HobbyLink Japan

Anime nerds, robot model fiends, and general nerds rejoice! HobbyLink Japan is here to cater to your Japanese Robot Model Needs (from here on out referred to as JRMN). Now, a few of our readers may not be aware that they have JRMN, but these few are obviously either suffering from some type of blunt trauma to their skulls or are dead. For the rest of us, HobbyLink Japan is a fantastic resource for finding and purchasing models of gigantic anthropomorphized machines of death.

Large, nice images accompany many of the models (unfortunately, not all of them), which are logically categorized by company, series, or subset inside a series. For example, you could find the extra cool Serpent Custom by either looking through the Bandai catalogue, searching for it through the search engine, or looking through Sci-fi, then subsetting into the Gundam section.

Or, you can do what I do and just wander aimlessly through the site, drooling.

Noticeably lacking is the option to buy paints for models, but the site's creators have thoughtfully included a nice section of books of the robot models, if you decide to paint the little buggers anyway.

Prices are decent too; however, shipping isn’t cheap for obvious reasons, and there is no way of knowing your shipping charge until the order is done. This is kind of scary.

Hobbylink Japan is a definite must-see for anyone who does not have immediate access to a well-stocked hobby store, or Japan itself.

Oh yeah, they also sell planes and crap too.

— Dan Norton (dan@flakmag.com)