microbry

I'll note that according to a friend of mine who built and still owns a vintage Imai 1/72 Regult kit the eye is made to accept a grain-of-wheat bulb so it can light up, and the back hatch opens to allow access for a battery and electronics! No electronic elements were included with the kit, but the structural elements are there, and there's no detail inside of the pod's hull for the hatch to reveal.

Apparently lighting wasn't noted in the instructions as he recalls, but there's a light pipe in the inside portion of the red plastic eye that fits a bulb (similar to Bandai's light-up SPACE CRUISER YAMATO EDF Andromeda kit). The effect is that the eye seems to follow you as you walk around it.

So, I hope this feature is still part of Bandai's re-issue of the kit, and that they might expand on the directions for the feature, or even included some parts.

Hello, said friend here. I dusted off my old kit he mentioned and took some pics with the light feature:

regultliteye2 by MicroBry, on Flickr

I didn't have a tripod handy and couldn't get the LED bulb to show with flash photos, so the incandescent-lit pics are slightly blurred.

And without it:

dyrlregult2 by MicroBry, on Flickr

From my email discussion with Ray earlier about the kit:

The Regult has an insane amount of articulation in it, perhaps a bit too much so. Not only does every joint work on the legs and feet (including at least one or two unexpected ones), but the the tiny verniers are on fragile ball joints on the backs of the calves, the main thrusters slide up and down on their rotating modules, the rear turret spins and its guns are ball-jointed, the hatch opens, and the two main guns are on rotating hinges. Only the chin lasers are non-posable. The result is the legs will need some sanding and a strong bonding glue. Some joints will likely be still slightly tight or slightly loose so a lot of test fitting and tweaking is recommended. All this is exacerbated trying to work with the chromed special edition I used. Fortunately I had previously built a chromed Arii Valkyrie fighter that was a total disaster, so I knew what things to look out for more or less (and another reason I decided to do the overcoat--the straight chrome mirror finish magnifies every smallest blemish).

The opening under the hatch is too small to accommodate the 9-volt battery I used, originally I had spliced longer wires to it so the battery could sit nearby. I rushed for these pics though, so I just held the battery up with a clamp. Ideally though, especially now with modern LEDs, you should be able to work something out to fit inside the hatch, say something powered by watch batteries, and with a switch without it getting too top-heavy (as it would be with the 9v).

While the kit is fairly fragile, it's held up fairly well since I built it in the mid-80's while in high school.

I'd say Inbit...preferably the little red "Eager"/iigaa/whatever the scouts are called, always was fond of those, though I know I'm probably in the minority there. Glaug would go great with the Regult though--or a Rau or Ger (especially the movie version Ger...).