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Han Solo sofubi figure kit by Kaiyodo

I was actually looking for Kaiyodo’s R2-D2 sofubi kit when I found this. These kits are 1:6 scale, making Artoo twice as big as Bandai’s 1:12 scale kit. Plus it’s hollow inside, making it perfect for lighting. I found Artoo for a decent price on YAJ, but the seller said that he couldn’t verify the contents. Then I noticed that Artoo’s main barrel body was not in the photograph. Good thing I noticed that before bidding! There was another one listed on YAJ, but it was actually a link to Yahoo Flea Market and the seller would only accept PayPay. PayPay is a form of digital money (somewhat like PayPal), but the only way to have a PayPay account is to have a smartphone. It’s bad enough that some places only provide coupons to smartphone users or the only way to make an appointment at the tax office is via Line on a smartphone, but between payments only attainable through a smartphone and the totalitarian push for “vaccine passports” on one’s phone, it’s easy for anyone with pattern recognition ability to see how we’re being herded towards the Mark of the Beast. It makes me sick.

Seeing that Artoo kit only available through PayPay was my motivation for getting a Mercari account, as I mentioned in my previous post. There I can find that kit listed and I can pay cash at a convenience store for Mercari purchases.

Anyhow, while I did not get an Artoo sofubi, I did see this figure of Han Solo, and it was only like 3,200 yen! The detail is exquisite. The previous owner had already cut off the excess vinyl and fit the arms onto the torso. Look at how well-sculpted it is! This is definitely Harrison Ford’s face.

His head looks big because I am up close with my camera. There is also a Princess Leia kit, but her head looks too big. I can’t tell if it is sculpted like that, or if it is just the way it was photographed (like how I inadvertently made Han’s face too big in my picture). Like Han, Leia is dressed in her white gown from A New Hope. Unfortunately, she isn’t holding her laser pistol in that kit. This Han kit includes his blaster molded in black resin. So cool.

Of course, I’ll paint this with V-Color paints. I think I’ll get the Artoo sofubi kit next month since I’ve got a bunch of crap to pay for and I’ve already paid too much on model kits this month.

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Yuuko Asou sofubi figure kit from the Valis game series

As a retro gamer, I really do not see the point in repurchasing games I already own. Unless it’s something expanded upon and improved, like R-Type Dimensions which lets you switch between updated graphics and sound and the original sprite and chip-generated sound on the fly, I typically do not want to buy games I have in my collection and can easily play through an emulator if I so desire. I just don’t have the money for that and would rather spend it on other stuff.

I bought the Valis games for the PC Engine when I first bought my Turbo Duo console in Osaka’s Den Den Town in October 2001. Except for the first game, I probably only paid about 1,000 yen each for these games. I don’t have a Switch, but for those who missed out on the getting the original Valis series, this might be a good way to go. As far as I know though, there is nothing new to this other than playing the games on an HDMI TV (which is something I could do with my Raspberry Pi).

The original Valis came came out on the PC-88 and the Famicom, but those were pretty much kuso-ge (“crappy games”). It wasn’t until the Valis games were ported to the Megadrive and PC Engine that they were decent to play. They are still a bit clunky and suffer from lackluster gameplay, but the charm is playing as a bikini armor-clad girl swinging a sword. On the PC Engine, Valis 2-4 were released on the CD-ROM2 format, then later the first Valis game was released as a Super CD ROM format with much improved gameplay, introducing a slide kick and such. This game was never released in English for the Turbografix 16, while Valis 2 and 3 were. (Valis 4 was released on the SNES as “Super Valis,” which did not include any cutscenes and only one of the two playable characters are available to play.)

The first Mugen Senshi Valis game is so very obviously heavily inspired by the anime movie, Genmu Senki Leda: The Fantastic Adventure of Yohko. Even the titles are extremely similar: 幻夢戦記レダ and 夢幻戦士ヴァリス. Leda’s protagonist is a high school girl named Yohko and Valis’s protagonist is a high school girl named Yuuko (even their names sound similar). They are both transported to a fantasy world where they are given a magical sword, and clad in bikini armor they must defeat a handsome, blue-skinned overlord who threatens to conquer the fantasy realm. Yohko has red hair and Yuuko has blue hair. The big difference is that in Valis, Yuuko discovers that her classmate has also been transported to the fantasy realm, and has been manipulated into serving the evil overlord. Yuuko must fight her friend to the death, which is pretty heart-wrenching.

I did not know this, but the limited edition version of the Valis Collection 2 for the Switch comes with a re-issue of Kaiyodo’s 1:8 sofubi figure garage kit of Yuuko Asou, the protagonist of the Valis games. While I was searching through Kaiyodo sofubi kits on YAJ, this showed up in my search and it floored me. I’m a fan of the Valis games, despite the generally lackluster gameplay, and I never knew that this kit existed. I saw a resin kit of Yuuko at a Summer Wonder Festival event many years ago, but the sculpting wasn’t so good, so I passed on it despite the low price. I saw this sofubi kit, bid on it, and won it with only minimal competition.

So of course, this kit is soft vinyl, and comes with a resin sword.

With that hairstyle, this is unmistakably Yuuko. Very nice sculpt.

Yuuko’s arms are pretty much straight down to their sides. Not very optimal, especially when viewed from behind.

Ugh. Look at how her arms just melt into the sides of her torso. The detail is very soft here. I will have to really cut into that and recreate the detail of her arms and her sides with putty to make this look good. Still, this is very cool and I am up for the challenge! I really had no idea that there was such a sofubi figure kit from Valis, and made by Kaiyodo no less.

I just find it peculiar that they sold a Nintendo Switch LE game with a sofubi kit, considering how the popularity of sofubi kits has waned over the years and how too many gamers don’t even build models anymore (unless it’s something lazy like Gunpla). You’d think that they might have included a pre-painted figure instead. I assume the seller didn’t care for the sofubi figure and just wanted the game after all. Mine did not come with any instructions, but it is so simple that I do not need instructions.

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1:72 Y-Wing sofubi kit by Argo Nauts

On my nerd shopping expedition with my friend Lou at the end of April, I was at a Book Off Plus in Maebashi and took a look at this kit. I’ve seen it at that store for many years now, but they had reduced the price from something like 4000 yen down to 2400. I peeked inside the kit, thinking that it was a resin kit. It turns out that it’s a sofubi kit, with resin and metal parts. I couldn’t resist! I’ve already begun cutting the vinyl parts. I’ll put videos of this build on my YouTube and Odysee channels.

Argo Nauts was a sublabel of Aoshima’s in the early ’90s. They made sofubi kits of subjects from Robocop, Terminator, and Predator. They also made several Star Wars kits, and until Fine Molds got the license, these Argo Nauts kits were the best ones available. A few years ago, I built the Argo Nauts TIE Interceptor that was resin and metal. (Here’s a link to my photoset of this build on my Tumblr feed.) The detail on it is pretty fantastic, but despite it being 1:72 scale, it is a bit smaller than the Fine Molds TIE Interceptor (I built that one too). Argo Nauts’ X-Wing fighter kit is also a sofubi/resin/metal kit. That same Book Off Plus in Maebashi once had the Argo Nauts X-Wing Fighter, but that was sold a few years ago. They also made resin kits of the Millennium Falcon and the Star Destroyer. I have a 1:6 scale sofubi Stormtrooper by Argo Nauts, but the figure stands a bit too short, proportionally. It looks a bit like Luke Skywalker when he wore the Stormtrooper armor because he is short in stature and looked awkward wearing the armor. I think I will try to modify the knees with some PVC pipe or something to try to make it stand taller.

I had known of Argo Nauts for a while, but I did not know that it was an Aoshima brand until I worked for Aoshima in 2016. I had a conversation with an employee named Iizuka-san who had been with the company for a very long time and said that Aoshima had once made Star Wars kits. I was like, “No way,” and he told me that Argo Nauts was their sub-brand.