QMan Flying Bombing Soldier Set 41303

Qman's Flying Bombing Soldier is built from 272 blocks — a combat aircraft that also builds as a soldier figure, and one of the four Trans-Collector sets that form the Roaring Flame God General. Age 6+.

One quarter of a larger robot

Sets 41301 Flame Blade Raider, 41302 Iron Fist Commander, 41303 (this one) and 41304 Laser Sniper are four separate boxes. Each builds a complete model on its own, and each is also one section of a larger combined robot. Set 41305 contains all four together, 1,201 pieces in one box.

Aeroplane into robot is the oldest transformation there is

Of all the things that turn into robots, the fighter aircraft came first and has never been displaced.

The reason is proportions. An aircraft already has the parts a humanoid needs: a fuselage that reads as a torso, wings that fold back as a jetpack or shoulders, a nose that becomes a head or a chest, and undercarriage legs that are already legs. Nothing else in the vehicle world lines up that neatly — a car has to hide its roof somewhere, and a tank has nothing resembling arms.

Macross in 1982 made the definitive version with the Valkyrie, a jet that passed through a halfway stage — the Gerwalk, aircraft with legs — before standing fully upright. That three-stage idea was so persuasive that it became a genre convention, and the VF-1 is still the reference forty years later.

At 272 pieces this set does the same trick in brick form, without the halfway stage.

Specifications

Pieces: 272 · Aircraft or soldier build · Series: Qman Trans-Collector · One of four sets forming the Roaring Flame God General · Age: 6+