Nautilus from Nadia: Classic super-sub (OOB)

With trees and flowers busting out into bloom as we enter the middle of spring, I thought it would be appropriate to go back in time a bit and check out something else that was a breakout – the classic Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water anime! This was a huge success that put Gainax (later known for Evangelion) on the map, and proved to be a show with a large, devoted fanbase.

Oddly, though, despite its success, Nadia did not generate a lot of love in styrene. So far as I know, only the main ship, the Nautilus, saw mainstream release as a kit back in the day. This was a time when Bandai seemed to be playing it tighter-to-the-vest than now, so while it’s not a surprise, it’s still a bit unfortunate that we didn’t get more.

That’s made the Nautilus kit rather hard to get, although thankfully it has been reissued once or twice in more recent times, and that’s how I got my hands on mine. With other companies now challenging Bandai’s hegemony in the anime kit field, and more kits of more obscure subjects coming out all the time, it seems like a good time to take a look at this kit and see how esoterica was done back in the day!

https://adamrehorn.wordpress.com/bandai-1-700-nautilus-oob/

There was also this set of mini-kits from Bellfine:

You get a Nautilus, a Gratan tank, and two each of the Garfish I and II submarines.

I recall also seeing a vinyl kit of the Gratan tank, with full-boogie options (tank or sub mode, extended arms, etc). I would have liked larger models of the Garfish subs.