Wave 1/20 Super Ball – Review

I’ve been lucky enough to get a hold of a Super Ball, the latest, limited edition Ma.k kit from Wave and here is its review!

In its essence, the Super Ball is a Snake Eye with SAFS (or standard Fireball) hatch, with a Raptor laser and with an extra sensor on the torso. As the story goes (from the back of the box), the production of Snake Eye could not keep up with the demand because of the long time required to produce the new Indirect Optical System. So the Optical System from the SAFS Fireball was mounted on what was otherwise a Snaek Eye suit. The resulting Super Ball was not as good as the Snake Eye in searching for enemies, but it was “perfect” in all other aspects and had a more pore powerful laser. It kinda makes sense and it adds some rationale to an already cool looking suit.

The question some may have is: did we really need a new kit to build a suit that can be easily made from other existing models? Technically not, but there are two good reasons to buy this kit. First of all, to kit-bash a Super Ball you would need a Wave Snake Eye and a Nitto Fireball (either kits are pretty rare and expensive to source) plus a Raptor laser gun, hopefully from your spares box. The second reason is that the Box-art, Camo Card and decal sheet are in themselves sufficient to entice many Ma.k fans (including me).

Most Ma.k kits are not very easy to get. Unless you are in Japan you can’t simply to your local hobby shop and expect to find them (and if you do, it is normally not at reasonable prices). Most of the times, the only way to buy Ma.k kits is from online shops like Hobby Link, Ami Ami, Hobby Search etc. But this kit is particularly difficult to source if you are not in Japan because it was only available exclusively (for shipping within that country only) by mail order from the Post Hobby shop. I had to get it through a proxy service and I was lucky to get my order through early as it quickly became unavailable even from that proxy. I hope that this type of limited editions doesn’t become too common with Ma.k as the demand for the kits is there and it looks a bit weird that such limitations on the distribution channels are put in place.

• Maker: Wave
• Release Date: 28-05-2011
• Type: Injection moulded styrene
• Sprues/Parts: 7 main sprues from the Snake Eye and SAFS, one (retooled) from the Fireball, four small sprues with the laser gun and the hatch parts.
• Decals: provided: all new sheet.
• Camo Card: provided (5 colour schemes illustrated between the card and the box)
• Price Range: Yen 2730 at release
• Availability: Limited edition, only available via Post Hobby within Japan (not distributed to the usual Online hobby shops)

Box and box-art

The box is in a beautiful retro-style that resembles the old SF3D and Ma.k kits from Nitto. It is an unusual take on the packaging: of late, we’ve seen many beautiful boxes that have the classic manilla colour but with a more modern take on the styling (See the 3Q Hornisse or the Krote as examples). Also new is the title of the series: Ma.k in S.F.3.D. which is already in the title of the book by Max Watanabe, but that was never before on a kit.

The box is really big, to contain all the sprues it comes with. It is double the size of an old Nitto Fireball box.

Sprue details

The box is quite full and contains all the sprues necessary to make a Snake Eye with sprues from the SAFS and from the previously unheard of Wave Fireball. The parts are all white except for the joints sprue which is dark grey. Overall you get a lot of plastic for the money and after a build you are left with a lot of parts for the spare box.

SAFS Sprue A - Torso, hand and right arm

SAFS Sprue B - Legs and feet

Snake Eye Sprue K - Back and sides

Snake Eye Sprue L - Engine bells and pads

The engine bells are the ones of the Snake Eye: in  one single piece and with minimal seamlines.

Snake Eye Sprue J - Pads and Radars

Hatch and Laser sprues

As is typical for Wave kits, the Super Ball doesn’t come with multimedia parts (springs, wires etc.). Joints and power pipes are all made of PE and will therefore be a bit hard to paint on. If you plan to sculpt the suit joints and to use springs or other alternative for the power pipes, then this will not be an issue at all.

Joints and pipes sprue

The Fireball sprue is not the one from Nitto: it carries the Wave label and it seems like a whole new tooling.

Fireball sprue M

The kit contains one pilot head which is the same that was included in the Snake Eye kit and that is of really good quality with only minor seam lines to clean.

Pilot Head and helmet sprue

The Camo card is in the typical Ma.k Style.

The Decals are beautiful. I like the shark mouth and the 8-ball. There is also the more classic Skull to choose from.

And at last, the instruction sheet.

Conclusion

This is a bit of a difficult kit to come about and the same design can be built by using parts from other models, but if you have the chance, just grab one. Whether you are just going to  collect it or you are planning to build it, i think there is value for you in this one. Being mostly based on the Snake Eye and SAFS the kit is bound to be really quick and easy to build and just very well engineered.

 

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