I've been getting back into model making recently. I built Bandai's excellent 6'' R2-D2 and C-3PO, but I hadn't gotten any ships from The Force Awakens yet. Unfortunately, Bandai's ship models are difficult to get in the U.S. due to a licensing dispute with Disney, so I decided to try Revell's out offerings. Poe Dameron’s X-Wing isn’t my favorite ship, but it seems like it’ll be one of the main ships in the new movie, so I decided to try it out. The ship is available from Amazon here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0125KV5T2
First of all, this is only a model in a very loose sense. The pieces aren't attached to a rack so there's no cutting required. All the pieces snap together very easily. In fact, the entire construction took less than 10 minutes. So I wouldn't really recommend this for anybody looking for an involved build. In terms of difficulty, it's probably suited more to younger kids.
That said, the final product is a really nice version of Poe Dameron’s X-Wing. The ship is over 8 inches long. It’s not as large as Hasbro’s X-Wing, but this model uses nice, hard plastic (these laser cannons won’t bend) The ship itself is very detailed. The wings expand so the ship can go into attack formation and the cockpit opens. The interior is quite detailed, but sadly there’s no figure. Best of all - and this was a surprise to me - the ship comes with pretty good sound effects!
The model comes partially prepainted, at least the major features like the orange stripes and the cockpit hatch. It doesn’t have any weathering or scoring, but I decided this ship looked better clean (I added a tiny bit of weathering inside the engine intakes).
The ship unfortunately isn’t entirely accurate to the film because the tips of the laser cannons are sideways. Although I’m disappointed, I honestly can’t say it takes away too much from the model. I wouldn’t even have noticed if another reviewer on Amazon hadn’t pointed it out. Truth be told, I actually prefer the laser cannons sideways. I realize this is reason enough for some people not to get the model, so hopefully Revell fixes this in the near future.
Another (tiny) complaint is that the model doesn't include a stand. It does have landing gear, which works well enough, but a stand would still have been nice to so we could display the ship in mid-flight.
If you're looking for a movie-accurate model/toy of Poe Dameron’s X-Wing, this is a good choice. It's certainly great value for your money. I remember getting the Action Fleet version of Luke Skywalker’s X-Wing during the 1990s. It cost about $10-15, wasn't as accurate, and didn't have sounds, so $20 for this kit is a bargain.
NOTE: I received this model for free in exchange for an honest review.
