A couple of months ago I stumbled upon the pictured model kit. It is a 1/12th Scale model of the titular character from Lady Battle Cop.A little back story...
Lady Battle Cop (or Onna Battle Cop...same thing) is a Toei one-off film from 1990. It was basically a ripoff of Robocop, but it served as a kinda important role in Toei chronology.
Following the Shotaro Ishinomori penned Star Wars ripoff Uchuu kara no Message (seriously...the Japanese government stepped in to delay the opening of Star Wars in Japan so that this film could be released first) there was a twelve year gap in production for original Toei films. We did see festival films for many Tokusatsu series that were airing on television as well as the two feature-length Sukeban Deka movies (which were decent), but nothing original.
Lady Battle Cop came along and changed that. I'm not sure why this film was made (I guess they felt that Jiban didn't do an adequate job of being their Robocop) but it opened the door to a nice run of original Kamen Rider one-off films (Shin, ZO, J) as well as the reimagined Jinzoningen Hakaider to cap it off. Sure, Kamen Rider is a franchised series...but Lady Battle Cop is virtually a Metal Hero movie given the costume and "heavily armed cop" nature of Metal Hero shows of the era. Rider was dead at that point anyway.
The film...well, I'm planning to review Lady Battle Cop in the future along with the 90s Rider films (I did Hakaider already). So...stay tuned!
I've always been a fan of the costume from Lady Battle Cop. It has always been a bit of a bummer that there was never any merchandise from the film outside of the soundtrack, a CD Single of the two songs from the movie, a VHS, and a Laserdisc. That is.......until I discovered this officially licensed 1/12 scale model kit by Argo Nauts on my regular sweep of YJ Auctions... Perfect scale for Figuarts!
I put in a modest bid for the kit...and won it for a reasonable price (cheaper than the aged ¥3000 sticker on it). Woohoo!
After initially spotting it, I contacted Kingranger. He said confirmed that the figure would be an ideal base for a custom Figuarts without damaging the original kit. I mean...seriously. Check out how straight all of the pieces are. Any area that isn't straight would be an articulation point anyway...
I didn't snap any pictures of the kit itself since I pretty much immediately sent it off to King once it came in. If you want to get a detailed look at the real suit in action, this clip has some nice shots of it...
If you are unfamiliar with Kingranger's work, check out his Flickr page or one of the following customs that he has made for me in the past...
X1 Mask Ranger Key
Fire Wolzaphone
Dekabright Brace Throttle
So stay tuned for updates! Both of us are on Twitter @CCLemon99 and @kingrangerprops.
See ya next time!
-CC
Very nice figure.
ReplyDeleteInteresting and fascinating story.
I can see why it's so important for later Toei tokusatsu movies of 90's; heck, without it, there wouldn't be Hakaider movie
Such a shame she's an underrated heroine there's no DVD or BD release; I would have love to see her action in higher quality on HDTV.
It would have nice to have cross over with Jiban though, since they would have been a nice couple... (well, at least we have Spielban and Diana).
I guess Toei didn't want to make FULL series out of female solo series (at the time), where it would risk alienating target audience (boys). Maybe it would have worked well for several OVA series (for OLDER audience).
Heck, even to this day, we still have yet to see female solo henshin tokusatsu movie/TV series (as far as I know).
Bandai Premium REALLY should consider making legit Figuart of this; however, seeing its reputation, it's very unlikely though.
Great entry.
Looking forward to see this figure review in future.
I say in this article that Toei kinda dropped off after Hakaider, but they did eventually pick the one-off movie again between 2005-2007 when they did Kamen Rider: The First, Sukeban Deka, and then Kamen Rider: The Next. Once again they've picked it up with Gavan and the Kikaider reboot. It just wasn't the same, though. : [
DeleteThere have been some legit Tokusatsu OVAs with female leads. Vanny Knights, Kamen Tenshi Rosetta, and Evolver are a few that come to mind. The only one of those I've really seen was Evolver. It was pretty good and probably the indiest of the bunch that I mentioned.
Yeah, but now I'm hoping that they don't make a legit Figuart of Lady Battle Cop. I'll have the only one! (Seriously, they need to put it on DVD before they do anything...).
Oh, and how could I forget Zebraman from 2004 and whenever his sequel came out? Last original idea Toei had...
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