Many of you will have never heard of Suyata, a new model company based in China. They are very diverse in what their offerings. Their first releases include a range of products from a Titanic Port Scene & Airship diorama-like kit to a Fokker DR.I & Red Baron kit.
Even though Suyata is a Chinese company, they are not afraid of even making Japanese themed kits. Aside from our main review today, the Sengoku no Sanshirou Samurai warrior, they also offer pen knives that look like samurai swords, as well as other samurai kits.
So let me introduce you to Sengoku no Sanshirou Kumigashira, the Red Samurai. This kit contains parts for not one, but two samurai. They are both the same, but you can use different weapons with each and create cool battle scenes. We have been given the special opportunity to showcase one of these unreleased kits today to give you an idea of what to expect when they release in November!
No glue is needed even though it does not hurt to glue some armor down if you’re feeling like it. And, the nubs are very tiny, so you don’t really need to use anything more than nippers!
It comes with a really cool manual that feels like a Japanese scroll! I’m not sure we can re-create those poses on the left, but cool nonetheless.
The instructions look like this. It’s very simple, but trust me, that’s only in theory. In practice… well, we will get to that.
Here are the runners for one of the samurai. So very simple, the A runner is for the body and the C runner is the armor. Of course the weapons are the B runner.
For such a small and inexpensive kit the detail is great. The armor has rivets and great lines and looks authentic.
Not so many water transfer decals but they do the job. The smaller ones on the top left are used for the Samurai himself, the bottom left is for the sake that is also included, and the right ones are for the flag.
So, as said before this is a double set so you get two samurai!
Below you see how the parts go together. It’s all sandwiching rather than clicking and then sandwiching. This can get rather intricate when you have to balance a ball joint at one end of an arm and sandwich the hand to the other. This is why I would say its a simple kit in theory, but a challenge in practice.
Main torso now done, the arms may look weird but this is for greater flexibility when we apply all the armor.
Here you can see the simple leg instructions.
All done! At 1/24th scale he is tiny! …and angry!
On to the armor. Look at that amazing detail!
I took the head off to apply the shoulder pieces because this kit is fragile. If you slip putting a part in, it may make a whole limb fall off.
Here is the decal for the sake barrel. Very beautiful and accurate kanji!
And done, time for a drink!
Here are all the weapons. You get two Wakizashi, large and small with their sheaths to attach to his belt, and a spear and gun.
Here he is complete without his weapons.
The flag looks amazing with the decals. If you painted the wooden parts it would look even better.
There are pegs on his belt to attach two swords or just their sheathes, depending on what you decide to arm him with.
So all in all this is a really cool kit and it’s a fast build. I think underestimated it, but even then it only took 30 minutes. The tricky part is sandwiching multiple parts together that gravity tends to try and stop you achieving.
However, I think we can all agree that this is a charming and well detailed kit that would be fun for anyone to build! Considering the price point, and the fact that you get two samurai, I don’t think you can go wrong with picking one of these kits up. It’s up for pre-order at HLJ right now and will be released in November.
