Garage Kit - Japan

Japan

Japanese garage kits are often female anime figures, sometimes in lurid or even pornographic poses. Another major subject is "Kaiju" monsters such as Godzilla, and they also include subjects like mecha and science fiction space ships. Garage kits can be as simple as a one piece figure, or as complex as kits with well over one hundred parts. Most commonly they are cast in polyurethane resin, but may also be fabricated of such diverse substances as soft vinyl, white metal – a type of lead alloy – and fabric.

Originally the kits were sold and traded between hobbyists at conventions like Wonder Festival. As the market grew a number of companies began producing resin kits professionally, such as Federation Models, Volks, WAVE/Be-J, Kaiyodo, Kotobukiya and B-Club, a subsidiary of Bandai producing Gundam kits.

The scale of figure kits varies, but as of 2008 1/8 seems to be predominant. Prior to 1990 the dominant scale was 1/6. This scale shrink coincided with rise in material, labor, and licensing costs. Other scales, such as 1/3, 1/4, 1/6, 1/7 also exist, but are less common. Larger kits (1/3, 1/4, etc.) generally command higher prices due to the greater amounts of material required to produce them.

Japanese garage kits are usually cast as separate parts which are packed with instructions and sometimes photographs of the final product. Most professionally manufactured kits come in a box while amateur-produced kits sold at conventions come in a plastic bag. They are usually completely unpainted and do not come with decals. The builder has to paint the assembled model, preferably with an airbrush.

Asian ball-jointed dolls (BJDs) have their roots in garage kits, and are still made similarly, by casting in polyurethane resin. Some garage kit designers and producers, like Volks, Cerberus Project and Gentaro Araki, now create BJDs as well.