Review: The Well-Deserved King - GULOGULO Tiger Tank 131 Building Blocks
Hi there, welcome back to our website. This is Rachel from the GULOGULO team. What’s new these days? As for me, I recently re-watched a classic war flick Fury, which you might have seen earlier. Believe it or not, I was far more attracted by the invincible German Tiger Tank 131 than the handsome actor Brad Pitt. Picture this scenario: several Sherman Tanks' shells hit the Tiger 131 like tickles in a head-on fight with Tiger 131 whereas a single round of Tiger 131 could destroy a Sherman Tank. What a mighty weapon it is!
The actual Tiger Tank in history was even more powerful. There has never been a weapon that can give such a shock as the Tiger Tank. I was quite fascinated by the Tiger 131 which was sort of the king of the battlefield. Then as a building block enthusiast, I wanted to get the best Tiger 131 brick kit. I finally opted for GULOGULO German Tiger Heavy Tank 131 Model Building Blocks which came with the most pieces. It is pretty much a premium kit that is designed exactly after the actual Tiger 131. Today I’ll be reviewing it.
To begin with, let’s go into the unboxing.
-Unboxing-
It didn’t take a deep waiting after I placed an order. The delivery was even faster than I predicted. The whole set of GULOGULO German Tiger Heavy Tank 131 Model Building Blocks arrived well packed, protected by a very thick plastic film. There were 18 bags, a bag of minifigures and a bag of accessories of weapon and tools included, and an instruction manual. The whole set of Tiger 131 Model Building Blocks came with 1018 pieces in total. The material was ABS, which was high quality and environment-friendly plastic.
Okay, next I would start the sort then speed build.
-Building-
First let’s check out the instruction manual. It was really easy to follow. I divided the bags into three parts for each construction step.
I was delighted that I didn't find any defect parts and finished the first part easily. The basic tank frame was shaped.
The most impressive step for me was the assembly of the engine. I took pieces out of the engine plate and snapped them together. Subsequently a realistic V12 tank engine caught my eyes. It was pretty cool!
Then I mounted the engine on the rear of the tank.
Then came the second part of the building.
There were a great many custom tank pieces, which gave MOCers lots of opinions.
I had a little bit of trouble when I built the air filters. The two air filters adopted a combination of multi-section cylinders to simulate the actual appearance, with small parts embedded in the cylinders. That required patience and finally I made it.
Then the body of the Tiger 131 was completed. The Tiger's heroic posture was visible yet.
For the third part, I built the turret.
There were still some custom pieces for the turret. The number 131 carries a story that military fans are likely to know. We'll hear the history a bit later.
The turret was built, which made me a little bit excited.
Eventually, I attached the turret to the main body of Tiger. Hooray! Now I have the GULOGULO Tiger Tank 131 Building Blocks fully built. It took me about 3 hours to build and it was great fun. The pieces fit together easily and solidly. Additionally, I assembled the attached 6 minifigures and a bunch of weapons which I'll go over later.
-Overall Display-
The finished model is absolutely breathtaking! It's quite a feat for a building block model to be this historically accurate. I'm totally amazed and way more satisfied. Now let’s take a full view.
This GULOGULO Tiger 131 Building Block set measures 34*12.7*15.2cm(13.39*5*5.98in). The length of barrel and the height of antenna are taken into account.
The GULOGULO Tiger 131 is mainly light tan. It’s World War 2 tank series of GULOGULO.
-About the Actual Tiger Tank-
As I mentioned before, there is quite a story behind the Tiger Tank 131. I’m glad to share with you guys.
The Tiger Tank was a heavy tank used by the German army in World War II. It was the most iconic German tank and also one of the most dreadful tanks on the battlefield. In World War II, whenever the German army saw the Tiger tank, they had the courage to continue fighting. Whereas for allied soldiers, the sight of tiger tanks meant a lopsided battle, fear and retreat. Today it is still the nightmare of many allied soldiers who survived World War II.
The Tiger was hurriedly developed in response to the Soviet T-34. When it appeared in 1942, it was probably the strongest tank on the battlefield. With a weight of 57 tons, the Tiger was a real chunk. Its long-barreled, high-velocity 88-mm gun which was adapted from the Germans’ formidable antiaircraft (Flak) and antitank (Pak) guns, could penetrate even the most heavily armoured Soviet tanks at extremely long range. At the same time, the Tiger’s own frontal armour, 100mm thick, was proof against almost any antitank gun.
In the movie Fury, a Tiger defeated three Allied Sherman tanks. The historical truth is even scarier. The kill/loss ratio of Tiger tanks to Sherman tanks was about 8/1 on the western front, and the majority of Tiger tanks were destroyed by allied air strikes. Of course, the Tiger also had its drawbacks. The Tiger emphasized to an extreme the German preference for firepower and survivability at the expense of speed, agility, range, and reliability. Tiger tanks were difficult to manufacture, thus only about 1340 had been built when Germany ceased production of them in August 1944.
The Tiger with the number 131 was captured by the British in Tunisia in 1943. This first mechanically complete German Tiger captured by the British was the key to the British success in breaking Germany. The Tiger 131 was extensively studied by the British arsenal. The Allies devised a variety of tactics to target the Tiger's weaknesses based on the data from the study. The Sherman tanks and Churchill tanks on the front line fought hard and finally recovered some of the disadvantages.
After the war, the British army transferred Tiger 131 to the Bovington Tank Museum and it became the star of the museum. It was elaborately restored and got a replacement engine of a Tiger II. Today, only seven Tiger I tanks survive in museums and private collections worldwide. What’s more, Tiger 131 is the only operational tiger tank in the world.
So guys, that’s the history about Tiger 131, really impressive. The Tiger, considered by many to be the most powerful tank, has been featured in many movies and games. The 2014 film Fury, as I mentioned, was the first modern film using real Tiger for shoot since the 1946 film Theirs Is the Glory and the 1950 film They Were Not Divided. The Tiger in the film Fury is exactly the Tiger 131 exhibited in the Bovington Tank Museum. You will be familiar with the Tiger tank if you are a World of Tanks player, and its gameplay is more than historical.
So let's get back to the GULOGULO Tiger Tank 131 Model Building Blocks. I’m gonna check out the features on this tank. Overall the GULOGULO Tiger Tank 131 Model Building Blocks set is really fun to build. There’s a lot of realistic things on this set that I really like. It does have all the features that I expect. Now I will take you through the features in terms of four parts which are the turret, the side view, the front view and the back view.
-The Turret-
First, let's take a closer look at the turret, a decisive factor in tank firepower. The most iconic number 131 is on each side of the turret and that's not a sticker, but actually printing on the brick.
What shocked me the most was the main barrel that restores the three-section tube shape and length ratio of kwk36 of the real Tiger.
There is a different color muzzle break at the end of the barrel, of which the shape is historically accurate. Plus the muzzle break is a custom mold. That’s marvelous.
The barrel does raise and depress. Its elevation angle is larger than the depression angle. It’s totally cool when I raise it very high, like a real Tiger in battle.
The commander's conning tower at the top of the turret and its hatch are pretty realistic.
The hatch can be opened to put one of the minifigures inside, revealing the upper body. I’ll just put the commander here. For a moment, it was as if I actually saw the scene of the commander in the war.
Next to the conning tower is the hatch for loader which is square, not the same as the circular conning tower's hatch. The hatch is openable and oriented like the actual Tiger.
There are more accurate details like smoke projectile launchers on both sides of the turret. However, one thing a little unclear to me is the extra track on each side of the turret. As far as I know, the Tiger 131 exhibited in the museum doesn’t have stuff like that. However, I do have seen this design in other Tiger tanks. So it’s not a big deal.
It’s well-known that the back of the real Tiger 131 turret is arc-shaped while that of the GULOGULO version is trapezoidal. Nevertheless, this is understandable in view of restrictive nature of bricks.
The turret is rotatable and theoretically it can rotate 360 degrees. I find it doesn't fully rotate unless I remove these engine filters and antenna. But basically I don't turn the turret in that way, so never mind.
Now let's take a look at the turret as a whole. It's pretty verisimilar.
-The Side View-
Road wheels and tracks are my favorite part of tanks. I love those for GULOGULO Tiger 131 Building Block set in particular the overlapping and interleaved road wheels. Subtle detail differences of driving wheels and induction wheels are visible.
As a tank block enthusiast, I know it's really hard to make good quality and realistic tank tracks. Nevertheless obviously, GULOGULO Tiger 131 Model Building Block set did that. There are two things that excite me to no end. For one thing, it uses long and wide tracks to simulate the drooping state of a real Tiger’s track very successfully.
For another thing, this Tiger model runs so smoothly with these tracks and wheels. It can move forward and backward and the tracks never get stuck. The squealing of the wheels, like a real tank, totally strikes me. I was suprised to find it rolls well on most surfaces including some unsmooth surfaces like carpet. So sad I can't show the dynamic scene to you guys. If you've got this, I highly recommend you to try pushing it on a carpet, or put some small obstacles in front of the wheels to simulate the off-road Tiger, totally fun.
Next let’s have a look at the side skirts, really fun part. Each side skirt can be placed horizontally or adjusted to slope down. Since the side skirts of the real Tiger are down, I usually do the same.
Moreover, there are some details like the shovel and extra track on each side of this Tiger blocks. I can’t say, it seems that those aren’t on the actual Tiger 131. But it may use other Tiger tanks as reference.
You can see the insignia printed on each side of the tank, the German Iron Cross.
Let's look at the side as a whole.
-The Front view-
The detail is great for this part. I believe everyone would see this coax machine gun at first sight, just like me. It’s a really cool feature that this coax machine gun can move up and down, or left and right, depending on how you put it. It looks real like a little barrel.
The front armor has two openable hatches, pretty good for me to put minifigures in. The two hatches are also positioned exactly like the real Tiger, one for the machine gunner and the other for the driver. The two hatches are as detailed as the commander's hatch. I just put the machine gunner in there.
There are also some features which are actually accurate to be real Tiger 131. Additional tools, a shovel and a pickaxe axe, are mounted on the front armor just like the early Tiger. A distinctive feature of the early Tiger tanks was the large shovel on board, which could be used to clear obstacles and remove mines. The observation window is made of multiple pieces and I love how detailed it is. And the roof of the tank is equipped with two lights.
Besides, the treads on the front are identical to the real Tiger. I really love the realistic details like this.
Also is as always, let's look at the whole front side. Somehow when the barrel is pointed at me, I feel a sense of oppression. I don't know if you have the same feeling.
-The Back View-
I would like to focus on the exhaust panels first. With 24 small pieces, the exhausts are not only very accurate in appearance, but also fun to build. We've also got two protective tubes next to each exhaust. Every detail is lifelike.
The exhausts and fenders are adjustable (0-45 degrees for exhausts, 0-90 degrees for fenders). I adjusted them to the same angle as the original Tiger.
Okay, let's move upward. One notable feature of the early Tiger, which might be familiar to many military fans, is its air filters. At that time, dusty type conditions wreaked havoc on tank engines. So the Germans developed the air filter, used to filter out the dust and other sundry things from air in the battlefield, so as to avoid the decline of power and lose of service life of the engine. GULOGULO Tiger 131 Building Block set does a great job of detail about this. As I've mentioned before, it was kind of difficult to build the air filter on account of many pieces of them. But that’s why the air filters are pretty lifelike. There's a sign of air filters next to them.
Now buddies, prepare to be amazed, because the next feature is going to blow your mind. Afterward I’ll remove the air filters, and we can see square grating with a small bump here.
It’s actually an engine hatch with a tiny handle. And guess what, it can be opened and then we can clearly see the engine compartment! That’s totally marvelous. The engine is a realistic V12 tank engine, a really cool thing.
The details of this engine really mean a lot to me as a military enthusiast. Even with today's advanced technology, it is not an easy task to drive a tank of several tens of tons. Then how did the Germans drive the Tiger tank seventy years ago? The key was the Maybach gasoline engine of the Tiger tank. The Maybach HL230 P45-12 is a 12-cylinder, V-arranged, water-cooled gasoline engine, so we call it V12 engine. As I said before, the V12 engine of this GULOGULO Tiger 131 Building Blocks is quite true to nature.
Moreover, there is an antenna fixed to the right rear part of the tank and grid design for heat dissipation spreading over the entire rear of the tank. These are far more authentic.
Lastly, let's look at the whole back side.
So that’s all features of GULOGULO Tiger 131 Building Blocks set. Pretty cool, huh? There are some little flaws about it, like the pieces of air filters are not very well fixed to each other, and fall off from time to time. But those are mostly little things that are overshadowed by the greater and larger things in this kit. Next I’m gonna show you more cool stuff.
-Minifigures and Weapons-
Now let's look at the whole host of accessories that I mentioned. They're numerous and pretty awesome. We've got six minifigures that have many identities and different appearances. The lifelike details make me feel that there is a story behind each minifigure. Now I wanna show you one by one.
First up is our commander. He is decked out to the extreme. Look at it. He has this extremely dramatic cape, even felt fluffy. His nice hat has little printing which is an eagle with spread wings. That is the national emblem of Germany from that period. He seems to be a very authoritative commander.
So this is a bearded tank soldier with a serious face. He has printing on the front, back, left and right, which looks like a neat black military uniform. There’s also an eagle printed on his garrison cap.
This is also a tank soldier who is a little excited. He is dressed the same as another tank soldier.
Then this guy is an infantry who looks really angry somehow. He is wearing a blue military uniform, and the printing on the left and right side of him is detailed. There is a black, white and red flag shield badge printed on the left side of his helmet while an eagle with vertical downward wings, the Wehrmacht Eagle emblem, printed on the other side.
Oh look at this infantry. He's really not doing well, and looks like a walking wounded, as you can see. He's got two different gunshot wounds, so there are bandages over his head and abdomen. But he's still bleeding through the back. Poor guy. His uniform and helmet are the same as the other infantry.
The last one is a sniper with a camouflage pattern on the face. He was dressed in camouflage and had an eagle printed on his hat.
So those are the minifigures and I really love them. The printing on these minifigures is really great, high-quality stuff. I mean they won't rub off, smudge or anything like that. Furthermore, the printing has quite an insane level of details and is historically accurate. The degree of tightness of the joints is just right. Plus, there are several areas on the top of the tank where minifigures can be held in place in addition to the four hatches I mentioned before that can be opened to place the minifigures, so GULOGULO Tiger 131 Building Blocks set gives us a wide variety of ways to place the minifigures.
Except for the amazing minifigures, this GULOGULO set also comes with tons of weapons. The weapon accessories are so numerous that I can’t help but say you buy weapons and get a tank free. The content of the weapons is as following: MG34 Light Machine Gun, Mauser 98K Carbine, GEWEHR 1943, Mauser 98K Carbine (with sniper scope), Maschinenpistole 40, MP44 Assault Rifle, the iron fist anti-tank rocket launcher, MG42, Sturmgewehr 44, WALTHERP38, Luger P08, Mauser C96, military dagger.
The MG34 Light Machine Gun is mountable. It's got a bullet belt and a bipod that you can stick in the gun. You can use something like a small sandbag as a bunker to set up the machine gun on it and put a minifigure that is adjusted to the down position nearby, in which way the scence of a warrior heroic shooting in the battlefield is built.
Though it seems unlikely that the STG44 and Iron Fist would have been included in the Tiger 131's weapon list based on its time of capture, I am very pleased with these weapons. The set also comes with a tiny little canteen and I have already got 3 shovels and a pickaxe axe mounted on the tank, which can be removed at any time and fixed to the hands of minifigures. Here I built a scene: the wounded infantry sat down, prepared to drink water to replenish his strength while another infantryman picked up a shovel indignantly after he saw an obstacle ahead blocking the advance of the tank, ready to clear the roadblock.
So that’s it, these minifigures, tools and weapons are really nice additions to the GULOGULO Tiger 131 Building Block set, perfect for building a war scene. This GULOGULO kit pays immense attention to details which I have never seen quite frankly in any custom figures I've ordered. Not to mention it's cheaper than other versions of the Tiger 131 Building Block set. This is, in my opinion, incredible.
-Some of My Thoughts-
It has been more than 70 years since World War II ended. The all-powerful Tiger tank has become one of the cultural symbols representing that human catastrophe. In WW II, what view you hold of the Tiger depends on what you're fighting for.
On one hand, there was nothing more inspiring than the sight of two bullet-riddled but still solid Tigers in the back of weary and hopeless soldiers, in Rostov, Budapest and Normandy. "The tiger saved quite a few lives" was the remark of an ordinary German Wehrmacht soldier after the war.
On the other hand, the Tiger was a constant source of fear for allied soldiers. Tiger 131, the first mechanically complete German Tiger captured by the British was the key to the British success in breaking Germany, so that the world saw the dawn of victory. While brutal memories of war are eventually lost to history with the passing away of veterans, military equipment can be profound enough to tell people what happened. This is why I like to learn about weapons. I do not yearn for war, but I want to remember the war, remember the soldiers of different sides but equally heroic. Thus I have a collection of tank bricks from the war. Once they pointed their guns at each other, fighting for different fates. Now they stand side by side, telling their legends.
-Summary-
All in all, the GULOGULO Tiger 131 Building Block set is as good as it can be. Above all, it’s historically accurate compared to the original, with numerous details. It looks great wherever I display it in my house. It also feels more than substantial and the pieces don't tend to fall off. There are many accessories on the tank that can be manually adjusted, which makes the model fully playable. It is also a great opinion for the scene building, with abundant weapons and 6 minifigures.
Furthermore, this Tiger Building Block set just beats others because it has way more pieces. It’s a lot of fun when building. At the same time, it’s really easy to build on account of the subcontracting of pieces and the instruction manual with clear steps. So GULOGULO Tiger 131 Building Block set is appropriate for the beginners. And speaking of this, I ordered one more GULOGULO Tiger 131 set for my nephew interested in tank blocks.
The performance of GULOGULO Tiger 131 Building Block set absolutely makes this worth the cost. It also costs less than other versions of Tiger. So overall is a super price/performance ratio. Last but not least, GULOGULO definitely deserves more recognition due to its perfect after-sale repair service. If you're a military history buff, building block enthusiast or MOCer just like me, I will highly recommend GULOGULO Tiger 131 Building Block set, definitely the well-deserved king.
Here is the link to get this.
Really thank you for your reading, guys. And I hope this review could be a help. If you have any questions, please leave your comments below and I’ll be happy to answer any questions. See you next time.
Comments
Post a Comment