Edrolfo Leones’ Kikaida

Long before there were the current Power Rangers or the Transformers, there was Kikaida. During the late ’70s in Hawaii and Japan, just before I hit my teens I remember Kikaida being my number one super hero. Funny how life comes full circle…

I ordered this vinyl model kit from Kaiyodo, Japan through HobbyLink Japan. Completed, it stands just over 14.5″ high and is an outstandingly detailed kit.

Since the entire kit was only made up of four primary colors, I thought it would be relatively easy. Boy, was I wrong. Overall, it took me about 2 1/2 months to complete with a lot of trial and error.

To bring the kit to life, I added a few blinking lights and LEDs to his helmet.   I tinted the eyes with yellow and red translucent paint and backlit each of them with two ‘white’ LEDs.

The most difficult part of the painting process was the yellow striping. Since they curved all around his body, it made masking and airbrushing quite challenging.

There are about two dozen fiber optics on his helmet cranium to simulate tiny LEDs to scale. Their source are blue, red, green, and white LEDs hidden in his body. Some of the LEDs also blink.

The kit came with two clear vacuum formed plastic domes for his helmet with one being a spare. Well, I ruined both of the originals so I had to mold, cast and vacuum form another. Needless to say, after three or four tries, I was able to trim and fit a final perfect part.

Kikaida’s helmet is coated with about ten or so coats of gloss while the rest of his body or suit is coated with transparent semi-gloss and matte. This gives a pretty convincing vinyl look as can be seen on the original TV series.

Edrolfo Leones