“Supermor” Model Kit Report

Awhile back on eBay I found a couple of obvious bootleg Mega Man model kits. Now, I have never seen anything on these, ever. After finding them I did some research and the only thing I found was a warning blog on bootleg Mega Man merchandise where they mentioned these. There was no talk of quality though, and knowing that some bootleg models can have wrong proportions I didn’t want to see a bunch of fans get sucked into getting one of these and it turn out to be crud. They make a good selection too, so far I have seen X, Zero, Vile MKII, X3 Max Armor X, and All X armor.
I bought one of Vile Mark II, as he is my favorite and I had been wanting another. With shipping, the model cost about $40 USD, so about half of what Vile typically goes for. The other ones were about the same price as the original Bandai models.

One thing you will need to note is that all of these Supermor model are gold plated. So unless you want a pure gold (except for the stickers) figure, you will need to paint the model. You will also need to do some mods to take care of some errors, on Vile at least, but the ones I found could very well be on the other kits, too.

The first error I had on this was that it stuck to the model trees. With most model kits, you can cut through the tree parts with ease; however, this one took a good amount of energy to get out. I had a brand new X-Acto knife, so it should have slid through like butter. Because of this, you are bound to either have nubs on the plastic, or rip the paint off.

The second error I found was that the head pieces did not match up, or fit well. In the front of Vile’s head you can sit half of his mask. This slid right in, and now it will not come out… a bit annoying because I wanted to test it out on the Mega Man head I also got with the kit, but it’s a good fit, so no need to fix whats not broken. The back of his helmet does not go all the way in; it goes partly in, but then it stops and you have to wiggle it a ton just to get it to look like it is sitting okay on him. If you’re going to fix this, you’ll want to drill the hole just a bit deeper, which can easily be done with a small hobby hand drill. You could also cut a bit off the peg that goes into the back of his head. From there, I would suggest you use a bonding agent to make sure it sticks.

The third error that I found was at the arms. There were two errors on these, but they were found at different sections. The first one I noticed is when I was cutting out the parts, near the ends where the hands are, the edges of the outside parts were slightly melted. It wasn’t a great amount; in fact the left arm was hardly noticeable, but the right arm was enough to make me want to putty it up. I honestly do not know how they did that. I can only guess the machine making the trees had a crack near that part and the plastic seeped out, so it looks melted, or that tree was close to a hot surface and it did melt. It’s hard to tell what really happened.

The fourth error on the kit is a big one. In fact, it’s big enough that I am not sure I can fix it to make it replicate the Bandai ones. It’s a measuring error, and while this can normally be fixed with putty or plastic sheet, this one was on a polycap joint. In the arms, the polycap connects to the body frame perfectly, but the gold forearms do not connect with the polycap well. You can fit one end into the arm, but the other is not long enough. It’s almost like they made the arm bigger, but I compared the two and its no different in shape. What is wrong is that on the inside, there are holes for the polycap to sit in, but they do not come out enough. A major flaw.

The fifth error isn’t a major one if you’re going to strip the paint and repaint; I only noticed it on one leg. There was a patch where it looks like they sprayed the paint a bit too much at one point, so there is a lump of paint. Nothing major, but an error nonetheless.

The sixth problem with the kit was a rather odd thing. While clearing the nubs left from the tree, I noticed that the paint made an awful sound.  I have never known a model to make this sound, and I didn’t enjoy it. If you have music blasting you might not notice it, but I am sure its just the plastic or the paint being cheap.

The last error is the one I think is the worst. When I first opened the kit, it smelled bad. REALLY bad. I didn’t think anything of it, though, because it has been sealed for who knows how long, so it is most likely the air inside was stale. I work with a mask on, so I didn’t notice that the smell stuck throughout the build. When I finished building, I went out to grab a bite to eat with some friends, and we came back into the room to get photos of the kit. When I opened that door we were about knocked over with a super odor. I instantly recognized it, and walked over to the model, still on the work booth. It was horrible; this kit stunk enough to make me want to escape the room. I am hoping that once painted, the smell will be sealed. Right now, the kit is stored in its box inside a tub in my closet. Horrible.

Not all was bad though, as there were some good things. This kit was stiff, stiffer than any others. The armor parts do not fall off at all, which is more than I can say for some of mine, like X and Black Zero. It was also a good price for a rare kit, and it came with a cool box.

So overall:

PROS

• Stiff
• Stays together
• Great price
• Plated kit of one that was never plated

CONS

• Sticks to the trees a bit too well
• Some parts do not fit correctly
• Appears to have melted
• Bad paint job
• Made a horrible sound when working on it
• Worst smelling model kit EVER

Overall, I think if your into customizing the kits, you should go for it and get one of the rarer breed. They are cheap, and most of their errors you can fix with ease. They are also good for spare parts. If you are just a straight builder, though, don’t risk it for a smelly house.

Photos taken by Cheston Tang via cell phone. Apologies for the poor quality.

LanceHeart