Bandai 1/144 Star Wars AT-AT (2021)

[Bill Plunk]

Build log for Bandai kit #0214476 Star Wars 1/144 AT-AT.

[Bill Plunk]

Like many in my generation, Star Wars (the original 3 films), was ingrained in my psyche and I spent countless hours playing with the Kenner action figures and even had a "Darth Vader" head case to hold them. I also have a memory of my dad building an AT-AT plastic model (probably the ERTL offering) and one of my friends having the much-coveted actual toy with battery-powered light-up blasters that would recoil as they fired just like in the movie. When Bandai announced they were producing a 1/144 AT-AT, I knew I had to have it and it sat patiently in the stash waiting for its turn to come for me to build it. My school adopted a year-round calendar for the year and the two-week intersession break provided the chance to tackle something quick so it's number was finally called.

As usual with Bandai kits, this one is designed to be "pressed together" and not require any glue which allows for many workable features to be included vs. remaining a static model. The construction process is broken into 4 parts in the instruction steps, Part 1 focuses on the "head", Part 2 on the legs, Part 3 on the body, and Part 4 on the base. I started in the logical place with Part 1. When done correctly, it builds up into the full head minus the "cheek" guns that can articulate from side to side for variable posing options.

[Bill Plunk]

Part 2 breaks down the leg construction into "Leg A" and "Leg B" sections since there are 4 in total but the legs have to be assembled differently depending on whether they are front (Leg B) or rear (Leg A) legs. As long as you follow the instructions carefully and pay attention to the parts order for each, you'll end up with four fully workable and posable legs. One of the keys to this is the four "toes" in each foot, they remain posable too and this helps greatly later on when trying to achieve a level footing for the whole vehicle.

Leg A assembly and posing options:

[Bill Plunk]

More progress on the legs, got the Leg B Set done today. The final pieces to determine the piston positions on the leg actuators don't get added until later on when they are added to the body, so they are missing for now on purpose.





Next up will begin work on the body!

[Bill Plunk]

One of the attractive, but also a little challenging, features of this kit is the poseable legs and how they interact with the rest of the vehicle. The AT-AT can't sit with all four legs "square" because of the way the footpad "toes" interact with each other, so even when it's at rest, the legs have to be offset from each other in order for it to stand properly and also hold the body level. The kit design accomplishes this in a pretty ingenious way...by having all for legs and the connection points into the body remain fully workable to allow for everything to be positioned just right regardless of whether it's sitting on a level desk top or an uneven base/terrain. That's pretty cool in my book!

After building up the lower half of the body in Part 3, the legs get attached and posed and the appropriate different pistons are added to show that particular angle depending on what you choose. The challenging part is making the constant little tweaks to the different legs until the true balance is achieved because an adjustment to one requires adjustments to the others until everything levels out.





The main body "box" top half is also assembled in Part 3 and goes together nicely. The option of having some of the side doors/panels open or off is there if you want it with some nice interior detail to show off. I will be closing this up though on mine.

[Bill Plunk]

The last remaining part of the build involves the assembly of the body top to the bottom and the placement of the various doors and rear detail parts. It also attaches the "cheek" guns to the head and these are also independently poseable if you're so inclined. The kit also includes a pair of clear red "laser" beams for the main guns but I decided to leave those off on mine.







The base that the kit provides is just a simple white snow base rectangle that can be joined to other Bandai snow base panels to create a larger overall scene. I haven't decided if I will use it or not and it may be a while before I can get the chance to paint the finished AT-AT, but it's nice to have it as an option if I decide to go that route. Painting may have to wait until the Christmas break depending on how busy things are between now and then.