Mould king series of products. Whether it is architectural street scenes or mechanical vehicles, they are very popular. In addition, Mould king also launched a series of Star Wars products. The huge vehicles and rich details also attracted the attention of many players.
Today, we will introduce a Star Wars product launched by Mould king, the Tantive IV spacecraft.
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Contents
Mould king Tantive IV spacecraft
The Tantive IV spacecraft is a very important spacecraft in the Star Wars movie series. It was the first spaceship to appear when Star Wars was first released in 1977, and the shot that launched the escape capsule was also the first visual effect completed by Industrial Light and Magic.
The Tantive IV is a Corlia-class light cruiser belonging to the Alderaan royal family. Its exterior is decorated with a red band, indicating that it was used as a diplomatic vessel, and thus, under the diplomatic immunity, for the Rebels to resist the empire Make outstanding contributions.
In “New Hope”, Tantive IV, as the command ship of Princess Leia, evaded the pursuit of the Star Destroyer under the command of Darth Vader until it was captured.
In Revenge of the Sith, it is the flagship of Princess Leia’s adoptive father, Bell Organa.
In “Rogue One”, it finally appeared at the end, disappearing into the universe with the design drawing of the Death Star weakness and Princess Leia’s “Hope”.
In “The Return of Skywalker”, Tantive IV came to Esigo to participate in the final battle against the final order, until it was hit by Palpatine’s force lightning and crashed.
Packaging and description
The front package is printed with the finished renderings of the space background, numbering，the number of parts, and the back is some detailed pictures. The whole outer box is 62 cm long, 37 cm wide, and 14.5 cm high. The weight of the whole set exceeds 3.6 kg.
Open the outer packing box and there are two cardboard boxes marked A and B. There are more than 2900 pieces of the whole part, divided into 10 big bags。
9 of them are numbered with the numbers printed in the order of assembly, and the other is an unnumbered bag that is a large number of common small parts that are repeated in the whole set.
In addition to the parts, there is a manual,and there are no stickers. The manual is very thick, and the paper is strong. Open the first page and start the assembly process directly without any additional introduction.
Spaceship propeller and corridor
The first package is the rear compartment and corridor of the model. Although there are many parts, it is not difficult. This set adopts a through-type integrated communication design, and the main beam is connected and supported by the main beam.
In the beginning, the part of the model connected to the propeller, the GOBRICKS parts used by Mould King, needs to be put together with great power, otherwise, it will be difficult to achieve a tight fit.
The prototype of this model is a spaceship with a very distinctive appearance, characterized by the eleven propellers at the tail, so the entire assembly process is basically repeated or mirrored. Therefore, in the manual, the mark of ×2 or ×4 is often marked in the parts use table.
This model cleverly combines various parts to form the structural components of the spacecraft. A large number of smooth parts and slope parts wrap the structure, making the entire model look relatively flat and smooth, rather than full of bumps.
A special mention is the manual part of this set. The newly added parts in each step will be highlighted with a red border. In addition to the common perspective view, the manual also provides a front view of some structures.
Finally, by combining several parts, the lower part of the whole model was completed, only four of the eleven propeller supports were assembled. The parts were not used up either. In addition to the spaceship aisle as the main support, there were some parts to be used in the back.
Put the main support rods together and take out the second and third packages of parts. The two packages of parts are relatively small and large, mainly to complete the thruster part, and the whole process is still repeated.
This part used as the propeller skirt requires a 1×1 smooth part to be mounted on a 1×1 hinged clamping piece, so how many in total are needed? A propeller requires eight, eleven A total of eighty-eight propellers are needed.
The built-up propeller finally adds color to the original monotonous gray and white. The red jet port and the transparent blue jet effect are well matched. After finishing the two packs, I realized that only seven propellers had been finished. The remaining four propellers had to wait until the two packs numbered 4 and 5.
The 4th and 5th packs were completed, and the eleven thrusters were finally completed. Place them in the corresponding positions of the tail compartment in order, and hold the support rod to fully lift the tail.
When holding the support rod, you can clearly feel that the rear part of the spacecraft is full. The structure of the supporting part is also very strong and can fully support the entire weight.
However, maybe the sturdiness of the set is concentrated on the main axis, the connection of the thruster is very simple, just a few bumps are inserted into the main body, without any reinforcement measures. Including the spray ring, it basically falls off at the first touch.
Spaceship landing pod
At the end of the fifth package, the first difficulty of the whole set was encountered, which was to install the landing cabins on both sides of the spacecraft. The landing cabin is a cylindrical building with a more restored appearance.
Of course, this model made it into a solid model, and the structure of the door can only be seen and opened. Assembling is not difficult, the difficulty is to assemble them on both sides of the main corridor.
It stands to reason that they just need to buckle their bumps in the corresponding grooves according to the instructions, and from a design point of view, the size of the contact surface is appropriate.
But as mentioned before, due to the tight installation problem, plus The squeezing and expansion of its own model parts is not easy to align, and a row of bumps on the bracket just block the position, which affects the extension of the parts
More importantly, even if the position is aligned, it is not easy to completely fix them, because there is no place to be supported by force. The previous illustration has already shown that the entire second half of the model forms a hammer shape with a head-heavy rod.
If the model is erected, the thrusters mentioned before cannot support the thrust exerted by both hands. From the beginning of the installation to the final end, several thrusters continued to fall, and finally, they were all taken down, the landing module was installed, and then the thrusters. After all, this operation will not be the first time.
After completing these, the parts of box A are assembled. Next, open box B, which contains four large packages of 6-9 parts. We will complete the assembly of the entire head and body of the spacecraft and the bracket.
Spaceship escape pod
The first is the assembly and placement of the escape pod area.
In the Star Wars movie “New Hope”, before the Imperial Army invaded Tantive IV, Princess Leia entered the distress message and the design drawing of the Death Star into R2-D2, Let it take the escape capsule with C-3PO and land on Tatooine.
There are two types of escape cabins, the ordinary cabin on the lower part of the spacecraft and the high-capacity cabin on the upper part. This set restores them with round table pieces of different specifications and shapes. After the placement is complete, they can be fixed on the hull of the spacecraft.
There was another problem here. There was a printing error in the instructions when assembling the escape capsule, and there was an extra 2×2 board between the two steps. Of course, this is still easy for players to recognize when actually assembling.
Of course, the biggest criticism of the set is coming. The side panels in this area lack fixed parts and are easy to fall off. There is really no fixation on this sideboard. It is fixed on the other board only by a bump.
When placed flat, the two boards form a herringbone angle when they are affected by gravity. And if there is any movement, the side panel will snap off. Whenever you need to lift, flip, or horizontally position the spaceship when installing the rear parts, the side panels always surprise you.
So the processing method is the same as that of the propeller. You can take it down and complete it before installing it.
In addition, another dissatisfaction is that the side panels of the escape compartment are fixed with a hinge-like device, and this fixing is not tight. When you lay the spaceship flat, the side panels of the escape capsule will always slowly turn down along the hinge due to the influence of its own gravity.
The subsequent parts are easy to assemble, they are all integrated into several large modules, independent of each other. Finally, place these modules in the corresponding parts of the spacecraft in turn.
Spaceship cockpit
The next thing to complete is the cab located at the head of the spacecraft. The entire cab is in the shape of a rugby ball, with a relatively restored appearance, and the interior is completely filled with building blocks.
The steps for assembling it are also very interesting. First, assemble them into several parts independently, and then assemble them together. However, there are no detailed step-by-step instructions on how these parts are combined.
There is only a finished picture showing how it will look after being assembled. Of course, If you think about it carefully, you can also think of how it should be put together.
Here the entire spacecraft is complete. It always fell off before, and the parts that had to be removed first can be installed back. Due to the side panel of the escape compartment, we will show it upright here. The overall effect is good, and the details are also very rich. Of course, if it is placed like this, it is still a problem whether the thrusters can withstand it. Fortunately, we still have one last step, which is to put together the model bracket.
Spaceship display stand
The whole bracket is divided into three parts, except for a few parts such as the floor, all are transparent parts, especially a few large semi-cylindrical transparent parts, the transparent effect is very beautiful.
The transparent bracket on the rear side needs to insert four transparent uprights on the backside of the spacecraft at the connection point above the propeller.
The same is the accuracy problem of the strict assembly of the parts, and the lack of good force support to install. This time it is not only the thruster part, but also the few small wrench-like parts on the picture. They are simply inserted on the board. Just touch it and fall off. For the same reason, it is better to disassemble the bracket and install it back.
Pros
Mould king Tantive IV spacecraft is completed. The appearance of this set is highly reducible, rich in details, and a large number of specially shaped parts are used. The mixed application of round plate parts, wrench parts, grid parts, and handcuffs is very effective.
The detailed introduction of the manual and the classification management of the parts package are also very commendable. The entire spaceship is large in scale, reaching 62 cm in length, which is very suitable for placing in a conspicuous place. Of course, the huge shape may be a big problem for players and friends with tight space.
Cons
First of all, the set does not contain any Minifigures, and the huge shape does not have any interior structure. For friends who like to collect Minifigures, it may lack some fun to play.
In addition, the exterior of the entire spacecraft is almost entirely wrapped by light panels and curved parts, and no bumps are exposed.
I personally think that the shape similar to armor, or the combination of bumps and smooth surface can better reflect the sense of layering and heaviness of the model.
The next problem is that the tightness of the model parts is not enough, and it is a bit difficult to assemble some structures that require more precise installation. And there is no brick Separator. Once it is found something is wrong, it is much more difficult to separate than install.
What’s more important is the lack of sufficient reinforcement between the various parts of the entire model. Many places are only connected by the bumps of the bricks, which are easy to fall apart.
