Most will find this weird, but the sheer obscureness of this thing is what really piqued my curiosity. Then the design followed suit.
This is MODEROID Big Dai-X from X-Bomber, a 1980 Japanese marionette series from Mazinger Z creator Go Nagai, and in the same vein as Gerry Anderson’s Thunderbirds. X-Bomber also got an English dub when it was brought to the UK as Star Fleet. As I have zero idea of the show this came from, I did a quick YouTube search and found these ‘remastered’ clips from Star Fleet that shows Big Dai-X (or just Dai-X in the dub) in action.
Big Dai-X is a red piloted mecha made from the combination of three vehicles. And if you think that concept sounds familiar, well you’re not alone as many have made comparisons between Big Dai-X and what’s arguably its more popular contemporary, Ideon.
For something that came from the 1980s, Big Dai-X comes as a relatively simplistic design with most of its body in red with white access thrown in. You can also see its live-action origins with the copious amounts of panel lines combined with areas of exposed mechanical detail — the combination of which better sells the concepts of these miniatures as real vehicles. The model kit itself stands at 180mm, which is the ample size for a combining super robot model kit.
As you can see from the video clip above, Big Dai-X isn’t the most articulated robot when combined, no thanks to the seemingly restrictive suit the stunt actor is asked to act in. But we don’t have to worry about stunt actors and restrictive suits with this MODEROID kit as Big Dai-X is able to do wide poses thanks to the elbow and knee joints that its on-screen counterpart sort of lacked.
And of course, Big Dai-X can split into its three components: Brainder, Jumbody and Legstar. You will need replacement parts for the thruster details for the vehicles, but I don’t expect complete disassembly as the transformations do seem relatively simple.
While I can’t say that much about this mecha in relation to its fiction, the MODEROID kit did get my interest in itself. Especially with the prospect of displaying Big Dai-X along with my Super Minipla Ideon which is still in the backlog. I also wouldn’t put this in pre-order for its initial release, but I might get a copy down the road, preferably during a sale.
MODEROID Big Dai-X
September 2023 / ¥9,500
Order via HobbyLink Japan
