Fun but tricky for beginners
CountPowerfulParsley102 — 4 out of 5 stars
Firstly, as a Star Wars fan of the old school, this was a cracking set to receive as a gift. Compact, and well proportioned, the build itself wasn’t a challenge at first. The armour is well shaped and strongly reminiscent of the movie counterpart in terms of articulation. The added touch of the Rebel Snowspeeder, with tow cables, was a wonderful cherry on the cake. However, there are a couple of gripes which would give younger or less experienced builders a challenge. The legs truly are unstable. They don’t, at first, have enough strength in the ankle and hip joints, and the suggested position of the feet on the base plate provides too narrow a position to plant the feet stably. Ankle and hip joints would pop off with the slightest pressure when mounting the model on the base, also, occasionally with the rear armour sections, and smaller pieces falling off the feet. In order to prevent this, I widened the base with a strip of 1x depth studs or smaller 1x strips. This extra width provided a more stable position. Secondly, I would probably want to reengineer the hip and foot joints so that they stay on the finished AT-AT without having to put to much weight through them. Some small rods/connectors through the hips to join them to the body would make this easier to mount without losing articulation. Similarly, adding a rod connector to the foot/ankle joint would prevent the ankle piece from popping off if pressure is applied to the foot.