Saturday, August 7, 2010

Maschinen Krieger

Like Battlestar Galactica,

There some works of fiction and alternate universe that really intrigues me. One of these happens to be Maschinen Krieger (Ma.K). You probably might be wondering what in the world it is. I had that very same thought exactly when I stumbled upon it.

So i thought, why not intro what it is on top of showing the figures.

Taken from Wikipedia:
"Maschinen Krieger (Ma.K ZBV3000) originally began as the science fiction series SF3D which ran as monthly installments in the Japanese hobby magazine Hobby Japan. To develop the SF3D storyline, Kow Yokoyama collaborated with Hiroshi Ichimura (story editor) and Kunitaka Imai (graphic designer). The three creators drew visual inspiration from their combined interest in WWI and WW2 armor and aircraft, the NASA Space Program and films such as Star Wars and Mad Max 2: Road Warriors."


Just for your info, Maschinen Krieger is a rarity. While there are an increase more model kits of Maschinen Krieger. It wasn't a mainstream hit in Japan, Let alone the world. I picked this out from a Anime store and the only reason they have it is because they got it from some convention. It cost quite a bomb too. At close to 80 dollars, its not your typical type of model kit toy.


Inside the box, it shows the various personnel, their ranks, and the weapons that accompany their armoured suits. The storyline of Maschinen Krieger is very vague but the highlight equipment of the story is mainly focused on its Armoured Suits. Maschinen Krieger or Ma.K is based on the Earth year 2880, in which a nuclear war lays waste to the human population and makes the planet uninhabitable.

50 years later, the Earth becomes habitable and Colonist of the Galactic Federation come back to form a new haven for themselves. They are soon threatened by criminals of all sorts that are deviants from civilised society. So as a preventable measure, they form the Strahl Democratic Republic (SDR) as a governing body to restore order. However, the government that is formed becomes authoritative and results in a conflict between Colonist that declare independent from the Republic and the Republic itself. War eventually breaks out between the SDR and the Colonist Independent Mercenary army. And pretty much the story continues on...


Here we see a Member of the Squad of Armoured Mobile Suit. The whole colour code, right down to the skull cap the guy is wearing, does give a sense of WW2 aura in it. Even though he is in a armoured suit of high tech weaponry.

From the looks of it, it doesn't look comfortable or even mobile for that matter but I am assuming it packs a heavy punch of weaponry and armour compared to your normal infantry men.


Here we see the whole squad. What really appeals to me the most about this Ma.K armoured Suit is the shape and design. I like the eggy shape of the armour suit. it looks cute, yet hi-tech and rustic all at one. It is definitely very iconic and I have this funny feeling that in the AniMatrix Rennaisance Part 2 where they show the battle between Man and Machine, that the Sentinel armour suits had some sort of Inspiration from Ma.K.



I might be wrong, but I know Ma.K is an old old concept from the 1980s, so it would be unlikely that Animatrix gave inspiration to Ma.K



If this is the first time you have seen Ma.K though, I do not blame you guys. These guys are pretty "indie" or not really mainstream stuff. While they were created a long time ago, the story never got the popularity it wanted. Furthermore, the storyline diminished from the magazine it came from. Much is not told about the ending or continuation of the conflict and it didn't take off in Japan.

This is largely due to the time it was launched. During that time, another concept of Armoured Suits got so popular, it has become an icon of Japan like Godzilla is.

It is none other than GUNDAM.



Gundam swept the nation around 1979, 1980s.. and it has been spreading across the world like hotcakes. During its earlier years, it foreshadowed Ma.K and it can be said that its correlation to the demise of Ma.K is evident to a certain extent.

As for the history of Gundam and more. That will be another story.

Till then, hope you guys keep reading up ;)

5 comments:

  1. Interesting story Jiaqi..
    Really great Figures too.
    They really look appealing and the storyline doesn't sound that bad. Pity that they got rubbed out by Gundam.

    As for similarities with animatrix, I must say you are right. Looking pretty similar. And it is really intriguing to know if there was some sort of adaptation from MaK.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Awesome looking figures.
    Never heard of them before though.

    But yeah. Gundam is definitely a hit phenomenon.

    Whatever it is, I must agree with You and Vickers,
    It does look like those sentinels from the animatrix.

    I am assuming they are ready-made yea? Good quality figures

    ReplyDelete
  3. They look like refine and well ready made figures.
    Heard about MaK recently at some Toy convention not too long ago.

    Didn't know they were really old school.
    Great Manufactured and ready-made products.

    I'm quite sure that if it wasn't for Gundam, they would have been a hit, at the very least for modelers.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Is it me or do these Maschinen Krieger guys look like they are in extravagant hi=tech deep see diving suits.

    They don't seem to have obvious firepower being displayed on them too.

    Enlighten us Jiaqi?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Well I do not really know their weaponry that well. But I can agree with you on the deep-sea diving suit perspective.

    They look like construction robots to me though, based on their weaponry, but I am really really not too sure.

    It was one of those type of days where I thought it look great in design, as do I think so now too, and I just got it.

    I did do a a surface research on Ma.K but never got into detail on its weaponry. Sorry guys

    ReplyDelete