A few months back, Japanese producer Sentinel released a completed “Action Model” of the Fireball in 1/16 scale. The Fireball is the first version of the Space Type of the SAFS. It is easily recognizable because the rocket engines, fuel tanks, tubing and the rest of the space propulsion system are all external on the back of the suit.
The original Fireball from Sentinel was poseable and both the hood and the body were openable. It sported the classic skull color scheme and came with a female pilot. Apart from being a quality “toy” what attracted the attention of many Ma.k Modellers was the fact that the Fireball was moulded in ABS which is a type of plastic that can be painted with standard acrylics or enamel paints.
After the first run of finished Fireballs (which I missed out on), Sentinel released another, very limited issue of the raw, unpainted suit. The new issue doesn’t include a pilot and is completely black, in the colour of the ABS it was mouled in. Aside from that, all the other features of the Fireball have been retained: openable hood and body, poseable joints, option of open or closed fist manipulator.
The box art is quite nice and somewhat unusual, it is not in the classic Ma.k style, with the manilla colour background to the illustration. I like the box and I think that its graphic design and the picture of the suit work well. The box has a front cover that opens like a book to reveal its content.
What more could we ask for, than a beautiful blank canvas ready to paint on? Well, one thing for sure: a set of decals to apply to the painted suit! But of course, Sentinel and Kow Yokoyama thought this through and the suite comes complete with an good decal sheet in 1/16. The sheet is complete enough to allow covering the suit with all standard markings, however some unit logos in scale would have been a nice addition.
The 1/16 version of the Fireball is quite big compared to a 1/20 suit.
The details on the mould are pretty good although there are stil some visible seamlines that do require cleaning if you want to achieve a good result. Still, probably a quicker option than building one from a kit (if there was one 
).
One point to note is that I couldn’t find an easy way (didn’t try too hard, I must admit) to remove the front part of the body to make it easier to reach the details of the interior when painting. The hood and parts of the rocket plant also don’t seem to be removable (without breaking them off, that is). This makes it harder to clean the seamlines from the piping and the engine bells.
Genzo Ihara of Drunk Dog didn’t really care too much about taking those pieces apart: he removed all the rocket engine parts and converted the Fireball to a earthly SAFS which he then brilliantly painted.
Kow Yokoyama instead didn’t modify it much and made it into a Snowman-Fireball
The price tag for this suite is not on the low end of the scale, and I am not a great fan of action models, but I think that being in 1/16 scale rather than the smaller 1/20 and being is fully openable makes it worthwhile. This particular, unpainted version is cheaper than the full, painted one and it will please the modeller that wants to render it in his own painting style.
