Overview
A little-known and obscure model kit line by little-known and obscure Chinese manufacturer Momoling, Tale of Shinto is a discontinued model kit line that can roughly be described as being what Syokon-ki is for characters from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, for historical figures from the Sengoku Era, being genderflipped girlpla of personalities from that time.
The line only ever managed two model kits, Nana Oda (the counterpart to Oda Nobunaga) and Shu Toyotomi (the counterpart to Toyotomi Hideyoshi), in 2020, alongside a reissue of Shu in the same year before ceasing production. To show how little we actually know aside from this, we don’t even know if Momoling still exists, though the good money’s on “probably not”. To get it into you how hard it is to find information on this toyline this side of the Internet, the logo above is actually one we ripped from Nana Oda’s box and edited for use here.
Construction and Engineering
Sadly, when building a Tale of Shinto kit, you start to understand why Momoling went out of business. With plastic quality roughly equivalent to counterfeits like the Pretty Armor series and fragile joints, the Tale of Shinto kits are no diamond in the rough. The extra body characteristic of Chinese model kits is, while always welcome, not particularly impressive either.
The engineering is also rough, with questionable joint placements and the hair feeling cheap, bad and easily disassembled – by which we mean even a jostle can knock their hair out of place. Nana in particular is basically a hand grenade. However, we have had kits that, despite the absolutely terrible build quality, were saved by just being incredibly good-looking after all of it. Surely the aesthetics can save them, right?
….right?
Aesthetics
No.
There is only so much good design and decent paint work can do to compensate for cheaping out on plastic quality. Sadly, the Tale of Shinto kits, despite tapping into a surprisingly untapped aesthetic, that being the Sengoku era, are not very good-looking kits. They’re not the worst looking kits ever, but that’s hardly a high bar to clear, especially given the asking price, which we’ll get into in a moment.
Ease of Acquisition:
These kits have been long discontinued and are very rare on the secondhand market. We acquired ours for about ¥3400 (£16/$22) secondhand, but we cannot predict where or when you might be able to acquire a copy for yourself, not that we’d recommend looking. They used to retail for ¥5200 (£24/$33). In our view, that’s far too much, given how cheaply the whole thing was made, especially when cheaper kits have had higher quality.
Personal Verdict?
A historical curiosity, the Tale of Shinto was sadly doomed from the start as the creators seemed more focused on making a quick buck than providing a quality product. They’re not the worst kits ever, but honestly, just build a Magatsuki or something and tack some armor onto her if you want a samurai.
Personal Recommendations
No.
Official Site: Given the company is likely long since defunct, it is very probable that this review is the only remaining formal resource for this toyline.
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