The franchise started in the magazine Hobby Japan back in the 1980s, monthly photoseries installments of "SF3D" showing off the 1/20 scale scratch built model designs of artist/sculptor Kow Yokoyama, with help from Hiroshi Ichimura (story editor) and Kunitaka Imai (graphic design). Each month's issue of the magazine would spotlight a new creation that Yokoyama had cobbled together, using everything from leftover tank and aircraft model kit parts to common household items such as plastic spoons and yogurt containers.

Their influences were everything from WWI/WWII armor/aircraft designs to sci fi movies to the model builders for ILM. He focused mostly on power armor at the beginning but included tanks, anti-gravity aircraft, robot walkers, etc.

The designs were a hit for the magazine, leading to a line of plastic model kits produced by a company called Nitto, which were considered to be high-quality and very detailed. Indeed, they were the first line of major science fiction model kits released in Japan that included etched metal parts, springs, pieces of wire, etc.

This video was produced to promote the line. Then in 1986, Hobby Japan dropped the feature and there was a legal dispute over the copyright between Yokoyama and the magazine which led to Nitto's premature shutdown of kit production. It wasn't until the late 1990s that the legal problems were resolved between the magazine and Nitto and Kow reintroduced the series under the name "Maschinen Krieger Zbv 3000" (or Ma.K for short). Other companies have produced kits and parts over the years, smaller outfits, as well as various custom jobs using military kit parts, etc.