Mercenaries Woman Guidance Teacher
Allegiance: Mercenary Army

1/20 Kit currently in production from Brick Works, available from HobbyLink Japan.

I am pleased to offer a review of the Maschinen Krieger Mercenaries Woman Guidance Teacher, as currently produced by Brick Works and obtainable from HobbyLink Japan (click the link above). The kit is the latest in a wave of figure releases, each packaged in bag with header card. This particular figure represents a kitbash Yokoyama-san created a few years ago, from the first two Brickworks releases, with a few nice twists.

So let's start with the package. This is what you get - three pieces of immaculately cast resin and a full color header card. You get two heads - one in a neutral expression and one smiling. I'd like to draw your attention to the white-on-clear "Kow" sticker that has been placed on the baggie. This is your #1 indication that the figure is licensed and legit!

In 2008, the figure above (with just the neutral head insert) was released as a Wonderfest exclusive. Header card pictured below:

Going back to the first release, pictured below, you will notice the figure is essentially the same from the neck down.

What Yokoyama-san did was to chop the head from the original figure (left, below), and graft on the neutral faced head from the 2nd Brick Works set which featured one additional head (also seen below) which was designed to fit within an AFS suit. I have done the surgery with the original figures as seen below - after positioning, you need to resculpt the neck.

He actually made two - the heads faced in two different directions. In addition to resculpting the neck, nipples were added with a dollop of putty. His originals are pictured below:

So what a treat to be able to simply purchase the figure, pre-modified! As a bonus, the talented Brick Works sculptor has added the delicate neck tendon, which I never would have thought to do. It is also important to note how the heads themselves socket into the figure - as a resin "plug" that includes all of the exposed skin within the center of the tank top (head, neck, breasts). This makes painting easy! My modified figure is on the left, the new Brick Works figure is on the right.

A comparison of the exclusive WF 2008 release and the currently available Brick Works release show them to be identical (but remember - you also now get that smiling face insert!). Which one below is from 2008, and which is from 2009? Impossible to tell in person (even though the camera's position makes the head appear to be angled differently - I can assure you it is not).

New smiling face head position compared to neutral face:

A closer inspection reveals the consistency in the quality of the sculpt.

It will paint up very nicely indeed! As usual, I cannot find anything even remotely wrong with the Brick Works figures, and if you're not a fan of hard nipples in your dioramas, a few seconds with a fine grit sandpaper will remedy the situation!

Maschinen Krieger © Kow Yokoyama