Star Wars Millennium Falcon and X-Wing - Revell EasyKit Pocket

[Mike]

Millennium Falcon and X-Wing

Revell EasyKit Pocket

The Falcon and Luke's X-Wing need no introduction, but if you're looking for a stocking filler for your son, daughter, nephew, niece or family friend that just happens to love Star Wars, look no further.

The kits are ready to build, and purport to be snap together without glue – I do wonder however how long they'd last if you didn't glue them. That's an issue for the parent/impatient child though!

Each kit is presented in a vacformed package with the major parts laid out within the pack in a vacformed tray. The smaller parts and instructions are held in bags within the lower part of the pack, hidden by the card insert. They're sold as "pocket", and you'd need pretty big pockets for the unbuilt box, and still fairly voluminous ones for the finished article by children's standards. It's probably more of a "pocket money" association however, so we'll let it slide.

Inside each pack is a really rather nicely moulded little kit of these famous space craft from the Star Wars franchise, and they are immediately recognisable. The parts are moulded in that Star Wars chewing gum coloured styrene, and are detail painted with appropriate colours to give them extra realism. Clear parts are supplied for the cockpits and the exhaust of the Falcon, and the Falcon also has a gloss black stand supplied because it has no gear legs. The X-wing is Luke's Red 5, and is posed with its spoilers in attack position, living up to its name. A couple of lugs hold the wings open, and even when removed they still want to remain opened, but would glue together if you were minded.

The kits take moments to put together, but some of the parts are tricky to get in place, such as the exhaust glazing on the Falcon, and the cockpit of the X-wing, and certain similar looking parts won't fit in the wrong places, which although that might be frustrating for a child, ensures the model goes together correctly. The parts are all numbered on the instructions, but it's anyone's guess why, because all the parts are loose and don't seem to have numbers moulded or painted on them. It's fairly easy to work out which is which though, and I would suggest that an adult is present during construction for the younger and less experienced builder.

When complete, the kits are surprisingly faithful models of the "real" things. I grew up with Star Wars, and built many of the AMT kits, and have a whole bunch of the new Finemolds kits still to make, and I recognise the shapes of the details immediately, even though some of them are simplified for moulding considerations.

I built them both in a few minutes, and found that they fitted better when the remains of the sprue-gates were removed. Whoever had cut mine off was clearly in a bit of a rush, so there were plenty of bits needing tidying up, and annoyingly, a small section of the Falcon's exhaust ripped off along with the sprue-gate. That won't matter one jot to a young'un though. I glued the parts in place, but they have clever friction posts that once installed should stay put unless you apply some serious pressure, and the fine parts of the Falcon's sides are held in place by tabs and the curve of the top and bottom parts, although I suspect that the two front parts of the loading jaws would have come off fairly quickly if not glued.

Conclusion

Marvellous! They're great little kits to occupy small fingers for a while, and possibly give them a taste for modelling without appearing too obvious. The newer films have given a whole new generation a taste of Star Wars, and they should sell well. I'm not entirely sure how long the slender prongs at the end of each wing of the X-Wing will last, and I suspect that won't really matter much either.

Be aware of the small parts that might represent a choking hazard to younger children, such as the R2-D2 figure in the rear of the X-Wing, which could easily be removed if not glued in. For that reason they are marked as suitable for ages 6+.

Highly recommended for stocking fillers.

Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit

[gunpowder17]

I like em.

[bootneck]

They look really neat.

Anyone know what scale the X-Wing would work out at? My guess is about 1:200?

[Mike]

Not sure... wingspan is 10cm and fuselage length is 11cm

[khimbar]

'Spoilers'? You mean S-foils?

Nice review though. They look kinda cool.