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Despite having a love of giant robots since childhood, I never really got into the hobby of building models of them. I barely have the manual dexterity to properly feed myself, let alone glue small pieces of plastic together, so I was always sure the finished product would never look as cool as the fighting mecha in anime series like Macross or Escaflowne.

Of course, I may have to rethink my stance, now that there’s an easy way to make your models appear to shoot laser beams that doesn’t require any fine motor or photo editing skills at all.

While it may look like the Gundam pictured above is firing a blast of energy, it’s actually something far less destructive. The shaft of light is actually a strategically placed glow stick.

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In Japan, not only can you find glow sticks in gift and craft stores, but shops specializing in electronics and anime goods also stock them, since fans going to idol singer concerts always make sure to carry a pair. Of course, if you’re a hard-core idol fan, it’s not going out too far on a limb to guess you might own one or two robot models or cute anime girl figurines. So if you’re sitting in your living room and notice you have both a miniature warmech and an unused glow stick, inspiration might just strike.

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Of course, if Japanese animation has taught us anything, it’s that not all energy blasts come from robots. Trained martial artists, destined saviors of humanity, and ordinary high school students are all capable of shooting a beam of inner ki power from their palms, as we see here.

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So if you’re cleaning house, come across a half-used pack of glow sticks from last year’s Halloween party, and are tempted to throw the remnants out, just remember there’s still an awesome-looking way to use them.

▼ NHK mascot Doku-kun’s kitten killing tendencies have been greatly exaggerated, but as this shot suggests, he just might have the capability.

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Source: Togech
Top image: Twitter
Insert images: Photozou, Twitter (2, 3, 4, 5)