>>9454097Just for shits and giggles I checked the reviews on Lego's homepage and it seems like the sub 4-star reviews report the same problem.
I dicked around some more with the set to figure out how to fix the front some more and basically rearranged some parts so the quarter circle tiles from the tail now secure the joint sections from the sides, pretty much removing the problem completely.
So yeah, fuck you, whoever designed the original model.