the haul
tags: current life garage kit
i got the package of goodies from buyee just last night.
and hoo boy, was it a time to get the package—just right outside the door, as my boyfriend and i were taking out the trash. he noted that i couldn’t stop being obsessed with it during dinner time. i really couldn’t.
here’s what’s inside the package:
the items at the bottom are a gameboy catridge of rockman world (the game where enker first debuted) and a carddass of enker fighting mega man. the two boxes at the top are garage kits of (hitoshi ariga’s versions of) punk and enker, the former sold from the summer 2024 wonder festival event, and the latter from the winter 2024 wonder festival event. they’re both made by a garage kit maker named planeswalker. when fully assembled, they look like:
(punk is fully painted here, while enker isn’t painted at all.)
okay, well, there’s a story behind this.
around ten years ago, i was pretty knee deep in the mega man fandom, and had gotten into roleplaying as enker. during this time, i was a senior in high school, so of course, i was financially dependent on my parents, who i didn’t feel comfortable enough to ask for goodies from plushies and toys and any sort of paraphernalia like that. the only merch i had was this one bisharp plush that i shyly asked my mom to buy- and that was the only time i asked her (or my dad) for something they might consider useless and unproductive. i was discouraged enough to believe that i probably don’t deserve merch, as stupid of a thought as that sounds.
one day, a post that fleeted across my dashboard in tumblr claimed to possess a garage kit of enker made by planeswalker (the same guy i mentioned above), and the original poster was going to sell it to the first person who contacted them. in that post were pictures of the box and the assembled kit together standing out from a dark clothed background (which was possibly the display pictures of that garage kit in the wonder festival that it was featured in). if they possessed it, i’m not too sure how they did it- maybe they bought the kit through ebay, or through proxy services for goods from japan that existed around then that i wasn’t aware of… or hell, maybe this was a scam. (i mean, it probably was a scam.)
here’s planeswalker’s rendition of that kit (they also did kits of quint, punk, and ballade, who are not shown here):
after i read the post, i felt so twisted about this, because i knew if i asked my parents, they’d think it was a scam (and even if it weren’t, which i’m pretty sure it was, i don’t think they’d be willing to spend on something close to 75 USD on that). plus, i had guessed that by the time i saw that post, someone probably already lent their 75 USD to that seller anyways. but to have squandered an opportunity to have a tangible enker in my hands slip by… well, i wished to myself i had more control of my finances for that merch, and i ended up just ignoring the post and scrolling along.
cut to some time later, i got my first credit card, and mostly used it for household items and whatnot, but still barely buying merch for myself. (i did get the official complete works of megaman for the 25th anniversary, and nendoroid of U-1146 from cells at work!, but that was it.)
then around a year ago, in a mega man discord server that i was in, i got notified about planeswalker’s newer garage kit of enker. i was a little surprised to see planeswalker on my radar again, let alone having made an enker based off of ariga’s vision, with movable joints. but of course, to my disappointment, planeswalker was only selling this kit in wonder festival, which is an event held exclusively in japan. i joked with some other people about getting on a plane together to raid the wonder festival and having each of us grab an enker kit, but of course, we were all yearning for this kit that was difficult to obtain. (one of those people later found an ebay auction for the older garage kit of enker by planeswalker, but i don’t think she got it.)
then, around ten days ago, it just so happened that another server i’m in casually discussed about buying merch from japan, and introduced me to mercari. i got curious and investigated this site… and to my shock, i found both the game cartridge of rockman world and the carddass of enker fighting mega man. the former was owned by someone who played with rockman world as a kid and was selling the cartridge to anyone “interested in the retro boom,” and the latter was in someone’s carddass album that they happen to be selling. i immediately snagged both of them through buyee. (by the way, i was shocked at how large the gameboy cartridge was, i mean, i never had a gameboy before, and the carddass is really iridescent up close. so cool…)
but then, after i bought those two items (i was already pacing around my room excitedly, i mean, i got official physical artifacts of enker!), i searched around buyee and looked through yahoo japan auctions, typing in “planeswalker megaman” in the search bar out of curiosity. and to my shock, there listed many of planeswalkers’s figures, most of them related with mega man battle network, but also… one of the listings was the punk garage kit that planeswalker recently made for the 2024 summer wonder festival that happened this past july.
so i thought, holy shit, wait. if punk is listed here, then…, looked up “planeswalker” in the yahoo japan auctions search bar, and found that enker kit. that kit was the only one being sold. i screamed and paced around my room, and impulsively bidded on it.
i waited for three days for the auction to end, extremely nervous if anyone else had found the kit (because i knew other people would be interested in it). luckily, i was the only bidder, and i got the kit, which is in my hands now.
i also got the punk kit from yahoo japan auctions a day later, which is also in my hands now. (at the time of this post, there’s another punk kit being auctioned off from yahoo japan auctions, so if you’re interested, go get ‘em! unfortunately, i haven’t found any other enker kits.)
i really can’t believe i have the kits, and the catridge and carddass. i can’t believe i now have physical merch of enker and punk. it’s inconceivable to me that i’d get merch like this. i mean, i thought that the only way i can get merch of these guys was to get on a plane to japan and - if i were lucky enough - attend wonder festival for these kits, and find some flea market store that sold rockman world and the carddass. it just sounded impossible. but, no, they’re in my hands, and i have them.
but yeah, moral of the story is: don’t lose hope on getting merch that you want— someone else might have it and they might be auctioning it off. in particular, if you want specific garage kits from a particular maker that are sold at wonder festival, try to look for those kits (through the maker’s name) on any auction website right after wonder festival ends. why? well, some attendants to wonder festival are resellers, who bulk buy resin kits from makers and sell them right away on sites such as ebay and yahoo japan auctions for weeks after the event. for some reason, these sellers tend to mark up the price by twice or thrice as much on ebay as they do on yahoo japan auctions… so i’d recommend to look at yahoo japan auctions first.
also, get a credit card attached with your own bank account as soon as possible, and learn how to use it.
so now, the only thing to do is to assemble these kits. i’ll probably start with punk first, because i don’t have any experience putting together resin kits. but hell, i’ll try. (and when it comes to it—i’ll document my process!)