ISS Space Suit (and spacewalking dog) - Bandai 1/10

[bianfuxia]

Well, this is a weird one which I am really just posting in case some people are interested. 

 

 

This is the Bandai ISS EVA suit in 1/10 but in a manga/anime boxing that includes a dog and a spacesuit for him (it's from a series called "Space Brothers"). I received it as a gift some years ago from some friends who knew I liked models and space and though I was very grateful I didn't know what to make of it at all.

 

That would have been in 2012. In about 2017 over the Christmas break I cracked it out as a project to do with my then three year old daughter. She was heavily into space then (I may or may not have force-fed her space stuff from birth - imagine my pride when we walked into a museum once and she yelled out at age five DADDY THAT'S A SATURN FIVE AND THERE'S NEIL ARMSTRONG BUZZ ALDRIN AND MIKE COLLINS).

 

 

 

Anyway, this was great because it is snap fit. We made most of the astronaut over a few days and then she got at it with some grey paint and put the stickers all over everything. It went into storage after that for a long while as we moved countries. Recently I figured out that this kit (the original ISS one anyway) is pretty good and pretty hard to find. So I had a look to see what I could salvage.

 

Luckily most of the paint was easily scraped off. Now older, my kid made a good suggestion when I discussed with her whether I should sand off the last remnants of the grey.

 

 

"Well Dad, there's no need because it's just moon dust". This made me smile too because we were lucky enough to be living in DC in 2019 during the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 and I'd showed her the remnant moon dust on Neil Armstrong's space suit at the Smithsonian. I know this ISS suit didn't go anywhere near the moon, but it was a cool thought she had and I was happy she remembered our trips to the Smithsonian.

 

 

 

I wondered about going to town on this model but in the end I think it has more utility to me as a fully poseable model she can play with. All the joints work really smoothly, and the human's visor slides up and down. I will probably get around to painting the astronaut and dog faces and doing a little bit of detail painting.

 

 

 

If you can find this kit or the ISS boxing I heartily recommend it. I don't know whether it's hyper accurate (I mean, leaving aside the spacewalking dog) but it is certainly a good addition to my small cabinet of space models. This old link from a Japanese website has a lot of photos of the kit and what comes with it. A quick online search seems to have it priced between $45 and $90 at various places.

 

 

Edited January 12, 2022 by bianfuxia

[stevehnz]

As soon as I saw the title, Tintin & Snowy came to mind. The main characters don't look much like either of them but that aside, I like the look of this, it might not be  something I would do but I'm allowed to enjoy it as an idea, which I do.   I'll look for updates.  No pressure mind.  

Steve.

[bianfuxia]

Yes - it was fun! When I first got it as a gift, as I said I was very grateful but also I was like, what the...? Then for a while I thought I'd just use the ISS EVA part for my "serious" space models collection but as I was finishing it up I kinda thought, it would be really cool to take your dog for an EVA and there is just something fun about it in the end!

[Bandsaw Steve]

Weird model but a cool story, especially since it’s been made as a family effort. 👍

[Lazy Modeller]

Very cool! Like the detail of the dog!

Cheers

LM