Kit Review

Straight build + Stickers

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

1/48 Ingram - Size comparison with the HGUC and MG First to get a sense of scale. It's closer in bulk to a 1/100 Gundam t

Size comparison with the HGUC and MG First to get a sense of scale.
It's closer in bulk to a 1/100 Gundam than a 1/144.

Detail shots

1/48 Ingram - The most unique part of this Ingram is the wrinkled joint cover parts — they come in an unusual film form w

The most unique part of this Ingram is the wrinkled joint cover parts.
Unusually, they come in a film form with a long hole punched through the middle.

You insert a cylindrical object of the right thickness into the hole in the middle of the film...

Then repeatedly scrunch and release it from both sides with your hands to create the wrinkles.

After forcefully crunching and pulling it out several times, you get roughly this kind of look.

Next, you insert the inner joint frame parts, then attach the armor on top.

For the arms as well, you insert the frame parts the same way...

1/48 Ingram - You have to scrunch the film to pass it through the bicep armor too. The problem is that after doing this,

You have to scrunch the film to pass it through the bicep armor too.
The problem is that after doing this, it becomes really hard to fit the shoulder frame inside the film above the bicep armor.

1/48 Ingram - At this point you need to insert something like a pen inside the film again to re-form the wrinkles at the

At this point you need to insert something like a pen inside the film again to re-form the wrinkles at the top before you can fit the shoulder frame in.
It's a bit hard to explain in words, but once you actually try assembling it you'll get what I mean right away. ^^;

1/48 Ingram - The finished wrinkled armor cover... I'm not sure I'd call it natural-looking, but it's definitely a tricky

The finished wrinkled armor cover...
I'm not sure I'd call it natural-looking, but it's definitely a tricky part to handle.

The Ingram's signature right-leg magnum holster and wrist extension gimmick are both faithfully reproduced.

1/48 Ingram - Look closely and you'll notice two versions of the magnum are included — the one on the left is for storing

Look closely and you'll notice two versions of the magnum are included.
The one on the left is for storing in the leg, and the one on the right is for action poses.
It seems like the actual-size magnum was just too big to fit inside the leg armor, so they had to use this trick.

1/48 Ingram - The weapons are the same standard Ingram loadout as before, though the shield design has changed quite a bi

The weapons are the same standard Ingram loadout as before, though the shield design has changed quite a bit.

Just like in the original, you can peek in and see the pilot through the head.

The cockpit hatch gimmick is very cleanly and solidly reproduced.

The pilot inside.

Articulation is decent,
but it doesn't have that super-fluid, bend-anywhere feel.

1/48 Ingram - The fingers are articulated individually — the index finger and thumb each move separately, while the remai

The fingers are articulated individually — the index finger and thumb each move separately, while the remaining three fingers are grouped together.
The grip isn't particularly strong, but since all the weapons are pretty lightweight it doesn't really cause any issues.

The front of the feet articulate individually as well.

1/48 Ingram - A kneeling pose that looks pretty natural. (1/3)

A kneeling pose that looks pretty natural.

1/48 Ingram - Drawing the magnum from the leg armor holster. (1/3)

Drawing the magnum from the leg armor holster.

Magnum, fire!

1/48 Ingram - Two-handed firing pose (1/3)

Two-handed firing pose

1/48 Ingram - One-handed shooting pose. (1/3)

One-handed shooting pose.

Riot baton action.

Together with the MG Ingram.
The Ingram's design has changed a lot over the years...

Straight build + seals shot.
There are quite a few seals you have to apply during the assembly process.

In 2014, the live-action Patlabor started rolling out amid all sorts of controversy. Thankfully (?), this live-action version — planned as seven short films and one feature-length theatrical release — kicked off in a way that carries on the spirit of the original. As someone who's a fan of both Gundam and Patlabor, I was never really a fan of those other live-action adaptations that just borrow the motif and then do whatever they want with the story. This one is based on Mamoru Oshii's novelization and is set considerably further into the future than the original Patlabor anime.

And as expected, alongside the release of the live-action Patlabor, Bandai also put out a new plastic model of the new Ingram — though it came in a somewhat odd 1/48 scale rather than the previous 1/60 or 1/35. Unlike the sleek Ingram of old, the design has shifted to a more complex, mechanical look for CG purposes (Transformers influence, maybe?!), and it's definitely the kind of design that'll split opinions... (My Alphonse wasn't like this... T_T)

At first the ¥3,000 price tag felt a bit puzzling given the size, but once I actually sat down and built it, I could see it was a kit with a high design complexity that justified the cost. The standout feature is the Ingram's signature wrinkled joint covers, which are provided in a completely unexpected way — as the review photos show, you get a tube-shaped film with a hole through the middle, and you thread it onto something like a ballpoint pen and scrunch it up by hand to create the wrinkles.

It's a genuinely fresh and creative approach... but the problem is that these parts are tricky to handle. Actually creating the wrinkles isn't that hard — you just crumple it up — but keeping those wrinkles intact while assembling is another story. The process of inserting the inner frame and joining it with the armor is unfamiliar, so the wrinkles you carefully formed end up flattening out, or you get the length wrong and have to reassemble — it takes some trial and error. The arm wrinkle parts are especially fiddly compared to the relatively larger leg parts, since you have to fold the film thin to pass it through the bicep joint and then fit the shoulder frame in afterward, which makes for a pretty high assembly difficulty overall.

On top of that, even after you finish building, the inner frame gimmick inside the wrinkled joints can pop out when you move them — and when that happens, you sometimes have no choice but to fully disassemble the joint structure and refit it. T_T The shoulders are the worst offenders; feeling around inside the wrinkled joint to reconnect the frame is harder than you'd think, and I ended up sweating through multiple reassemblies mid-action-pose shoot when the joints kept coming apart... (At that point, a few choice words may have slipped out.)

It's definitely a finicky kit in that regard, but once you've gone through the trial and error and managed to get the wrinkles looking just right, the novelty of the effect is genuinely worth appreciating. On top of that, the detail and sculpt quality throughout the body are excellent — the level of detail relative to its size almost gives off an RG kind of vibe.

And beyond the wrinkled joints, the assembly process in general feels a bit different from regular Gunpla in various ways — put positively, it offers a fresh building experience; put less positively, some parts feel unfamiliar enough to make assembly feel a little confusing. Anyone with some Gunpla experience under their belt should be able to handle it without too much trouble, but I'd hesitate to recommend it to beginners. On the flip side, the parts overall have a soft feel to them, so cleaning up gate marks and the general assembly feel are very smooth, which is a nice plus.

On the gimmick side of things, the cockpit hatch gimmick is sturdy and well-executed, and the opening/closing magnum holster in the right leg and the wrist extension gimmick are both nicely reproduced. That said, it seems like getting the stored magnum to the right size was a challenge, so a smaller magnum for storage and a larger one for action poses are provided separately.

To wrap things up — as long as you take care with the unique film wrinkle joints, this is a genuinely fresh kit that offers quite a different building experience. Whether you like the design or not is down to personal taste, but getting to build this new, Transformers-style mechanically complex Ingram at this level of quality was definitely a fun experience. As long as you're careful not to let the inner frame gimmick pop out of the wrinkled joints during action poses, it's a pretty solid assembled action figure display piece. Either way, I'd recommend this one not only to existing Patlabor fans, but also to mecha modelers looking for a building experience that's completely different from regular Gunpla.

1/48 Ingram | 2014. 9 | ¥3,000

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.