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Crusher Joe Ostall

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Category: Anime
Subcategory: 1/35

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Manufacturer:Takara
Medium: Styrene
Parts: 38
Status: Discontinued
Release Date: 1981
Skill Level: Beginner
The Ostall from the animated movie/series Crusher Joe is more commonly known to many fans of the design as the Locust light mech from the Battletech gaming system.

In the Battletech universe, the Ostall/Locust is a 20-ton light mech used primarily for scouting and reconnaissance duties. It’s very lightly armored (having a single medium laser and two machine guns) but it has a top speed in excess of 80 miles per hour (129 kilometers per hour. It’s still pretty big as a target, standing about 30 feet (9 meters) tall. It’s not really all that much shorter than a Warhammer (32 feet/10 meters) or an Atlas (42 feet/13 meters). But with the tall spindly legs and the small torso section, it’s pretty hard to hit. The problem is that if it is hit by larger-caliber ordinance, it’s pretty much toast. In the Battletech gaming system, I’ve seen Locust legs blown off by a single direct hit with a large laser or a PPC.

But, I digress . . . . back to the model review!

There are actually two different model kits of the Ostall. A 1:48 kit was produced by Nitto. The review kit, in 1:32, was produced by Takara. There are a couple different boxings of this kit, as I saw photos on the Internet of a blueish-purple box, but my kit is in a yellow box.

The kit parts are molded in light purple styrene that’s fairly thick compared to modern model kits, but rather common in 1980’s-vintage kits. The panel detail is raised, but as it is very simple, the lines can be sanded down and scribed for recessed detailing.

No decals are provided with the kit, so it’s up to the builder to find markings wherever they can. The bi-fold instruction sheet offers two color photos of the completed model (one front and one rear), but they aren’t much help either. It shows an all-purple ‘Mech with a red and black scanner in the front of the cockpit, and dark gray on top of the shoulder-mounted weapons. That’s all you get.

The completed kit will stand about 6 inches tall (based on laying out the pieces and connecting a few) from the base of the feet to the top of the antenna. That makes this kit way off in terms of scale, because my 1:35 Horizon Mad Cat has an estimated height of about 15 inches against a “real” height of 12.5 meters. If an Ostall is supposed to be 9 meters tall, at 1:32 it should come in somewhere around 11 inches tall (10.1 inches at 1:35).

This kit, at 6 inches total, comes in at either 1:59 (6.006 inches) or 1:60 (5.91 inches), which puts it in the same scale as the Battletech models from Ravenstar, The Battlemech Club and Armorcast.

An even better comparison would be to take a 1:35 figure, and try to figure out how cram it into the main body of the Ostall. Even if you cut the figure up, it’s simply not gonna fit. A 6-foot-tall human at 1:32 would be 2.25 inches tall. That means the Ostall model would be only 2.66 times taller than the figure, or about 16 feet tall. The same 6-foot-tall human at 1:60 is 1.2 inches tall, which puts the Ostall at five times the size, or 30 feet in height (back to 9 meters again).

If you’re considering getting this model, it’s a nice one to have, but be prepared to have it turn out a LOT smaller than you may think, given the 1:32 notation on the box. If you keep in mind that it’s closer to 1:60, you won’t be disappointed.

Review by: Rich “Lonewolf” Dula

Entry created: September 20, 2015
Comments: 0 | Rating (1-5): -- No rating -- | MSRP: $8.99

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