Y-Wing (#9495)

Continuing Lego's "year of third versions" is the newest Y-Wing. Owners of the prior version (#7658) are probably wondering what was changed and whether it's worth upgrading. If you have the original Y-Wing (#7150), by all means, grab this one while it's available. I'll let the 7658 owners decide for themselves.

Here's the new 9495 on the left and 7658 on the right. 9495 isn't quite as long as it's older brother, but has the same width. My biggest gripe with 9495 is the nose design. 7658 may not have been perfect, but was a lot more movie-accurate than 9495's boxy look. I do like the new forward guns, but they could be easily retrofit onto 7658.

Here they are from the side view. 9495's gun turret doesn't come off like 7658's tends to do during play, but it also doesn't go up and down either. Oh well, can't have everything. Technically, the single-seater Y-Wings had a fixed turret, but that would make it very difficult to open the canopy on this model. One of these days I'm going to make a 2-seater modification...

Here's a view of the two cockpits. 9495 on the right is a bit more roomy than 7658. I also like that it has two studs to hold the minifig in place, where 7658 just has a flat tile piece. I'm not much of a fan of having the pilot wiggle around during evasive manoeuvres.

Here it is from the front. As I mentioned before, I don't really like the nose design. It should be tapered like it was before.

Here's a photo of how the Y-Wing looked in Episode IV. See what I mean about the nose section? 9495 is way too squared, but that's something I need to deal with on my own time.

Group photo... This one comes with Dutch Vander (aka Gold Leader. Zev Senesca's head with a different helmet), R5-A7 astromech droid, and Princess Leia in her ceremonial outfit (a nice addition, especially if you have the ceremonial Luke and Han from the Encyclopedias.. which I don't).

A closer view of the rear section. The greebling is a bit closer to the movie model and looks pretty good. The hole in the middle is for loading the bombs.

The engine pods. They got away from some of the detailing used in 7658 by using stickers. I know some of the "purists" out there will complain about the use of stickers, but if it keeps the cost down by not having to use printed pieces I'm fine with it.

The rear view. I'm not sure if I prefer the rocket fin pieces or the grey cones from 7658. You may notice I took out the flick-fire missile launchers from the back...

The underside. I liked the use of the car chassis for the astromech slot, seemed like the easiest way to get it done. You can see the bomb hatch on the bottom. I like this one more than I did the last one (which I eventually covered up on both sides), it doesn't get in the way if you aren't using it.

So,  there you go. If this is your first Y-Wing or you're moving up from 7150, go for it. If you have 7658, you'll have to decide how badly you want Princess Leia and/or the new astromech droid. Aside from the nose, the minor differences between the two models would be pretty easy to retrofit after a trip to Bricklink.