specwarnet
26 November 1999, 14:52
For those of you who haven't heard, a company called 21st Century Toys http://www.21stCenturytoys.com/ has been releasing figures and vehicles that include US Special forces soldiers and equippment. I've seen their stuff around at Fred Meyers and ToysRus and have been impressed with the time they spend on researching the gear and equipment they outfit their toys with. The latest release is a SOAR AH-6J Littlebord, in what I'm guessing is about 1/16th scale.
First off, calling this thing a "little" bird is a bit of a misnomer. It is HUGE, almost four feet long assembled! For a toy it's pretty accurate, I only have a couple gripes about things they could have done better.
First off, the inaccuracies. Most of them we necessary to make the transition from real-world structure to scaled down toy. The rear T-tail has a boxy mount that was necessary to get the vertical and horizontal parts to have a strong enough joint to withstand a tweak or two. The wall behind the pilots is solid, on the real thing there are several gaps that are open to the rear compartment. The hump on the rear wall of the aft compartment is missing as well; it covers the shaft that transfers power from the engine to the rotors and is present on all 5xx models of this air frame. All in all these are minor issues.
Next and lastly, the complaints. The pilot's seat is missing the collective control and the fire extinguisher is not included. The front of the landing skids had a curve to them not found in the real aircraft. Warpage like this could have been avoided in the moulding process. Most of the antennaes fit well, but the "T" shaped one just aft of the doghouse (fairing aft of the main rotor hub) is ver loose and falls out if the aircraft is held at an angle. It is mounted right at the joint between the right and left fuselage halves and mine arrive with a minor gap between the two; this is what causes the looseness.
All in all the is a fairly decent release. If you want a littlebird for the home (it might be a bit big for the office) and don't want to build DML's 1/35th scale plastic model, this may be the perfect substitution for you.
First off, calling this thing a "little" bird is a bit of a misnomer. It is HUGE, almost four feet long assembled! For a toy it's pretty accurate, I only have a couple gripes about things they could have done better.
First off, the inaccuracies. Most of them we necessary to make the transition from real-world structure to scaled down toy. The rear T-tail has a boxy mount that was necessary to get the vertical and horizontal parts to have a strong enough joint to withstand a tweak or two. The wall behind the pilots is solid, on the real thing there are several gaps that are open to the rear compartment. The hump on the rear wall of the aft compartment is missing as well; it covers the shaft that transfers power from the engine to the rotors and is present on all 5xx models of this air frame. All in all these are minor issues.
Next and lastly, the complaints. The pilot's seat is missing the collective control and the fire extinguisher is not included. The front of the landing skids had a curve to them not found in the real aircraft. Warpage like this could have been avoided in the moulding process. Most of the antennaes fit well, but the "T" shaped one just aft of the doghouse (fairing aft of the main rotor hub) is ver loose and falls out if the aircraft is held at an angle. It is mounted right at the joint between the right and left fuselage halves and mine arrive with a minor gap between the two; this is what causes the looseness.
All in all the is a fairly decent release. If you want a littlebird for the home (it might be a bit big for the office) and don't want to build DML's 1/35th scale plastic model, this may be the perfect substitution for you.