Last week at Battlegrounds I received a promo pack of the brand new Star Wars Pocket Model Trading Card Game. For those familiar with WizKid’s Pirates or the new Transformers’ game this is a constructible card game in the Star Wars universe.

I’ve seen the product enter the store and got excited by the prospect of a new Star Wars game. I envisioned a game that took Starship Battles and merged it with Pirates. Sadly, I never got past the “Build ‘Em” stage listed on the sample pack instructions.

The instructions list 3 steps to the game. “Punch ‘Em Out” followed by “Build ‘Em” and finishing with “Play!” Punching out the parts is easy but unfortunately the assembly is difficult. Either I’m a manually handicapped Bantha or it is nigh impossible to build these planes.

The sample pack comes with two TIE Fighters, 1 X-Wing and 2 cards. I got Reasonable Risk and Screen Defense for my cards. I tried assembling the 2 TIE Fighters and after fighting for 5 minutes I gave up and asked Derek, the store owner, for assistant. I consider myself a reasonably intelligent and dexterous individual but I could not, even if you put a e-ll to my head, build those TIE Fighters. After a couple minutes of trying Derek was able to put one TIE together leaving me to assemble the last. I looked at the components in contempt. Would I let some bits of thick plastic card get the best of me? Gladly!

For the curious reader the X-wing was just marginally easier to assemble. Inserting the ship into the slotted base proves the most difficult aspect of building these fighters.

I’m reserving total judgment until I play a game. But, be warned before you shell out the bucks for this game. Building the models isn’t as easy as you think it will be.

For more information head over to the official website at starwarspocketmodeltcg.com by WizKids.