Construction Brick Kazi KY82011 German WWII Tiger Heavy Tank

Kazi (开智积木) is a brand from China producing KO Lego clone products - as in a deluge of other "home" brand from China. However, Kazi stands out - at least to me - by making quite accurate German World War Two German armored fighting vehicles complete with linked tracks. The details are aplenty and it enhances the model greatly.
This entry is about putting the microscope to one of Kazi's offerings - the German Heavy Tank Tiger I. An original box build model will be reviewed and thereafter, some pictures of my own modification, from this same model, to suit my taste better.


This model boast a massive 995+ pcs of bricks (as indicated on the box) and it took me about 3 - 4 hrs to build this behemoth. Another draw for this model lies on the MSRP of the set being very very affordable. A 1K piece authentic Lego set will set you back about S$200. However, KO Lego does have its fair share of "undesirables". The old saying goes, you get what you paid for. Whether it is still within your own acceptable level. I will give my own un-bias review here as best I can.

Here is the completed model build straight from the box - with some small details modification only (grey chain not included).

LIKENESS
SCORE : 4/5
Whichever way you see it, it is unmistakably a Tiger I Heavy Tank. Underneath the hull, Kazi even modeled the engine and drive train details which is amazing.
The road wheels are aligned in position properly and the linked track adds to the realism of the tank. Although the tracks movement works, it does not run smoothly like a Cobi tank can. Functionality of it wasn't a big factor of concern for me anyway.
Another plus point on the side skirts. Most MOC Tiger I see fail to create the front-up, back-down angle. Kazi's model achieved this seamlessly.
Back twin exhaust and the curved pipes have achieved the few Tiger trademarks which again, few or none MOC Tiger I saw achieve it.
Of course not all are good, no.1 bad has to be the freaking Roman-pillar-esque gun barrel. It is just a laughing stock and something need to be done to it later.

CLUTCHING of Bricks
SCORE : 2.5/5
It is all within my expectations that clutching will not be consistent throughout the build. Majority of the parts clutch a little harder comparing to Lego. A small percentage of bricks clutch a little lose but it stays on albeit flimsy.
Special mentioning goes to the road wheels assembly. Most are tighter fit than usual ie slotting the wheel discs into the + bar. Once in, do not expect to remove it without putting in lots of effort and ingenuity.
Building the turret also causes some frustration. The side assembly parts doesn't seem to match up well that causes the "Slope 18 4 x 2 (30363)" part to not able to clutch at all. The adjoining bricks need to be manoeuvre for all bricks to reconcile and hence clutch. This part actually fail the fundamental of the brick part design. But since the unorthodox method works, all's good for now.

COLOR
SCORE : 3/5 (for shade consistency)
This particular model comes in Sand Yellow. Shade is very close to Lego's Sand Yellow but a shade paler than Lego.
What I noticed is within this same set, I can pick out about 3 different shades of Sand Yellow. It should not be since it is from within the same brand. Distribution is about 80-10-10. Majority of the yellow bricks are within the same shade so it is not too bad. The tank is a rugged vehicle and that further bring down the significance of seeing different shades bricks in and around the model.
That said, I've also bought Sand Yellow spare bricks from other brands and the shade differs quite greatly. Spares are much lighter yellow which if used together, the different shade is very prevailing.

SIZE / SCALE
SCORE : 3/5
I guess the only way to gauge if this tank is within reasonable size is with a minifigure. But then, a minifigure wasn't really scaled proportionally to a actual human stature. So what I did is just to have a rough scale ratio comparison using a minifigure and the tank. Visually, it tells me the tank is still a little oversize. The turret is massive and the hull / chassis are too wide.
However, it is all about giving and taking. With Lego, you pack details, you sacrifice the scale vice versa. But if you just want a Lego-type-accurate Tiger tank and no intention to place a tank commander on it or have it pose with minifigures, then it is ok. Otherwise, a reconstruction to scale it down a little need to be carried out.


MODIFICATIONS

Modification is inevitable for this model. It is by no means completed as it is part of the fun adding, removing, improving bits of the model on and off. At this point, this modified version has acquired my own approval.

To put it very simply, I have reduced the overall width by 2 points. The original model have 14 points across the hull and 8 points across the turret. Now the hull point counts at 12 and turret at 6 - which I have observed is similar to most MOC Tiger I Tanks. Good thing is there are no lack of reference of other excellent MOCs of Tiger I over the internet. My opinion thought Brickmania's version is the best one out there and I have referred to it extensively for this modification.

Overall, I am satisfied with this set. I didn't fork out a fortune for this (did you noticed Brickmania's Tiger cost US$395/- ea?!) and it brought me many many happy hours playing with it (ie building / re-building). It is worth it.
I hope the folks who bought this tank has the same amount of joy I had meddling with this. Sold 3 sets so far. 1 set left - anyone? :)