Let's Build: Pantasy Dragon Ball Tenkaichi Budokai (87003)

One of the first things I noticed is that there aren't many stickers. I don't mind stickers, but putting them on correctly, can be a pain at times

Let's get building!

Opening the Number 1 bags and spreading the pieces, the first thing i noticed was the gold pieces. The gold pieces were absolutely gorgeous, and may be one of my favorite colored pieces of all time. The next thing that stuck out was the piece quality. The pieces were lighter and thinner, not smaller light some kits, but overall they felt different. I don't find this as a bad thing per se, its does make the overall model lighter and as long as pieces fit together like they should, it's nothing to worry about. Finally the last thing I noticed was the brick separater, while smaller, had a nice pink color to differentiate it and did its job well.

The book lays out how each set of bags will cause the finished build will look at each step then jumps in the the first steps.

Creating a floor plate using those gold bricks and large green plates. The one thing to note here and what I found different is the build plate doesn't sit flat to the surface, its actually a raised build creating a platform, which is good if you build cities as it prevents having to build that platform. Going through the steps, bag 1 finishes the training grounds and the custom nameplate.

Moving on to bags 2 you start completing the walls between the training ground and the building. This step uses stickers for the first time. The way they make the dragon heads using the various pieces is actually a really interesting and good look. Overall bags 2 seemed to be the quickest and easiest but added a ton of detail.

Moving on to bag 3 you start to get the actual building started. Other details like the trees start be get added as well. You create the rest of the platform with the final gold touches. The way the tree is handled to create a "bending" effect is something I don't think i've ever seen in a kit and extremely innovative. The windows were preprinted, and I personally made sure they looked uniform across the front. If I had any criticism, The back of the building is open with only "posts" supporting it, I wish it was a tad more boxed off for stability reasons. Is that a deal breaker? No. But a nice quality of life upgrade.

Bag 4 finishes most of the building and the details around it. First you put together the long sloped roof, which in my opinion was very well down and designed. The way it came together to create the front of the building looked slick. My biggest grip, and not just here but most building block sets are always the trees get put together. While I liked the way the branches stacked, the open "u" shape of the leaves tend to be brittle and any slight hit makes them fall, and this was no exception. I'm not sure what a better solution would be, so there may not be one, but it is my biggest issue with anything with trees. Once the trees were finished you built the front sign, using another sticker to create the wording. 

Going into the finals steps and completing the second story of the building, the model is coming along. You add some details on top of the dividing wall making the center taller like pillars. Another sloped room after completing the smaller second story is attached. The model finishes with another of the detailed dragons on top of the building.

Now lets move the the "mini-figures". These are a bit different, and it looks to be on this kit. The mini figures are not 3D figures, they are flat pieces of acrylic with the character printed on them, that gets attached to a base. I couldn't explain the reasoning for this but I would have liked standard figures. Needless to say that the figures still look good, and since printed on they do have detail. It took almost as long to peel the plastic off both sides of the figure than the model took, but I suck at peeling things off.

There was actually plenty of stickers left over, another long banner and several of the small brick ones. They will get stuck in the book and stored.

This was my first Pantasy build and I am pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. The pieces fit properly, I didn't have any faulty pieces. It had some extras of the small easy to lose pieces. The overall look of it is fantastic and will appease to brick builders, city builders, and anime lovers. Overall solid build and I look forward to building more of these. (Hopefully with video for the next ones!)

You can buy this right here at my shop: