Today we review possibly one of the coolest sets I’ve had the chance to work on, and definitely the most technical. When my friends at BuildingToyStore added Double Eagle CaDA building sets to their shop, they asked me to review a few. I’ve already reviewed C51034W Santa’s Sleigh set and C81001 AK-47 assault rifle model. Now, we have an M1A2 Abrams Tank, model number C61001. This set comes with 5 power system motors, three radio receivers, one remote control, and a battery box, requiring 6 AA cells. With all those power functions built in, I was thrilled to see how this set would turn out. The result: pretty amazing! My 12-year-old son was extensively involved in the building of this set. The box suggests ages 8+. I suggest 8+ only if an adult is able to troubleshoot. There’s so much technical design here that it’s easy for a younger builder or even an adult builder to get lost, requiring occasional backtracking. And as with many technic-style builds, getting back to something inside the model to switch up a part or two usually means tearing the model back down to the step that was messed up. So, by all means, let the young builders enjoy this set, but be ready to give them guidance as they go along. It’s a great father-son project in that respect. Stay tuned and read all the way through, so you can watch the video at the end of this post: our very first full video review of a set! That’s how cool I think this set is!













Right from the start one can see this will be a cool set: the box shows two possible builds: a tank, and an anti-aircraft gun. It’s got a 2.4 GHz radio control system, which beats the old LEGO infrared style of control, as the CaDA system does not require a line of sight to operate, merely that it be in range. The box is quite hefty, and includes two sub-boxes, four building instruction manuals, and one sheet of stickers, along with the more than 1,500 pieces to make the models (1,498 pieces listed, plus some extras). The minifigures included in this review did not come with this set. They are Chinese military from an Enlighten set. They must have somehow obtained this American tank on the black market, of this matter I can say no more: international arms dealings are a shady world.

One of the first things you’ll notice is that there are tons of pins here! This is a regular “Technic” style set: it is based off Lego-styled “Technic” pieces, though obviously not off any Lego set design, as the Danish toymaker fastidiously avoids modeling modern military subjects (castles and knights, pirates, and Star Wars are exceptions to their no-gun rule, which became modified to a “no current guns” rule when they came out with the castle range which featured siege engines, trebuchets, and the like). The other cool thing is how large of a model you can build for less than 1,500 parts. Of course that is because many of those parts are large pieces of armour, more or less. The building takes place in two main stages: first, the base of the tank, with its treads and wheels, and motorization system. Then, one must choose which top to put on it: tank or anti-aircraft system. We chose the traditional Abrams tank design.

Everything went together very nicely. Brick quality was pretty perfect. Some of the pins feel a little “softer” than their Lego equivalents, but I don’t think that’ll pose any problems. All of the main pieces are as solid as can be. The tank treads fit together perfectly and the tolerances are just right so that they operate very smoothly. This was one of my biggest concerns, just knowing that some of the Chinese brick brands don’t make the highest quality technic-style parts (here’s looking at Lepin!). Double Eagle’s main thing is their technic sets (called DeTech), and they’ve gotten their manufacturing processes perfected, it would seem. Everything fitted together just right: nothing loose, nothing too tight. I remember whilst building the Lepin Bugatti–an amazing kit, and a brilliant finished product, that I highly recommend!–and part of the Ninjasaga City, that Lepin axles and associated parts sometimes are a serious pain to fit together; not at all the case with Double Eagle CaDA: their axles and all associated technical bits feel just like Lego!

There are several decals included with the tank, all of which were high quality. Of particular note, the colour matching of the bricks and the stickers was quite good–much better than Lepin, for example.

The tank actually can fire missiles, and do so by remote control even! That was a feature I was really looking forward to seeing in action. It works like a charm. Because of the motorized mechanisms involved, everything needs to be right in place to work, so make sure when building the motorized systems that every pin, every beam, every axle, and every bushing is in exactly the right spot according to the instructions. On highly technical builds, I recommend looking at the build step very closely, build it, then comparing what you see in real life to what you see in the drawings, very carefully.

Once our tank was assembled, we added the batteries and fired her up! The remote system works flawlessly. The tank can move forward and backward, and turn around. The turret turns to the left and right, a range of motion of about 330 degrees, which is pretty impressive. And yes, the firing system works, launching missiles in succession. The system to reload the missiles is pretty clever, too, and involves opening up the gun barrel in a rather unexpected way, which keeping with the military theme, is rather camouflaged! Accessing the battery box is likewise not terribly difficult, and is done from the bottom of the tank. You’ll need to turn the tank over, therefore, to turn it on and off at the battery box switch. The bottom is also where the radio receivers are housed. I rather like how the Double Eagle designers were able to incorporate these necessary maintenance tasks without detracting one bit from the design (here I am thinking of how challenging it can be to hide the power system elements in Lego trains, especially those battery boxes!). This is top-notch design, from skilled designers who not only design but also obviously enjoy building and playing with the models they make (sometimes I’ve gotten various Lego sets and thought the designers must have no idea how this will actually be played with in real life).

Our first full-length video review. Please be patient; we promise we’ll get better at this!

My verdict is this: the Double Eagle CaDA C61001 M1A2 Abrams tank is a winner. It’s well-designed, well-built, incorporates tons of power features making play lots of fun, and it was fun to build. I may try building it into the anti-aircraft gun shortly, to see how that fares, but I suspect it’ll be just as great. After reviewing these three Double Eagle CaDA sets, this is a brand I am now sold on. I love their range of sets (See here at BuildingToyStore.com). I am now thinking of which cars I would like to build next! At $90 plus shipping, it’s a good bargain. Similar Lego sets with power functions will easily retail for more than double the price of a Double Eagle set, even shipped. If military themes or sports cars are your thing, I feel pretty good about recommending Double Eagle as a new source of building kits. These guys know their designs and know how to make quality parts. I’d love to hear in the comments from anyone who buys some Double Eagle sets!

Stickers are very high quality; my sense of straightness, not so much

Six projectiles included. They launch about 5 meters! Not bad at all!

Our friends at Building Toy Store now stock a wide range of Double Eagle CaDA technical sets. They are offering a coupon for 10 USD off your order, exclusively for readers of Alt-Blocks, in addition to other discounts on their site. Just go to BuildingToyStore.com using this link, create an account (which gets you a 10% discount), and use coupon code K7CXYREL. You may also find a coupon code on their site for an additional 5% discount.

Like most blogs, Alt-Blocks.com is supported by readers clicking affiliate links within posts, which links result in Alt-Blocks.com receiving a small commission on purchases made by readers. Your support is appreciated and helps us to keep providing thorough reviews and photos of brick sets. This particular set was provided to me for review purposes. Unless specified otherwise, sets on this blog have been purchased for review purposes. Thank you for reading this review!