Some franchises exist primarily for merchandise. In all honesty, there are certain time periods and genres (like older Mecha shows) where this is true even of strong and well-respected properties. I’m also no stranger to product tie-ins in my reviews, having covered a couple of card game tie-ins, the lamentable Luck and Logic and the surprisingly effective Selector.
None of the entries I’ve yet addressed, though, are quite as blatant about the “Buy our stuff!” angle as Frame Arms Girl. For those who don’t know, Frame Arms Girl is a line of plastic model kits. They’re a spinoff of the Frame Arms series, which is a line of mecha model kits featuring a poseable endoskeleton (the Frame) and easily interchangable or kitbashed shells of armor and weaponry (the Arms) intended to let modelers create their own custom robot action figures. The Frames Arm Girl line is the same idea, but with Mecha Musume (a concept I talked about when reviewing LBX Girls) as its main theme, rather than straight-out robots, offering a variety of girl bodies as well as their attendant armor, weapons and many, many interchangeable parts (around 200 in a single kit, if the manufacturer is to be believed).
In all honesty, it’s a pretty cool idea… but that doesn’t necessarily translate to the anime shilling it being any good.
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