A.T.K Girl

Overview

One of the many lines that takes “inspiration” from Kotobukiya’s lines, A.T.K Girl, from Chinese manufacturer Eastern Model (sometimes listed as E-Model)¹ is one of the more prominent model kit lines from China, roughly comparable to fellow Chinese mecha musume line Nuke Matrix. The first of the line were Heracross and Arachne, released in late 2019, with Arachne later receiving an improved 2.0 version.

Later lines include:

• Kits based on the Four Gods, released in late 2020 and late 2021. 

• More insect-themed kits in the form of Titans (stag beetle), and Serqet/Serket (scorpion). Both of these kits, along with Heracross and Arachne, were discontinued in 2022.
  
• The Eternal Night subline focusing on horror-themed monsters, consisting of Fenrir (werewolf), Carmilla (vampire), Frankenstein and Elizabeth (Frankenstein’s monster), as well as Blanka & Noir (jiangshi) and Benandanti (a variant of Fenrir).
  
• The Eternal Daylight subline starting with Armored Lion (also sold as 岭王醒师 or Mountain King Awakening Lion).
  
• In addition, there are also the Jinyi Wei twins, who are unattached to any subline, as well as a pair of blank bodies and soft goods (clothing) for the girls.

For convenience’s sake, we will refer to all of these lines collectively as A.T.K Girl, as most of these lines are essentially identical in engineering and quality anyway.

A.T.K Girl distinguishes itself by first including “feelies” with its kits, ranging from acrylic standees of the girl inside, free soft goods, fridge magnets and can badges, and secondly by being including two models of the girls in its kits, giving them a uniquely high value per kit. As an aside, Eastern Model also produces licensed model kits (and was in fact founded for this purpose in 2018), with Mega Man and Marvel model kits being among their repertoire. They even got their business started with producing an Ultraman model kit and a bust statue of the RX-78-2 Gundam for Tmall (formerly Taobao Mall). 

Construction and Engineering

Jumping into this straight away, A.T.K. Girl is on the higher end of difficulty for girlpla, roughly being comparable to the more complex Megami Device kits or Real Grade or Master Grade kits for those coming to the hobby from Gunpla modeling. While well within the capability of any experienced modeler, newbie modelers would be best served avoiding this line. While many early kits of this line are known for copying Machineca, later kits such as Armored Lion employ entirely original engineering created by Eastern Model.

Furthermore, the quality and engineering of the kits are relatively poor in comparison to other Chinese kits (such as Nuke Matrix and the MS General lines) or Megami Device; the plastic quality, while passable, is inferior to their competitors, often easily stressed, but not quite shattering. The proportions of the kits are also very off, with limbs that are unnaturally and disproportionately long; Heracross and Titans avoid this by going for a “short” appearance, ironically making them look more in proportion to the 1:12 kits the kits are intending to copy. 

The combination of the kits’ inferior quality and high difficulty can artificially increase the difficulty of building a kit, though newer kits such as Carmilla, Blanka & Noir and Armored Lion have increased in quality while toning down more egregious parts of their difficulty.

However, the amount of plastic in a kit is tremendous; matched only by Nuke Matrix and most MS General kits, A.T.K. Girl boasts two models per kit; while Heracross and Titans are missing a hip joint and thus will need one to be modified or created for them, the vast majority of the line can be built as and presented as a pair, and will pose a generally interesting challenge.

Aesthetics:

While not as varied as Megami Device or other Kotobukiya lines, A.T.K. Girl boasts a wide variety of kits that might be of interest to the average modeler. The aesthetic is par for the course for mecha musume, though the distorted proportions caused by their overlong limbs can throw off any attractiveness a kit’s design might have had. 

While not unappealing, we personally didn’t quite mesh with the line, outside of Heracross, Titans and Armored Lion, the latter whose more modest design was a welcome breath of fresh air. However, the modeler used to designs from Megami Device, Nuke Matrix and the Seven Deadly Sins line is likely to not be too bothered.

Ease of Acquisition:

A.T.K. Girl kits are somewhat harder to acquire than Kotobukiya or Bandai kits; your best bet will be either places that trade in third party kits or places that import from China (ala AliExpress).  The costs of the kits are also fairly high; we found these were usually set at a price point of £ 35-40 ($47-53) per kit for cheaper kits like Armored Lion. 

However, the kits are well worth that price point; with two models and feelies, A.T.K Girl provides immense bang for your buck per kit. This, however, does not apply to their blank bodies or clothes, which are sold out nearly everywhere outside of second-hand sellers like Mandarake and AmiAmi.

Personal Verdict?

This line is best recommended to people already into the hobby who are used to lines like Megami Device’s AUV, or their fellows in Nuke Matrix. Of the major Chinese kit lines, A.T.K. Girl is arguably among the least of them, with inferior engineering and plastic quality, though they are still head and shoulders above many lesser lines and even some Japanese lines (most notably VLOCKER’S Fiore). 

We personally didn’t like too much about this line, but if the line appeals to you, we implore you to give it a try; having so many models per kit is an appeal all of its own, and the difficulty of building one can be appealing to the challenge seeking builder.

Personal Recommendations:

We personally quite liked Blanka & Noir, due to being fairly cute, while also being reasonably simple for the line. Titans and Heracross are also recommended due to having (accidentally) proportionate limbs and thus looking quite good on the shelf, while Armored Lion is one of the best of the line, roughly equivalent to its competitors.

Official Site: https://easternmodel.com/en

1. Some sites list ATK Girl kits as having been manufactured by Doyusha, notably HobbyLink Japan. This is an inaccuracy; to our knowledge, all of the kits in this line are exclusively Eastern Model’s output. Doyusha, however, does distribute ATK Girl kits, alongside PR Production kits (such as Project KARI and Isekai Ryoko no Techo), MS General, Animester and Nuke Matrix kits. ↩︎