September 9, 2001 CURRENT RUMBLE It Combines Personal Hygiene and Fun! Jape 09.09.01 It started as a dream. Of two grown men, Matt and myself, Playing in the bathtub, enjoying each other's company. Not in a sexual way, just two toy enthusiasts Discussing their interests while covered in bubblebath. Then we figured, "Why not add some toys?!" And along came the Time House "Okita-Kan". And it was good. Very good. When this toy was first mentioned in the 4.16.01 Rumble, I was immediately interested. Being a vehicle nut --- and a huge StarBlazers fan as a kid --- having Captain Avatar's flagship as a toy was a dream come true. But after asking around, it seemed like only Matt and myself were really Jonesin' for this item. Since Matt was planning on getting one anyway, he graciously offered to let me piggyback an order onto his. Today, the box arrived. In my pre-TBDX days, a plain white box like this would have been a disappointment. But I've learned that sometimes the coolest items come in the plainest boxes. It's pretty light, but I expected that. The label says "Battle Ship Line 01". This is a surprise. My heart skips a beat as I consider the possibility that this may be the first in a series. Oh, the possibilities.... I reverently open it up and slide the hangar-like inner tray out. It looks like some sort of drydock in there. Too bad all those graphics will get messed-up when I remove the copious amounts of tape securing everything down. The ship itself is in two main pieces --- good, that means it's even longer than the box! I unwrap the nose section and admire the excellent paint job. The weathering effect is nicely done, though my camera seems to garishly emphasize each shadowy line. It looks better in real life. When I flip the box over to remove the two (woo-hoo!) twist ties, I find even more goodies --- parts for a stand, an instruction manual, and one of the super-special, limited-edition, order-now-or-lose-out electric motors! Nifty. I easily assemble the three-piece stands, slide the nose onto the main hull, and attach the rear belly fin --- and Voila! She is complete. I admire her from a few angles, noticing the great detailing that went into her construction. (YET MORE) (OH YEAH, THIS CAME WITH EVEN MORE PICTURES) Her overall feel is sturdy, if light. Best of all, all four turrets rotate, which is the feature I really hoped for! Here's the obligatory size comparison to the BPX-01. The Okita-Kan looks slightly larger due to the perspective of the shot, but it actually measures in just shy of the Yamato's 16" overall length. I'd say the O-K is 15 1/2". If anyone knows the scale of the O-K, let me know. I assume it should be about 1/2 to 1/3 the size of the Yamato. If I'm ever crazy enough to try out the motor, it attaches to the bottom hull by removing the rear belly fin and replacing it with a small red tab that the motor slides onto. Quibbles? There are surprisingly few. The soft plastic doesn't hold it's shape well, so most of the fins are slightly wavy and warped. I can live with that. The only read standout is the tail fin, which I will work on. That pic also shows how the rear section, which is already glued to the hull, doesn't fit too well. It's not off-center, it's just cast a wee bit too small so that the main body doesn't mate up with it well. And while I'm typically not too anal about paint scrapes, when I first rotated the rear belly turret, it's tight fit scraped a good bit of paint off its mount. This wouldn't be so bad if the gray paint hadn't been covering red, which shows through quite noticeably now. Ultimately, I'm VERY happy with this rendition of Avatar's ship. I think it will display quite nicely next to my BPX-01! (Sing along to the tune of "StarBlazers") We're off, to your bathtub, We'll leave a dirty ring, After we play with our, TIME HOUSE TUB TOY!!!  RUMBLE INDEX  |  CURRENT RUMBLE