Hasegawa 1/35 Fireball SG and SG Prowler Ma.K. Kit First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

Maschinen Krieger (Ma.K.) is a science fiction genre that was started in the early 1980s under the banner of SF3D by Japanese artist Kow Yokoyama and was published for a few years in the Japanese hobby magazine Hobby Japan. While many of the science fiction and fantasy kits that are produced in Japan are based on one or more anime (Japanese animation) television and movie series, or at least as a manga (Japanese comics), SF3D was created out of a series of scratch-built futuristic combat vehicles and armored suits. At the time, Nitto produced a series of kits based upon Kow's designs. When a copyright dispute arose in 1985, Hobby Japan dropped the series out of their magazines and Nitto discontinued the kits. Since that time, companies like Modelkasten, Wave, and Brick Works stepped in and continued the genre under a new banner - Maschinen Krieger (Machine Wars). You'll note that while Ma.K. is supposed to take place roughly 900 years into our future, the vehicles, uniforms, and even names/designations are inspired by World War II Germany.

In 2009, Hasegawa entered the Ma.K. universe with their first offering - the 1/20 scale Falke Antigravity Armored Raider Pkf.85 kit. Hasegawa produced this kit in injection-molded styrene and maintained the common 1/20 scale standard to align with the previous Nitto, Wave, etc., kits already on the market. Hasegawa has since followed up with nine additional subjects, which has broadened the popularity of the SF3D/Ma.K. genre well beyond the Japanese market.

Here are the 1/35 scale Fireball SG and SG Prowler armored suits originally released in 2010 with the 1/35 P.K.H. Nutrocker (Nutcracker). The Nutcracker was reissued last year (look here) without the Fireball suits and these were supposed to follow shortly thereafter. The kit is molded in silver styrene and presented on two parts trees. Since there are two kits in the box, and the parts trees are identical between the two kits, there are four parts trees in this box.

Unlike the 1/20 kits, these two do not have the posable limbs nor opening pilot access hatch. They assemble in static poses. Where the 1/20 kits have nylon joints for movement and vinyl hoses for flexibility, everything in these kits is styrene. If you follow the instructions, you can build the SG and the SG Prowler variants, or you can build two of either variant - the parts are all in there.

If you look at the decal sheet, they provide the skull shapes for the pilots' hatches along with the identification markings. The traditional subject card that accompanies these kits provide markings suggestions for four options including the two ghosts depicted on the box art, one sharkmouth, and one other subject. This decal sheet also provides you with plenty of other options that you can create on your own.

Since there is currently no reference for the Ma.K. series (book, movie, etc.), you can have fun with these futuristic combat subjects with the portrayed suggestions or using your own imagination. Here's what I did with one of their robotic subjects recently released.

My sincere thanks to Hasegawa USA for this review sample!