Yes, the Shizouka Hobby Show is back after its absence last year due to reasons we’re very familiar with. This means we’re now getting our Spring 2021 hobby and model kit reveals from various companies. And to start things off, I’m taking a look at some of the stuff from Max Factory and its PLAMAX line of kits. I admit to not having much interest in their releases but that ain’t the case for some this time.
The first one comes as part of the 40th anniversary of Fang of the Sun Dougram. Yasuo Ohtagaki who’s currently doing Gundam Thunderbolt is set to launch a new manga based on Dougram. The new color manga will be titled Get Truth Fang of the Sun Dougram and it will be serialized in Shogakukan’s eBigComic4 website starting on May 28. Original Dougram director Ryousuke Takahashi will also supervise the manga. And this being announced in a hobby show should definitely mean one thing.
Max Factory is going to release a new kit of the Dougram based on this manga design. They recently released an updated version of the original 2014 Combat Armors MAX Dougram so it will be interesting to see how another version of the Dougram would compare to the previous ones. As this is designed by the same person doing Gundam Thunderbolt, there are a lot of aesthetic similarities seen in this version of the Dougram. Also notable is that armorless right arm unit that reveals some pretty interesting internal details.
Also announced is a new King Gainer kit from Overman King Gainer. This is also another mecha that we recently got a figure as part of Tamashii Nations’s The Robot Spirits line though this one is supposedly more faithful to the illustration made by series mechanical designer Akira Yasuda.
King Gainer has a more organic design compared to its contemporaries , and with this kit sticking more to this aesthetic, I’m curious on how they’ll integrate the necessary points of articulation. Or they could also go the same route as their Sirbine kit which has none. We’ll have to see as they reveal more details on this kit.
Max Factory also revealed kits from Mashin Hero Wataru, and a new armored girl kit series also done by Akira Yasuda called Godz Order. It’s less of a mecha-musume deal and more of a literal armored girl aesthetic.
Max Factory isn’t the only company with new reveals on the show floor, so keep coming back to this space for more of my unsolicited thoughts on these new announcements.
