Megahouse Perfect Piece Tachikoma....

I received my Megahouse Perfect Piece Tachikoma a while ago and it was sitting on my desk for the longest time before I recently got around to taking some pics of this thing. The first thing I noticed when it arrived is that it's a pretty big toy. I'm guessing its around 7" or 8" across including the legs which would make it the biggest Tachikoma / Fuchikoma tank I own. The good news is that it's a pretty detailed piece with a very nice paint application. The big gimmick would be the operable cockpit...very, very cool. A major selling point. The engineering is quite impressive too. The top of the cockpit raises just like the Anime. The back opens with two swinging doors to reveal a very detailed cockpit with controls, the seat and viewfinder googles. Accessories like a Matoko figure, book and wrench are welcome additions.









Now the bad. Aside from the rather large footprint, the piece that I purchased has very loosey goosey joints. So much so, that you can't stand the tank up properly under it's own weight. At well over $100 for this toy, this kind of thing is completely un-acceptable. Given my past experience with the Palm Layzner figure, i'm not a big fan of Megahouse. I emailed Scott who owns Hobby Link Japan and asked him about the problem. He actually had one of his guys take another Tachikoma out of the packaging to check if it would stand up on it's own. Apparently it did. Oh, well...So one of the guys suggested an old Gundam modeling trick which is to put superglue in the ball joints to add friction so they would stick where you need them to, but still provide enough movement for positions, etc. It worked, but still not as good as I would like. My other complaint is that for over $100, there is not a lot of die-cast in this toy. It's pretty much all plastic which means I paid a lot of money for a decent toy with a cool gimmick. In summary, if you're a GiTS fan and want a highly detailed toy and dig the cockpit gimmick, this toy is for you. Is it worth the $100+ price tag? I don't think so. Find it on eBay for around $75 if you can...











I haven't pulled the trigger on Fewture's EX-GOKIN Tachikoma version yet, since it's close to $140, but is made of much more die-cast. I'm a little put-off Tachikoma's at the moment. Hell, I still think Fuchikoma's look way better...