The Sluban Bradley M3A3S – Sticker Hell!

Hello Cabbagefans, Aaron here, lets take a look at this Sluban Bradley IFV, that’s an Infantary Fighting Vehicle to the non military folk, used to transport and support troops on the battlefield, don’t call it a tank!  This is the scale of 1:35 and is set number M38-B1363, it has 905 pieces along with 4 Sluban Minifigures and accessories.

I bought this set from Bricktanks, do check those guys out for your Cobi, Sluban and other military sets, if you use code Cabbageface-2023 you’ll receive a small discount. https://bricktanks.co.uk/products/m3a3s-bradley-brick-tank-model-sluban-m38-b1363-905-bricks

This is a brand new set from Sluban in their ModelBricks range, it came out the same time as a very nice Abrams TUSK tank, watch this space for a review on that.

I know people love their boxes and packaging, well Sluban have really gone for a premium feel here, the outer sleeve has all the features on the front and back as you’d expect from most major brick brands, sliding off the sleeve reveals a black box, full of your bags, instructions and yes sadly STICKERS!

Lets address that elephant in the blockroom early, yes sadly this set does come with stickers, and not just any stickers… transparent horror stickers, for me this is an absolute nightmare when it comes to any brick set, they never stick that well, often rip and just look terrible. See image below to see. 

I personally wouldn’t apply them as it won’t effect the models looks one bit!

The instructions are on the smaller size, which for me took away from the premium feel they are going for, but they work just as expected, nice and clear – easy to follow. 

Lets get into those Minifigures first, you get 4 with this set, all American Soilders/Marines, or whatever you want to call them. You have one in a balaclava and special forces kind of vibe and 3 normal looking “grunts”. They have excellent prints on front, back and sides.  They remind me of Playmobil figures tiny little brothers.   They are fine, i don’t really get that bothered about Minifigures myself… but for the LEGO snobs this will send them over the edge no doubt.

Now, one amazing thing with these guys is the accessories, they come on spues like you were doing some modelling.  You have various guns, backpacks, night vision googles, watches, body armour, helmets and belts.   Love this, you can customise them to your hearts content.

Now lets get into the vehicle itself.

The Build

It probably took me around 3 hours to build,  I would say a novice maybe 4-5 hours.  It’s a fiddly build, with some really small parts used to make the shapes of the vehicles, you really need to pay attention to the instructions in parts to get the correct slope or hook, otherwise later on you’ll be in a world of pain and deconstructing a set. 

The brick quality is fine, like most of all these other brands, you get some fine fitting parts and some really stiff pieces.  They just lack the consistency of the major brand. 

Does this vehicle resemble the real thing?  That’s the real questions here.  It’s very good, they’ve managed to capture the angles of the hull and turret very well, given how angular these modern military vehicles can be!   The colouring is fine, in a desert style colour and the consistency is there across all the bricks and tiles. 

It has all the armaments you would expect on a Bradley. 

A 25mm Bushmaster Gun, M24OC Machine Gun and the BGM-71 TOW missile system. All housed on the turret.  You can also remove the turret from the hull of the vehicle, it has the “autoloader” in a half clear and half covered tube, which was a nice feature. You can also bring down the rear of the vehicle and load the 4 minifigures inside on some grey seats, which again was a nice feature to get in a vehicle of this size and scale.

Now for the scores:

• Figures 7 out of 10
• Instructions 5 out of 10
• Playability 10 out of 10
• Display appeal 10 out of 10
• Build experience is a 6 out of 10

Overall I would say this is a solid 7 out of 10 set for me, the stickers a huge dent in the experience for me.  Such a shame. That should detract from the aesthetics of this set on display, it’s a beaut and if i was still a kid I would love to have one of these, played wars with it, destroyed it, rebuild it and all that glorious fun with brick sets!