My God, it's full of studs: Wange aircraft series review

[Space Police XVIII]

So I bought these aircraft sets.  Wange JX001, 002, 003.

They're pretty neat.  Quality is decent.  They sort of lean toward model kit, a little, with those specialized parts.  I bought them specifically for those, wanted to accessorize my MOCs with weird wings and stuff, and for that they're pretty much perfect.

They're built at different scales, but the not-quite-minifigs are the same; clearly, the Chinese military is breeding a race of supersized supersoldiers.  I wonder if the President knows about this.

Anyways, first the jet, JX003, manual says it's a J20 heavy stealth fighter.

I actually really like this.  Solid, swooshable, I think it looks neat, especially those angled tailplanes.

Landing gear is fixed - in fact all three use the same landing gear - and there's an opening missile bay with two missiles.  Also a retractable taillight.  In trans-neon-green, for reasons foreign and mysterious to me.

Next, JX002, a WZ10 gunship.

.....yeah

Its action features include scaring small children with its face, spinning rotors and bits falling off.  It's not a very good set.  These things are not Lego quality, in general, and the construction of this one shows it: the layered plates add up to where parts show gaps, there are several weak connections, the cannon just sort of flops around on a turntable, and the wings are attached just by this 1x4 bit.  Better design could have allowed full minifigs but noooooo.

It is at least a very nice supply of unusual parts:

The minifigs have little Lego Racers style bodies, the heads/helmets being slightly more narrow than Lego parts.  All parts are printed, there are no stickers.  Friction pins are light gray and frictionless, white.  There're some interesting pieces here, I think, including 1x2 plates with studs on both sides.  These are equal in thickness to Lego plates, each set comes with a bunch.

JX003 bits:

Also some useful junk.

JX001 is some sort of license-built Sukhoi, a carrier-based fighter in the People's Liberation Army Navy Air Force.  Heh.

It has already been stripped for parts, here are its wings,

I haven't bothered to wipe off the markings there, yet.  We People's Classic Liberation Space Army now.  Also it's an okay photo for showing off color differences.  Here's another.

Even bluer than bley.... I tend to mix old and new grays deliberately so I personally don't mind very much.

Since I'm not posting 001, here's its parts inventory at least.

And it's got these neat missiles:

Both ends accept Lego parts, the 1x1 cones and trans-red bricks are Lego.  The smaller missiles, meanwhile, only have an anti-stud on the back.  Both attach to aircraft by this narrow slot, which can accept the edge of a flag piece, the vertical bit of a small 1x2 panel, that sort of thing.

The intructions are of decent quality.  Parts already placed are in colorless white to avoid drowning in a sea of gray.

This isn't Lego quality, but good enough that I've tossed the standard plates and wedges in with Lego and use them interchangeably; the biggest problems are the slightly different color, the blank studs, and now and then the damn hideous injection mold marking whatever it's actually called.  I wish I could say I haven't seen worse from Lego, though.  Anyway, parts fit together decently, with tight clutch, the models hold together well, and tolerance issues only show up if there's say a bunch of them stacked together, or supporting something that's only hanging on by a 1x2 connection like the gunship's warty nose.  Set design could be a lot better.  001 and 002 both have bits that fall off easily.  003 is nice and solid though, and the fit of parts like the 1x6 base of the vertical stabilizer is improved.  Maybe that's a running theme?  I plan on getting one more anyway - the JX006 Osprey - so I'll find out.

That's about it.  Thanks for taking a look.  If anyone really really really wants those plates with studs on both sides, JX001 is the best purchase, it's got 25.

Edited June 2, 2017 by Space Police XVIII

[-zenn]

Some interesting pieces; such as the canopies, the sloped tiles and especially those double studded plates.

But I'm not gonna support some cheap chinese knock-off brand.  TLG for me, nothing less.

[Space Police XVIII]

11 hours ago, -zenn said:

cheap chinese knock-off brand.

Ahh, I used to be a purist also.  I got better.  :D

Seriously though, that is an interesting point.  What do you consider knock-offs?  Would Megablocks qualify, or the old Tyco brand? 

[-zenn]

8 hours ago, Space Police XVIII said:

Ahh, I used to be a purist also.  I got better.  :D

Seriously though, that is an interesting point.  What do you consider knock-offs?  Would Megablocks qualify, or the old Tyco brand? 

Hahaha Sluban, Enlighten, Hsanhe, Lepin, Megablocks... All the same to me; they just don't provide the quality that TLG stands for.