Finally finishing the set of Disneyland Shanghai Exclusive character models, I present Pluto. And once again, I want to offer a huge thank you to the wonder fellow builder who had the full set of three sent to me as a gift. I am humbled and grateful. These are some of the hardest Metal Earth models to get, and I am so excited to have them in my collection. At his request, I saved Pluto for last.
I think the idea was to keep the most unique one for last. Four legs on the ground, this is the only Legends-esque model built as such (the My Little Ponies models all have one hoof in the air). And it is absolutely adorable. The big silly grin, the curly tail and floppy ears. So much fun. Oh, and the collar is loose and dangly, which seems quite appropriate.
Unsurprisingly, this model is not hugely challenging. There are a few odd angles and joins around the head that resist you a bit. In fact, there are parts that end up with a bit of curvature to them that is not really indicated in the instructions, but created when you try to get tabs seated flushly. My advice is to look ahead, and use the sides of the head guide you in forming the the rest of the parts of the head.
I did get quite confused at one point after this, though. In particular when forming part 12. Enough that I lost focus on the rest of what I was doing in regards to that step that I went and attached Pluto’s head in the wrong orientation, such that if I had finished it, his head would have been upside down. Why did this happen? Because Part 12 doesn’t have a standalone forming diagram, it’s just shown formed in place alongside an adjacent part. They did put a blue forming line/arrow along it, in place. Which would be great, except that it starts on one of the adjacent parts and indicates a fold where Part 12 starts. Which makes it look like the part has 4 folds in it, when it only has 3. That is, as long as you notice the final fold, which folds back at just the right angle so that you don’t actually see the surface of the bottom-most segment. It’s quite confusing, as you can see in the first image below, so I corrected the blue-line and faded everything but Part 12 itself to make it more clear what is and is not Part 12.
The final note on this model is a suggestion for forming and assembling the body. First, like the head, you can use the sides to help guide the amount of folding for each edge in the front and back of the body. Second, if you don’t like juggling parts that are hard to balance and keep together, then build all the legs first, followed by attaching them to the sides. Finally form the front and the back faces of the body (including attaching the tail. And finish by assembling all the various parts (including the “belly” piece). That’s what worked for me, at least.
And with that, I finish what might be my shortest build post! This build took me just a bit under an hour, and was a great pleasure. Thank you again, good friend! You can watch the full build in the YouTube video embedded below:
What a timely post. Pluto is supposedly in the mail as we type. Love the colors and looking forward to the simplicity. I just finished the Red Keep and the Mountain this weekend and yesterday, so I have the whole GOT group assembled. I appreciate the heads up on part twelve. The instructions don’t really give that secret away. You are getting good with the images.
Oh man, that Red Keep looks intense. So many hexagonal columns. The sad thing about part 12… I did notice that the blue-line wasn’t right, and worked out what it was supposed to be beforehand, and then still attached his head upside down. *facepalm*
Have your 5 Sec Fix ready for attaching part 1 to part 3. IMO there should have been a third tab. I was worried after that and bought some super glue and ordered some 5 sec Fix of my own. Turned out it wasn’t that bad. I super glued a couple tower bases to eliminate the wobble but it turned out pretty nice. I could stand not to build a turret for a while. Shaping the the tiny turret roofs was my biggest challenge. It is actually pretty small compared to most of the other GOT models.
I think Pluto looks great and cant wait to build it with the head turned the right way!
Thanks for the heads up, I’ll keep that in mind!