Japanese designer creates sprawling mecha-inspired diorama case mod

Japanese designer Hiroto Ikeuchi created a mecha-themed case mod inspired by anime such as Gundam and Macross.

The PC's peripherals, such its the USBs, keyboard, mouse and webcam have all been modified and the computer is in full working order. According to Wired, the case mod features eight USB drives, in the form of heavy artillery, to replace the machine's Sandisk flash drives. The designer told Wired that “the most important thing” is to consider the case mod as a “living thing,” pointing out that “there are plenty of plastic models in Japan” allowing him to create anything.

Taking a year to build, Ikeuchi recently won the 17th Media Arts Festival Entertainment Division Excellence Award for the "fantasy embodied by Plastic" PC diorama. Ikeuchi's work is currently on display at the Ars Electronica Center in Austria. The full range of images featuring the case mod can be viewed on Ogihara RakuTaro's Tumblr.

The designer has also created other PC mods, including a "USB hub Bazooka Launcher " and the "H-II Transfer Vehicle 2nd," a space station model that houses flash memory.