Kit Review

Straight build

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

Super Robot War H u ckbein - Comparison with HGUC/MG First for a clearer sense of scale. It's a bit bigger than your average

Comparison with HGUC/MG First for a clearer sense of scale.
It's a bit bigger than your average 1/144 Gunpla.

Upper body. You can really see a lot of those yellow duct parts.

Head

Super Robot War H u ckbein - Arms/legs (1/3)

Arms/legs

Backpack section

The eyes and ear parts on the head are pre-painted.

Pre-painted areas on the shoulders and front skirt.

Super Robot War H u ckbein - One of the hallmarks of Kotobukiya kits is how sharp and pointy all the edges are. They're so sh

One of the hallmarks of Kotobukiya kits is how sharp and pointy all the edges are.
They're so sharp that you can actually draw blood if you're not careful ;;

The lower section of the backpack has a bit of articulation.

The accessories are fairly generous..

Huckebein's weapon, the Black Hole Cannon, and its accessories.

The Black Hole Cannon has a pretty solid sense of bulk.

Huckebein's weapon, the Rip Slasher, is also included.

You get 5 hand options: 1 set of fists, 1 set of open hands, and a beam saber grip hand.

Super Robot War H u ckbein - True to Kotobukiya form, the proportions and volume of the hand parts are excellent. They have w

True to Kotobukiya form, the proportions and volume of the hand parts are excellent.
They have way more three-dimensionality than Bandai's, almost like resin cast parts.

The beam saber grip hand is a single molded piece, so the proportions look great.

Super Robot War H u ckbein - Articulation is an honest 90 degrees. Don't expect much in the way of poseability from a Koto ki

Articulation is an honest 90 degrees.
Don't expect much in the way of poseability from a Koto kit..

Super Robot War H u ckbein - The polycaps on early Kotobukiya injection kits are pretty crummy (-.-). They say it was improve

The polycaps on early Kotobukiya injection kits are pretty crummy (-.-).
They say it was improved a bit, but the polycap grip is so weak that arms and legs pop off at the drop of a hat.

A shot holding the Black Hole Cannon.

Super Robot War H u ckbein - To hold the Black Hole Cannon, you need to swap out the cover on the hand part. It's a weird han

To hold the Black Hole Cannon, you need to swap out the cover on the hand part.
It's a weird hand-back cover swap you'd never see on a Bandai kit..

Super Robot War H u ckbein - Black Hole Cannon, fire! A dedicated stand is included, so you can pull off stable poses. (1/6)

Super Robot War H u ckbein - Black Hole Cannon, fire! A dedicated stand is included, so you can pull off stable poses. (2/6)

Super Robot War H u ckbein - Black Hole Cannon, fire! A dedicated stand is included, so you can pull off stable poses. (3/6)

Super Robot War H u ckbein - Black Hole Cannon, fire! A dedicated stand is included, so you can pull off stable poses. (4/6)

Black Hole Cannon, fire!
A dedicated stand is included, so you can pull off stable poses.

Super Robot War H u ckbein - Beam saber action pose. Articulation isn't great, but the proportions look nice. Classic looks-o

Beam saber action pose. Articulation isn't great, but the proportions look nice. Classic looks-over-mobility Kotobukiya..

The ankle articulation is actually a bit of a surprise. It's quite flexible.

The Rip Slasher is a weapon that's honestly pretty hard to pose with.. OTL

Super Robot War H u ckbein - Only 2 leftover parts. That's actually pretty few for Kotobukiya, who tends to reuse a lot of du

Only 2 leftover parts.
That's actually pretty few for Kotobukiya, who tends to reuse a lot of duplicate runners.

In late 2003, Kotobukiya — a company that had specialized in mecha accessories and figures — suddenly announced they were getting into the injection-molded mecha kit business. It was a real shake-up for the mecha injection plastic model market, which had been almost entirely dominated by Bandai. And their first series was none other than the Super Robot Wars franchise, famous for both its games and anime.

This series, commonly known as SRW, had spawned countless game versions and anime, overflowing with all kinds of awesome mecha designs. The thing is, looking at those mecha designs, a lot of them were almost too flashy and elaborate to translate into plastic kit form. So it was genuinely interesting to see how Kotobukiya would handle these wild and wacky designs.

And the first entry in Kotobukiya's SRW series was, of course, the Huckebein. This actually prompted Bandai to throw a fit about someone commercializing a mecha that looked like a Gundam — not exactly a classy move... but then again, it made sense, since the Huckebein series was designed by none other than Hajime Katoki, so of course it was going to look like a Gundam.. (Come on, Bandai... acting like amateurs..)

Anyway, Kotobukiya's first foray into injection-molded mecha kits was quite a sensation at the time. Wave and Aoshima had put out mecha injection kits here and there, but honestly, the quality gap compared to Bandai was pretty significant. Kotobukiya's mecha injection kits, though, felt different from Wave or Aoshima. Way more parts, sharper and more refined detail, and even some pre-painting. Sure, they still couldn't match Bandai's refined quality, but still.

One of the defining traits of Koto kits is how they break things down into a crazy number of parts relative to the size — the part count is almost suspiciously high for the scale. But then when you're done building, it's kind of a mystery where all those parts even went. On the plus side, this approach works heavily in favor of color separation.

Koto kits also tend to have pretty mediocre articulation overall. It's more accurate to think of them as action figures with limited posing ability — but in exchange, they're all about looks over mobility. Just standing there, they often have great proportions, and even a slight pose can look really sharp. The polycaps, though, are generally a bit iffy, and joint strength can vary quite a bit from kit to kit.

In the case of the 1/144 Huckebein, the polycaps are pretty weak — the arms, shoulders, knees, and other connection points have a tendency to pop off for no reason. But you can't just glue them, because then the joints lock up, so it's a bit of an awkward problem. Because of issues like this, revised editions were released for some of Kotobukiya's early kits to address these initial complaints — and the Huckebein is one of them.

First release and revised edition box art

Of the two box arts above, the one on the left is the first release and the one on the right is the revised edition. The revised version features improved polycap strength and added pre-painting in various spots around the body. The first release is barely in circulation anymore, so most of what's being sold is the revised edition — though even the revised polycaps aren't exactly great quality OTL. That said, the revised edition does have pre-painting added to the face, shoulders, skirt, and other areas, so it's definitely a noticeable improvement.

Koto kits, like Bandai, aim for snap-fit assembly without glue, but whether it's a limitation of their molding technology or not, there are a lot of parts that just don't hold together well. Assembly without glue is technically possible, but when you try to pose it or handle it, parts start popping off here and there. Drop it on the floor and it can practically disassemble itself into dozens of pieces.. ; And when a small part goes flying like a missile, it has a way of disappearing into another dimension... (meaning you'll never find it again)

Another characteristic of Koto kits is the abundance of sharp, pointy parts. This isn't really a matter of technical skill — it's more of a policy difference. Bandai, with overseas exports in mind, avoids making parts too sharp. Since many countries have regulations limiting how pointy parts on toys can be, they tend to play it safe. In some cases, Gundam head antennas are actually molded differently for domestic versus export versions, though most of what comes into Korea is the domestic version. Kotobukiya doesn't worry about any of that, and just makes every tip as sharp as possible, which does give the kits a more refined look. Just be warned — those pointy bits can and do draw blood during assembly, so be careful..

After getting poked a few times early on, I now make a point of using glue on pretty much everything. The smell isn't great, but once you glue things together, the whole kit feels much more solid and you don't have to worry about losing tiny parts — so for the sake of your sanity, I'd strongly recommend building with glue. (This applies to pretty much all Kotobukiya kits..) Fortunately, unlike military or aircraft models, there are clearly defined connection pins, so you can just dab a little glue on each pin as you go and it's pretty easy to manage.

Kotobukiya's first mecha injection kit, the Huckebein, is half a success and half a failure. The style and overall package of the kit is similar enough to Bandai's that it got people excited about a new mecha lineup — but measured against Bandai's quality, it's a pretty disappointing kit. Weak articulation and joint strength, snap-fit in name only, chunky gate marks, slightly dull molded colors, and so on..

And yet, there's a certain craftsman's spirit to Kotobukiya kits that you don't get from Bandai. You can really feel it when you look at that almost obsessive parts breakdown... Sure, a lack of technical skill and know-how is probably the main reason, but it kind of feels like a new employee who's short on experience but stays up all night giving it everything they've got. The skills aren't quite there yet, but you can see the potential.

Still, the fact that a kit this small comes with this level of color separation and pre-painting is genuinely impressive — even a straight build ends up looking pretty decent. The joints and articulation have their issues, but true to Kotobukiya's looks-over-mobility philosophy, the proportions are really quite good. When you think about how a kit often ends up just sitting on a shelf being admired, it actually holds its own against Bandai kits as a display piece.

Anyway, for all these complicated reasons, Kotobukiya kits have a strange kind of addictive charm to them. They have a way of sparking your competitive spirit and making you want to build them... They're a bit frustrating while you're in the middle of it, but once you're done, you forget all about that.

Personally, I'm such a big fan of Katoki Hajime's designs that I just dove right into this series without asking any questions. But I think the biggest appeal of the Super Robot Wars series is being able to get these uniquely distinctive units in injection kit form — units you'd never find from Bandai. My rating was a bit harsh, but still, for a first attempt, it's good enough to leave Aoshima and Wave in the dust by a wide margin. Good job, Kotobukiya. :-)

Super Robot War Huckebein | 2003. 12 | ¥2,400

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.