The first one was Gundam, a military giant robot utilised as a tank with legs and arms. Then Patlabor showed a world where giant robots were manned vehicles for a lot of purposes. They could be used in industry as special vehicles for constructions or as earthmover, for example. Moreover they had a police and military utilisation. Patlabor is composed by the words “patrol” (in the stories we have a police unit as main characters) and “labour”. They aren’t heroic metal divinities but simple everyday vehicles. All this only in manga and anime of course.
Then someone, Suidobashi Heavy Industries – in Patlabor we had Shinohara Heavy Industries -, build in 2012 a real size marching robot in the Patlabor style. It is called Kuratas and it is sold only for almost one million euros. Available in different customisations. It is a toy for rich geeks, but it is even a demonstration that a manned giant robot can be produced for specific purposes. Military ones too.
Heroic samurai robots are made in Go Nagai. The sad thing is that he revise in perpetuity his fictional world cast and sometimes he don’t end the series, so you cannot understand the full story. Maybe because there isn’t a real story but only an accumulation of stories based on stock characters.
Mazinger (Majingā) family. Sometimes almost the same names for slightly different characters and stories. I don’t care so much about this, because I remember when I was a child watching these cartoons. Amazing!
An UFO Robot Grendizer diorama. Very dynamic. The tag is not an abstract number, it is the cost in euros.
UFO Robot Grendizer with some its flight modules. This was chronologically the first giant robot on television in Italy. At that times it was a revolution in children entertainment. Grendizer gadgets were a must have. I increased my social status among other children because I owned a Grendizer official t-shirt.
A version of the Mazinger robot. Those bat or hellish wings gives a great touch to the character.
A photo of our Samurai Robots Battle Royale scenario. Andrea is selling some t-shirts with the cover of the rules. Ask him for sizes and price.
A drink with Go Nagai’s robots customised cans: giant robots for some sort of exotic beverage… Don’t drink them for your safety, just collect them…
Saturday, another day in Terni to meet Ganesha Games team. More mindstorming than playtesting this time. Here in the kitchen with Diego and a tisane for our fatigued throats after hours of speaking.
A preview from iPad about the frontispiece design of Drums & Shakos Large Battle. Full color for these rules. Three years in the working, such a great effort for Sergio. This day he woke up at 4 in the morning to end the English translation of the rules. Italian version ready for Christmas, we hope. The English one a little after.
Another project in the making from Sergio at its initial stages. Seven Years…
Reinforcements from painting service. Sergio is enlisting troops, drums of war are rolling.
Samurai Robots Battle Royale first fight! We are trying to make this new ruleset full compatible with Mighty Monsters so you can play robots against monsters, but this will be a totally new set of rules. As a matter of fact, during the first battle we changed the method to inflict wounds. Another playtest maybe in Rome the next Sunday with my Patlabor gashapons. I have to build quickly some buildings in Patlabor scale.
In the afternoon Railroad Tycoon to play together with something different than playtesting. I won. My adversaries couldn’t do anything to stop me!
Our board had weird colours for blue, violet and red, so Sergio fixed it at the end. And the last photo is about me in the main Sergio’s wargame room…
Another post on modelling. This time we are going to see some mecha.
Patlabor was a great anime (and comic) on mecha. They are showed as normal vehicles for everyday life. So the police utilise them for crimes perpetrated by mecha. You can read stories about police officers with special vehicles, with fun and clever moments. These models are among my favourites. Recently I bought some Patlabor gashapon to set a scenario for the upcoming game about giant robots from Ganesha Games… Samurai Robots Battle Royale!!!
Some models in the Groog competition showcase.
A view on some resin models by a very little Italian company, 3Evan.
I have almost bought this resin mecha for 45 euros at the end of the fair.
A model in the making. Some people were sculpting models and statuettes at this stand.
Another mecha maker, Luca Zampriolo. He is very influenced by the Kow Yokoyama’s Ma.K world, so he published an illustrated book with his works as they are part of a world. I bought the book, it is very intense. But his resin models are too much expensive for me.
A design inspired by Mechwarrior and similar kinds of mecha.
Here you can find the best of his design abilities. He reminds me of Kazuhisa Kondo and his work on Gundam world. Under this mecha there is a Zaku II, it’s clear. And a Zion sign is on the chest! It’s called Garbaldy and it is not the Galbaldy of Gundam world. 175 resin parts, 50 made.
One of his works in the NKGC competition in the Japan Palace. It is called Schnabelgun, and it seems as another Zion’s mecha gone bad, a MSN-04 Sazabi precisely! 80 resin parts and 30 copies only.
More on Gundam world on the following post!
Do you know Ma.K.s? They are a Japanese series of models about military armours and vehicles of near future with a WWII German touch. A participation game was set with Ma.K.s during a recent Salute, a big effort, they are not very cheap 1/20 models. I don’t know why in Lucca there was a models contest about Ma.K.s, but you can see a lot of people know them…
