May the 4th be with you! Star Wars Day is this week! What sort of started as a bad pun, (“May the Force/fourth be with you”) has now turned into a full-on celebrated holiday it seems. And now that Disney has announced a whole slew of new movies that will be hitting theaters over the next several years, I think it’s well justified.
To help us get ready for the celebration, the folks at Revell, Inc. sent us four (how appropriate) of their new SnapTite Build & Play model kits of ships from The Force Awakens. These kits are aimed at kids 6 and up and can serve as a young padawan’s earliest encounter with the model-making hobby. With only 15-20 parts and no glue or paint required, the complexity of what a parent might think of when considering a model kit aren’t present. The inclusion of moving parts, plus the addition of lights and sounds solidifies these as pulling double duty as toys once the building is finished.
We had four kits, so we found four kids ages 6 to 11 to try them out. The box claims 30 minutes of build time, but even including opening the box and cleanup these kits were snapped together by each of our testers in under 20. The older kids enjoyed the build but wanted it to be longer. There was some disappointment when it was over (“that’s it?” asked the 11 year-old) and though they did consider taking them apart to build again, I stepped in to dissuade them. While you likely could pry the pieces apart again, that’s obviously not the intent here – once it’s snapped, you’ll risk breaking tabs or other parts.
Overall, the detail on these are something even adult fans will truly appreciate. All four models have a sense of realizm, desspite their small size and few parts. Each has their own select play elements as well, with opening cockpits on all, the tiny BB-8s onboard the X-wings, and retractable landing gear on the Falcon. Each model can stand up on its own to display on a shelf, are durable enough to endure careful play, and light enough that they can easily be hung from a ceiling for a bedroom dogfight.
There’s all sorts of Force Awakens products out there to help you and your kids fill in the time between movies. Tops for us this May the 4th are these these models – and we’re anxiously anticipating the second wave that’s due out from Revell in October.
From the Revell press release: All Revell Star Wars models for “The Force Awakens” are designed with the same computer data used to create the movie props, resulting in strikingly accurate facsimiles of the vehicles moviegoers will experience on the big screen. All four kits are available at both Target and Toys R Us stores. Batteries are included. For more information, visit www.revell.com