I.A Company (I.A.カンパニー) was a small Osaka-based publisher which, some time after 1998, produced a series of official 1/10 scale Hokuto no Ken garage kits. The kits came as raw resin, for the buyer to assemble and paint. Four characters have been identified so far: Kenshiro, Rei, Toki and Kaioh. Beyond its boxes and instruction sheets, no other trace of the publisher has been found.
Details
Four resin kits in 1/10 scale
The line brings together Kenshiro and Toki for Hokuto Shinken, Rei for Nanto Suichō Ken and Kaioh, the first of the three Rashō, for Hokuto Ryūken. All four share the same scale and stand on a rocky base cast in one piece with the figure.
The sculptors are credited kit by kit on the instruction sheets, and the line had at least two of them: Date Yuzuru (伊達譲) for Kaioh and Ōyama Kazunori (大山和則) for Rei. The sheets for Kenshiro and Toki have not been found.
Details
| Box | 1/10 SCALE 北斗琉拳 カイオウ |
|---|---|
| Scale | 1/10 |
| Sculptor | Date Yuzuru (伊達譲) |
| Resin | Flesh colour |
| Contents | Body, small separate parts, rock slab base |
The boxes
Each kit came in a plain brown cardboard box with an illustrated label pasted on the front. A yellow frame surrounds a photo of a built and painted sample on a dark blue background. A vertical red band gives the scale, 1/10 SCALE, the fighting school in kanji and the character’s name in katakana. Below the photo sit the Hokuto no Ken logo on a blue background and the copyright line ©武論尊・原哲夫／集英社・東映アニメーション. The painted sample on the label is only a guide: the kit itself came as bare resin in a bag.
No price or product code appears on any of the box fronts examined.
The instruction sheet
The instruction sheet is a single page, identical from one kit to the next apart from its title: 1/10 レイ 組立説明書 or 1/10 カイオウ 組立説明書, followed by the sculptor’s name in brackets, 原型・大山 和則 for Rei and 原型・伊達 譲 for Kaioh. It sets out assembly in six steps:
- check the parts and report any missing or faulty part to I.A Company;
- wash the parts with a mix of neutral detergent and cleanser, using a toothbrush, to remove the release agent;
- sand away the seam lines with wet-and-dry paper, from 400 to 1000 grit, and trim flash and casting gates with nippers or a craft knife, keeping the part wet;
- let the parts dry, then glue them with cyanoacrylate glue such as Aron Alpha, reinforcing the joints with 1 to 2 mm brass rod;
- apply a surfacer before painting, preferably with solvent-based paint such as Gunze’s Mr. Color, although water-based hobby paints can also be used;
- paint using the manga’s colour pages or photos as reference.
The foot of the sheet gives the publisher’s address, in Osaka’s Kita ward.
Dating
The copyright names Tōei Animation, the name the Tōei Dōga studio has carried since October 1998. It appears on the boxes and instruction sheets, but also under the base of the figures examined, cast into the resin on two lines: ©武論尊・原哲夫／集英社・ then 東映アニメーション. The kits therefore date from after October 1998, including pieces found without a box or sheet. No precise release date and no period price have been found.
Finding them today
I.A Company kits turn up from time to time on Yahoo! Auctions, Mercari or PayPay Flea Market, usually as bare unassembled resin, sometimes already built but unpainted. Boxes and instruction sheets are harder to find than the resin itself.
Sources
- Boxes for Rei, Toki and Kaioh: label, school, scale, copyright.
- Instruction sheets for Rei and Kaioh: sculptors, assembly steps, publisher’s address.
- Undersides of the bases: copyright cast into the resin.
- Second-hand listings (Yahoo! Auctions, Mercari, PayPay Flea Market, Japanese shops): photos of the kits, their contents and built examples.
- Mandarake listing for the Rei kit: box, instruction sheet and bagged resin.