As a kid I was equally entranced by the box art as I was the toy, and I always wished I could make those cool dioramas on the box front. I always wished I had the skill or the means to do something like the Robotech Factory model kits. (Repackaged 1/100 ARII Macross Factory Kits)

Well, Kotobukiya has come to the rescue.

Mechanical Chain Bases are part of their Modeling Support Gear line. These kits consist of guns, hands, swords and other parts to augment your already built and customized kits. These parts go to no specific robot - you just add them to something you already own.

These bases are very cool AND affordable. At about $10 each, there's no reason why every collection shouldn't have a few.

Each base set contains a floor panel, a wall panel and various accessories. The floor and wall panel are the same in each set - its the various accessories that change between each. Some come with cranes, boxes, vehicles, people... There are tons of little parts that make each set unique.

Parts are molded in solid grey and come attached to a sprue. Some assembly is required, but glue and paint are not needed.

There is no right way to build your base. The choice is up to you.

The real fun comes into play when you have several bases. You can combine them to make even larger displays for larger toys.

The included figures seem to be around 1/100 scale, and are cool, but require some assembly. Getting those little arms on is a total pain in the butt. I just went with whatever figures came with the toys I had where appropriate.

As you can see, the bases look great with toys in a wide variety of scales. I had a ton of fun shooting these photos, but be careful - if you are not used to shooting against a diorama, you really have to work with the lighting to get it just right.