DISCLAIMER: We have not built this kit ourselves. As such, we are only providing an article for informative purposes. For reasons that will become apparent below, we will not be attempting to acquire one for personal examination.
Overview
To our understanding, LeiZhou Studio (also known as Leizhou Studio) appeared some time in 2023 and has all of two works to its name. One of them is the Tianbing Standard Version, a mecha kit that had its prototype unveiled in 2024…and has not had any updates in two years as of this writing (2026) for reasons that will become apparent. The other was a limited run model kit, Stapel1 from what was to be a line of 1/9 model kits (closer in size to the Genei Full Action model kits or indeed the average ball-jointed doll) called the Saint Asia kits, which appeared to have been a military-themed line, similar to Megami Device’s Yggdrasis.
All well and good, right? No. No it wasn’t.
Muscuto is one of the most prolific garage kit producers in the community, with their parts for Megami Device being considered among the best parts available under the Secondary License. LeiZhou had decided to get a little cute and, to be blunt, ripped off Muscuto’s parts to create the Saint Asia Stapel kit, as well as ripping off an actual knife to make the pre-order bonus for the kits.
To say Muscuto did not take it well would be an understatement; reportedly, he expressed a desire to never make the custom parts LeiZhou had copied for Stapel ever again. To say that the community didn’t take Muscuto getting defrauded well would also be an understatement.
Fortunately for all of you hoping to support Muscuto’s endeavours, LeiZhou has, seemingly, disappeared from the model-making scene, which makes it nearly impossible to get one of the Stapel kits. Not that we’d particularly want to, either; almost chasing out a big name GK creator from the community will do that to you.
Construction and Engineering
Credit where credit is due, LeiZhou did appear to be relatively competent in this department, with very few reports of breakages and poor plastic quality from the people who managed to buy a Stapel for their own. However, the kit did come with metal joints, an oddity that we’ve not seen outside of kits like Daytime Meteor. Her odd scale also makes it nearly impossible to source any replacement parts should you happen to break any, given that she is built at 1/9 while the majority of kits are 1/10 or 1/12.
Aesthetics
With an absolute wealth of supplied accessories and a tactical military aesthetic that is surprisingly little utilised in the girlpla world (with Megami Device only getting in on it with Yggdrasis), LeiZhou could, had they used their powers for good (and also made kits at a 1/12 or 1/10 scale) have really cornered the market with Stapel and the rest of their proposed Saint Asia line. These kits really did look very cool and had they not overplayed their hand or, y’know, ripped off one of the most beloved GK creators in the community, LeiZhou could’ve done steady business by targeting a niche that nobody else seemed interested in until a few months ago.
Ah well. If you really want something like these, just go for the Black Iron Rest MJDs. (We aren’t sponsored by them, we just like them.)
Ease of Acquisition:
At an initial price of ¥11520 (roughly £64/ $86), Stapel was already a hard sell even without the controversy around them directly stealing from Muscuto. Now that these kits have been discontinued a while, good luck finding one; though given how they treated Muscuto, would you really want to get one of these?
Official Site: None.
- The kit is also known as Shitapeer elsewhere on the Internet. Any aspersions cast by such a name are of course entirely unintentional. ↩︎