MechaStellar – Mazinger Z Miniatures

Mazinger Z is a classic series from the 70s with both a manga and several TV shows and OVA adaptations. Along with Getter Robo and Tetsujin-28 it is one of the original super robot series, with Mazinger being the first piloted super robot, while Tetsujin-28 who appeared earlier was controlled remotely.

Mazinger as a series is created by Go Nagai and popularized with its first animated appearance produced by Toei animation. The of Mazinger has gone through many incarnations and reboots both in manga and anime form including Mazinkaiser, Shin Mazigner Z (Mazinger Edition Z: The Impact) and of course it forms the holy trinity of Super Robot Wars games with Mazinger Z, Getter Robo, and Gundam who have appeared in nearly every single entry.

Below the break we’ll talk about the various type of Mazinger miniatures and figures out there you can use for mecha minis in a Mechastellar tabletop Super Robot Wars game.

Here are some close up shots of the various Mazinger minis I’ve collected. Most of these are called “Gashapon” or capsule toys, if you search for these on secondary markets like eBay “Mazinger Gashapon” would be a good place to start. Here’s an ebay storefront that often carries Super Robot Wars small scale merchandise.

Most of the figures are produced by Bandai. On the far left is roughly translated as “Bandai Best Posing” series, they have a few Mazinger versions, this one reflects the important Toei versus movie Mazinger vs The Great General of Darkness which sees Mazinger Z nearly destroyed by the Ankoku Shogun’s army before he is saved at the last minute by Great Mazinger.

Immediately to the right standing a top a whirlpool is Great Mazinger from the “Bandai Super Robot Wars” gashapon collection, this one is around 2″ tall. Standing behind it are the iconic Mechanical Beasts (Kikaiju) Garada K7 and Doublas M2 and Mazinger Z on the right showcasing its Iron Cutter and hidden Drill Missiles. These three are from a Bandai Mazinger gashapon, there is another Gashapon set out there with the same name (or search terms really) that includes the Toros D7 mechanical beast, Boss Borot, Diana A, Great Mazinger and The Great General of Darkness.

The last two figures shown here are Mazinkaiser, who is quite large (and the Kaiser Scrander is so wide you’ll have a hard time moving it through your tabletop battlefield terrain), and Shin Mazinger with the God Scrander which despite being made of the hand of Zeus ironically give it demonic wings. For Shin Mazinger with the God Scrander highly recommend you super glue the torso together and the feet to the Doublas, the figure is extremely top heavy and will fall apart easily.

Now time for comparison shots so you can start building your own Super Robot Wars army.

As you can see the Mazinger Gashapon is quite a bit larger than the Gundam 1/400 collection we’ve been using and showcasing so far. The 1/400 Gundam collection is a little over 1.5″ while the Mazinger Gashapon is closer to 3″. With Shin Mazinger being a bit taller. This is a problem since Gundam’s height is the same as Mazinger Z’s height, 18meters.

Let’s try comparing with a different collection. This time we’ll use the Gundam 1/300 S.O.G. collection.

In the backrow we’ve included some Getter Robo gashapon with Getter-2, Getter Dragon and Getter Poseidon next to Shin Mazinger.

As you can see from these the 1/300 S.O.G. collection is pretty close in height to the Mazinger gashapon. The S.O.G. collection is easy to assemble and boasts a higher level of detail compared to the Gundam 1/400 collection, the only problem is the range of S.O.G. is far more limited and the full range is getting harder to find nowadays. Still there are options to use with the 1/400 line.

Here we have the Gundam 1/400 collection with the Zaku II, Gouf, Guncannon, RX78-2 Gundam and in the back the Leo and Wing Zero Custom; they are flanked by Mazinger Z on the left and Great Mazinger on the right.

The lego looking figure on the right is the Kubrick line from the toy company Medicom. Searching for Medicom Mazinger will give you the best results here. The set also has Aphrodite A, Boss Borot, Baron Ashura and Garada K7 but sadly does not include Doublas M2. As a bonus they also have a few Golion (Voltron) figures.

On the right is a Bandai Super Robot Wars collection which has slightly smaller proportions, including Great Mazinger, Grendizer, and Getter Robo G. It is slightly taller with the base but it blends in well with the Gundam 1/400 line and the Gundam M.F.S. 1/400.

There are also diorama model produced by Banpresto, the same company that also makes the popular Super Robot Wars video games, of which Mazinger Z is almost always a staple. This one features Great Mazinger and the Great General of Darkness (Ankoku Daishogun). On the right is the Getter Robo and Mechasaurus Diorama.

The scale on these dioramas is comparable to the first set of Mazinger Gashapon we looked at and roughly similar height to the Gundam 1/300 S.O.G. collection. The downside of course you’ll need to cut up the platform two separate the units, or take them off the platform and put your own bases on. Speaking of which, highly recommend using bases with the other Mazinger Gashapon as you can see from these photos simple black bases were attached to Doublas and Garada since they often fall down.

Speaking of large sizes the Mazinkaiser figure is gigantic compared to the others, while it’s only slightly taller in universe. If you decide to field this model it will blend in well with revoltech minis.

With all this talk of scale it’s also important to remember you may not always be able to make it work out perfectly. Pictured above is Getter Robo, Getter Robo G and Shin Getter Robo which are supposed to be 40m, 45m, and 55m in height.

As you can see they’re all about the same height. Many of the Super Robot collections often put all the models as the same height, so you may see Mazinger Z and Daitarn 3 standing at the same height even though one is 18m and one is 120m. While getting scale appropriate can be very visually appealing and can be useful when playing so you remember which model gets a size bonus it’s not the end of the world if your sizes don’t match up.

You can find the rules for MechaStellar and the Mecha Unit Profiles for the Mazinger units on the game downloads page here.

Here are some posts showing the types of miniatures used in MechaStellar: Gundam, Big O, Evangelion, Getter Robo & Pacific Rim.