Let's start with the general stuff first; the detail in the mold of this weapon is awesome! Edges are sharp and defined, the barrel is nice and smooth, the ventilation holes in the barrel are cleanly cut, the wood grain stock is realistically detailed. In other words, if you thought the 21st Century gun was detailed, this one will knock your socks off! Just take a look at some of the close ups in the shots to the left to see what I mean!
Now let's get on to all the cool features that make this baby such a gem! First of all, it has a bipod that is more true-to-life than the 21st Century version. This one is able to fold the legs inward to form one leg. This is important because MG34 teams would sometimes use the legs as a handle while another team member aimed and fired. Once folded, the legs hinge back and can be attached to the barrel so they don't get in the way. Secondly, the Yellow Submarine MG34 has front and rear sights that can be lifted up or put down when not in use. Another cool thing about this set is that you can lift the cover to the loading compartment. This shows the insides of the gun and allows you to load up some ammo belts. Like the TUS MG34, this gun also has a sliding lever but does it one step better by making it spring loaded. This makes it very satisfying to pull back on the lever and makes it feel more like a real gun.
The real kicker of this gun s that you can actually change the barrel. The outer barrel is hinged and can open up to the side so that the actual barrel can be removed. This adds a great deal of realism to this gun and should come in useful for photo shoots or dioramas.
The ammo drum is also a wonderful piece of the set; it is much more detailed and realistic than the TUS one and locks onto the gun just like the real thing (as far as I can tell). The locking clip on the top of the drum rotates to lock the drum in place. You can even open the lid to this drum to reveal the bullets inside. Unfortunately, these bullets are molded into the drum and are not removeable.
You also get the MG34 tool kit pouch and a little cleaning cloth. You know, I never noticed how bad the paint job on my TUS tool kit pouch was until I compared these two. It's like the painter of the TUS one forgot to wipe off some of the white paint for the stitching. Anyway, the Yellow Sub pouch is nicely detailed and opens and closes.
Another thing to note on this set is its weathering job. It is a lot more subtle than the TUS weathering and is just more realistic. I'd like to tell you how the Yellow Submarine MG34 compares to the Dragon MG34 but to my dismay, I don't own that piece yet. From what I can tell from the pics on Dragon's webpage, they seem to be pretty close in terms of detail with the Dragon version just slightly better. Hopefully I'll be able to get my hands on the Dragon set to confirm this hypothesis. I guess that about wraps this review up. The only thing that may keep you from buying this set is its price; I paid $18.00 for mine which is pretty steep compared to TUS prices, but if you're looking for the best 1/6 MG34 this just very well may be it.
