Fuji TV of Japan aired the anime series Science Ninja Team Gatchaman from Fall 1972 to Fall of 1974. It is the story of five super teens into one team fighting the terrorist organization Galactor who uses huge mecha in an attempt to control or steal Earth’s resources. Science Ninja Team Gatchaman is led by Ken The Eagle (G-1) with his teammates Joe The Condor (G-2), Jun the Swan (G-3), Jinpei the Swallow (G-4) and Ryu the Owl (G-5.) Only Ryu is known to have a family (although Ken’s dad is the Red Impulse Team Leader.) They report to the International Science Organization aka ISO (no 9000) and their supervising leader Dr Nambu.

Gatchaman fly in a giant jet/sub/spacecraft known as the God Phoenix which carries “Bird” missiles (and later Super Bird missiles) and is capable of becoming a flaming phoenix in certain situations. Also the God Phoenix carries all the Science Ninja Team Gatchaman’s vehicles including a race car, a jet fighter, a motor cycle and whatever Jinpei drives.

The 105 episodes were full of violence, sexual subjects, and death which is perfectly normal for a Japanese anime. When Sandy Frank was looking for a Japanese TV show to capitalize on Star Wars, he decided to take that, cut out some of the violence, all the sexual subjects and death and transform it into the kid friendly Battle of the Planets where the exploits of Mark, Jason, Princess, Keyop and Tiny (the Americanized names) would become a hit as kids (like me) would rush home from school to watch the latest episode at 4pm when it was locally broadcast. Instead of the violence, sexual subjects and death, we got 7 Zark 7 and some really questionable plot holes. Voiced by talents like Casey Kasem and Alan Young among others.

Around the same time (1979-80), Team Gatchaman was dubbed into Korean and called Eagle 5 in Korea and became an even bigger hit than Battle of the Planets was in North America. This would explain why Academy Models released a series of kits for the show’s 40^th anniversary in Korea in 2020. I completed this kit in 2021-2022 ish.

The kit comes in a big box with all the sprues wrapped in plastic. It consists of eight total sprues: two sprues of blue plastic, one sprue of red plastic, one sprue of clear orange (mostly for the flaming Phoenix effect and afterburner flame), one sprue of white plastic, one sprue of black plastic, one sprue of silver plastic and one steel colored plastic. Also includes all the vehicles as well. The colored plastic gives people who aren’t modellers a chance to build a decent replica of the God Phoenix without painting.

It gives the option of recreating the flaming phoenix or as it deploys the various vehicles which are included in the kit. The version of the kit I had also included a lighting kit (mostly wires and connectors with LEDs.)

There is a stand for this kit that has the option you can connect to light up the model using the Bird missile firing button as the on/off switch. The plastic is well molded with crisp details and no flash. Comes with waterslide decals or stickers for those who just want to slam it together.

It all began five years ago with the interior parts which I pre painted before adding them to the model (colors and painting details described later.) It really is a matter of following the instructions and using the tools/parts given. I also added the wiring for the LEDs as well making sure the wires fit in snug and the LEDs were held in place. Same applies to the stand where you add the spring for the fire button as well as the wiring contacts + batteries.

A couple of areas to watch out for are the wings and the lift engines at the bottom of the model. The wings can fold to match the various modes of flight for the God Phoenix and are very weak so they droop a bit if you don’t glue them in (as evident in the pictures.) If you’re going to use the stand/LEDs then you have to remove the first lift engine and add the wiring connectors. There are options to add the various vehicles to the model. I didn’t because I wanted it in flight not deploying vehicles. IIRC I didn’t really need to sand any seams, but I did apply a lot of Tamiya Extra Thin Cement to glue everything in place except the wings.

Each part was painted (and primed like the metallic areas) first before assembly. I used mostly Mission Model Colors for the blue and red while the white was painted using Tamiya flat white and the metallic colors were done in Vallejo metal colors (Duraluminum and Dark Aluminum.) Next I used Mission Models Clear Gloss to prep the surface for the decals.

I used the waterslide decals to add the considerable number of stencils to the God Phoenix. I don’t recall having any issues with them except the tedious work required for decaling. These are good decals that only require some Micro Set to snuggle down to the surface detail.

I didn’t bother weathering the God Phoenix so I simply wiped down the model and sprayed on the final coat of gloss.

I glued the stand together and mounted the completed model to it (no glue.) Next I glued on the clear orange flames into the engine nozzles.

Academy did a really good job of designing this kit to make it easy to build and light. I learned quite a lot doing so as a few years later I would use the experience to build a 1/1000 Enterprise for a friend that used a lighting kit. I had a lot of fun building something from my childhood and unlike those models from my childhood this one was as “accurate” as it could be.

Highly recommended for fans of Team Gatchaman, Battle of the Planets and/or Eagle 5 or those who want the chance to build a lighted kit.