COBI TOP GUN F/A-18E Super Hornet Jet, Version 2 Set 5805A

COBI's F/A-18E Super Hornet Version 2 is a 1:48 model built from 560 blocks, 39 cm long, under the original Top Gun: Maverick licence in the film aircraft's markings. A full load of weapons hangs under the wings, the cockpit takes a pilot figure, and a display stand with a plate carrying the aircraft name and the film logo is included. All markings are printed; no stickers.

What changed in Version 2

Worth being clear, because the difference is the reason this set exists.

COBI redesigned the vertical stabilisers. The originals were built up from standard bricks and came out noticeably thicker than the real aircraft's fins; the new ones are purpose-made thin parts. Several structural details were improved at the same time.

On a Super Hornet the fins are a large part of the silhouette — they are canted outward and unusually tall — so getting them wrong affects the whole shape. If you are choosing between versions, this is the one that looks right from the side.

It replaced the Tomcat

There is a neat symmetry in the Top Gun films. The 1986 film was about the F-14 Tomcat. The 2022 one is about this aircraft, which is the machine that retired the F-14 from the US Navy in 2006.

The Super Hornet is not a modified Hornet — it is around 25 per cent larger, with a new wing, a longer fuselage and different engines. It took over the fleet air defence role from the Tomcat, the strike role from the A-6 Intruder, the reconnaissance role from the F-14's pods, and the tanker role from the S-3 Viking. One airframe, four jobs, which is how a navy shrinks its fleet without shrinking what it can do.

In the COBI range

Sets 5811A and 5920 are the F-14 Tomcats from the two films, 5859 the black "MiG-28", 5921 the Enemy Strike Jet and 5922 the aircraft carrier.

Specifications

Pieces: 560 · Figures: 1 · Scale: 1:48 · Official Top Gun: Maverick licence · No stickers
Model dimensions: 39 × 28.5 × 10 cm (15.4 × 11.2 × 3.9 in)