Kit Review

Straight build

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

Dodonpachi 1/144 Type A (Dai-Ou-Jou) - Various angles (1/8)

Dodonpachi 1/144 Type A (Dai-Ou-Jou) - Various angles (2/8)

Dodonpachi 1/144 Type A (Dai-Ou-Jou) - Various angles (3/8)

Dodonpachi 1/144 Type A (Dai-Ou-Jou) - Various angles (4/8)

Dodonpachi 1/144 Type A (Dai-Ou-Jou) - Various angles (5/8)

Dodonpachi 1/144 Type A (Dai-Ou-Jou) - Various angles (6/8)

Various angles

Dodonpachi 1/144 Type A (Dai-Ou-Jou) - Detail shots (1/4)

Dodonpachi 1/144 Type A (Dai-Ou-Jou) - Detail shots (2/4)

Detail shots

Underside view

Dodonpachi 1/144 Type A (Dai-Ou-Jou) - The landing gear open/closed states are reproduced via swappable parts, covers include

The landing gear open/closed states are reproduced via swappable parts, covers included.

Dodonpachi 1/144 Type A (Dai-Ou-Jou) - The Element Doll storage bay on the underside of the craft swaps out as a whole module

The Element Doll storage bay on the underside of the craft swaps out as a whole module in its open form.

The included clear display stand.

Dodonpachi 1/144 Type A (Dai-Ou-Jou) - All swapped out with landing gear and open-style covers. (1/4)

Dodonpachi 1/144 Type A (Dai-Ou-Jou) - All swapped out with landing gear and open-style covers. (2/4)

All swapped out with landing gear and open-style covers.

Dodonpachi 1/144 Type A (Dai-Ou-Jou) - Sitting on the ground. (1/4)

Dodonpachi 1/144 Type A (Dai-Ou-Jou) - Sitting on the ground. (2/4)

Sitting on the ground.

This kit is a plastic model of the Type A (Dai-Ou-Jou) from Cave's 2002 classic shoot-'em-up DoDonPachi Dai-Ou-Jou. It came out on various platforms, but I remember it being especially popular on PlayStation — and honestly, this feels like a very Kotobukiya kind of item to make.

The concept behind this kit is "complete a clean, well-colored three-dimensional model with just a straight build." That's classic Kotobukiya — the color separation is nearly perfect thanks to some pretty complex parts division relative to the overall structure.

The build process is neither particularly difficult nor super easy — just about average. Given the nature of the craft, there are no transformation or conversion gimmicks, which does make it feel a little plain. That said, the landing gear is faithfully reproduced with swappable parts, and the Element Doll storage bay on the underside can be replaced with a detailed open-style module.

As is typical with Koto kits, there's a tendency to divide parts more than strictly necessary compared to Bandai — and this kit is no different. Once you're done building, you kind of wonder where all those parts even went, but the end result looks great so you just let it slide. The molded colors do look a little cheap though, so even if you don't want to do a full paint job, just hitting it with a flat top coat should make a noticeable difference.

By its very nature, this kit is aimed at fans with fond memories of DoDonPachi — it's not a standout, but it's not lacking either. A solid, well-done shoot-'em-up plastic model. :-)

Type A (Dai-Ou-Jou) | 2015.4 | ¥6,800

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.