I picked up a Land speeder Vengeance last night and finished putting it together this morning. I have to say its a pretty decent stream lined kit.
I come from the old school land speeders that fit together like a Picasso painting. Like the new remake of the basic speeder this guy really fits together will with just the nose leaving a little to be desired. The alter has great detail and and that detail carries through the whole model in very subtle ways.
It has a general hate it or love it consensus, I think people need to see it in person before they actually judge. Before having it in hand, I admit I was in the hate it camp but after I actually like it. The alter is less prominent than it seems on the box and after seeing the size next to a land speeder the price point isn't as painful as when it was "60$ for a land speeder" because its more like a land speeder and a half in size.
Converting between builds is easy to do with a set of magnets. Basically there are tabs where the crosses are in the below picture that the plasma...(giant cannons?) fit in that you can just pop out the alter and clip in the plasma.
The kit doesn't come with a whole lot extra. For the bits collector, after I was done building the dark shroud the only bits left were the two cannons and two antennas. The drivers and gunners come with some unique torsos and heads which could be swapped into foot troops. However if you're looking for extra this isn't the kit for you at all.
In the end the model is pretty cool and though the land speeder vengeance is lackluster, pick this kit up to use the dark shroud and enjoy a cool looking model that looks pretty interesting to paint as well. I was made a believer and so could you.
Nice! Seems like several of the recent plastic kits haven't had the greatest of pictures taken by GW. I do like that they've been doing the 360 views on their site, but it's much better to see pics of them 'in the wild', especially comparative shots like you've taken.
ReplyDeleteIt's cool to hear that the turret/shrine is swappable, I am definitely a fan of multi-tasker models!
Thanks for the review!
Lies! This has Cypher's foul taint all over it! Thanks for the size comparison, but I just can't get past that front pulpit. There are conversion ideas swimming in my head though...
ReplyDeleteSwapability really saves it (just in case that vengeance ever becomes useful), but after seeing the Dark Shroud in these shots, it isn't as bad as I thought. Thanks for the review and the tips CVinton.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the review! I was only ever interested in this from a converter's perspective, and the fact that it's very streamlined bitz-wise is a dealbreaker for me. Those marine heads that come with the kit are really sweet, though. Oh well...
ReplyDeleteOn a related note, am I the only one who immediately thought of Skeletor's barge from the 80s MotU-film upon first seeing this model?