Bandai Spirits has completed their Hobby Next Phase 2021 Autumn event to varying degree of excitement with the announcements. That said, there’s one that has me curious, and yet also added some more confusion.
After being sort of exclusive to Tamashii Nations, the hobby division finally has a kit from the Mashin Hero Wataru franchise — HG Chou Mashin Ryujinmaru, as seen in Chou Mashin Hero Wataru which is a mid-90s remake of the original series.
As to my confusion, let me quickly explain. For the longest time, I’ve always wanted to collect the robots, or Mashin as they call it, from Wataru and it’s sort of sister series Granzort. Tamashii Nations released them as part of The Robot Spirits line which is great. But they then decided to forego that and go with the SD-focused NXEdge Style line. At the same time, Good Smile Factory is doing Granzort kits in their MODEROID line. And amidst all these releases, I have zero idea how they scale with each other, and which would look good with what. Then we have yet another option with this new HG kit.
Personal rants aside, Chou Mashin Ryujinmaru is the final form of Ryujinmaru from Chou Mashin Hero Wataru and it is quite the design, from the long tale to the huge clawed shoulder armors. With complex a complex design like this, it does beg the question of how much would this be accurate out of the box and what would need painting. I’m still on the fence with this kit, especially since we don’t know if this is a one-off thing or would they continue releasing HG kits of the rest of the Mashins, or at least, the other forms of Ryujinmaru. Which is also the reason I skipped the MODEROID Granzort kits.
Regardless, this kit would really look good when built and painted with effort as seen above. Do note that this is a Premium Bandai exclusive so be ready to connect with your preferred distributor of middleman service when it becomes available in February 2022.
HG Chou Mashin Ryujinmaru
February 2022 / ¥4,500
