A while back we caught wind of a new app in development from the game studio Madfinger Games. You might know them from titles like Shadowgun and Dead trigger. Today they have launched a completely different application to the Play Store called Monzo. Monzo brings you models, not male of female models, but literal plastic models, to the palm of your hand.
In the simplest terms, Monzo is a digital model building studio. You pick up the model kit of your choice and start building it. All without the exacto knife, sticky fingers and dry times. You get the thrill of opening the box, pulling out the part sheets. The instructions for the build hover in the upper right hand corner and your parts layout in a list on the left.
The whole model rotates in a full 360 degrees to give you the best view. You can also pinch to zoom in and out to make placing your parts a little easier, especially when yuo get to the really tiny pieces of some of the more experienced level model kits. Once your complete the build then you get to paint the pieces in a wide variety of colors choices. You get a standard set of colors to choose from, along with the above model sports car tutorial build with the app. They also give you some stickers to mess about with.
Once you have it all built and styled to your liking you can check it out with various backgrounds, and even a live augmented display with the model being able to be re-positioned on an overlay of your devices camera. As an added little bonus on the completed model, various parts of the build can even be triggered for movement. ie. doors, hoods, trunks all open and wheels will spin like it is driving and the steering wheel will turn.
I count a total off 26 model kits in the initial release with prices ranging from $0.99 to $9.99. They also have a couple of bundle deals where you can snag a whole collection, like the Da Vinci Collection, for $11.99. If you want more paints to really customize your models, those will cost you a little too, but each custom pallet is only $0.99 each. Custom sticker sets that range from $0.99 to $1.99 depending on what you need. For instance, the battle damage stickers are $1.99 where as a set of Biker stickers are $0.99. Once you have the sticker pack though, you can use them on any model you build and never have to buy them again.
The whole app and experience is quite exceptional really. The dynamic lighting that reflects of the various paints, stickers and parts of the build as you rotate it gives it a real showroom, or kitchen table with an overhead light, feel. The app is free to try out and you get the sports car model depicted above as part of the install, as it is also the model that works you through the apps tutorial as well. While it works out just fine on a phone, I would suggest you install it on a tablet for the best user experience.
