Right ...
I finally finished the AUNDBLOCK Firefly/ Serenity knock off set . 1345 pieces .
Can of Monster for scale ...
Right....where to start ?
Okay, this is my first build of a non Lego set I think and I wasn't really expecting much from it . I thought it would go together okayish but thought there would be bits missing or terrible instructions...
Okay , first off , the box is better than Lego , made of stronger cardboard with nice pictures on it.
Now , this box is packed tight with bags and there are a lot of them but only 7 sections but each with multiple bags. So , there's like 6 of bag 1 , 7 of bag 2 , etc.
Now , somewhat annoyingly there's bits you need from each of the bags at the same time so , rather than opening bag 1a, then 1b you have to open all the bags 1 up and have them all out on your building surface. A minor annoyance but it also means you can't do single a bag and leave it, you have to be prepared to dedicate a couple of hours to the build at a time or be prepared to keep getting it all out etc etc ...
The blocks go together well enough, lots of grey obviously but they look good and it's broken up by different shades and the transfers . Some of the blocks are a bit harder than Lego to snap together but they go together easy enough. There are some bits where the blocks are moulded that seem unfinished, there's a tiny hollow or empty hole you don't see in Lego but these are covered up in the build.
Where my thumb is are two of the hollow bits I said. Not a big deal.
Everything is tight and fits together well, instructions are reasonably clear and easy to follow . I went wrong a couple of times but I can do that with Lego too....
The most annoying thing had to be the transfers.
Once they are on I couldn't adjust them and the first couple I put on did not go on well, you peel them off the sheet and place them then there's another clear sheet on the transfer you just placed and I buggered up the first few...
Look at the hazard signs by my thumb . Wasn't smooth until I got used to them.
Anyway, there's a lot of time involved in making this , you really get your money's worth out of this build . It comes with a stand for display purposes. This is obviously a display piece, not a play piece, a couple of bits are possibly a bit too delicate and may get dislodged easily whilst moving it around but they go back on easily enough. To stay accurate to the Serenity they have to be made this way and it would be difficult to reinforce them as they would look wrong .
There's the option to open the top up to show the messroom...
The section with the green and red is the messroom and isn't really worth it in my opinion and also an Armoury or section of weapons .
Right , that's my observations on the build and the problems I found. I paid around £20 for it or about $27 . It is labelled as Aundlock but Amazon also call it as Ziqilighting for some reason...
Anyway, my thoughts on the build ? Well , I fucking loved it. After putting together a Lego floral arrangement for my mother which I did not enjoy and the Wednesday dormitory which was okay this was like a breath of fresh air. All the problems I was anticipating didn't arise , I had no issues with missing bricks , they snapped together well , the instructions were clear and almost as good as Lego. I found myself really enjoying the build despite the mild annoyance with the transfers/stickers .
Was a really nice build and it looks really nice in my opinion.
Now, marking it...despite the minor issues I raised, I've got to go with a bloody decent 9.0 .