Darth Vader's TIE Fighter (#8017)

My sister somehow found this one before it was released today and gave it to me for Christmas. I imagine some dark alley meeting late at night, using her legal connections for blackmail or extortion...

Anyhow, I don't really care how she found it. I'm really happy with the design. It fixed a lot of what I felt were shortcomings on the original design.

First, I'm so glad they moved away from the black and blue color scheme. Darth Vader's chest piece has a slightly new design as well.


Second, the cockpit swings open for easier access, and it is easier to get Vader in and out. I think the hinge mechanism they used for this one is a lot better than the old style.


Third, a clip to hold the lightsaber. It doesn't get in the way like Grievous' clip does on his starfighter.


And finally, better detailing on the rear section. There are also little tabs on the back to launch the flick-fire missiles (which surprisingly get a pretty good range on them).

The set is a bit bigger than the old version and is lighter as well. It was an easy build and holds up well to aggressive aerial maneuvers.

Hailfire Droid & Spider Droid (#7670)

Trevor & I both got one of these sets for Christmas. It came with a yellow droid commander, two battle droids, and a super battle droid (not shown in the photos because they're basically just filler). I only had to coach Trevor a couple of times as he was building his, he did pretty good...


My favorite is the hailfire droid. Nothin' wrong with the spider droid, but the hailfire has a better intimidation factor going for it.


The missile racks and the wheels are on hinges so they can be angled or straight. Pretty straight-forward as there isn't much room for special features. I think this set has really high play value to it and is a great army builder.

Darth Vader's TIE Advanced (#10175)

This is probably the only set I have for display and not to actually play with. The frame is strong enough to sit on the stand, but not really durable enough to stand up to a run down the Death Star trenches. It makes up for a lack of air-time by its sheer awesomeness.


This took me about four hours to put together, which is okay because at the time I was in my hotel room after a staff meeting and had nothing else to do. Honestly, if I had it during the staff meeting, it would've been built before I left the office. That could've been bad considering I was running the staff meeting.


Front view (obviously). The body is made up of about four sections that connect together.


Rear view. The nice thing about the larger models is the extra room for all the little details. The back is made up of mostly plates, which makes it lighter but also makes it hard to find anywhere sturdy to hold.


The top hatch flips open quite nicely...


There is even a lot of detail in the cockpit, you just can't see it. It's like the engines on model airplanes... you never see them when the model is done, but you feel better knowing they are there and to scale.


The spec sheet on the front, just in case this ever comes up on a test... or Jeopardy.

TIE Crawler (#7664)

This was one of the first models from the Star Wars "Expanded Universe" (meaning anything that didn't show up in the movies).


It has free-rolling tracks on each pod and both pods can be rotated so they can be positioned as shown with the long end facing front, or facing the rear.

One building tip I would recommend is to take out one of the track links on each side, otherwise the tracks are too loose and don't really turn as the crawler moves along the ground. Removing one link makes it tight enough that it rolls as you'd expect a tank to roll, but not too tight as to interfere with any movement.


Each pod has a flip-out weapons turret that rotates.


It comes with two shadow troopers (the other one is on assignement and was not available for picture day).

The red cone on the bottom was supposed to be a flick-fire missile, but seeing as I am not a fan of the flick-fire missiles I fixed it in place so now it's just another laser. I thought about putting it on a mini turn-table, but although it would have a greater firing radius there would be nothing to prevent it from accidentally shooting out its own track pod. Considering how accurate the stormtroopers are in the movies, it should not be made easier for them to shoot their own vehicles.

Imperial Landing Craft (#7659)

Thanks to the Episode IV special edition, the Imperial Landing Craft was introduced to the official canon of Star Wars. It had a few brief moment of screen time in the background as the stormtroopers were examining the escape pod's crash site on Tatooine.


I like this design more than the Imperial Shuttle (#7166). It comes out of the box with a TIE pilot and four stormtroopers (two with the orange shoulder palrons).

Turning the little black knob on the bottom will open or close the wings. That's always fun.

I added four white 1x6 plates to the hinged roof (two on each side) so that all three sections would open at the same time.

The crew compartment detaches from the rest of the body. I figure this is just to make it easier to access the stormtroopers inside, because the ship looks goofy without the crew section. It originally came with two spring-loaded missile launchers, but I took them out to make room for two more stormtroopers. I figured that if the Imperial Drop Ship carried four troopers, the landing craft should be able to carry more. I also sealed up the bomb compartments on the rear. Believe me, no one wants to step on the little bombs on your way to the bathroom late at night.

V-19 Torrent Fighter (#7674)

This is one of my favorite ships from the Clone Wars, the V-19 Torrent. The set bigger than I thought it would be and scores high on "swoosh factor". It comes with one clone pilot, which by itself is going for anywhere from $12 - $30 on Bricklink.com. Not bad considering the whole set is $55 US.

A simple stop-motion animation showing how the cockpit slides open. One of these days I'll learn to turn off the flash so I don't give anyone a photo-induced seizure...


Close-up of the flick-fire missiles. I usually take them out, but the new ones don't fall out as easily as the old ones did so I figured they'd be safe to leave in. I have to admit, the launcher is pretty cool though...

The retractable landing gear tucks up as the wings fold out for flight, very interesting mechanics at work.

This is the little 'lock' to keep the wings from folding down while the Torrent is on the ground.

I had to 'borrow' this image from Lego.com because it's really difficult to take a picture of it in flight mode and not have my hand in the shot.

Jedi Starfighter & Hyperdrive Ring (#7661)

This one is just cool, Obiwan's Jedi starfighter and hyperdrive ring from Episode III. The only opportunity for improvement with this set is the hyperdrive ring needs to be a bit stronger, I just haven't figured out how to do it without making it look clunky.



The starfighter docks using a couple of technic axel pins that slide and lock into place. The blue wing flaps on either side fold up and down to complete the effect of being locked into the ring.


After I got this set, I retro-fit Anakin's yellow starfighter to dock with the ring as well. I thought about making a yellow and grey one to go with his color scheme, but I honestly don't know where I'd put it on the shelf.


I also built Obiwan's red starfighter to be compatible with the hyperdrive ring.

The set also comes with the exclusive Kit Fisto minifig. I would've included him in the photos, but he's currently on assignment in the Republic Gunship. The only modification I made to this one is replacing the flick missiles with the technic axels to hold the missiles in place where they belong. It's hard to be intimidating in a dog fight when you lose your missiles every time your ship tilts forward.

General Grievous Starfighter (#7656)

This is a pretty basic set, but should gain a little more popularity with the new Clone Wars series. If you have this one, you really need the Magna Guard Starfighter set (#7673) as a compliment.


One cool feature is the sliding cockpit, much better than the pry-off canopy on the V-Wing fighter or Obiwan's Episode II Jedi starfighter. The only (slight) drawback with the cockpit design is that it is intended for the Grievous minifig (go figure). Regular minifigs don't fit, so it's really hard to recreate the Episode III scene where Obiwan escapes in Grievous' starfighter.


Here's Grievous (doesn't come with a cape as he did in the set with his wheel bike). There are white arms available on Bricklink.com that have the 90 degree turn on the hands if anyone was interested in a better action pose...


The underside, with the lightsaber storage rack...


The two lasers on the front are moveable if you're concerned about giving Grievous better range of fire.

AT-AP (#7671)

This is a fun little set from Episode III, the AT-AP (All Terrain Attack Pod). It comes with two shock troopers (red markings), I added the third from my pool of extras (you never know when your troops are going to need reinforcements).


The third leg tucks away underneath the body when it's not being used to stabilize the walker when using the mass driver cannon (the big gun). It is also equipped with a turret-mounted blaster cannon and a smaller laser cannon underneath.


The side door opens to the driver...


...and apparently this guy rides along for moral support and to keep the weapons company.


The top flips up for easy access to both compartments.


There really isn't anything I don't like about this one. Just remember it's not meant for close-range combat, so don't send it into battle without some back-up...

Trade Federation MTT (#7662)

The MTT (Multi-Troop Transport) is a really impressive model with a lot of features and even more droids (16 battle droids, 2 red security droids, 2 blue pilot droids, and 1 destroyer droid).


It has six wheels underneath to give it the illusion of hovering, and is surprisingly easy to maneuver considering how big it is.


Here's a view with all the side compartment doors opened.


...and one with the troop rack extended. There's a little knob on the side that will extend/ retract the troop rack when turned. The door opens as the rack extends (this is my first venture into the world of stop-motion animation).


The control center for the pilot...


One of the cool features is the little mini sled that stows away in the rear of the MTT. It can carry the communications dish as shown here...


...or the weapons rack from the main bay...


...or one of the troop racks from the front.

This one does a fairly good job at evening the playing field for ground battles.

Modified Vulture Droids

It wasn't until the Naboo Starfighter that I realized I could take the vulture droid further than the original design. This is the grand vision they had for the vultures out of the box...



The head snaps on and off... not overly sophisticated.




The brown one in the middle is the one that came with the Naboo fighter. The head is mounted on a swivel and "arms" that allow it to raise and lower. If you're curious, here's how to do it:




Now you too can upgrade your 7256 vultures with swivel heads...