>>8261296It is as beautiful as it looks on the box. While I'm generally not a fan of super-specialized pieces like aircraft cockpits it is really a must to pull off such a set. There's other Ospreys on Ali with more brick-built designs; none of them look good enough to me. Anyways the good and the bad. The good is the overall build is pretty sturdy, clutch is good and it's designed to be broken down easily for storage. There's a neat side door and a ramp at the back to access a spacious cargo area. No stickers whatsoever is an additional bonus, everything is printed.
Getting to the bad, it's minor stuff and nitpicking for the most part. The cockpit pieces are particularly specialized to incorporate the refueling probe, limiting MOCs to craft of that nature. The technic pins for the engines are strong enough to hold them to the degree they're at in the pics, but no lower. Even swapping out for Lego friction pins can't hold the mad props in flight mode (if you're truly desperate to swoosh you can always swap out the technic bricks and pins for bricks with Xs and little axle pieces, but I digress). One of the specialized parts for the side of the fuselage was slightly warped, which required some tricky assembling but was ultimately able to overcome it (good thing as I'm not sure how I would get a replacement otherwise). I'd say my biggest nitpick is the design doesn't permit for easy access to the cockpit for seating or removing pilots; the instructions tell you to add the pilots before the top cockpit piece. I tried using the side door but was unable to get a figure in the cockpit (gotta mention I love how that door, while tricky to open, is neat in the way it locks into the fuselage like a real aircraft door).
This set has done much to mend a lot of the ill feelings I had towards Dragon Blok since the pirate ship debacle, I'm very tempted now to get the attack helicopter they have. Mega CoD and Chinese legos figs not included and for size comparison only.
