While their cars aren't of any interest to me, I did want to get some of the diorama items to see how they look with 1/72 scale miniatures. Their most recent set is the 1/64 Parking Lot Collection Ver. 1.5 (駐車場コレクション Ver.1.5).
The original set released in 2021 used different colors for some pieces, and had different stickers for signage.
The sets come randomly in gashapon capsules, and I was able to get all four variants. I don't think that each colored capsule corresponds to a particular set, but I could be wrong since I only had a sample size of four.
The first thing I noticed upon opening the capsules was that some of the pieces were bent from being stuffed inside the capsules.
Set A consists of road pieces, a wall, signs with stickers, and a payment machine with cover.
Some of the pieces were bent, and I did my best to straighten them out by heating them with a hair dryer.
Set B includes parking space pieces, a wall, parking blocks, flap locks, a vending machine with stickers, and a recycle bin.
Set C includes parking space pieces, a wall, a ticketing machine, and a parking gate which needed to have the arm straightened out.
Set D includes parking space pieces, a wall, parking blocks, flap locks, and some traffic cones along with a couple of traffic cone bars.
I think that the sets are actually pretty compatible with 1/72 scale figures. The sign post didn't fit in the base, so I drilled it out, but ended up making the hole to big, so now it's all wobbly.
Stickers are included indicating either a full lot or with vacancy, and I chose the later.
The parking spaces are probably unrealistically wide for 1/72 cars, and cars with low ground clearance might not fit very well over the flap lock (thus the painful way the Ferrari is parked).
The ticketing machine doesn't come with its own base, so the one from the payment machine needs to be used for it.
Eight sets are needed to create the lot shown in the promotional art, but I've seen Japanese parking lots with just one or two spaces.
If anyone is interested, a good overview of how hourly parking works in Japan can be found from RISE Corp.
2 comments:
A friend of mine is currently in Japan, doing the Cherry-blossom tour, and he sent me a shot of a Gashapon 'shop'; miles, absolutely miles of dispensers!
H
Hi Hugh,
Bandai has actually set up gacha shops in many locations here in the US. I imagine they probably gave some in the UK as well, though I guess they would pale in comparison to the Japanese shops!
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