Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas!
Save me Santa! I don’t have time, nor item to introduce yet (Glimpse of Tomeko’s inner voice already exposed...)
Hey everyone, Tomeko here, how do you do?
Here at Hobby Search, everything is going crazy with the huge loads to be shipped out, with the end of year in sight.
I’m starting to get worried if we will end the year in one piece...
Anyway, I was just wondering,
are the readers of this blog on the side that gets given presents by the old man Santa,
...or the side that
hides their identity and pretend to be Santa?
Present picking can be really difficult sometimes, I think.
You would want the receiver to like the gift, but you also want to consult with your wallet too...
So helping out those that agree with the above (?),
I’ll introduce an item that’s perfect for people that are interested in scale models, yet can only handle simple snap on assembling, or can’t bother with painting the model etc.!
......Its, it’s not like I want it or anything you know, don’t misunderstand me! (tsundere style)
•GiMix Series
(the image is that of the
Fw190A-8 1st Fw190A-8 300th Fighter Wing that has just arrived today)
There is this company called Tomytec.
They mainly work with model trains and the railway genre, but they had started expanding their field to scale models and RCs a little while ago.
And that is the GiMix series!
(btw, its apparently pronounced "Gimmicks")
Although being a slightly small 1/144 scale, it has features that you wouldn’t see in other scale model kits.
1) Pre-Colored!
2) It can LIGHT UP! and MOVE! by combining it with separately sold parts
We do see a rare pre-colored kits by other companies sometimes, but you will hardly ever see a plastic model that lights up and moves around, unless they are the expensive completed models, anyway.
We will be looking at the
Fw190A-8 1st Fw190A-8 300th Fighter Wing released today as an example, and the parts included are basically like this.
I guess it’s because this is a 1/144 scale kit, but there aren’t too many frames.
And as it has the ability to be equipped with a motor once completed, the details on the interior structure are rather plain.
However, the Nazi symbol and the camouflage patterns are painted on very nicely.
And of course, it requires no decals or stickers at all.
(although you can only make one specification of a plane per box.)
The assembling process is just simple.
If you work at a steady pace, it probably wouldn’t even take half an hour, I would imagine.
The instruction manual. If you look carefully though......
translation: If preferred, please cut the upper body of the pilot figure to your liking, and attach to the cockpit with a small amount of plastic cement.
The person inside, split in two.
I guess there are issues with the motor and cockpit placement or something.
Anyway, let’s move on. There was a lighting part that could be attached to the F-15 to make it light up, but this Fw190A-8 can have the propeller spinning by attaching the
Propeller Rotation Unit.
Although it may be a little pricy, since it’s made into a unit, you won’t have to have difficulties with the wiring and all that jazz, you can simply load it on. And having a distribution cable included, you can even use it
for twin-engine aircrafts too! How convenient!
Plus, it doesn’t stop there.
By using the additional
Flight Unit below,
You can make the aircraft fly around, with the propelling motion of the rotating propeller!
When you go this far, I think this can be seen as an interior decoration of a sort.
So yeah, that’s the GiMix series.
To be honest, I was getting worried when they just started off, as they just kept releasing F-15, but with the Fw190A-8 series joining, and the ASDF CH-47J and Bf109E-4 etc. to be added to the lineup later, this series may be very well
worth keeping an eye on.
Personally, I would want things like the Apache, Kamov, or OH-1 etc. to be released......
but anyway, the pre-colored plastic model kits with motorization and lighting gimmicks are a very rare, interesting genre, so I hope they keep expanding and improving the series.
The motorization and lighting are especially difficult, as it involves working with electronics, so many modelers would hesitate when trying to make their own, I would think.
Right then,
this is my last article for the year already (as we go into holiday).
I’d like to say thanks to all those that have been reading our blog,
and I hope to upgrade myself to Tomeko Mk.III or something by the time I return next year, so I would greatly appreciate your support and watch over us warmly for the new year as well.
Ok everyone, have a very merry Christmas, and a happy new year!
By Tomeko (Christmas is the day for munching on meat and cake, right? *munch munch*)