We’re getting a new mecha anime inspired by the Brave Series of the 90s with Beast King War God Dandivine, produced primarily by the folks over at Good Smile Company and their Good Mecha Smile sublabel. And I’m expecting a whole slew of merchandising from this series. If you’ve been reading this site long enough, you know I prefer non-transforming kits for combining robots. Case in point Kotobukiya’s Brave Series lineup, and it seems Good Smile Company is taking notes with the MODEROID Dandivine (Action Model).
As I’m writing this a couple of months after its announcement, a good amount of time has passed for me to decide if I’ll pick this kit or not. One aspect that could sway my decision towards pulling the pre-order trigger is the size. MODEROID kits often sit within the 160mm range, which is at the tail end of kits I’ll consider in my collection. So it’s quite surprising that MODEROID Dandivine clocks in at 130mm, just a tad bit taller than your standard 1/144 scale Gunpla.
Another point of consideration is the parts separation and color accuracy of this kit. I haven’t built any of the recent MODEROID releases so I can’t comment on how these have improved since the Patlabor kits.
Based on these two shots, I want to say the articulation is modest at best, considering the bulky design. Both the elbows and knees seem to bend around 90-degrees and the ankles seem to have a decent inwards tilt. Can’t say anything regarding torso crunches though it should’ve at least a waist swivel.
The kit also comes with some weapons and accessories, though none of their details were provided in the solicitations for possible plot-related reasons. It comes with a sword, as well as the cannon barrels that flip out of the forearms. This is done with replacement parts instead of the cannon flipping out as seen in the trailers.
I’m leaning towards skipping pre-orders for this kit and will just wait and see on online reviews for its overall engineering. I tend to compare MODEROID releases with Kotobukiya kits so I’ll probably wait for some reviews to come out before pulling the trigger. Not to mention that I will be in Japan a month after its releases so there should be stock there in case I decide to pick one up.
MODEROID Dandivine (Action Model)
October 2026 / ¥5,500
Order from HobbyLink Japan
