MSRP - $49.00 USD

This is a REALLY BIG kit.  I usually build in 1/35 scale and it is amazing the size difference.  With the big size come some very good and very bad items.  The huge size just cries out for this baby to be heavily detailed and Academy has given you LOTS of room to do it.

Let us cover the things that are not included.  You get no side sponson covers.  You get nothing to hide that fact that you can look into six engine ports and see right down to the torsion bars and tracks.  You get three hull periscopes that have nothing in them.  You get a lower hull that has all the motorization holes that have no plugs to help fill them.  Big hint: If you plan on building this baby, invest in a lot of styrene and good reference material.  If I actually get around to building this monster, I have no where near the reference material I need to tackle even the basic requirements.  I have looked through at least 20 different books on German armor of WWII and have not seen a decent close up photo of a German periscope yet.

Academy says that it can be built in either the early or late configuration.  I am unsure what Academy means by this.  The only time early/late is mentioned is in the choice of mantlets.  You can either use the smaller unbolted one or the later and larger bolted one and a choice of either the single piece or double piece gun.

What you do get is a BIG box with a BIG kit inside.  There are seven sprues consisting of 236 parts of completely flash free plastic, the upper and lower hull, four vinyl track sections (assembled with four metal pins), 20 poly caps for the running gear, a 12 page illustrated multi-lingual instruction manual with painting and decaling options for four different vehicles, and a decent looking decal sheet.

After searching the internet for a few days, I believe this is a re-release of the old Bandai kit.  If this is true, the molds are still in great condition.  The detail that is included is just incredible.  However, the lack of missing parts and the shear size of this monster means that you will be spending LOTS of time scratch and creative gizmo logy building for quite a while.