HAW206 Prototype

First seen in episode 2 of the Ghost in the Shell series; Stand Alone Complex, the HAW206 Prototype built by Kenbishi Heavy Industries was designed by Kago Takeshi who died a week before the tank went on a destructive spree across the Niihama district.

It was later discovered Kago had his Brain-case inserted into the tank and was controlling it to take revenge on his parents whose belief`s prevented him from getting treatment for his illness when he was alive.

This figure comes from Hobby Link Japan
The box has some nice art on the front and one side of the Think Tank (though not in the right colouring, blue instead of white).

One side has product shots the other has information in Japanese and a preview of the next set, a Tachikoma.
Inside the box are the 17 part strips and instructions.

First for the build is the main head section of the kit, which features a fully molded cockpit, with controls and chair, but once assembled you can’t even see this cockpit or have easy access to it!

The head piece on its own reminds me of those drop ships in Star Wars Attack of the Clones if they had mutant hybrid babies with an AT-AT`s head.

The “scorpion” tail is the next section to build, its like a Kinder Egg of destruction with a cannon and rocket pods on the side.

I decided not to show the legs and arms individually, it`s pretty obvious how they look.

So, fully assembled the HAW206 looks pretty awesome, it doesn`t need much painting as it comes with the correct colouring for the most part, I just needed to add detailing with a Gundam marker.

As can be seen it has plenty of joints to allow the legs, arms and tail to move, though as it`s a model posing should be done carefully.

The legs have 4 joints, but no ankle joints.

The arms have two joints in the upper arms and the hands swivel, also the fingers extend out to reveal the triple Mini-Guns.

On top the cockpit cabin has a small door on the roof, you can see the seat inside and not much else.

There’s a smaller door further back that contains the Brain-case in the tv show, it has hinges but I can’t get my finger nails in to open it (and they`re pretty long nails too!).

Inside this door there`s no detailing, but the kit does come with a tiny Brain-case, but it doesn`t fit in the model (unless you count the cockpit).

The tail section has 3 joints that attach to the gun section, the cannon can move up and down on 2 hinges, it can also turn 360 degrees.

There are 8 flaps on hinges, 2 on the main body and 2 on the tail.

In the show the flap on the left side of the figure was blown off, which you can re-create on this kit.

I forgot to paint the 5 lights on the front of the figure red like they are in the show, it`s not too difficult to remove the face panel and paint these dots though.

The kit comes with 2 sets of feet, the open toe walking feet and the closed toe “wheel” feet.

Easily swappable with nice and tight pegs.

For size the HAW206 is around 8 inches from feet up to the tip of the tail (depending on how high you pose the legs).

From the tip of the tail to the ends of the arms it`s a nifty 10 inches long.

I didn`t expect this figure to be as big as it is, not that I’m complaining, it` awesome.

My only issue is that the tail is a little heavy and tends to droop.

It`s not quite in scale with the Revoltech Tachikoma, but then why should it be?

Kotobukiya are releasing their own Tachikoma and Jigabachi in the future, so…

….FINALLY SOME MORE GHOST IN THE SHELL FIGURES!