Presenting with great joy, the review for Xingbao XB-03001 Jintian which is based on Shotaro Kaneda's bike from the 1988 cult favourite Sci-Fi anime movie,
Akira. The movie is also one of my favourites and if you havent watched it then you are definitely missing out. The bike is quite prominently featured on the poster as well.
This MOC has been designed by the famous
Arvo brothers who among many other things have also designed the Cute Dragon kit that I reviewed earlier on this blog. As with my other Xingbao kits, I got this from the guys at
Brixit, You can find them on
Carousell as well.
As expected from Xingbao, the packing is fantastic and everything is well packed.
And to start things off, the kit makes three wheels...a bike with three wheels. Now that is interesting. Not the most easiest thing to do, especially the wheel on the extreme left. Yeah I know, I need to make it better.
The clutch is good on these pieces and the colours are very good, especially the red parts.
Ah and the first "weakness" of the kit, if I may say so. The connection between the two parts is not very strong and can give way if not handled properly.
The connection depends on these parts and the black parts on the top dont have anything holding them down apart from the clutch with bottom pieces. That does not mean, the kit will fall apart. Its just that in a kit that is very strong, this is a little "weakness".
And the design does not allow you to "play" with the bike for the simple reason that the wheels don't move but are stuck in place. It feels like a little disappointment, simply because the kit so far looks gorgeous and it would be even more fun if you were able to roll it around and show off to friends. But I think it will look gorgeous on display anyway.
The pieces are either side of the bike are different so don't be confused when you end up fixing them. And again as I said, the design is great so far with no real problems with it. The colours of the kit are excellent as well.
The main body is done..now comes the interesting part.
The front wheel which is quite interesting..the yellow pieces on the side can be a little flimsy so be careful.
The front wheel slotted on. Looks good but expect only a display piece. This is version 1 of the front wheel. Now we start with version 2 of the front wheel.
The pieces here are impressive but they arent held together with a lot of clutch so a little pressure on the wrong piece can send everything flying apart.
The completed front wheel. As I mentioned, the clutch is not very strong and weak in some places so handle with care.
The completed bike with the second front wheel type. The kit looks very impressive especially with the colours. The build is a lot of fun. However the bike is just a display piece so treat it with a lot of care while moving. The front wheel is merely slotted in with nothing firm holding it to the main body.
Would definitely recommend this bike, especially if you are an anime lover.
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