[Review] 6205 V-wing Starfighter

[Brickdoctor]

Let me explain that subtitle: In my opinion, the V-wing, like other 2006 sets, represented the end of what could be called the Golden Age of LEGO Star Wars. Never again would a set have alternate models, and in a few years, every set would include flick-fire missiles. Although there would indeed be many more superb sets, like the UCS Imperial Shuttle, many basic elements of LEGO sets, like the minifigures, began to move away from that classic LEGO look. With the recent revelation of the Imperial V-wing as a 2011 set, I thought it appropriate to review the original.

Set Name: V-wing Starfighter

Set Number: 6205

Ages: 6-12

Number of Pieces: 118

Minifigures: 1, plus R4-P17 Astromech head.

Price: $9.99

Theme: Star Wars

Year of Release: 2006

The Box:

The box art shows the V-wing flying past an explosion over an extremely blurred orbital image of Coruscant. Although the V-wing is not prominently seen during the Battle of Coruscant, the box art is semi-accurate as V-wings were deployed during said battle, and they do escort Emperor Palpatine's Theta-class shuttle between Coruscant and Mustafar during Revenge of the Sith.

The back has four panels; two set on blue, one on blue striped with white (sort of a hologram effect) and one with more Battle of Coruscant art.

The first two panels show details of the model, but since the model only has one moving feature, the second shot is just an image of the starfighter's rear end. Two alternate models are also shown; the second is actually pretty intriguing, but the first has the pilot lying down in a ship whose guns point backwards! The final panel has advertisements for other starfighters of the Revenge line.

Like most LEGO sets, one of the sides/top shows the included minifigure:

This time, TLG also included a picture of where the minifig goes in the model, presumably to fill the space left empty since there's only one minifig. Observant readers will notice that the Clone Pilot is shown in front of the Millenium Falcon's boarding ramp in the Death Star I's Docking Bay 327.

Geek fact: If you ignore the docking bay, the Falcon actually flew near the war zone and landed on Coruscant during the Battle of Coruscant, so it is possible that a pilot walked in front of the ship.

The Instructions:

Like all other sets the instructions have the same art as the box, without the extra information. Slightly larger than your standard $10 instruction booklet, comes folded in half.

Here's a sample page:

Color definition is very good. For this set, TLG actually darkened the images, so the instructions are true to their real-life colors. The dark bley has a slightly greenish tint, and it's hard to count studs on the black pieces, but since there are no other shades of dark grey or multiple large black pieces, it doesn't really affect the build of the set. The only major gripe is the dark background; personally, I much prefer the lighter shades of newer sets.

The Minifigures:

You get the Clone Pilot, plus an R4-P17 head. Since at the time the set was released, there was no simple way to fit a whole Astro-droid into the ship, and since the 'real' V-wing only uses spherical Q7 astro-droids, there's not much to complain about. The package correctly lists the minifig as a V-wing Pilot, since V-wings had no life support systems and required their users to don pressurized, helmeted suits; but the minifig is the same as the ones included in the 2005 ARC-170.

The Pieces:

The set has a good selection and number of pieces- 118 of them, in fact, and 4 of them are large.

Notably among them are these:

Dark red pieces are always welcome in my bins, especially the 2x2 round tiles, which I don't have any more of. As for the 2x3 wedge plates in light bley, they're always useful for Star Wars MOCs.

The Build:

The build is straight-forward, built from the ground up, with only a few sub-steps. There's only one major 'x2' step, but since it only spans two pages, it doesn't make the build repetitive.

Obviously, I opened this set a long time ago, but according to Bricklink, you'd be left with these when you're done:

Just your standard fillers, nothing spectacular like extra lightsaber hilts or cheese wedges.

The Finished Model:

The finished model is fairly mediocre. The stacked plates design of the slope on the front hull is almost as bad as the original Sith Infiltrator.

The rear half is also quite fat and slightly blocky:

This make the model off-balance and almost ridiculous looking. The model looks okay from side and 45-degree views, but from the back or top, the blockiness becomes apparent, and some out-of-place colors can be seen.

The only reason it doesn't look awful from the side is because the solar panels obscure the fatness of the engine block.

In addition, this angle also shows how thin the front half is.

The Features:

The only real feature is the moving solar panels, except that they fold inward, while the 'real' ship in Star Wars has panels that rotate forward to assume landing position. Speaking of landing position, the model, like the A-wing of the same era, has those annoying immovable bricks for landing gear. There's also the fact that the 'control panel' is a white grill.

The Ratings:

Price/Piece Count: 19/20 With nearly twelve parts per dollar and four large pieces, this set comes as close as you can to perfect in this category.

Bricks: 12/20 There aren't any spectacular pieces; the rarest is the printed Republic icon, which wasn't exactly rare at the time the set was released. Even a printed control panel would have gone a long way towards making this set better. Quality always trumps quantity.

Build: 10/20 Simple and quick, but it's got some interesting portions, and would occupy kids at the lower end of the recommended age group.

Minifigs: 12/20 It's got the minifigs it needs, but even if it's not a Battlepack, a mechanic or plain clone would have been nice.

Playability/Features: 4/20 The landing gear, TLG, the landing gear... The model isn't very swooshable either, for a starfighter.

Grand Total: 57/100, or 57%. If not for the high piece count, this set would have been a fail. Nowadays, it'd probably sell for $19.99 if released, and the score would have dropped below 50.

Conclusion:

It's got some hints of the new, like the low minifig count (V-19 Torrent), but with no stickers, no flick-fire missiles, and blocky shape, it seems more like the last of the old.

[prateek]

Nice review, but I disagree with your opinion. IMO, this is one of the best sets of 2006. My cousin has this, and I regret not getting this.

[Brickdoctor]

Nice review, but I disagree with your opinion. IMO, this is one of the best sets of 2006. My cousin has this, and I regret not getting this.

It was one of the better sets of that year, but looking back I don't think it was that good. Especially when you consider that the Sail Barge and System ISD were 2006 sets also.

[XimenaPaulina]

Neat review Doc, just perfect timing to give people a flashback on the previous V-Wing as we'll about to get the upcoming updated version. I missed this set back in '06, and it looks pretty decent during that time though there are a lot of accuracy issues. It's a good thing some of those flaws will be addressed in the new one (though still not enough), and I'm looking forward getting my first V-Wing.

[Masked Builder]

Nice work! I got other things rather than this set though.

[Fallenangel]

I was just about to post a review of my own Brickdoctor. Looks like you beat me to it In any case, expect my own review by the end of next week everyone.

If you ask me, the "Golden Age" was more of a "Golden Year" since 2006 was the only year in which the sets strongly resembled the studio models they were based on. (The '07 sets were in general poorly proportioned and not that great.)

[Brickdoctor]

I was just about to post a review of my own Brickdoctor. Looks like you beat me to it In any case, expect my own review by the end of next week everyone.

If you ask me, the "Golden Age" was more of a "Golden Year" since 2006 was the only year in which the sets strongly resembled the studio models they were based on. (The '07 sets were in general poorly proportioned and not that great.)

2005 had a couple good sets, too. This was actually my second review, so it had been sitting around in the Reviewers Academy forum for a couple weeks while I finished the third.