Over the weekend, Wave announced that they’ll have a reissue of some 1/144 scale Five Star Stories kits. (Get yours over at HobbyLink Japan) At the same time over at Volks’ Hobby Round 24 Online event, they also revealed doing more Five Star Stories kits across multiple brands. I don’t know if there’s something going on related to Five Star Stories but these announcements reminded me of how I really wanted to build one of these kits (I actually got one) but they’re just beyond my skill level, if you call it as such.
I’ll go over my thoughts as I cover the kits getting reissues. Mind you, I have little to no familiarity with the source material outside of glimpses from the 1990s anime movie that barely grazed the larger story.
1/144 L.E.D. Mirage
October 2021 / ¥3,200
Pre-order at HobbyLink Japan
My first exposure to Five Star Stories was back in college thanks to a classmate who brought an old Hobby Japan magazine that featured tons of amazing builds. These robots are called Mortar Headds and were designed by Mamoru Nagano, who also did the Zeta Gundam and L-Gaim. These machines have a knight aesthetic to them and personally, these are best represented by the L.E.D. Mirage and its variants. Mortar Headd designs can get all over the place that’s why I really like the simplicity and elegance of the L.E.D. Mirage.
Check out the unboxing below to get an idea of how different these kits are from Gunpla. By the way, this one was first released two decades ago.
1/144 L.E.D. Mirage Advanced Mass Production Type 2989 [Colus Battle Specification]
October 2021 / ¥3,400
Pre-order at HobbyLink Japan
The following year, Wave released the Colus Battle Specification of the L.E.D. Mirage. I believe this is mostly a color variant with different weapons? Again, not the most knowledgeable of the fiction. I’ve done some research on these kits, and if you’re the type who’s been spoiled by Gunpla or other Bandai Spirits kits, then these ones are on a totally different playing field. While not as hard as resin kits, you would need to spend some effort to make these look great.
You can check out the clip below to see some of the frustrations you may encounter in building these kits.
1/144 L.E.D. Mirage Sarion
November 2021 / ¥3,600
Pre-order at HobbyLink Japan
Out of kits shown here, I actually own a copy of the 1/144 scale L.E.D. Mirage Sarion, and it’s very much in the the backlog. This allows me to take a peek of what I’ll be getting myself into once I decide to build these old Wave Five Star Stories kits and splurge on the upcoming reissues.
1/144 L.E.D. Mirage V3
November 2021 / ¥4,200
Pre-order at HobbyLink Japan
Again, this is me unfamiliar with the source material, but the L.E.D. Mirage apparently gets an upgrade with the L.E.D. Mirage V3, makes you wonder what happened to version 2. Anyway, outside of some minor cosmetic differences to the main body, this kit prominently features its new “Double Veil and Long Spear” equipment. Double Veil basically means two shields. It also comes with a different head counterweight (the large rear headpiece) when compared to the original L.E.D. Mirage. This is also the newest kit in the batch, being released in 2006.
1/144 Patraqushe Mirage
December 2021 / ¥2,400
Pre-order at HobbyLink Japan
From the newest kit, we go to the oldest one with the Patraqushe Mirage which was released all the way back to 1997. Wow, the way we talk about the 90s now is how we used to talk about the 80s back then. Anyway, with this kit being that old, I assume it will have the most fixes needed like that video above. Patraqushe Mirage is apparently the second version of the Knight of Gold. Makes you wonder why they skipped on the reissue of the first Knight of Gold kit.
I don’t think Wave is making more Five Star Stories kits so I was surprised that these are getting reissued. On the other hand, Volks is making a lot of Five Star Stories kits, even including ones from Gothicmade. These kits are categorized into a bunch of brands, but what interests me is their IMS or Injection Assemble Mortar Headd Series. They are not Bandai Spirits levels in terms of ease of build, but they are much better than the ones offered by Wave. What’s more, they are expanding more of the 1/144 scale variety. Maybe I can try building one once something piques my interest.
In the meantime, you can check a build of the IMS 1/144 V Siren Neptune below:
