Project BM! ~ 1/6th Kaneda Bike (Bandai Soul of Popynica x Medicom)

...braving strong winds and rains to collect Kaneda's red bike at BTS. After months of anticipation and drooling over pics released on online forums and selected toy blogs, the iconic red bike as ridden by Shotaro Kaneda (金田 正太郎) in the classic, ground breaking 1988 anime movie AKIRA (アキラ) has arrived on this part of the world, courtesy of xl-shop. Produced by Bandai and Medicom, with collaboration from AKIRA creator and director, Katsuhiro Otomo (大友克洋) to ensure accuracy, this nearly 20 inches/50cm long die-cast bike is one of the best replica in recent memory (previously, the "best" version, in my humble opinion, would be another Bandai production equally under its Soul Of Popynica banner, released in 1998 but in 1/12th scale, also in die cast). The nameless red bike (rumoured to be a Honda) comes with removable ABS panels (for those who prefers the naked bike look), which are attached onto the bike via magnetised points, and features light up functions in both front and rear wheels (to capture the twin ceramic coil discharges), left and right signal lights, tail lights, head light (reminiscence of HID light), and the onboard computer central console panel (which features digital speedometer etc.). There are rubberised front and rear tyres, feet rest panel and seat, as well as if the right side accelerator pedal is pressed, the bike will play the sounds of the engine "ignition" and "travelling". Press the left brake pedal, the sounds of "bike sreetching to a halt" will comes about. In the movie, the bike's unique sound is produced by splicing together the sound of a Harley and a jetplane. Accordingly, the first batch release comes with additional set of panels and stickers for customisation, based on the cover of the DVD. I wonder if Joker's (leader of the rival bike gang, The Clowns, not THE Joker of Batman) bike would be released (now, that's a menacing bike, incidentally looks like a modded HD Fat Boy)...then it would be fun to have them play "chicken" as in the movie, along the highways of my mind. Curiously, the bike spec on the box ommitted "equipments" and "statistic" sections as printed on the 1/12th version box earlier. Perhaps comparatively, current speed-iest production bikes (such as the Hayabusa i.e. hyper sport bike category) average century sprint average at about 3 secs (!) with max speed (limited) at 300km/hr which compared to Kaneda's bike at a ~yawn~ 8.7 secs, max speed 248 km/hr (which is still fast). But darn, it comes with an eye watering 12,000 rpm on each of the dual drive wheels. Anyhoo, I think I am not "qualified" to truely comment, as all my life, the fastest vehicle I got into (apart from a Boeing taking off on the runway) usually comes with a 12 sec century sprint and max speed 180km/hr (if I risk destroying the engine.....). And at least Kaneda's bike runs on clean energy (which curiously, in the manga, the bike is clearly depicted as having a gas/petrol tank). And I read somewhere that Kaneda's bike is possibly a futurist cafe racer instead, thus any comparison might be un-fair.

Here's a re-cap of the bike's official spec :

Overall Length : 2.947mm

Overall Height : 1,171mm (incl. shield)

Overall Width : 831mm

Seat Height : 340mm

Wheelbase : 2,194mm

Ground Clearance : 76mm

Dry Weight : 154kg

Number of Riders : 1

Braking Distance : 9.9m (Initial Speed : 50 km/h)

Minimum Turning Distance : 3.4m

Tire Size : 18 inches (front), 19 inches (rear)

Power Generator : Cold Superconducting Generator

Maximum Power : 83 kw/12,500 rpm

Maximum Voltage : 12,000 V

Steering System : Power Support System

Front Axie Caster Angle : 39°12', Rear Axie Caster Angle : 3°00'

Frame : Ceramic Box Frame, Cowl : FRP and Carbon

Energy Consumption at Rest : 2.3w

Maximum Speed : 243 km/h

Drag Coefficient : CD=0.24

Equipped with ~

Computer Controlled Anti-Lock Brakes

Auto-Navigation System

Forward-Looking Radar

CD Player

Glove Compartment.

Headlamp : 100w Neo Halogen Laser Light (can switch to fog lamp)

Statistics ~

Speed : 0 to 400m : 9.8 sec, 0 to 100 km/h : 8.7 sec

Battery Charger Time : 1MW every 40 sec (can run for two hours at full throttle on fully charged battery