Having long been the domain of boys and men, plastic models are now becoming popular with the opposite sex. The difference is that while men try to make plastic models as authentic as possible, women appear willing to add something extra to make them unique.
These "pulamo girls," as women who make plastic models are known, say they find it fun to be able to build everything from warships to their favorite animation characters, painting them in a variety of colors and adding glittering decorations.
"The body looks like it's made of superalloy with a sharp face. It's cool," said a female worker in her 30s from Tokyo. She became a pulamo girl last year after getting hooked on a scale model of Mobile Suit Gundam, the famous animation robot character.