with me. A sudden change in family arrangement have thrown my life into chaos and for a couple of weeks I could not do any modeling / shipping of kits...
My second time with the Neuspotter head, this time I've learnt my lesson, and will putty and sand the major seam line made by the 2 halves before adding all the details!
Now I initially wanted to scratch build the Gans from a Krote and a Neuspotter as it was very hard to find (not to mention extremely expensive) at one point in time. Now I know its not a simple matter of just jamming the Neuspotter head to the Krote body. Take note of the piece in the middle. Its the Gans middle torso made up of partly the Neuspotter body, and a Fledermaus engine!
Contents: Basically the same as the Gans produced by WAVE the first time, with notable differences in the color of the instruction sheet, the decals and camo card. (see the Polar Bear checking it out... -_-''')
Camo card, The first one is a reindeer themed camo with the eyes painted red! Looks very nice I must say, dunno how it would look with winter camoflage slapped on. The second one is with a cat, not sure the meaning, but I think I've seen it before on some other Ma.K kit. The last one is my favourite, the King Frog, which I presume its commanded by the Konigs Krote?
The decals, which is slightly different. Gone are the orange pumpkin head which I really like... Fortunately, the green heart is still there. Check out
At Yahoo Auctions Japan, this reissue is abundant and caused the older Gans to disappear for a while. The price of the older Gans has also dropped to 6000-8000yen. Well, for those of us who want the old decals and camo cards, its a good time to buy...