Reviews: Boolakos WW2 Sherman M4A1 Tank Building Kit

Review：The Most Beloved US WW2 Medium Tank Model - Boolakos Sherman M4A1 Tank Building Kit

Hey, guys! Welcome to our blog. This is Alex from the Boolakos team. Boolakos’ set is not Lego but compatible.

I am a brick-building fan and also a military enthusiast. It’s a pity that Lego hasn’t got military products line. A few days ago, I watched the topical American war film Fury again with my son, Felix, a 10-year-old young man who is also fond of brick-building and military things. After we watched the movie, we talked a lot about the tanks in it. We seemed to have few talks like that as I was always busy with my work, thus later I began to look for something of tanks we both like to foster the communication between Felix and me further. Yes, I found a tank building kit.

OK, guys, I received the package 3 days after I placed the order. So today we are going to review this tank building set. First thing first, let’s unbox it and get to know the things in it.

-Upon Opening The Box-

Well, this product is called Boolakos WW2 Sherman M4A1 Tank Building Kit. Boolakos is a quite new brand, and I want to have a try because it mainly specializes in military building models and the prices of all products seem very reasonable. Once we opened the delivery packaging, we could see an exquisite outer box with a big intact tank image on the front side, which is in a typical style with the tank model on a rough road. There is some other information on the front side including the brand name Boolakos, Tank name Sherman M4A1, YouTube and website information and set information about recommended age being 14 and up and the total pieces of this kit being 726 pieces.

And on the back side of this box, there is some warning information shown in different languages on the left and right bottom and some manufacturer information in the middle of the bottom.

It’s time for us to unbox it. Wow, an instruction pamphlet and a whole bunch of components in the box. Getting them out of the box, the whole bunch of components are divided and put in 5 different large bags including 4 numbered bags and a bag for weapons and tools. The numbers indicate the sequence of the tank model's building and that will help to make the build easier.

And in these large bags, many small bags are in them. Let’s open them one by one and count the bags, one, two, three...the small bags total 16.

Yes, you may have found some minifigures’ parts in a PP bag and some black and gray sprue or injection moulding weapons and tools. Bingo, you really have sharp eyes. This set comes with minifigures and powerful weapons.

-Building Up-

My son, Felix, couldn’t wait to begin to build when he saw the minifigures and weapons bags. Because of his strong eagerness, we started to build the tank model instantly.

With the whole first bag of components assembled except one orange piece, we got the chassis of the tank finished. But I had to say, some bricks were a little difficult to press on. If you are a green hand, you may get some sore fingers. On the other hand, the components connected with each other really tight. Thus we got such a firm and steady chassis. Look at here.

In terms of the left orange piece, it must be difficult for you to figure out its function if you are not a brick-building fan. OK, let me tell you, it is a tool for us to take down the bricks when we build them wrong. During the build Felix got the 31st step wrong and used it to revise. I have to say, the manufacturer is really thoughtful.

The second bag of components made the two lateral sides of the model. Till then, more than one hour had passed. Felix and I cooperated well with each other and our speed became quicker and quicker.

Another half an hour passed, we got the third bag done. The tank was almost finished except the turret.

We went on the construction, without any long time, the turret was completed. The whole building process took us less than two and a half hours. We inserted the turret on the hull of the tank. Looking at this thing, it was pretty cool, which can well illustrate the side view of the real tank's hull, the colors etc. Felix and I like this part most of the Boolakos tank model. But we thought that its outer shape was not so Sherman M4A1. This tank model has a sharp angled hull and turret, and the turret is not so in sync with the hull if compared with the real Sherman M4A1.

Let's enjoy all the merits of this model, and find out the reasons why we felt it's not so Sherman M4A1 by reviewing something about the true Sherman M4A1.

-About Sherman M4A1-

As we all know, the Sherman M4 medium tanks were the most widely used medium tanks by the United States and Allies in Word War II. The tanks were named after the American Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman by the British. Even though Sherman M4 medium tanks’ armor, firepower, and mobility were inferior to German Panthers and Tigers, they were still very outstanding because of their reliability, ease of production and maintenance, durability, standardization of parts and ammunition in a limited number of variants and moderate size and weight (to facilitate shipping and for compatibility with existing bridging equipment size and weight limit restrictions), especially their quick turret rotation and gun aiming for the target speed.

Sherman M4 had many variants like M4A1, M4A2, M4A3, M4A4, M4A5, and M4A6. And the Sherman M4A1 medium tank was the first and last produced Sherman medium tank. It was the most advanced medium tank in the world that time with the same motor and automotive system and armament of M4 medium tank. And the main difference was the cast upper hull. The upper hull of M4A1 was one huge single casting giving it a distinctive rounded slope front and sides. This was a very hard thing to do with casting technology at that time, and something the Germans could not reproduce as they lacked the advanced technology, and facilities needed to do so. And everything of Sherman M4A1 from the hatches to wheels, and turrets, and guns were interchangeable with M4 and other Sherman models. The standardization of parts endowed the Sherman medium tank an easy production and maintenance.

The Sherman M4A1 saw production longer than any other hull type. It also saw all the upgrades like the improved large hatch hull with cast in armor over the hull ammo racks, the T23 turret with 76mm gun, wet ammo racks and HVSS suspension system. It was 30 of these M4A1 76 HVSS tanks that were the last Shermans ever produced. The Sherman M4A1 was also the first to see the combat use with the improved M1 gun and T23 turret during operation Cobra. These tanks would also be the basis for the Israeli M51 Sherman. Three factories produces 9527 M4A1s with all turret types from Feb 1942 to July of 1945.

Military fans may not satisfy this little information, but we need to stop here. Well, let’s go back to the tank model we built.

-Detailed Features over This Whole Tank Model-

Let's have an overall look at the tank model first of all. This Boolakos WW2 Sherman M4A1 Tank Building Kit is pretty cool with realistic chassis, with the similar slop angle of the hull's two sides and some other realistic details. However, this model hasn’t got a round hull and the ratio of the turret and hull is not so in sync, making it something not look like the Sherman M4A1 which has a distinctive round appearance. For military fans, it's kind of a pity if we take it as the replica of the Sherman M4A1, but it is still acceptable as a cool tank model.

There are still many details of this model we like. Let’s take a close look at the detailed features of the tank model from these four parts: the turret, the hull, the chassis and the inner compartment.

-The Turret-

From the shape and design of the turret, we can determine that this model tank’s turret is designed according to the “low bustle” D50878 75mm turret of the real Sherman M4A1, which is roughly similar to the real one.

The “Low bustle” D50878 75mm turret of the real Sherman M4A1 was a variant of T6 turret with some features being replaced and improved by the time that the production got underway. The tank commander’s split hatch(as seen on the below picture) replaced the M3 Lee style MG cupola. Production turrets were built with a pistol port with a solid door on the left side only.

On the top's front right corner of this model tank’s turret, there is a simulated machine gun which can rotate 360 degrees horizontally and move up and down in vertical. But on the real tank, the machine gun was often mounted in the middle of the top turret. This doesn’t matter, it’s not a big deal as I think maybe there just isn't enough room for the commander's hatch if the machine gun is put in the middle of the turret. To be honest, the machine gun model is really cool that I want to try it if it was a real one.

Next to the machine gun is the commander’s cupola or hatch. The hatch’s doors open from the middle to two sides. With the doors opened, we can see that there is a protruding brick. Compared with the real commander's cupola, I take it as the commander’s seat. What do you think?

Behind the commander’s cupola is the radio antenna and the radio is just underneath the armor and protected.

On both left and right side of the turret, there is a pentalpha logo on each side which frequently appeared on the real tanks. And on the left side, there is a special small black printed pattern next to the pentalpha logo. I guess that this printed pattern stands for the pistol port of the real tank as the shape is almost the same with the pistol port.

And now is the most important role of turret, the main gun’s time. The main gun’s barrel consists of 4 tube pins that can target closely and far with the barrel moving up and down, which is very close to the real gun barrel.

A black tube pin makes the coaxial .30-caliber machine gun of this model. On the real tank, this cal. 30 gun is controlled by the gunner same with the main gun.

The turret can move 360 degrees around smoothly. It seems that it gets the rapid rotation speed of the real tank. The real Sherman M4’s rotation speed is much quicker than German Panthers and Tigers’.

Furthermore, it is very easy for us to get the turret off from the hull and install it back on the hull. Looking at here, it is just a simple mechanism with an inverted triangle pin inserting into a hole with a bowl edge on the hull. That’s it, simple but effective.

-The Hull-

And on the hull, there are also many detailed features. Let’s start with the front side of the hull.

Right under the main gun barrel, two entrance hatches are there in a row. The protruding round part in the middle of the hatches may stand for the driver and assistant driver’s periscope sight. These two hatches can be opened manually, and looking through these two hatches, the driver and assistant driver’s seats and some facilities can be seen, which we will talk about later.

On the real tank, in front of two hatches, there were two direct vision ports on some version of Sherman M4A1. As these could allow bullet splash to enter the crew compartment, many factories removed them quickly. It’s a pity that this model tank hasn’t got this kind of design.

Next to the assistant driver’s hatch, there is a black printed circle ring. What does this represent? It may represent the ventilator of the real tank as the ventilator is round and beside the assistant driver’s hatch. I was surprised to find this interesting detail here.

And on the left side of driver’s hatch on this thing, there is a long black tube fixed with two buckles which may stand for the towing cable of the real tank, and it isn’t a so realistic design. It’s OK, if this tank model gets stuck and it can still be pulled out with this towing cable.

Moving our eyes down along with the towing cable, a headlight of this tank model is on the left side of the towing cable’s lower end. A transparent round piece represents the headlight without any shield over it, and a blackout position light should be behind the headlight as I often saw those on the real tank, but no such device is shown here. I think it must be a tough task to reveal so many details on this size scale tank model.

In the very middle of the front hull, a spare road wheel is attached here. The spare road wheels may be attached to many positions on the real tank like the front hull, side hulls and back hull just in the way of convenience.

Between the right headlight and the spare road wheel, we can see the black bow-mounted .30 caliber machine gun with a round flexible mount. This machine gun can be moved up and down with a very limited fire arc like the real one.

And under the headlights, the mud guards are represented by two trapezoid panels. These can well illustrate the shape and protruding state of the real fenders. But if looking them from the side, we can find that their angle are not so curved like the real ones just in a stiff angle.

On the front bottom of this model, there are two towing clevises between the wheels of two sides, which are represented by two green buckles. The towing cable can be right clicked into these clevises. That's a very interesting design.

Then let's move to the side view of the hull. To recreate what faithfully comes from the real battlefield, three sand bags are added on either side of this tank model. But Felix and I thought that the design of the sand bags was a bit weird on the first sight, as there were two protruding holes on each sand bag. We couldn’t figure out what the holes stand for. This makes us a little miserable!

Now let's move backward. Two gray shovels are fixed on the rear deck, and this is another real battlefield instance, where the real shovels can help dig, lift and move bulk materials like sand, soil etc. The protrusion between two shovels may stand for the protective armor splash guard, and next to it, on the very end of rear deck is the grilled engine air inlet cover. This part of design is different from the real tank.

On the real tank, the engine air inlet cover and its protective armor splash guard are near the turret, and the hinges for the solid rear deck engine access door are just to the rear of the air inlet cover.

The engine air inlet cover of this model can be opened and closed. And we can even open and close the whole rear deck like this. Under this rear deck is the engine bay for this tank model, and the simulated V12 engine is hiding here which will be revealed in the following part.

-The Chassis-

Now that the hull part finishes, let’s move our eyes to the chassis part. The most important parts on the chassis we need to pay attention to are the wheels, the shape of which is very similar to the real tank.

First of all, let’s take a look at three groups of road wheels on either side. Each group combines two road wheels with the suspension bogie assembly. As to the bogie assembly, we only get a special piece but not a mechanism we can build up with a lot of bricks and actually can act like the real bogie assembly. The build here made Felix and me feel a little boring, and we hope that we can assemble the mechanical pieces not just a piece with a similar outer shape next time.

Then the drive sprocket and idler wheel of this model have a completely same design. This is also a design that is not so accurate compared to that on the real tank.

On the real tank, the drive sprockets get long and sharp teeth that can insert into the track’ teeth to drive the tank moving but the idler wheel is with a smooth surface.

Lastly around all the wheels is the track. The track of this model consists of many small simulated pieces which are in good quality. And some spare pieces are offered in case of missing and lacking. Then here is the question: Do the wheels and track move? Let's figure this out together. When we move the drive sprockets or the idler wheels, the track will move accordingly. If we want to move the tank model, we need to put it on a cobbled road or a tough road and press on the tank model, then the wheels and track can move like the real ones.

-The Inner Compartment-

By far we've gone through many outer detailed features and structures, but this tank model's surprises are far more than those, let's dig them out together. The quick-removed structure makes it possible to get the whole upper hull removed. So here it is - with the whole upper hull removed, the capacious inner compartment reveals.

In the back part of the inner compartment is the engine bay we mentioned in the rear deck part. The gray V12 engine is located here. This engine is just an injection molding without any mechanisms here. If a simulated mechanical engine can be designed for this model, the military and brick-building fans like me will be happier with it.

There are three crew seats in front of the engine in this compartment, and the seat for loader may get no room to show here. The seat in the second row consisting of brown bricks must be the seat of the gunner as the gunner’s seat is just behind the driver’s and co-driver’s seats in the real tank. And the gunner controls the main gun and the coaxial mounted M1919A4.30 caliber machine gun, and also controls the turret either with a hydraulic system independent of the tank’s motor and a manual system that just uses a crank and gears. It’s a pity that this model can’t show many details about that. I guess that it may be on account of the limited space.

And the driver’s seat is in left side of the first row, which consists of brown and gray bricks and can be seen through the driver's entrance hatch I mentioned in previous text. The seat back's angle can be adjusted. It should be very comfortable if it could be seated on. In front of the seat, there are two gray handles standing for the steering brake levers. And the green brick on the left side may represent the instrument panel. And the brown cuboid brick between driver and co-driver’s seats may be the transmission, I suppose.

On the right side of the first row is the assistant driver’s seat, the construction of which is the same with the driver’s seat And there is also a green brick on the right, which may stand for the .30 cal machine gun’s control part, I guess. Since no more other details are here, it seems that there should be more detailed design shown here.

-Minifigures and Armament-

Do you remember that there are some minifigures and weapons provided in this building set? Yes, now it is the most thrilled part of Felix.

First of all, we got all the parts of the minifigures assembled and tore the weapons off from the sprue plate. Here they are, looking at them, many war images in the battlefield come to my mind.

Totally 4 minifigures are in this set, a commander, a tank soldier, an infantry and a wounded infantry. The prints on minifigures are 360 degrees and in good quality. The arms and legs of them can bend.

The commander has a serious look with knitted brows, it seems that they meet a tough war in the battle field.

The tank soldier is also very serious and seems always ready to execute commander’s order.

The infantry looks very angry, maybe he is infuriated by the enemy’s attack.

And the wounded infantry is hurt badly and looks so painful that he bites his teeth tightly.

All the minifigures' hands can hold the weapons and tools. Felix likes to allocate different weapons and tools to each minifigure in different situations. As to the weapons, all the 10 weapons are the replicas of those ones that played very important roles among Allies in WW2. Felix likes those British weapons very much which are rarely presented in our previous tank set.

The Bazooka is also beloved by Felix, which was a vital tool for troops going up against fortifications and tanks across Germany and the Pacific. During the course of the war, there were nearly half of a million Bazookas produced for the combat.

-Role Play With My Son-

After all things got ready, “Dad, let’s role play with this set!” Felix said.

“OK, then who do you want to be?” I asked.

“I will play the commander and the infantry.” Felix said. I said OK and then I would be the tank soldier and the wounded infantry, and our Tiger tank, which is our first tank model, also played a role.

When the commander inspected the environment around with a telescope in the commander’s copula, suddenly, a tank came.

Commander: “Tank! One o’clock, a thousand and two hundred yards. It’s a Tiger! Aim for it!”

Tank soldier: “I get it, but it is still out of the range.”

Commander: “Fire when ready, one thousand yards.”

Tank soldier: “Clear! Let me blow it up.”

The first shoot missed the target.

Commander: “Same target, eleven o’clock, elevate five hundred yards.”

Tank soldier: “Copy that!”

Commander: “Hit it!”

Tank soldier: “On the way, fire!”

Sherman tank fired but still missed the Tiger. The infantry got the Bazookas and prepared to shoot at any time. Later Bazookas hit the Tiger when it came close and got its turret on fire.

The Tiger got stuck because of the Bazookas’ hit and was late when lined up and finally was defeated by Sherman tank on it’s six o’clock. All the members were so happy that some jumped up and some lifted up their weapons, but the commander was still serious in cupola because he didn’t know when the war would end and who could finally survive from the wars and went back home.

At the beginning of the role-play, Felix and I were very happy. But in the end, we both felt a little sad because this made us think of the real wars. No matter which side won the battles, there were always many people and soldiers who died during the wars. Even though we love the military things, we hope that there will be no more wars in the world and all people can live happily and peacefully.

-Summary-

All in all, Boolakos WW2 Sherman M4A1 Tank Building Kit is a wonderful tank model even though there are some small drawbacks, like no round hull and no brick-building design bogie, we can get many thoughtful designs to show the real tank’s details like the stout structure, the openable hatches, the machine guns and smoothly rotatable turret etc..

Furthermore, this tank model is a cool display set no matter on the shelf or on the table top. It’s just a little longer than my cellphone and will be easy to show it on any platform. What's worth mentioning is it must be an irreplaceable set when your boy wants to do a role-play with you or his friends as so many minifigures and weapons are included.

Moreover, the price is very reasonable for you to enjoy a happy time with your child. I highly recommend this set if you or your child is the brick-building or military fan like me and my son.

Here is the link to get this set.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09YS3H1Z2

So thank you for reading, guys. I hope this review was a help. If you have any questions, please leave a comment below.

Bye-bye. Adios.