Reviewing Fanhome’s ‘Star Wars Darth Vader 1:2 Scale Build-Up’ Subscription Stages 30-34

This month’s delivery for my Fanhome Star Wars Darth Vader 1:2 Scale Build-Up subscription has arrived.* This build has been extra challenging for me as a beginner. There are all sorts of witchy little pieces, and much of the build so far has been inside the Dark Lord’s helmet. Teeny, tiny little pieces, massive fingers, and what amounts to an inverted bowl for a working surface have caused me to curse loudly and often. They tell me this is how character is built. 

Build Stage 30

This stage’s magazine features biographical pieces on Sith alchemist Albrekh, who worked for Kylo and the Knights of Ren, and Lieutenant Blevin of the Imperial Security Bureau. 

The build stage itself contains four of those aforementioned witchy little bits for the inside of Vader’s helmet. These pieces didn’t cause me a whole lot of trouble, although I realized at the end that I could have attached three of them together prior to placement inside the helmet. That would have saved me a considerable amount of frustration. 

Build Stage 31

The magazine for stage 31 has a third installment on Darth Maul, who, despite only having six minutes of screen time in Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace, remains one of the most memorable villains in the entire franchise. For reference, Darth Vader himself only had  eight minutes, six seconds of screen time in Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope, so six minutes isn’t too shabby, except Maul’s death in Phantom Menace didn’t really leave options open for future appearances in the live action films. 

There’s also a piece on Carasynthia “Cara” Dune, who was a dope-ass character in The Mandalorian. That is, until Gina Carano, the actress portraying Dune, showed her backside on social media prompting Lucasfilm to fire her and release the following statement:

“Gina Carano is not currently employed by Lucasfilm and there are no plans for her to be in the future. Nevertheless, her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.”

The build for this stage is just attaching a metal sensor to the front of Vader’s belt buckle and attaching a circuit board to the back of that metal piece, to be used in another stage from this box.

Build Stage 32

This magazine has a sixth installment on the big guy himself, focusing on Vader’s final duel with Obi Wan Kenobi. The second feature is on Admiral Yularen, loyal ally to Grand Admiral Thrawn.

In this build stage, the blade of Vader’s trademark red lightsaber is assembled. There’s a string of red LED that get threaded through the blade and secured to the distal end with a hemispherical cap. On the other end, a circuit board and half the handle are attached before setting the lightsaber aside. 

I really wish the lightsaber was completed by the end of this box, but in the second half of the instructions, all those little boxes and the buckle/sensor get attached to the belt. This is another stage that had me loudly and frequently swearing, as there are loads of little wires that get routed in and out of those three boxes, and a funky little switch that has to be set just so.

Build Stage 34

This stage’s features are on the traitor Count Dooku and space pirate Hondo Ohnaka.

The build for this stage is more of those incredibly small and finicky bits for the inside of Vader’s helmet, and a couple additions to Vader’s chest plate. You may notice in the first photo that I attached those side bits upside down. That is, in part, due to my confusion over “right” and “left” when talking about someone else’s face. Vader’s right or my right? It’s the inside of the helmet, though, so my perspective should be the same as his, yes? Let’s overthink this some more, please. It was easy enough to fix (this time), so no harm done.

One thing that has baffled me repeatedly is the order of operations on some of these parts. Those two last little square-ish golden bits would have gone in much easier prior to the installation of those golden triangle-ish bits that these now need to partially slide under. I’m sure there is a reason. I just hope the reason isn’t that I installed the triangle-ish bits upside down or something, which I may well have. 

*Fanhome provides this subscription to me free of charge for the purposes of review.