“Astro Boy” is a sci-fi comic created by Japanese cartoonist Osamu Tezuka. It was originally born as a supporting role in his 1951 comic “Astro Boy” and in 1952 as the manga “Astro Boy” The protagonist began to serialize until 1968.
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“Astro Boy” story background
In 1961, Osamu Tezuka founded Worm Production Co., Ltd., and made “Astro Boy” into a black-and-white animation. The “Astro Boy with Iron Arms” that most of us have seen is a color version of the same show redrawn by Nippon Television Network in 1980, with 52 episodes in total.
The little robot with 7 special abilities, smart, brave, and righteous, became the little hero in everyone’s hearts at that time. It is precisely because of this popularity that Astro Boy is favored by many trendy game manufacturers. The picture above is the Astro Boy machine perspective mecha released by TOKYO TOYS in 2019.
September 2021，PANTASY launched the world’s first building block Astro Boy See-through Mech, licensed and issued by Tezuka Productions.
PANTASY Astro Boy See-through Mech Packaging
The packaging box uses a pure black background, which looks very three-dimensional, and completely sets off the metal texture of the gold-sprayed parts.
There are some details on the back. We can see that different from the trendy ornaments, the main joints of this Astro Boy building block mecha are designed to be movable structures.
Similar to the previous building blocks in the dusty area, the building blocks are packaged into two black inner boxes according to steps, and the white outline of the product is printed on the inner box.
The cover of the vertical manual is consistent with the packaging box, and it is sealed with a plastic bag, which is very well protected.
The first page of the manual introduces the 7 special functions in Astro Boy’s animation.
PANTASY manual has always been compiled more meticulously, and there are not too many bricks assembled in each step. In addition, the overall mecha is completed in 5 major steps according to body, legs, arms, head and brackets. Each major step has an insert similar to the picture above.
The progress bar is used to simulate the assembling progress and enhance the technological sense of the product. That’s a billion dots.
Steps 1-3 in the above figure are the blocks in the first inner box, and the blocks in steps 4-5 are packaged in the second inner box.
It is worth mentioning that more than half of the perspective parts of this Astro Boy perspective mecha are sprayed gold parts, and the metal paint is sprayed very uniformly and the texture is first-rate.
Astro Boy See-through Mech Assembly process
Assembling begins with Astro Boy’s body part. You can see that the arms, legs, and head are all reserved links, because the head is heavier, so the long cross axis is reserved, and the arms and legs are all small spherical links.
In addition, the installation of the heart part is a bit more complicated. The two hoses connecting the heart are pre-cut by the government. If the installation is tight, you can cut it slightly.
The body part does not have too many special structures except the hose, so the body is very stable after completion.
The half-body and half-mecha are distributed very symmetrically from the outside, and some friends even asked whether buying two sets can make a full-body or full-mecha model.
In fact, it can be seen from the steps of the body that the internal structure is not completely symmetrical.
The mechanical leg structure to be assembled next is not only very metallic, but also try to restore some of the settings in the animation. You can compare it to know all the details.
The other leg restores the cartoon shape of the big round tube in the animation. Compared with the mechanical leg, there is one less movable knee joint. But when I only showed these two photos to my friends, someone could guess that this is the Astro Boy in one bite.
The assembly workload of the two arms is relatively small. Among them, the robotic arm can move almost all joints including the fingers, and the other arm can only move the wrist, but the fist is very similar.
Because it is a cartoon shape, the head is the largest part of the body, and it is also the most complicated part of the assembling process. Using technology behind the head to simulate Astro Boy’s naughty hairstyle should have taken the designer a lot of thought.
The brain simulates the shape of some electrode tubes with sand blue and gold parts, and the hearing system (inner ear) made of silver wheels. Is there a sense of technology?
Although the left and right structures are asymmetrical, it can be seen that the roundness of the assembled head is well processed, and the overall effect is good.
What I want to mention here is that in order to ensure the quality of the finished product and avoid the misalignment of the printed parts across the bricks, the eyebrows and eyelashes of Astro Boy should be printed as a whole after the manufacturer’s pre-assembled. Although it takes one more process, the effect is worthy of praise.
The fifth sub-package assembled in the end is the base. The base has a striking Astro Boy LOGO with iron arms and some shapes similar to charging devices as decoration.
In addition to the blue foot pedal and the mecha is a quick release link, the pin at the top of the bracket is connected with the pin hole on the back of the mecha.
I finally waited for the assembly. Because the structure of each component is relatively strong, the assembly process is very smooth. In addition, the cartoon-shaped bigfoot can stand more stably even without a stand.
After standing on the base, I feel that the whole shape is more stable and thick, and you’re done.
Here is a three-view for comparison. If you look closely, you will find that PANTASY Astro perspective mecha has been restored in building blocks in many details.
PANTASY Astro Boy See-through Mech display
PANTASY Astro Boy See-through Mech Summarize
One of the childhood favorite series, and authorized by the official genuine;
Half cartoon and half mecha shape, the assembly is interesting;
The set contains a large number of gold-sprayed parts, the finished product is about 30cm, with high quality, suitable for display and collection;
Gaudes building blocks and bricks, the structure is firm and reliable;
