Polar Lights reissue of the classic, Aurora models Chamber of Horrors La Guillotine model.
I received this kit, along with two others, as a gift. Of the three kits I received, this was the only one I would have naturally chosen for myself. Consequently, it was also the first completed.
Modifications To The Kit
The only real customization I did to this one was to the prisoner’s neck post for easier and reliable decapitainment.
Too often the blade would come down and -smat!- his head would just hang there above the basket, unimpressed. I swear I also heard the occasional sniggering.
To combat this, I trimmed the neck post down to a little bit more than a nub. Now, the head stays in place fairly well during any light jostling but now tumbles into the basket with delightful predictability at almost every execution. Huzzah!
Another issue the kit faced was binding in the uprights, causing the blade to stick on its journey down towards gory neckville.
I negated this issue by lightly sanding and adding a touch of graphite to the inner track of the uprights. Then I added weighted down the helpfully hollow and conveniently ported blade box with as much birdshot as it would hold.
Zap – my problems were solved… but the poor prisoner’s were only beginning.
Chamber of Horrors La Guillotine
La Guillotine is a fun and simple kit to build with lots of great play action once you’re done. My only disappointment was that it’s not quite the same scale as my Monster Scenes kits. Otherwise it would fit right in!
This kit, which was a reissue, is currently out of print, to my knowledge. It looks like Round2 might have the license as they snapped up Polar Lights.
In any case, it’s a great, vintage kit. Grab it when you see it.
