The last of my replacement sets is the UCS B-Wing.

The original Lego set I have cost me a mint about 3 years ago.

The B-Wing is my 2nd favorite ship in the Star Wars universe, and somehow when it came out in a UCS variety, I missed it completely.

So once it was retired, this $199 set rocketed up to $400 in just over a year out of production.

I sadly had not heard of Lepin at the time, and purchased one from Bricklink I believe, or maybe from Ebay.

The Lego build was great, but in keeping with the theme of removing my Lego ships and swapping them with Block-off, the time was ripe to jump on this.

Sadly due to a camera issue, I lost the first few pics from this review.

The set itself differs from Lego in that the bags are not numbered here. This one is not too surprising as the number system was just being introduce around this time period for Lego, and obviously Lepin was not copying them one to one at this time.

The build is a rather fun set to put together, as it is a very unorthodox ship to start with.

Fun side note, there is a Star Wars Rebels cartoon episode that showcases how the B-Wing came to be built in the first place, look it up if you are interested.

The set comes together in a pile of different sections. The main center wing, the engine, left and right “stabilizer” wings and the cockpit.

The original Lego version suffered a bit of a design flaw in the end of the main wing, the massive gun placement was very weakly attached to the set, oddly in the Lepin variety, that is not the case, it is still built the same, but for some reason the clutch is actually better than Lego here and it does not fall off or need kragle to hold it in place.

The cockpit has some cool elements as well, it is meant to spin 360 as the ship would rotate around it. The accomplish this by a cool 2 part design coupled together with tank tracks.

The ship itself is rather large due to the majority being the massive wing that dominates the build, sitting about 18 inches tall on an angle, it is one of the larger ships available in the UCS fleet.

All in a ll a fantastic set, fun to build, no missing parts and a beautiful showpiece, what more could you want?

A perfect 10/10 and a 100% clone of the Lego set.

So continuing with my collection replacement, I also grabbed a UCS Tie Fighter, and had much more success this time.

The Tie was near identical to the Lego variety, with one exception, there were not numbered bags.

Not a deal breaker as this is not a huge set, but it does add some time to the build for part finding.

The build takes place in 3 parts, cockpit, left wing, right wing.

The overall design is excellent, and like the Lego version, is very well assembled.

Clutch is great on this brand, so there was nothing loose throughout.

There was one issue however that is ever present with Lepin and other block-off.

Warping.

On longer part like those used in the wings, they have a slight bow to them.

Now as a single part, this is not a set killer.

But put them all together end to and, and the wings are noticeably bowed.

Now on my shelf it is near imperceptible, but during the build it sticks out like a sore thumb.

There was also a weird part alignment I have never experienced before.

The end cap in the stand, the part that slots into the base of the Tie, was molded incorrectly.

The little + in the middle was 45 degrees wrong.

So when slotted into the corresponding technic peg, it would not allow it to line up with the base brick.

A real strange manufacturing error, and the first I have ever seen.

This was a decent build, rather simplistic in design, but never got boring.

Wing issues aside this is a nice display set.

A decent 7 / 10 and only so low due to the brick warp issues.

So I have been slowly replacing my actual Lego collection with Lepin or other block-off brands now for 2 years.

As Lego holds it value, I have been putting them aside to sell another day.

So when Lepin fell last year I jumped on a few remaining sets before they were gone, because we had no idea if or when Lepin would come back ot the surface.

This was both a great idea, and a bad idea.

Had I actually taken the time to assemble them when I picked them up last spring, I could have rectified a huge issue I had with the Slave 1.

Color matching.

What I presume happened here, and mind you, this is just conjecture, is that when Lepin went under, some places threw together some sets to get them out the door, not caring if things were right, or if some stuff was missing.

Enter, the Slave 1.

The whole set uses dark red bricks, but for some reason, 3 major brick parts were given out in bright red, by contrast, this looks like total crap.

So sadly I had to order these parts, and they ended up costing me about $20 all told as I had to use 3 separate sellers and pay shipping three times.

But I digress.

On to the review!

So unlike the Lego variety of this set, there bags are not numbered.

This too was unusual.

Typically if Lego has something numbered, so does Lepin, thus furthering my beleif this set may have been cobbled together by the seller.

As the set was not huge, it was not a major setback, but anytime a set is not numbered, it will increase your build time by a couple hours while you search for parts.

Other than those 2 issues, the set itself was identical to the Lego Slave 1.

It is a well thought out build, and very solid

Halfway through though, I ran into yet another issue, a few missing bricks.

Not show stoppers, the 2 angled pieces are inside and cannot be seen, so there is no worry skipping them.

The little ones on the other hand are directly needed to attach other parts to.

Luckily I had a couple from other builds spare.

The set does include stickers, and they are well made, on par with Lego here.

This is a fun build to do all in all. Lots of cool design elements.

Had there not been so many issues this would have been a fantastic set.

I cannot fault Lepin here, so it wont affect the final score, but be sure to buy from a reputable dealer and not some fly by night company on AliExpress like I used.

As I rule I only ever use my 2 main dealers, but due to stock shortage I had no other choice in the matter.

End of the day, this is a great set for UCS collectors who want to save a pile of cash.

A Solid 9/10 and a great display piece.

So it is no small surprise to me 3 regular readers, that I am a bit of a Star Wars fanatic.

So it should come as no shock at all, that when one of the largest brick sets ever made by the Chinese block-off community dropped I would be on it like white on rice. HA!

I had been eagerly awaiting The Monarch since about Sept 2019. The big (only by piece count) brother to this ship came out in the fall, and though similar to the Monarch, it has a full interior.

Since I only intended for this to go up on a shelf for all of eternity, it made little sense to waste an additional few hundred bucks on a ship that had an interior, especially when in my opinion, the Monarch looks better overall.

So I snapped it up the first chance I had in mid-January, right before the Chinese New Year shutdown occurred.

When the set arrived I was a little worried, for the first time since I have been ordering from China, the box cam badly damaged.

I had actually been re-taped by DHL as it had split one side completely in two.

My biggest worry here was could there be some missing parts? Unlike Lego sets, all these sets come jammed into a box as tight as possible, so if they pop open, they could go everywhere.

I spoke to the seller and he assured me if anything was missing they would make it right, but on a set that is nearly 12000 pieces, it could be a week before I would notice anything missing, and even so, when looking through 12000 bricks to find a single piece you may need, it can take a while, and who knows if it is even here.

Luckily he had a suggestion, the box weighed 13.95kg. He suggested I weigh the set and see if it is the same, if it is, then nothing should be missing.

Thankfully he was correct, and it indeed did come complete.

So first off, this box is HUGE, I propped up a brick puller for scale, but this by far the largest set I have ever seen packaged.

So after cracking the package open, in true “Lepin” style, the pile was infinitely bigger out of the box, than in the box, taking up over half the kitchen table (that is over 10 ft long)

Even the manuals are massive, if I had to guess, combined they are about 5 lbs.

Since this is a MOC, there was sadly no numbered bags to speak of. They are technically numbered, but those numbers mean nothing, I think it is simply a way the factory sorts them.

So unfortunately this meant having to resort to the old “tupperware” method.

When doing MOCs I try and keep things how they were packaged, this has always made the most sense, as bricks tend to be packaged in a logical grouping. So while bricks may not be in the same step in the same cup, they do tend to group with each other on some level.

Another method I have seen used but I do not employ is the true sorted method, whereby you would put each group of like pieces together, a full 100% sort.

This in my opinion is a colossal waste of time, you would likely be looking at half a day just getting things sorted into their own groups. Time I would rather spend building personally.

So with everything sorted it was on to the frame.

The base is incredibly well made, solid and even uses a lot of tricks I see in the engineering world

If I was a betting man I would say the creator (OneCase) has some sort of structural engineering background.

The base frame is a little deceptive in its size, as once it is complete, it is not the overall length of the set.

For that dimension you need to finish the skirting on the left and right sides.

Another nice touch is the docking bay below the ship, it is build right into the base to add to the stability of it.

Now there is a true sense of scale here, and a realization I may have a set bigger then I can accommodate in my display room.

Next up was the massive bottom panels

They too are very well designed. The use of the flat bricks a really give the ship that model like quality.

They are almost too big for the build space

I wish I had taken a pic of the connection method, because it was perfect, the panels use 5 techic rods to attach to the frame on the outside, and another 2 on the under belly, plus and additional 4 connection points along the bottom.

This made things rock solid and line up with ease, though it did take the help of my wife to hold the panel while I inserted the rods.

When complete the bottom looks almost seamless

The docking bay is showcased nicely and would look great lit up.

Once the base is done the back of the ship gets finished.

I screwed up here in my build and it cost me a fair amount of time and frustration.

The upper and lower back panels are suppose to be assembled in pairs.

I did not see this, I only made one of each, left and right, and presumed that the upper 2 would come into place once the top two panels were ready, this however was not the case.

They all should have gone in together at the end of book one.

With the back out of the way, it is on to the 2 massive top panels.

There went together in a similar manner to the bottom, very flat and smooth.

The side cannons were a real unique design that I am not too sure if I like.

When fully assembled they look decent, but they just seem a little flimsy compared to the rest of the build.

The finished top is very well detailed.

From here on out it is just layers on a cake.

Each was pretty straightforward though a little tedious and time consuming.

The steps in the remaining sections were a little grindy by the end, so many just require one of two small parts.

This took forever to search for, as there were space over 20 different containers typically.

To finish out the build was the 3 mini ships.

This is the only part of the build that was a little weak.

The ships being so small are often held together with just a single little element.

Especially the blockade runner, which had a great look to it, but it is extremely fragile.

That was it for the build, total time taking about 35 hours I guesstimate, I did not time it, but it seems about right, took me just over a week, building every eve and through 1 weekend.

But the finished product is a sight to behold.

No major hiccups or errors, only a couple steps that specified one length of brick but required another. Careful reading with make these evident.

Only a couple pain points for that required kragle as well.

The dome under the ship would not stay on, it is well designed, but the gravity of the panels apply a bit too much pressure to the dome and it kept popping off, so a small dot of glue here fixed the issue.

The only other spot of contention was the nose of the ship. I like my points to line up, and originally they did not, they left panel was a bit warped it seemed, so to rectify this I took some grey sewing thread and made a loop around the front.

Unless you are less than 1ft away you cannot tell at all

Lastly, there was a TON of spare parts on this one. They give you close to 100 tool sheets, with 9 parts each, the entire build only require 1 part from each sheet, and a couple spare wrenches. So the other 900 odd pieces are spare.

Not sure if they count the sheet or each piece for the total part count in the set.

All in all not a set for the faint of heart (and those lacking in space) as it is a very time consuming and at times tedious build.

But if you are looking for the best ISD on the market today, the Monarch is it, and at less than 50% of what Lego is charging for their far inferior model.

A solid 10/10, no questions asked.

So we are starting the New Year off with something pretty unique out of China.

After Lego kicked open the door for Lego Books with the Ideas Pop Up Book last year, the Chinese Block-Off community saw the build idea and capitalized on it.

There have been a few sets now that use the same book design, sans the popup aspect.

The first of which was this awesome set from SY, the Iron Book.

It contains over 50 of Iron Man’s suits from over the years, all the way back to the Mark 1.

Coming in at a whopping 2000 pieces, I expected the set to be way bigger, but upon closer inspection, it is primarily due o the way Chinese blocks are counted.

Mini figures from Lego are just 3 pieces, head, torso and legs.

In China, it is Head, left arm, right arm, left hand, right hand, torso, waist, left leg, right leg.

So each Iron Man iteration is 9 parts, not including his accessories.

So with 52 figures, that is already over 500 pieces just for the mini-figs.

One aspect I really appreciates about this set is the numbered bags, MOC sets rarely have numbered sections, so it was wonderful to see.

The book build is very similar to the popup book, with the exception of the cover.

Another surprise is the use of stickers. I had assumed (incorrectly I might add) that the big Iron Man logo was a printed part. It is not.

It is one of the biggest stickers I have ever applied to a set.

I highly suggest you have some form of flattening tool available to take out the bubbles, because you will only be getting 1 shot at applying it.

The cover us adorned with a fantastic 3d Iron Man helmet.

I have seen a couple mods that have his eyes wired in to glow, the effect is pretty cool if you have the time and cash to do it.

The minifigs themselves are of exceptional quality for a Chinese knockoff.

The clutch is good all around, and there is a TON of accessories included.

Everything pictured below is just the figs and accessories!

The figure build was a bit tedious as nothing is numbered.

So if you want to put them all in chronological order, you will have to painstakingly compare each fig to the layout in the book or online.

As so many of the figures are similar, it can be a bit challenging.

All in all it was a fun set to build, and I hope we see more branching out like this in the future.

I have seen already there is a DC vs Marvel Chess set book which is a really neat idea as well.

A solid build, with great display-ability.

A 8/10 and a must have for Iron Man fans like myself.

So it has been quite a while now since we have had a 100% single player Star Wars game, I can’t even recall the last one to be honest.

So when Respawn announced that they were making a new single player only, no loot box, no multiplayer, no pay to win game, the industry took a moment to pick their jaws up off the floor.

EA is not known for giving us complete games. Hell, their entire business model up to 2018 was to shill every customer for as much as they thought they could get away with.

Well that was til the backlash against them over Star Wars Battlefront 2. Fans spoke out so loud and long that they actually revamped their entire loot plan, and BF2 took such a financial hit from negative press, that I am honestly stunned EA even entertained another Star Wars game.

But they really did learn, and become humble at this years E3, coming right out saying they are eliminating loot boxes and paid expansion, it was a brazen change of direction for them. One fans looked on skeptically.

But proof is in the pudding.

Here we sit a year later with one of the best Star Wars games I have ever played, second only to Knight of the Old Republic.

The story takes place in a time between Episode 3 and Episode 4. After order 66 wiped out the Jedi, but about 10 years prior to A New Hope.

With a force sensitive scrap salvager and a fallen Jedi as his teacher.

I wont give away much of the story, as it is honestly pretty great, and works very well within the confines of the universe we all know and love.

At its core, it is a really weird mix of well established genres.

It is part Tomb Raider / Uncharted in its level traversal and climbing based puzzles. With wonderfully crafted worlds (6 in total) that are all open world, yet in the fashion of Legend of Zelda, require certain items or force skill unlocked as you journey to open paths in a level you are in.

Puzzling is nothing terribly difficult, but there are a lot of secrets and alternate routes to take if you are keeping a close eye on the level.

It is part Dark Souls in it unforgiving difficulty and the way it handles death. Every time you die, you respawn back at the previous place you meditated. And thus respawns all the enemies in the area.

This makes for a real balancing act, when you are low on health, do you meditate and respawn everyone? Or do you forge on and hope you make it to the next checkpoint.

If you do get killed my an enemy, they will now glow after your respawn, and they will hold all your previously acquired and unspent experience. Pushing you to find them and kill them, or you risk losing it all.

It has a vary Final Fantasy skill tree, where you spend points you accumulate from experience, every XX amount of points you get, nets you a skill point to spend on abilities. Most ranging from 1 to 3 points to unlock.

There are a fair bit of skills to unlock as well=, about 40 in total if I recall correctly. From throwing your saber, to additional combos, force push and pull boosts, etc. All adding to your arsenal of force destruction.

Upon day 1 release, sadly the game suffered from A LOT of glitches, from disappearing droids, to not being able to complete a Platinum run of the game as the collectables were glitched.

In the coming 4 weeks post launch though, they managed to clean pretty much all of it up. Just a bit frustrating for us day one buyers.

The only downside or negative I can say about the game is, they is little to no replay value added. Once you have got a Platinum, you have honestly seen and done it all.

I understand there may be a New Game + mode coming, that would go far in extending the life of the game for sure.

Visuals in Fallen Order are top notch, with excellent use of HDR and 4k, the game is incredibly crisp and colorful. Some of it can be a little too dark at times, even with a well calibrated TV or projector, but all in all the good outweighed the bad.

Sound was stellar, but not surprisingly so considering it is Lucas magic after all. Tie Fighters buzzing overhead, wayward shots from stormtroopers who can’t hit a thing, all of it sounded on par with the films.

An excellent romp that lasted about 25-30 hours for a Platinum trophy, and a damn fine addition to the Star Wars universe.

A solid 9/10 and a must buy for any Star Wars fan out there.

So this one is a big difficult to review. I am a huge fan of Kojima, and this is his first new IP from his new company, and in a way it kind of shows.

It is by no means an Indie game, yet there are things about it that scream Indie title.

From unfinished design elements, to bizarre story telling that needs to be read about online post game to ensure you understood what just happened.

Yet on the other hand, this is nothing but AAA.

From perfectly mastered environment, great character design and stellar acting, to a killer soundtrack that will stick in your head.

It is all tossed in a blender and comes out with a strange UPS delivery man simulation in the end.

When I first started Death Stranding I presumed the parcel delivery was a kitschy little thing that would going to be a secondary element.

Well boy was I wrong, the game is 95% package delivery. And the weird part is, it works.

I started off not really caring for it, it was an annoyance, always having to balance you load, make sure you were not carrying too much, or that you were not falling and breaking your goods, or having them rust away in the terrible rains.

But slowly as time passed, I found I was trying harder and harder to get the mail to the rightful owners. It just grows on you over time. When drudging hip deep in snow, trying you best not to slip and ruin your load.

Things do get easier as time goes o, you develop the ability to craft buildings and roads at the heavy cost of resources. But the sooner you can get together a highway or a zip line network, the easier things will be in the back half of the game.

The game also ties together with online in a weird Dark Souls kinda of way, with a persistent online tie to other players and their buildings. They will help supply resources for your roads for instances.

Or leave little emoji signs warning you of danger, or of treasure ahead.

It is a strange add in that works well for the world, but sadly did not serve much purpose.

You cannot interact with other people in any way directly.

The graphics in Death Stranding are absolutely amazing. For a new studio, it is extremely impressive what Kojima could achieve here. The world he crafted is exquisite. From barren desert plains, to snowy mountains, to grassy fields, all of it feels very real, and very somber.

This is a game about isolation, you spend the vast majority of it alone, you vs the elements.

With the occasional smattering of vocal music to set the mood.

The audio is a real treat as well, there is a TON of rain in this game, and it pairs well with simulated Atmos. The ceiling feels huge here, and the surround is well designed.

While it does lack in bass for my liking, the ambient noise in the game is a real treat. In a world so dead, it certainly sounded alive.

Some of the weird shortcomings in the game center a lot around driving.

This is where the Indie side of things starts to show.

There are a few types of vehicles in the game, mainly bikes and trucks.

But my God the bikes are HORRIBLE! Like we are talking 1 out of 10 stars horrible.

It is like something that was designed in the Sony PS1 days. You cant even bump a rock without getting stuck or flipping. It is absolutely terrible. So bad that 90% of the time I avoided them altogether and just walked instead.

That’s right, I would rather spend a dozen extra hours walking than use the provided transportation.

There was also some technical glitches, like the game randomly crashing when a cutscene would start, those type of QA things that could have been fixed with another few weeks of testing.

But I imagine Kojima needed this out in time for holiday 2019.

Had this been any other designer, they likely would have been crucified over the issues. But we all give him a bit of a free pass due to the amazing story telling he does.

All in all Death Stranding was a good game, warts and all.

Not a 10/10 title, but a fantastic 1st attempt for a man who has shaped the gaming industry over the last 30+ years.

A must play for Kojima fan, or for aspiring UPS / postal workers.

A decent 7.5/10.

When trolling the rebrickable site a year or so ago, I stumbled upon the plans for 2 amazing MOCs, the Colonial Viper, and the Cylon Raider.

I immediately knew I had to have them, and promptly bought the instructions from the creator.

I dumped the part list into brick link, and came to find I would have to spend about 600 per ship to complete the builds. Not too shabby, but at the time I just didn’t have the capital to put on them.

So fast forward to spring 2019 and low and behold, the Chinese block-off community decided to make the Colonial Viper, and for a paltry $200 none the less, this immediately went to the top of my list, and I for the first time in Lepin history, pre-ordered it.

Now this was a mistake.

I was too damn excited, and jumped on the promise of coming next month. (This was Feb 2019)

4 long months passed, and after delays and more delays due to the bust of Lepin, I was getting pretty skeptical if this would even happen.

Well finally after long last, the end of June arrived and so did my shiny new ship.

I immediately tore into it, to find for the first time, there was not instructions. Now luckily I had actually purchased them the year before, but I would be pretty pissed if I had to shell out another $50 for instructions that in the beginning, were not conveyed that I had to buy.

I cracked all the bags open and dove in.

It became very quickly apparent that sadly the color match on the bricks were all over the place. The reds do not all match, nor do the whites.

All in all it does not matter too much, when it is on a shelf 9 ft away from my desk chair, I cant see a difference at all.

The build itself was moderately challenging. Nothing crazy for a MOC build, but there was a difference in color choice for the interior unseen bricks that was not mentioned, this lead to some searching for nothing as the bricks I needed were different.

This is a real shortcoming in the MOC block-off community. They seriously need to supply a part substitution list.

There are really only 2 major short falls in this set. One I am pissed off about, as it was never rectified by the seller (Jeremy @ Whatsapp)

The cockpit itself is 100% wrong.

The glass provided is completely incorrect, and the cost of a replacement on Bricklink is $20 or more.

When I brought it to his attention, he straight up told me they would not be able to provide a replacement:

Second, and this was a doozy.

The way the engines are constructed have to be the single handed stupidest think I have ever seen in a MOC.

You have to precariously place all the surrounding bricks, then shove a rubber tire into the middle, in such a precise way that if it is off by a couple mm, then it will not connect to the ship itself.

It took me close to an hour just to get a rough idea of how to do it, and probably 2 hours to make it would at all.

Essentially you make a Circle out of tank tracks, then you wedge a dish into the tire, which is an extremely tight fit, and does not fit evenly, then insert the small ring holding 8 tiny grates.

Here is a mini album of the process:

 

It was TERRIBLE.

Beyond those 2 major issue though, there was very little to report.

The build otherwise is very straight forward, it sits on the stand nicely, and looks fantastic on the shelf.

A good starter build for budding MOC folks, (short of the engines) and over all a rather non-frustrating build.

A 8/10 for finished presentation, and a must have for BSG fans.

When I first caught glimpse of this MOC, long before the Chinese block-off community grabbed it, I was taken aback.

It is rare to see a set like this. Something on a micro scale, yet so incredibly detailed. With hundreds of small buildings peeking out under the massive Star Destroyer. It was something of beauty, and something I figured I would never have a chance to build, as the likelihood of me putting in the time to collect the bricks for this was pretty unlikely.

But thankfully, the “Lepin” community rose to the challenge, and popped this set out.

Coming in at a whopping 5098 bricks, it is no small feat to put this thing together.

Sorting of MOCs is always a challenge, and I tend to not stray too far from how it is bagged. In my experience, bricks of a like step or kind tend to be together. Not always, but short of sorting every little brick, this is what I have found that works.

Sadly one thing that came immediately apparent was, they decided to change the color of the interior “unseen” bricks. Now this is not an issue IF, and this is a big one, IF you let people know what you changed….

What it made for was a terribly frustrating build as you had to literally guess what bricks would not be needed later. The substituted Red for Blue, but also put in a pile of light grey and dark grey, both of which are used in other parts of the build.

So when assembling the base, hundreds of substitutions were made, and worse yet, the manual is pretty unclear on colors specification. Sometimes things looked red, other times orange, and the 2 greys are almost identical in the book, so finding the right parts was a real challenge.

All that said, the base is incredibly well designed. It is solid and shows very little change of falling part at all.

The detail level is incredible, with multiple layers of “dirt” layer after layer.

Once the base was out of the way, the city level posed the next conundrum. The instructions on how the support posts inside are placed leaves a lot of guess work as well. So when you are coming around the structure later with the walls, you may run into instances where you have to take some of it apart, and move the columns as they are in the wrong place.

Another major shortcoming was the lack of properly colored supports for the star Destroyer. They provided white, and they should have been clear, this was to give it that floating look, which was completely ruined by 2 giant white technic sticks….

Worse yet is the fact that they are built right into the base and into the Star Destroyer, so if you decide to change them later, you will need to do a substantial amount of rebuilding. So mu suggestion is grab a pair of bricklink BEFORE you begin.

And while you are there, grab a set of clear sticks for the mini ship supports too, those are inconveniently white as well.

Lastly we have the Star Destroyer itself.

For a ship that is so “small” it is incredibly well details, but sadly, it is also incredibly poorly designed.

The top and bottom plates will not stay in place and closed along the seams at all.

I tried multiple redesigns in hopes to fix the flaws, but in the end was only able to find one fix… Kragle…

That is par for the course for MOC builds usually, but I still hate to break it out if I can avoid it.

The command deck as well was areal pain to assemble. From the instructions being a bit vague at points, to finding a delicate placement of things to make them look right. It was just a pain to assemble.

Luckily it required no glue to make work.

All in all, it is on par with MOC builds. It looks fantastic finished, but it is a royal pain in the ass to get there.

Definitely a 8/10 on the complexity scale. And only recommended for the seasoned MOC builder.

One of the coolest looking sets in my collection though, and I do still recommend it no matter the challenges faced.