The tank launched by "Akuyaku #1" envisioned by Hayao Miyazaki made into a 3D figure! From "Hayao Miyazaki's Daydream Data Notes", a crew set reflecting the image of the original drawing as it is newly appears!

When completing a giant tank model, have you ever felt “If there were crew here, it would give even more atmosphere”? What seems to make such scene-building interesting all at once is “1/72 Akuyaku #1 Crew Set”. The plastic kit of the fictional multi-turreted tank “Akuyaku #1” appearing in “Hayao Miyazaki's Daydream Data Notes” newly appears with a renewed package and a price easier to pick up. While based on the product of the former Tasca Model, not only the colonel and crew previously included, but even new figures and animals have been added. Rather than ending with simply assembling the tank, it is content that makes you want to imagine up to the story unfolding around it.

The number catching the eye first is the number of parts, which is over 300 pieces. Just because it is 1/72 scale, if you think of it as a casual small kit, you might be surprised by its volume. Because Akuyaku #1 itself is a complex mecha drawing a line from ordinary tanks, the process of assembling that figure as a model is also one of the funs. Being able to chase the structure of a fictional weapon while attaching parts, thinking “Next is this turret?” or “There is equipment in a place like this too?”, would be a real pleasure unique to plastic models. Package size is 38.4 x 24.6 x 8.3 cm, and weight is 590 g. From the moment you open the box, it makes you feel a density that makes you want to work on it thoroughly.

What I want to pay attention to particularly in this set is the fulfillment where the included figures total 20 bodies. In addition to the colonel and crew so far, a butler, cook, engine soldier, and even a piglet newly join the group. If you thought “A butler and cook even though it's a tank model?”, that is precisely the interesting part. Differing from military models orderly arranging only soldiers, you can enjoy making into 3D figures for each character an air typical of “Hayao Miyazaki's Daydream Data Notes”, which is slightly humorous and rich in narrative nature. Devising the arrangement seems able to create a small drama of your own, such as a hectic scene before sortieng or a scene during rest.

In the first place, what is Akuyaku #1? It is a fictional weapon that appeared as a “dream multi-turreted tank” in Episode 3 “Turn of the Multi-Turret” of “Hayao Miyazaki's Daydream Data Notes”. Gross weight on settings is 200 tons, and total length is an off-spec giant body of 17 m. The main turret is equipped with a 170 mm cannon, and further carries numerous armaments like a hedgehog, such as a 230 mm rocket mortar and 75 mm rapid-fire gun. Even this alone is sufficiently tremendous, but it is packed with inventive mechanisms, such as an elevating command tower, a harrow-shaped dozer plate, and a “third crawler track” provided on the belly of the hull. Thoughts as if saying “Let's load everything that looks strong” generate charms different from real weapons. Akuyaku #1 is not a mere mecha on setting drawings, but emits an intense presence even within the story. In the play, it is seized by the Berkshire Regiment led by the villain colonel, appearing as a super weapon running wild without caring about government forces' attacks. In the radio drama originating from the work, the colonel is depicted as Colonel Ironpork. And in the story, a development is also prepared where a boy whose childhood friend girl was taken away by the colonel as “trophy #1” stands against him. Knowing such backgrounds and looking at the kit, turrets and each individual crew member look not as mere parts, but as existences constituting the work's world, which is an interesting part.

The charm of “1/72 Akuyaku #1 Crew Set” does not fit in only the giant and fantastical multi-turreted tank. There is satisfaction as a model assembling over 300 parts, and further by 20 bodies including the colonel, crew, butler, cook, engine soldier, and piglet, the world can be expanded to its surroundings. Displaying the completed vehicle standalone is also spectacular, but going out of the way, you should want to place the crew and finish it as a single scene. If starting to think “This person is here” or “Is the piglet over here?”, fun continues even after completion. Free thoughts unique to fictional weapons, fun of making models, and fun of imagining stories. It is a plastic kit full of individuality where you can thoroughly savor those three in a single box.