Overview
Sold by Chinese manufacturing giant MoRise Hobby under the label of Creative Field, Number 57 is an oddball in this guide – firstly, it is one of the only kits that does not conform to roughly 1:12 or 1:10 scale, and secondly, it is a toyline that is primarily focused on robots. However, it has JUST enough girlpla that we feel it makes sense to focus on in this guide.
Number 57 is more accurately two separate sublines:
- Armored Puppet, the lion’s share of the line focusing on humanoid robots of varying aesthetics and types.
- Manhunter, focusing on large robots piloted by small animals or being giant cyborg animals with giant weapons. While nominally 1:24, some of the Manhunters like Shenshu are large enough to stand eye to eye with 1:12 model kits.
Armored Puppet was launched in 2020 with the ninja-themed Oni Flame, the battle robot-themed Battle Type.5 and the industrial robot Industry Type.3, while Manhunter launched with Grave Frog in 2021.
Construction and Engineering
1:24 is a fairly rare scale in girlpla. The only girlpla-adjacent line of consistently high quality we are aware of is Kotobukiya’s Hexa Gear. Number 57 is, fortunately, an incredibly high quality line, with fairly consistent plastic quality in most of its kits and incredible articulation for its size. Some kits, however, do have breakage issues, especially with clear parts, but for the most part, Armored Puppet kits are high quality.
On top of that, the kits come with many goodies aside from just the robots, ranging from whole different option parts (making it worth buying more just to see them) to smaller robots (such as the attendants for Kirigyo and Qingyi), and even whole compatibility parts to allow cross-compatibility between Manhunter and Armored Puppet (Esis and Sobek).
Aesthetics:
One of the great appeals of Number 57 across both lines is the sheer variety of aesthetics. Fembot lovers are going to be drawn to robot maid Yui, army builders are going to love the Type.5 and ECAS kits, and there are even centaurs in the form of Knight of Skyfog. Even the variant kits (Kirigyo/Qingyi and Oni Flame/Homura) carry enough different accessories as to feel substantially different from each other. The cyborg animal aesthetic in the Manhunter line is incredibly unique, too; to our knowledge, no other line even comes close to that.
Ease of Acquisition:
With asking prices around ¥2500 (£12/$16) per kit with a rough upper bound of ¥4000 (£19/$25), Number 57 kits are incredibly easy to collect….assuming you show up in time to hit a reprint run. Older kits are hard to get ahold of, however – trying to get the rare blank core bodies or the hibernation pod can be an exercise in frustration.
AliExpress is your savior here, though occasionally HobbySearch and HobbyLink Japan can save you a bit of time. Fortunately, even the pricer kits are saved by the sheer amount of value per box; with so many accessories and option parts, you almost can (and we have) build a whole other Armored Puppet with spare parts.
Personal Verdict?
While perhaps not the first choice of someone looking at this guide, Number 57 is a surprising gem from a creator with little else to their name, and a very worthy addition to anyone’s collection.
Personal Recommendations
Esis and Shenshu; Esis’ sheer amount of extra parts, such as extra weapons, the sarcophagus-turned-sphinx and the ability to turn a Sobek Manhunter into another mummy-themed guardian was a huge contributor to our interest in the line. As for Shenshu, he’s a giant cyborg bear with a minigun. What more could you want?
Official Site: https://www.morise-hobby.com/ (in Chinese)
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