Welcome to the third review of Girlpla Guide Weekly!
Well, with one more week having passed, we’re glad to announce that we’ve finally added the articles for Cang Toys Samael, Link Travelers and Aqua Shooters, so go check those out. They’re not particularly detailed, so please let us know if we’re missing anything.
Anyway, let’s just get into talking about the first ever Megami Device model kits, WISM Assault/Scout!
Overview
Megami Device’s first ever kits were the Women’s Imperial Space Marines (WISM); in-universe, these Megamis were adapted from a popular in-universe anime which managed to make the in-universe Megami Device brand popular enough to support further work. Out of universe, WISM was released in two waves; Assault/Scout in late December 2016 and Snipe/Grapple the month after in January 2017. A limited edition with dark green coloring was released for Wonder Festival in February 2017, dubbed “Real Type”.
As an aside, these kits would be the only Megami Device wave crediting legendary artist Humikane Shimada as their character designer (aside from the Busou Shinki and Alice Gear Aegis kits, as Shimada was the character designer for the latter and one of the primary designers for and creative minds behind the former before they were adapted to Megami Device).
Unlike later kits, who would come intended to build a single girl and with only the parts for that specific girl in armored and unarmored configurations, the WISM girls, comprised of all-rounder Assault, recon expert Scout, sniper fittingly named Snipe and melee expert Grapple, came in a sort of one-and-a-half configuration; buying these early kits, you had enough parts to build one of the characters completely and half of the parts to build a second one, whether armored or unarmored.
As for our relation to these kits, the WISM kits alongside Sousai Shoujo Teien’s Koyomi were our introduction to non-Bandai kits, as we got them in a crate of model kits we imported back a few years ago. Spending the better part of 48 hours building model kits and learning techniques via trial by fire while watching reruns of House were formative experiences in our unenlightened mind and part of the long road that set us towards writing this guide.
Construction and Engineering
While we sing the praises of Megami Device elsewhere on this site, something to note is that this was the first ever Megami Device kit. We will thus be reviewing it from two perspectives; from the perspective of it as a historical milestone in the development of girlpla, and from our point of view today, writing in the midst of a girlpla boom.
From a historical standpoint, Machineca was really a game changer. Comparing even these early kits to the most recent ancestors (Frame Arms Girl Gourai and Xenogears KOS-MOS) and to the quality of non-Kotobukiya girlpla at the time (the early Plafia kits, Ptimo Hatsune Miku and the likes of Loheng-Rinko and Gyanko come to mind), there is a clear increase in articulation, build quality and engineering. And indeed, WISM kits hold up pretty well even almost a decade later and multiple instances of Apsy iterating on his own designs.
However, compared to more modern Megamis, these kits definitely show their age. Kits like the early Megami Device ones are the origin of the often-repeated adage to “sand your joints” and you will need to use some elbow grease to get them as smooth as modern kits; if you don’t, these kits are prone to seizing and thus breaking. The articulation is also pretty good, if not as insane as some of the later Aegis designs or the Block 1R/Block 2 designs that Apsy came out with later.
Furthermore, we’re not fans of the gimmick that required us to buy two whole kits to build two whole characters with leftover parts. While we can’t necessarily speak to why Apsy or Kotobukiya decided to do it like that, we would rather have had them simply either include both girls in the box or separate them out to make the kits cheaper.
Aesthetics:
While the WISM girls come off as plain in comparison to even the Alice Gear Aegis girls, let alone the absolute kibblefest that are the AUV girls, we personally really liked Assault/Scout, Assault in particular being one of our favorites. If you’ve read our opinions on the likes of Tiasha and simpler-looking kits in general, we’re the sort to prefer simpler, sleeker designs in general, and the military aesthetic is one we like (and actually prefer in comparison to the “tacticool” approach with the most recent (as of time of writing) line in Yggdrasis, though we do like Yggdrasis).
We will say that the accessories are not as good as the their wavemates in Snipe/Grapple, however, with only the drone Scout uses as anything worth of note; however, as the kits don’t even come with a specific stand for the drone’s flying form, it might be a bit of a pain.
We also liked the uniform designs making it easier to conduct armybuilding; as of this writing we have about 14 separate WISM models, each customised and individualised as to give us our own little platoon of Megamis. We’re also generally not a huge fan of how skimpy later Megamis can be (the Punis come to mind), so practically armored and well-protected girlies will always be welcome on our shelf.
If ever Shimada and Apsy deem it worth their time to make a “sequel” to WISM with similar designs but with modern technology, you know where our cash is going.
Ease of Acquisition:
While the original release went for ¥4800 (roughly £31/$43 in 2017), both original kits from the 2016-2017 run and reprints from the 2023 run go for about the same as release (roughly £22/$29 in 2026), being significantly cheaper nowadays on the secondhand market.
Personal Verdict?
While quite simplistic in comparison to the community’s preference for more detailed and plastic-heavy kits, we are huge, huge fans of WISM and will absolutely defend the WISM girls until the day we die.
Overall score: 7.5/10. We compromised between giving this a 9/10 because of the design and how important this was for us to get further into girlpla, versus the 7 that these kits would probably truly warrant.
Up next:
We’re going to use next week’s Girlpla Guide Weekly to review the Snipe/Grapple set and discuss the differences between the Assault/Scout combo and their wavemates.
Stay tuned for next week’s Girlpla Guide Weekly!
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