I got my first Sluban Pacific Rim Uprising Yaeger this weekend (the Gipsy Avenger), and immediately started to assemble it.
But I already got frustated at building steps 5-7 out of over a hundred :-(
Apparently the manufacturing tolerance of Sluban bricks is so high that the height/width/length ratio does not correspond anymore after assembling a few bricks together.
But the inner torso construction depends on that ratio, so it was impossible to assemble the inner torso properly.
2 studs in lenght have to have a height of exactly 5 plates, and for the inner torso two 2x6 plates should hold the inner construction of 15 plates together, but the 15 plates were higher that the length of the 2x6 plates, so that didn't fit together at all.
You could squeeze it together with brute force, but then there was so much tension that the parts would pop off again after a few seconds and/or cause huge gaps.
In the picture above you have to connect the studs below and above the gap with an 2x4 plate, but it will immediately pop off again because the tension is too high!
After the initial frustration I used a nail file to reduce the height of the 2x2 brick in the middle by about half a millimeter, and after that "fix" the assembly worked just fine.
I did not encounter any further problems, so after a bad start, in the end I was quite pleased with the build.
The set came in 5 numbered part bags, but the instructions did not include any individual building steps, so ... one big pile of parts to start with.
No missing parts, and in the end I had several parts left, which were clearly spare parts, because it was only one of every (small) kind.
The model seems to be mostly based on the Lego parts library, but I encountered some parts previously unknown to me:
- 1x2 plate with studs on to and bottom (a very common Cobi/MegaBloks element, but does it officially exist from lego?)
- the 1x2 bracket with 1 stud (for minifig necks), but with a rounded end
- 1x2 plate with clip bar, but the clip bar is bended upwards a little
The color consistency was quite bad, so you get several tones of the main dark blue color (even among the same kind of part).
Some parts had a little damage and scratches at the side, and the larger pieces felt a little "soft".
As an overall conclusion, I would rate "Sluban" still as one of the weakest knockoff brands, but quality has certainly improved over the early tanks I got from that brand.
But for the 15 bucks I spent for the Yaeger, I definitely got my money's worth, so: Go for it! ... but don't forget to have a nail file at hand
