Garage kits are Japanese hobbyist model kits. The term originated with dedicated hobbyists frustrated with having being unable to find the figure they wanted on the market. Some of them started building figures of their own, and as the process of sculpting, casting and painting produces dust and fumes, and requires lots of workroom for tools and supplies, most of the sculptors used their garage as the workshop, hence the name. Since then production of kits caught on, and was picked up by a number of small companies, but the name stuck.

Garage kits can be as simple as molds into which liquid resin is poured and left to harden, or as complex as do-it-yourself scale model kits. Most of them are of female anime characters, but also include male characters, mecha, monsters and such. The kits are usually cast as separate parts, and come in a box with instructions and photos of the finished product, which then has to be glued together and painted. Due to the hands-on aproach of the sculpting process, and self-made nature of majority of the kits, most of them are produced in very small numbers, usually limited to a few hundred copies, or less. Production cost is also a factor, with mold-making materials such as silicone being quite expencive, and the molding process itself is hazardous due to the toxicity of the vapours coming from resin. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... A scale model is a representation or copy of an object that is larger or smaller than the actual size of the object being represented. ...

The scale of these figures varies, but 1/7 (approximately one seventh of the actual character size for human characters) seems to be predominant, with other scales, such as 1/6, 1/4, 1/8 and others being less common. They are typically cast of resin or vinyl.

see also

• anime
• mecha
• bishoujo
• Monkey