AkeOme, Dimension Diver's Rockman

AkeOme = Akemashite Omedetougozaimasu = Happy New Year!

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Ever since I first laid eyes on an article about Mega Man 3 in the Nintendo Power magazine (I must have been around seven), I've been a rabid Rockman (Mega Man's original Japanese moniker) fan, snatching up nearly every Rockman-related piece of merchandise that comes within my range of vision. In fact, some of the first manga I special ordered from Japan were Rockman-related, including the prize of the bunch, Ariga Hitoshi's Rockman Megamix series. My biggest disappointment, however, has been that, in the 20+ years since Rockman was first introduced, the beloved character has yet to be treated to an truly exceptional three-dimensional rendering. Then, about a year ago, I saw it:

I first laid eyes on the figure above in some preview pics from WonderFes 2008 (I believe). At the time, I naively believed that it might be a part of the Revoltech 2.0 releases slated for May 2009. Eventually, I came to terms with the fact that it was a garage kit--i.e. fan made--and that 1) I would probably never get my hands on it, since it would be released on a small scale and only in Japanese garage kit markets, and 2) even if I did get my hands on one of them, I'd have to perform all of the finishing work (cutting away the stray bits of resin, assembly, painting, etc.) myself. I've never been a modeling enthusiast in any sense of the word, and my elementary forays into the hobby (a pair of X-Wing and Y-Wing fighters I've long since lost, a few Warhammer 40K Necrons, etc.) did little to change my apathy. Nevertheless, unabashed Rockman maniac that I am, I vowed to procure one of the kits for myself if one ever popped up on the internet.


Flash forward to this November, when, out of the blue, a search for "Rockman Megaman figure" on eBay yielded an auction for the kit pictured above. It was a once-in-a-blue-moon opportunity, and I knew that I wouldn't be the only one who would bid high and often to win it. The fact that the kit originally sold in the doujin markets for 7000 yen made me feel a little better in applying my highest bid (an amount so obscenely large I feel compelled to omit it here . . . though I will say, despite several others sniping bids at the last minute, the final price was less than half of what I was willing to pay. Yay for consumer surpluses!).

After the kit arrived, I took stock of the joint pieces and modeling tools I would need to complete it, and made a corresponding order on HLJ.com. The tools and pieces arrived yesterday, so I ended up spending the last hours of 2009 assembling the figure. I finished around 12:11 a.m., just a few minutes into the new year.

This is what I ended up with. I decided to keep it as unfinished as possible (in part because I probably lack the skills/confidence necessary to clean things up without botching the job, in part because I'm just plain lazy), but pride demanded that I paint the power indicator on the side of the Mega Buster, and paint the eyes white before applying the eye decals (which was probably the most harrowing part of the entire ordeal). I had some experience putting together a jointed figure from a Volks (I think) model I picked up in Japan in 2008, which really made the process this time much easier.

The gray ball joints are from Yellow Submarine, which produces them in gray, dark gray, white, and flesh tones (light and dark). At first I considered painting the joints blue, but the more I looked at them, the better they looked in contrast to the rest of the figure, so I kept them the way they were.

The Dimension Diver team did a really great job on this mold, and I'm quite pleased with the results that even an amateur like me could produce. (They also made a kit for Roll, but, as many other observers have noted, their rendering of her legs seem a little too thick compared to the usual artistic renderings.) All in all, the whole ordeal won't stop me from purchasing another Rockman figure of equal aesthetic quality--or even purchasing the same one again, if a professionally finished one were ever to pop up within my consumer radar. Such is the curse of a lifelong Rockman otaku.

And a parting thought on the subject of Rockman: Rockman 10 comes out in early 2010. Otanoshimi!