Before 2021 ended, Good Smile Company and its mecha sub-brand Good Mecha Smile have been promoting Mecha Smile Impact, an event which they promise would excite and bring impact to the mecha modeling world. They promised to reveal tons of upcoming model kits and figures from both the MODEROID and The Gattai lines. They had the video presentation of all reveals yesterday and, yep, it was very impactful with almost 40 new items across multiple series and franchises.
The second batch of kits they revealed fall under the sci-fi near-future police mecha and powered suits. Quite detailed of a description though these do come from fiction that share the same concepts — machines used by law enforcement and powered suits. Please note that I will not cover everything they revealed and just those that I’m interested.
First up is the next kit from their ongoing releases from the Patlabor franchise. I’m so glad they’re committing to doing kits of not just the main machines, but the other Labors as well. Larger companies tend to just do the most well machines and forget the rest, so I really appreciate what Good Smile Company is doing here. Anyway, this is the Ingram Reactive Armor coming from Patlabor 2 the Movie, and is also another case of “good thing I didn’t proceed to building the old Bandai release.”
The kit is designed by mechanical designer Yutaka Izubuchi and comes with additional head parts for Unit 2 and 3 (so no, I’m not getting multiples). In addition, it also comes with parts to convert into the regular Ingram used for gathering data. I really want to build my Patlabor kits now after seeing this.
MODEROID 1/60 Ingram Reactive Armor
TBD
The next kit isn’t exactly for police used, but more of a military hardware. Either way, I believe I share the same sentiment with everyone else when this kit was released — no one was expecting it. To the unfamiliar this is the MADOX-01 from the late 80s OVA Metal Skin Panic MADOX-01. The titular machine is a Slave Trooper (basically a powered exoskeleton) that accidentally traps Kouji Sugimoto inside. What follows is the chaos and confusion from him being unable to control the machine and the forces going after him.
The machine is fully decked out with weapons, and so is this kit. Not sure if it comes with an opening canopy to reveal the pilot but it looks really good. Another thing I’m not sure is the scale, I’m assuming it to be non-scale unless other specified, like the last item in this category.
MODEROID MADOX-01
TBD
Next is their follow up to the two items they previously released from RoboCop, those being the Hagane Works RoboCop and MODEROID ED-209. I didn’t get either but it’s interesting that they’re continuing the releases with yet another similarly-scaled item. This is RoboCop 2 / Cain from RoboCop 2. It was supposedly the culmination of the RoboCop 2 Program which aimed to create a new law enforcement machine. But unlike the original who used the body of officer Alex Murphy, this one uses the brains of Cain, a deceased drug lord. If you watched the movie, you know what happens next.
And while we only have a black CG render, you can see the copious amounts of detail in this kit. All those rivets, pistons, cables and more. This looks to be a complicated kit and I’m not really planning on getting one. But if you got the other two RoboCop releases, then this will definitely add to that collection.
MODEROID RoboCop 2 / Cain
TBD
Capping this category is another unexpected, but much awaited kit. This is the all-too-popular Power Loader that Ellen Ripley used in Aliens. Unlike MADOX-01 or Cain earlier, this kit is 1/12 scale (at around 240mm), which is perfect for other similarly-scaled action figures and would make for a great companion piece to existing displays. The kit features working cylinders and pistons integrated into the joints and fully functioning claw arms. It will also come with an Ellen Ripley kit, which I assume will unpainted. I’m not exactly looking forward to painting kits of humans but hey, it’s 1/12 scale so I can just let other action figures use it, right?
As a side note, I was contemplating on getting the Hiya Toys 1/18 scale Power Loader for the longest time. But thankfully, I passed up on it and having able to fiddle that figure recently further affirms my decision.
MODEROID 1/12 Power Loader
TBD
Besides going through more obscure mecha properties, Good Smile Company is also diving into more western franchises, which I really appreciate. Maybe they can do a model kit of… Megas XLR? I don’t know, but I really want a kit of that thing. Anyway, to watch all the announcements that includes this category, just play the video I’ve included below.
