Reviewing Fanhome’s Darth Vader 1:2 Scale Build-Up Subscription Stages 35-38

The ninth package for my Darth Vader 1:2 Scale Build-Up Subscription has arrived from Fanhome.* I see a few witchy little pieces in this box for the inside of the helmet, which is already dialing up my anxiety. I also see what appear to be bits of 1:2 scale fingers, so I am hopeful that my own giant 1:1 scale fingers will be getting a break from teeny tiny pieces in tight little spaces that were clearly not intended for them.

Build Stage 35

The 35th magazine in this build has features on Mother Talzin and Admiral Konstantine. Mother Talzin, is, of course, Darth Maul’s mother. Maul was stolen from her by Darth Sidious after he had promised her the role of Sith apprentice that he instead gave to Maul.

The build stage in this packet includes a bunch of witchy little tubes and bobs for the inside of Lord Vader’s face mask. My fingers, as stated many times already in the reviews of this build, are way too large to accomplish this installation without specialty tools. For these parts, I used angled tweezers. It still took me a long time, because those over-sized mitts of mine still had to control the teeny tiny parts via the tweezers with precision they aren’t built for.

Build Stage 36

The characters in this stage’s magazine are Pong Krell and Zam Wesell. Krell is a four-armed Jedi general whose aggressive tactics made clones reluctant to fight under him. He saw them as tools, rather than individuals, which saw a much higher-than-average death rate among his troops. You can see how this line of reasoning led to his seduction to the Dark Side.

This build stage has more of those little tubes for the inside of Darth Vader’s helmet (Yay!) and the pieces to build Vader’s left thumb. The finger pieces for Vader are notably much more complex than those that were included in the E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial build that I am nearly finished with. Vader’s fingers are articulated at every joint so that he will be poseable with various props and hand positions.

Build Stage 37

Stage 37’s magazine continues the saga of Darth Vader, chronicling the period between the destruction of the Death Star and his light saber battle with Luke. Fanhome pulls canon from the films, comics, and novels to make a neat little timeline that shows the frustration felt by Anakin when Emperor Palpatine blamed him for the failure, demoted him, and constantly degraded his pupil for his incompetence. 

This build stage contains no inner helmet tubes, which is a nice break. I say ‘break,’ because I see more little holes and anchor points within the face shield that are no doubt destined for more witchy little parts down the line. We do get to build two more fingers, the left pointer and middle fingers. 

Build Stage 38

This magazine has the third installment on Count Dooku and a piece on Embo.

For the build stage, I constructed Vader’s left ring finger and pinky. At this point, I would have gone on to Build Stage 39, which contains the parts for Vader’s hand, but there is currently a delay with those parts. These happen occasionally. Depending on the availability of the parts, Fanhome usually ships the missing stage within a couple weeks.

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