Danboard
I don’t know if I can explain exactly why Danboard is so popular, but whatever it is also resonates with me. Photographers have a field day with Danboard (you can see for yourself here. I just love the idea of a cardboard robot that isn’t actually a robot at all, but instead is a little girl pretending to be a robot.
Anyway, we all know about the famous Revoltech Danboard, but did you know about this actual cardboard Danboard kit?
It was released by Kaiyodo in 2012, and while not actual scale, it is about as close as you are going to get without making your own from scratch.
If you want a cardboard Danboard of your very own, you can get yours at HobbyLink Japan
The Danboard Cardboard Assembling Kit comes flat packed like a piece of Ikea furniture. Inside the non-descript box is several sheets of perforated cardboard, instructions, stickers and a few plastic connectors.
I don’t know what I was thinking, but assembling this was not fun or easy. I expected a kit with tabs and slots and the whole thing would fold together with a few connectors. Instead I found a mess of indecipherable instructions requiring an unknown adhesive.
Everything is in Japanese, as is expected. But I was used to that having built several Japanese model kits. This kit had all kinds of special instructions that I could not understand, and there were few helpful icons. I eventually figured out that most parts need glue, tape or some kind of adhesive to assemble. I started out with shipping tape, but that got to be tough to get into small spaces. I ended up going with Elmer’s glue, but i’m sure double sided tape would have worked just as well.
Once I figured that out, the rest was easy. The shoulders were needlessly complicated, but otherwise it wen’t together fine.
For a sense of scale you can see the kit next to the Revoltech Danbo.
Completed Danboard stands 36cm tall (about 14 inches).
It’s not as articulated as the Revoltech. The head swivels, the arms swivel and rotate at the shoulders, and the legs swivel a little.
Some of the original details are nicely represented like the coin slot on the chest…
… and the switch on the side of the head.
Stickers enhance the details, including stickers that you put on little cardboard circles that I think are supposed to be coins.
Being the trendy bastard that I am, I too decided to take Danboard outside and take some pictures. I resisted using the instagram filters though.
Like a diva, Danboard needed a rest after our photoshoot.
If you want a cardboard Danboard of your very own, you can get yours at HobbyLink Japan