Heading into the rough territory of retired models, I’m taking the #ThrowbackThursday this week to the Willys MB Jeep, which has been retired in favor of the new Willys Overland. Though, from what it looks like, the only real difference between the two models is that the MB Jeep has a mounted gun and the Overland does not. So my original review thoughts might be applicable to the new Overland model.

Metal Earth build 165: the Willys MB Jeep from the #ICONX line. This beauty has been finished for a while, but I haven’t had a chance to set up my photo light box to capture it until tonight (you can tell it’s been done for a while by the presence of dog hairs I managed to not notice having collected on the hood before taking the photos).

This model has so many neat details that it was hard to decide what to capture in the additional photos. I tried (from two different angles) to get a good shot of the dash, control columns, and floorboard details, but couldn’t get truly crisp photos. And the number of layers to the wheels on this thing! The undercarriage, the headlights and grill, the muffler… I could go on!

As a warning to future builders of this model, there are a few details that are missing or wrong in the instructions that can make this a frustrating build: (1) the first set of wheel bases have one diagram where a part is connected to the wrong side – check the assembled diagram next to it for the correct alignment; (2) one of the axle like pieces needs to be folded “backwards” so that when you attach them to the frame, on both axles, the pair of slots are in the middle (front to back) and closer to the driver’s side of the vehicle (look ahead to how the undercarriage frame gets attached to the body); (3) all of the tabs on the interior of the wheels need to be folded, even if it says they can be twisted – there is not enough room when you attach the two halves of each wheel together for the twisted tab ends.

Pay special attention to the note about the axles – I’m amazed that I didn’t have to request any replacement parts after having disassembled the undercarriage frame 3 times because I put it all together wrong (and twisted some of the tabs the first time, to boot). I can throw together some diagrams if anyone is confused by my descriptions of the problem areas.