Ma.K Großer Hund Unboxing & Background Discussion
The Maschinen Krieger Grosser Hund P.H.J. 101 from Hasegawa Models
One of the first unobtainium kits that smacked into my eyes were the images from Kow Yokoyama Sensei’s Modelling book 1. My memory might be skewed with time but he had painted up a team of WonFes only kits - a resin Nixie by Genzo kun of Drunk Dog and a resin Großer Hund by Kato san of Rainbow Egg in a particularly attractive camouflage pattern.
I think this was after we had already seen the 1/16 scale Raptor on the cover and the Sturm Kafer by Saito san of Love Love Garden.
Way to shake the unobtainium in our faces right?
So yes, much like the comments I read from many of my new friends, with my first brush with Ma.K I also had the feeling that I had missed all the cool releases and that all I could buy now at retail was the A.F.S. Parade. This was a side joke because of what seemed to be an endless parade of the first, cheap A.F.S. kits coming out at the time.
Now I can only look back with fondness and smile because so many of those kits are now plastic and sitting here in my stash, ready to be saved and brought to life. So if there is one message I have for you now, it’s to please just sit tight and let the good Ma.K times roll. It’s all coming and keeps getting better and better!
Now, back to the Big Dog. I just loved how the Großer Hund looks. It’s tall and gangly but with a very aggressive attitude and all business. There’s no waste and you can see that it at least looks like it should be very effective. Added to this the mega cool camouflage pattern that I wanted to homage and it was a must have.
I went to Summer WonFes at the Tokyo Big Site in 2008 to try and buy more Ma.K, but not knowing anyone in the community yet nor how to go about this, I simply stumbled around the massive venue until eventually finding the right section only to be confronted with “Sold Out” signs and amazingly disinterested vendors. Not just the but the Nixie and Big Dog but everything was “sold out”!
Now I understand and fully empathise with the vendors, it’s so much work explaining to some outsider how this might all work and it’s exhausting setting up a booth. Most probably had not eaten or slept that day and were just glad it was over!
All that was to change, I met Kow Yokoyama Sensei that afternoon on the train platform leaving for home. Really! Then the next day I was invited to visit a Hobby Store together through a mutual acquaintance. We exchanged emails. We met more times and became friends, I will share more of that in another story but the main idea was that I was quickly inducted into the inner circle through showing my passion for the genre and for being an extremely diligent and hardworking student, it was at an unusually accelerated pace. It was the GFC and I had some time on my hands… One door closes and another opens! I lived close by to where all the action was happening, even on the same train line and western side of Tokyo.
It was meant to be.
Yokoyama san introduced me to Kato san, who I was sitting next to at one of the early Falke release events. We’d already been making small talk and I just didn’t know who he was, funny! We quickly became friends too and I offered to help him with his Rainbow Egg business by selling his fantastic Großer Hund resin kit to fans overseas. I was in the Japanese Ma.K Community but also had some contact with the international community on the Maschinen Krueger Forum and offered the very first direct sale from Japan for the Ma.K Garage Kit.
Yes, Kato-san and I were the first to do this and in all honesty I had no idea what a big jump this was at the time because until then, they had people flying out from the USA to do group buys and it must have been extremely difficult and expensive but that was the difficulty in being a Ma.K fan back then. Such dedication. Now we can “add to cart”. Wow right?
The first resin kit I helped Rainbow Egg sell internationally, the first Großer Hund edition.
Pretty sure we sold this one together too, the Altair Resin Kit!
Cover art for the 2nd version of the 2009 Großer Hund resin kit I helped Rainbow Egg sell internationally. How cool is this cover art!?!
Now ready for the fun part? I was such a naive nooby to this world that I did all of this for free and was happy to. That’s right, I didn’t charge anything for any of this and just felt it was what I could do to both help my new friends in Japan but also those overseas who desperately wanted these kits. We sold quite a few Grosserhund kits but I also made a number of friends who are still in contact to this day.
This was also the time that Hasegawa Models was involved and had already released the first version of the Falke Armored Raider. According to WAVE, they felt that they were going to take care of the suits in 1/20 scale as they had been doing and Hasegawa Models as befit their experience would then take on the challenges of the larger vehicles. This remained true with their next release of the 1/35 Scale Lunadiver kit.
However, things changed when I believe it was their 3rd release, they announced a Großer Hund. Yes, this exact kit was released for nen matsu 2011 or the end of 2011. Here are some behind the scenes photos of the Hobby Japan photo shoot on 2nd November 2011 to prepare in advance and the release event held on the upper floor of the Marui Bldg in Shinjuku on Dec 17th.
I remember this one in particular because Max Watanabe san invited me to speak at the event. On the day with perhaps 5mins notice and it was my first ever opportunity to speak publicly for scale modelling and yes, I had to do it in Japanese. It was terrifying! Thankfully it was not to a huge crowd, maybe 50 or so of the most hardcore fans who were mostly freinds & aquaintences now and very supportive.
Fast forward to 2021 and now I have the opportunity to share both this story and this kit with you on my blog and YouTube as part of a Community Competition. I am now collecting the full set of kits to come back with the newest release of the Dachshund version and plan to show you the different versions and how you can make & paint them.
Thanks for reading and watching, hope you enjoyed this as much as I did sharing.
Happy modelling my friends and all the best for 2021.
Linc
Come say “Hey Linc!” this weekend!!