Click to Enlarge | On Flickr
Behold, the massive statue that is a Benigumo from the anime series
Samurai 7. There are several Benigumo models in the series but only one received retail treatment. The figure from Organic is made of resin, comes pre-painted, and retails for ¥98,000. Roughly $1,200 USD (not including shipping from Japan). Oh, and only 150 were made.
The design may remind you a little bit of The O or the Bound Doc from Zeta Gundam. They share the same designer, Makoto Kobayashi. His Benigumo designs are one of the show's few saving graces.
Now, for a few pictures...
Click to Enlarge | On Flickr
The box it arrives in is huge, larger than a PG kit. Inside is a slightly smaller box, with the exact same markings. Within that box are two levels of Styrofoam packaging. One for the stand and another for the pieces themselves.
Click to Enlarge | On Flickr
Click to Enlarge | On Flickr
The instructions consist, straight from an ink jet printer, are four pages long featuring pictures and some text that probably holds high significance. They're easy enough to follow if you give them a bit of thought. The Benigumo also come with a small metal plate printed with the model info. Unfortunately there's no real place, or means, to affix it to the display.
Click to Enlarge | On Flickr
The display base is made up of several pieces of acrylic held together with glue. For the most part it's well constructed though one of the pieces on the back is at an odd angle.
The base is necessary to support the weight of the kit. Even more so it actually holds the torso in place separately from the bottom half of the Benigumo.
The figure is made up of sixteen individual components. Each pieced together at the factory from even more pieces.
Click to Enlarge | On Flickr
Starting at the bottom a piece actually screws into the frame and the rest of the figure is built up off of that. Unfortunately, because resin sucks, the screw was tight and any subsequent attempts to actually tighten it only serves to expand the hole. I had to apply a little bit of glue to keep is safely in place.
Click to Enlarge | On Flickr
Click to Enlarge | On Flickr
Click to Enlarge | On Flickr
The back top torso piece combines with the rear glowy piece (official terminology, from what I hear) to rest across the base and bottom half of the Benigumo. Once the two, huge, back pieces are attached to the torso they effectively support all of the torso weight. As a result the connection between the who halves (the snake looking piece) often pops out or get knocked enough to mess up the positioning of the torso.
Click to Enlarge | On Flickr
Click to Enlarge | On Flickr
From there you just pop on the shoulder/arms, the right hand (either a small sword or multi-barreled gun) and plop the over-sized shield on the base.
Well, it's not exactly that simple.
You see, the shoulder joints are far too tight. And the shoulder to the upper arm connection far too fragile. While attempting to push the arms in, as softly as possible on the second, both snapped off. Fucking resin.
Click to Enlarge | On Flickr
Then the hand broke. And the wrist armor. Ffffffffff.
Worse yet is that my modeling glue, which is supposed to dry clear and not haze like super glue, did just that. Badly.
Click to Enlarge | On Flickr
Real smooth, Falldog. In my defense though, this kit is not without it's other problems.
There are issues with the paint here and there. When I got it there were quite a few places that needed to be wiped down to remove haze from their own gluing process. There's even a piece on the backpack, which appears to be in completely the wrong place/is the wrong size. It's different than its counterpart on the other half yet painted and put in place as though no one bothered to check the mold.
Yes, I know I'm being incredibly picky. Keep in mind that the retail price for this kit is over a grand. For that kind of money the thing better be damn perfect.
That said, I'm still happy to have this huge monstrosity. It stands about 12" tall, is just under 13" wide, and is a whopping 20" long. It'd be nice to find a display case to protect this piece but custom work may be required.
I'll update this article if I'm able to properly fix the haze issues. Until then my biggest dilemma is finding a place to put it.
