Today I’ll be taking a look at two SprüKits by Bandai. A new line of articulated models for kids ages 8 and up. Today I’ll be taking a look at Superman from “Man of Steel” and Batman from “Arkham City”. My full review and in hand images after the jump…

I will say that my first impression was that the instructions were a bit intimidating but that obviously was just at first glance. I’ll be showing images throughout, in progress shots of the build of both figures. But I will start out with what I didn’t like about the SprüKits.

Taken at face value with full knowledge of what these  toys are supposed to be there is very little wrong about them. Having said that, I do have a few nits and things to watch out for.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the paper capes. I was hoping they would  be soft goods but they are a high quality paper material, like  what magazine covers are made of. (I know what you’re thinking, what’s a magazine?)

Another thing I didn’t like was that there  didn’t seem to be any extra pieces. Meaning if you lose a piece or a piece is missing from the set entirely then you my friend are out of luck and will not be completing your SprüKit. I imagine that hopefully Bandai would have a system in place (like Lego) to send you  any missing or lost pieces but I can’t confirm nor deny that.

My final and only other complaint is that the missing piece situation is made worse by the fact that while the pieces are very convenient to remove from the kits, they do have a tendency of coming out before you need them to. Adding a terrifying few minutes to my build looking for a few loose fellers.

All that aside, these  are very fun kits. It’s sad that the small pieces limit that age range on these because  I can’t imagine a better way to teach children structured building and patience  than having one of these figures as their reward. The box says 8 and up but I’m sure there are kids younger than that with the ability to handle the difficulty level. I’d like to think that I would be one of those kids (probably  not).

The instructions were very easy to understand once I got the hang of things and the pieces themselves intuitive enough that I found myself  skipping the instructions on several instances (a few times to my detriment).

Both kits took me about 30 minutes each back to back and at no point did I want to punch the instructions. I should say that I really enjoy building things. I find it very relaxing, so much so that I look forward to putting together furniture just as much as I would a Lego set.

I’m very impressed with the overall look and articulation of the end result. The best part being if a kid plays too hard with these he’ll know how to fix them. I enjoyed the process and it almost felt like getting a behind  the scenes look at how toys are made.

I had  fun building them and like the figures enough to add them to my shelf. I highly recommend them to collectors and kids with building abilities.

Special thanks to Bandai and Sarah Gumina for sending these over!