- Maschinen Krieger ZbV 3000
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Maschinen Krieger (Ma.K ZBV3000) is a science fiction universe created by Japanese artist and sculptor Kow Yokoyama in the 1980s.
Contents
History
The franchise originally began as the science fiction series SF3D which ran as monthly installments in the Japanese hobby magazine Hobby Japan from 1982 to 1985. To develop the storyline, Kow Yokoyama collaborated with Hiroshi Ichimura as story editor and Kunitaka Imai as graphic designer. The three creators drew visual inspiration from their combined interest in World War I and World War II armor and aircraft, the American space program and films such as Star Wars, Blade Runner and Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. Inspired by the Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) model builders who worked on Star Wars, Yokoyama built the original models from numerous kits including armor, aircraft, and automobiles. The designs were predominantly of Powered Armor Suits, but Yokoyama's designs later included bipedal walking tanks and aircraft with anti-gravity systems.
In 1986 there was a dispute with Hobby Japan over the copyright of the series and the magazine dropped SF3D from its line-up of articles. Nitto ceased production of various kits of the series. The matter was tied up in the courts for years until Yokoyama was awarded the full copyright to the series in the 1990s. Yokoyama and Hobby Japan eventually reconciled and restarted their working relationship, ditching the old SF3D name in favor of Maschinen Krieger ZbV3000, otherwise known as Ma.K
Story
There is a lot of confusion as to the details of the background story for SF3D/Ma.K. This is partly due to the fact that it has never been officially or skillfully translated from its original Japanese language.
A nuclear World War IV in 2807 kills most of Earth's population and renders the planet uninhabitable. Fifty-two years after the war, a research team from an interstellar union called the Galactic Federation is sent to Earth and discovered that the planet's natural environment has restored itself. The Federation decides to repopulate the planet and sends over colonists to the surface. Cities and towns are eventually reformed over the next 20 years, but this growth attracts the attention of criminals, military deserters, and other lawless elements who wanted to hide on Earth away from the authorities. A few militias are active in protecting the colonists, but even they are not a match against the new interlopers.
Fearing civil unrest and the colonists forming their own government, the Federation gives the Strahl Democratic Republic (SDR) the right to govern the planet in the late 2870s. The SDR sends three police battalions and three Foreign Legion corps to Earth and uses heavy-handed tactics to restore order such as travel restrictions and hard labor camps - which creates resentment amongst the colonists. The colonists create the Earth Independent Provisional Government and declare independence from the SDR. The SDR immediately forms a puppet government and attempts to quell the uprising. The wealthy Colonists hire mercenaries who are descendants of WWIV veterans to form the Independent Mercenary Army (IMA). The IMA's manpower includes mercenaries who defected from the SDR's Foreign Legion. They attack the SDR forces and the battle to control Earth begins in 2882.
Over the next four years, the SDR and IMA forces fight each other at several locations worldwide while developing new technology along the way. The war turns up a notch in June 2883 when the IMA deploys a new weapon - the Armored Fighting Suit powered armor - to devastating effect. The SDR eventually builds their own AFS units.
In the last SF3D installment published in the December 1986 issue of Hobby Japan, the IMA successfully defeats the new SDR König Krote unmanned command-and-control mecha using a computer virus that also creates a new artificial intelligence system on the moon.
Merchandise
Model Kits
Fan interest from the installments in Hobby Japan resulted in a small Japanese model company, Nitto, securing the license and quickly released 21 injection molded kits from the series during its entire run in the magazine. Most of the Nitto model kits are in 1:20 scale, while others were made in 1:76 and 1:6 scale. Production of the kits stopped with the end of the Hobby Japan features in 1986, but Nitto reissued many of the original kits under the Maschinen Krieger name, albeit with new decals and box art. The Nitto models were also the basis for similar offerings from Japanese model companies Wave and ModelKasten. Wave, in particular, is currently producing original-tooled kits of various subjects in the franchise, such as the Armored Fighting Suits powered armor.
At the 2008 Nuremberg Toy Fair in Germany, the Hasegawa company - known mostly for its line of military and civilian vehicles — announced plans to carry the Ma.K license, having successfully branched into pop culture franchises such as Macross. Hasegawa's venture into the franchise came with the release of the Pkf 85 Falke attack plane in March 2009. [1] The company's Ma.K line has since expanded to at least eight kits, including a 1:35 Nutrocker tank.
Certain garage kit manufacturers such as Rainbow-Egg are allowed to produce their own line of resin kits and accessories, upon securing special authorization from Yokoyama himself.
Toys
The franchise also contains a line of action and display figures. The Japanese hobby shop and toy company Yellow Submarine and garage kit maker Max Factory released several pre-finished figures in 1:35 and 1:16 scale. MediCom Toys included super deformed Ma.K. figures in their Kubrick line, plus two 1:6 SAFS figures with working lights and fully poseable pilot figures.
Books
Numerous sourcebooks and modeling guides that further flesh out the information in the series have been released. Hobby Japan published a compilation of the first 15 SF3D installments in 1983 and reprinted them in March 2010. Eventually, the magazine re-released all 43 installments in a slipcase compilation called "SF3D Chronicles" in August 2010, which organized the installments into two separate books: "Heaven" featuring articles on aerial models, and "Earth" for ground-based models. [2]
Model Graphix followed suit with their own line of sourcebooks, which provide tutorials from Yokoyama on how he makes his figures. Some sourcebooks also have custom decal sets.
Short film
Yokoyama collaborated with Tsuburaya Productions to create a live-action SF3D film using miniatures in 1985. Directed by Shinichi Ohoka from a script penned by co-producer Hisao Ichikura, the 25-minute SF3D Original Video opens with wreckage left from a battle in the Australian desert on Christmas Day 2884 before focusing on a badly damaged Mercenary Army SAFS unit. The pilot, Cpl Robert Bush (Tristan Hickey), who is still alive, seeks to get his armored suit back and running and leave the battle area, which is under heavy jamming. Seeing two of the SDR's new Nutrocker (Nutcracker) robot hovertanks arrive nearby, Bush tries to hide, but bodily functions give him away. One Nutcracker gives chase and the SAFS AI points out to Bush how to defeat it. He eventually clambers on to the tank, which passes through the rubble of a town and randomly shoots at high places to bring down objects that could snag him. With the SAFS' right arm sheared off by the Nutcracker's laser blasts and snow settling in, Bush is knocked unconscious all night long from the fall while the tank breaks down under the cold. The next day, the SAFS AI wakes up Bush because the Nutcracker is active again and is preparing to kill him. Bush gets up and faces the tank as it charges towards him. However, the Nutcracker gets too close to a cliff that buckles under its weight and Bush fires his laser into the tank's underbelly. The tank plunges into a ravine and explodes. Bush walks away and reestablishes radio contact with his base. It is revealed that the battle was a field test of the SAFS, Bush's machine being the only survivor out of four deployed that day.
After the end credits roll, two other Nutcrackers arrive at the scene of the battle.
References
External links
- Website of Kow Yokoyama
- Fan-compiled story background & timeline
- The Biggest English Language Usergroup
- Site dedicated to the model kits of the Maschinen Krieger world
- Website of Lincoln Wright (Lin.K) who works alongside Kow Yokoyama, Wave and Hasegawa in Japan
- An excellent resource of links to Ma.K fan sites
- A Large German Language Usergroup
Categories:- Fantasy worlds
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