DIY Goblins

Welcome to the sixth review of Girlpla Guide Weekly! 

Continuing the Month of Temu Tat, we’ll be reviewing our third set of tat model kits, the DIY Goblin kits! Yes, I am aware that I promised the T13 Skeletons. However, unfortunately, computer troubles led to me losing the in-progress draft of that entirely. We had to put this one together on short notice, so here we are. We’ll get around to them next week.

Overview

Unlike last week’s offerings, the DIY Goblin kits are of unknown provenance. While these are labeled as T13 kits by multiple sellers, not only do they not resemble anything of soozafone’s work on the Lucky 13 series, we can’t track down any original manufacturers. Nonetheless, these budget goblins have regardless filled the AliExpress/Temu circuit, found their way onto Amazon and, at last check, somehow even found themselves onto a (now-removed) Mercari Japan listing. Our search for an original copyright holder or creator led to absolute diddly squat, even on the instruction manuals that came with these things. Even the name isn’t something that we’re 100% sure they’re called; however, it is a more accurate name than calling them T13 kits.

We have absolutely no idea who made the DIY Goblin kits, why they made these, or even if these were intended for the same purpose the Lucky 13 kits were. We do know that they’re very easy to find and come in about as many colors as the rainbow.

Construction and Engineering

As far as we ARE aware, however, the DIY Goblin kits are all made by the same people, if not people we can identify, so we can generally make a conclusion about the kits in general.

The plastic quality of these goblins is pretty poor, expressing stress marks almost immediately upon simply slotting the ball joints into arms, legs or elbows. While not brittle, these kits aren’t up to snuff in comparison even to the various vendors who sell T13 kits. The tolerances aren’t also fantastic, with seams and gaps being visible even when parts should otherwise be flush against each other. The loincloth is also attached with a questionable latch arrangement that makes it very easy to take off (not that there’s anything beneath to expose) which was an absolute pain to attach.

The articulation isn’t also anything to write home about despite every limb connector being a ball joint, because how the ball joints are structured make the limbs get in their own way, reducing the ability for them to bend in natural ways as opposed to the hinges and joints preferred by literally any other model kit on the planet.

If there’s one saving grace, these kits are very simple and fairly easy to assemble; it took us about 10-15 minutes each to assemble the two kits we got for testing. Assuming you can compensate for all of the above flaws, at least.

Aesthetics:

The Goblin kits have very weird proportions; they look as if they should be a 1:12 model kit and significantly smaller, but are generally slightly taller than a 1:10 kit. The poor quality of the plastic and absolutely baffling engineering take away from the already poor aesthetics of the kit. Surprisingly, though, they actually do come with two alternate heads; a more menacing-looking leer with a scarred eye and a cuter, beady-eyed vacant-looking head.

The paint job on the knives and clubs they come with are also fairly iffy, with the knife in particular only having silver paint on the flats of the blades. The various colors they come in are also interesting, if not good – the low value of the materials put into the kit take away from any value the various different colors you can get these goblins in.

Ease of Acquisition:

Like the rest of the kits we’re reviewing this month, the goblins are dirt cheap, usually costing less than a dollar/pound and can be found anywhere where tat is sold; AliExpress, Amazon, Temu, literally anywhere that has tons of unverified sellers have these.

Personal Verdict?

They’re dirt cheap, but honestly, just pay extra and get a smaller goblin figure that can actually match the scale like 90% of scale model kits have. They’re best as a curiosity.

Overall score: 5/10. These are, at least, buildable and inexpensive; had these been sold for similar prices to Megami Device kits or even cheaper Sisters kits, we may have had conniptions. They are just about worth what you pay for them, but only just.

Up next:

Next week, the T13 Skeletons, hopefully. Long as I don’t lose the draft again.

Tune in next week for the next Girlpla Guide Weekly!