Garage kit
A garage kit or resin kit is an assembly scale model kit most commonly cast in polyurethane resin. They are often figures portraying humans or other living creatures. In Japan they are usually female anime characters, and in the US movie monsters. But kits are produced of a wide range of subjects, from characters from horror, science fiction, fantasy films, television and comic books to nudes and pin-up girls to dinosaurs to original works of art, as well as upgrade and conversion kits for existing models and airsoft guns.
Originally garage kits were amateur-produced and the term originated with dedicated hobbyists using their garages as workshops. Unable to find model kits of subjects they wanted on the market, they began producing kits of their own. As the market expanded professional companies began making similar kits. Sometimes a distinction is made between true garage kits, made by amateurs, and resin kits, manufactured professionally by companies.
Because of the labor intensive casting process, garage kits are usually produced in limited numbers and are more expensive than injection-molded plastic kits. The parts are glued together using cyanoacrylate (Super Glue) or an epoxy cement and the completed figure is painted. Some figures are sold completed, but most commonly they are sold in parts for the buyer to assemble and finish.
The legality of amateur garage kits can be questionable as they are not always properly licensed. The model might be of a copyrighted character or design that was produced by fans because no official model exists. Sometimes unlicensed recast resin kits can be found of officially licensed model kits, in some cases where the official kit has gone out of production. Recasters also frequently, illegally copy kits currently in production, underselling the legitimate producers and frequently forcing them out of business. Recasters are commonly regarded as a bane to the hobby.
Japan
Most Japanese garage kits are female anime figures, sometimes in lurid or even pornographic poses. But they also include subjects like mecha and science fiction space ships. Garage kits can be as simple as a one piece figure, or as complex as kits with well over one hundred parts. Most commonly they are cast in polyurethane resin, but may also be fabricated of such diverse substances as soft vinyl, white metal – a type of lead alloy – and fabric.
Originally the kits were sold and traded between hobbyists at conventions like Wonder Festival. As the market grew a number of companies began producing resin kits professionally, such as Federation Models, Volks, WAVE/Be-J, Kaiyodo, Kotobukiya[1], and B-Club, a subsidiary of Bandai producing Gundam kits.
The scale of figure kits varies, but as of 2008 1/8 seems to be predominant. Prior to 1990 the dominant scale was 1/6. This scale shrink coincided with rise in material, labor, and licensing costs. Other scales, such as 1/3, 1/4, 1/6, 1/7 also exist, but are less common. Larger kits (1/3, 1/4, etc.) generally command higher prices due to the greater amounts of material required to produce them.
Japanese garage kits are usually cast as separate parts which are packed with instructions and sometimes photographs of the final product. Most professionally manufactured kits come in a box while amateur-produced kits sold at conventions come in a plastic bag. They are usually completely unpainted and do not come with decals. The builder has to paint the assembled model, preferably with an airbrush.
Asian ball-jointed dolls (BJDs) have their roots in garage kits, and are still made similarly, by casting in polyurethane resin. Some garage kit designers and producers, like Volks, Cerberus Project and Gentaro Araki, now create BJDs as well.
USA
In the 50s and 60s plastic model kits such as cars, planes or space ships became common in the US. There were also model kits of monsters like Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, Dracula, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. One of the largest producers of monster figures were the Aurora Plastics Corporation. In the 1970s, Aurora's figure molds for had been sold to Monogram and by the mid-to late 1970s, the models had been discontinued and were difficult to find in hobby stores.
In the mid-1980s some who were kids in the 1950s and 60s resumed their interest in the old Aurora monster models. An underground market developed through which enthusiasts could acquire the original plastic model kits. While the prices in the 50s and 60s had been only a few dollars, now the kits were selling for as much as $125 for some of the rarer monster models.
In the early to mid-1980s, hobbyists began creating their own garage kits of movie monsters. There was a small but enthusiastic market for these new model kits. They were making flexible molds which could produce accurate reproductions of new figures which were sculpted more accurately and with more detail than the old plastic model kits, but often done without permission from copyright holders. They were usually produced in limited numbers and sold primarily by mail order and at toy and hobby conventions.
In the mid- to late 1980s, two model kit companies moved the monster model kit hobby toward the mainstream. Horizon Models in California and Screamin' Models in New York began licensing vinyl model kits of movie monsters. Horizon focused primarily on classic horror film characters (like Bride of Frankenstein, Invisible Man, The Phantom of the Opera) and comic book characters (like Captain America and Iron Man). Screamin' focused primarily on characters from more contemporary slasher movies like A Nightmare on Elm Street, Hellraiser and franchises like Star Wars and Mars Attacks.[2] Hobby stores began to carry these products in limited supply. Model kits from smaller garage kit companies also began finding their way to hobby stores across America.
By the 1990s model kits were produced in the US, UK as well as Japan and distributed through hobby and comic stores. Large hobby companies like AMT-Ertl and Revell/Monogram (the same Monogram that bought the Aurora monster molds) began marketing vinyl model kits of movie monsters, the classic Star Trek characters, and characters from one of the Batman films. There was an unprecedented variety of licensed models figure kits.
In the late 1990s model kit sales went down. Hobby and comic stores and their distributors began carrying fewer garage kits or closed down. Producers like Horizon and Screamin' shut their doors.
As of 2009, there are two American garage kit magazines, Kitbuilders Magazine[3] and Amazing Figure Modeler,[4] and there are garage kit conventions held each year.
The most popular show appealing to hobbyists is WonderFest in Louisville, Ky.
Production
Garage kits are generally produced in small quantities, from the tens to a few hundred copies, compared to injection-molded plastic kits which are produced in many thousands. This is due to the labor intensive nature of the manufacturing process and the relatively low market demand.
Resin casting garage kit production is the most labor-intensive. The upside is that creating the initial mold is much less costly than in the injection-molding process.
Vinyl garage kits are produced by using liquid vinyl Plastisol in a spin casting process known as slush molding. It is more complex than resin casting, but less expensive and less sophisticated than the injection molding used for most plastic products. It is not something that is commonly done in a basement or garage.
Recasters
Recasters acquire original model kits, make molds from the parts, then offer castings from the new molds for sale. Their products are almost universally inferior to the originals, but they are usually offered at a price that is lower and so the producers of original kits are undercut. Given that profits by the producers (usually very small operations, often only one person) are minimal or nonexistent to begin with, while their expenses can run into thousands of dollars, the financial damage done by recasters is substantial.
As a result, recasters are regarded as thieves, and their actions are in fact illegal. However, their victims, many of whom are producing unlicensed products, often don't have the financial means to pursue litigation.
Recasters are frequently active on eBay, where their activities are difficult to patrol because the auction site will only act on complaints from individuals who can prove they own a property, and only when those individuals jump through the hoops of eBay's Vero system. Some recasters register with eBay under multiple IDs, which makes enforcement even more difficult.
Many recasters are in Thailand, where such kinds of piracy are common. However, they can be found operating all over the globe.