starstreak

REVIEW: 9515 The Malevolence

  

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This review will be on the 9515 The Malevolence

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Engage the Republic with the mighty Malevolence™!

The Malevolence™ is General Grievous' flagship and one of the Separatist military's most feared weapons. Unbeknownst to Grievous and his crew, Anakin and Padmé have entered the giant craft in an attempt to rid the galaxy of this deadly curse. The Malevolence features a cargo bay with transport train, detailed interior with removable/opening sections for easy access and twin quick-fire missile launchers. Includes 6 minifigures: Anakin Skywalker, Padmé Amidala, General Grievous, Count Dooku, Battle Droid Commander and Battle Droid.

• Includes 6 minifigures: Anakin Skywalker, Padmé Amidala, General Grievous, Count Dooku, Battle Droid Commander and Battle Droid

• Features twin quick-fire missile launchers, cargo bay, fold-away handle on top, removable front section for easy access, opening rear section

• Weapons include 2 medium blasters, blaster pistol, 6 Lightsabers

• Accessories include wrench and hammer

• Malevolence™ measures over 23" (60cm) long, 7" (18cm) wide and 5" (13cm) tall

Set Name: 9515 The Malevolence

Theme: Star Wars

Released: 2012

Pieces: 1094

Price: $119.99/119.99 EUR/99.99 GBP It was $149.99 here in Hawaii at the Local Toys R Us.

Here are some quick links: Lego.com, Brickset, Bricklink

Wanna see some pictures? Let's start with the normal box arts and manuals!

Box Front

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Box Front. Very nice detail. I like how they show you the length and the side view of the ship at 23.6in. That's almost 2 feet long! I didn't think the Battle Droid Commander was new.

Box Rear

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Box Rear. You can see how much of the ship can be changed into a play set for the minifigs. And I love the multiple profiles of the ship. This was a nice ship design. It reminds me of a modern ship. Long and skinny. Also, just a hint of Nemo's submarine, the Nautilus.

Parts Bags

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Seven bags of parts. Not much to say except at least this time, they included the part separator in bag one. Sometimes they put it into last bag of parts, which never did make sense.

Polybag Bag

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Yes! Another set that includes the "instruction/sticker saver" bag. I thank you LEGO for doing this. So many times I get sticker sheets that is stuck on the inside of the box or creased.

I hope Lego continues to do this for more sets. It really does a good job at keeping the stickers and instruction booklets all neat and tidy till you open it.

Sticker Sheet

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And just think, each of those little yellow squares are supposed to be windows. This is one huge ship. Three MILES long! More on that later.

Instruction Books

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Nothing fancy. Just copies of the box art minus the other pictures.

Parts Lists

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Two pages of parts. I don't think LEGO used any new parts with this set.

Interesting page

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Similar to what is found on the back of the box. Going in a clockwise fashion, the first photo on the top left shows how there are little monorail cars that slide back and forth. Very little sliding. Maybe .5 to 1railcar in length. One of the cars hold a storage box of tools. The next picture shows how the top front opens. It is not sealed or held down. So swooshing this upside down is not wise. Next is the Ion Pulse Cannon. I'm a little disappointed by this. I thought it would rotate on its own whenever you shot one of the flick fire missiles. It does not. You have to rotate it yourself after each shot, and it turns only in one direction. If you force it in the opposite direction, you'll break something. Next is the Dooku's chair but when Dooku is away, Grievous likes to sit there. And finally you can see they included a pop-up handle to hold it the ship. Not exactly balanced, but close enough where you can keep it balanced in your hand.

General Grievous Minifig

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Front and back of Grievous. His minifig has the most details of all the Star Wars minifigs I think. His face and eyes are perfect. And very creative on how they got his third and fourth arms to attach. While you can't see it in this view, his legs are bent like they usually are in the animated Clone Wars cartoon.

Battle Droid, Battle Droid Commander and Padme Amidala.

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So the Droid Commander gets a bit of head and body paint. Besides that, nothing else is different. As for Padme, she gets a new outfit and hair tied up in a pony tail. And at first glance, the photo looks like she has a red string around her neck and sides, it's actually the edge of the minifig shell that didn't get paint.

Count Dooku and Anakin Skywalker

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Count Dooku and Anakin look the same as some other sets, but look at Dooku's saber. It's chrome plated this time. Much better than the normal grey colored hilts they usually make them in. After all these years of making lightsabers, you would've figured that TLG would've figured a way to make the blade without bubbles in them.

Extra Parts

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Lots of extra parts. Or did I forget something. Augh! Droids without hands. Just kidding. They have their hands.

On to the build!

Might I suggest using the "view on youtube" button. While lighting may not be perfect, I finally got it so 1080i is really HQ pictures. :)

I hope you like the build process. The table that I have to build my sets on is rather limited and makes it hard to photograph.

Finished Shots of The Malevolence

Top View

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Tops photo of the finished Malevolence. I like the top view. It looks so sleek. I'm not to happy of the grey canards that jut out of the front sides. For the most part, it is symmetrical in shape. But there are a few greebels that make the left and right sides a bit different.

Top front cover removed

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As you can see there is nothing that locks the top to the ship. To keep the cover on, there is a center bar that hold it in place in the back, while the front is held down by resistance of two lego pieces pushing against each other. This is a good view of the Ion Cannons. You would flip the clear cover open, then push on the technic lever on the side that will push out one missile. Then you rotate the wheel, and repeat the firing. Not really how it shoots in the cartoon, but I guess it's better than not firing at all.

Rear hatches open

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Here you can see both the left and right sides opened up. The top folds up and the smaller flap folds down. now you have room to slide the railcars a bit. Just a tiny bit. Keep in mind this ship is supposed to be almost 3 miles long. So the railcars was needed to move fast around the ship.

Battle!

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Just a small battle scene with the lead characters. You have to be a Jedi to think you can go up against a cyborg with 4 lightsabers!

Front view

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This front shot reminds me of old anime ship called the Space Battleship Yamato. At the bow of the ship, it had a huge cannon called a Wave motion gun.. Maybe the Malevolence was built with this ship in mind. But instead of a Wave motion gun, the Malevolence carried a Ion Cannon. Which instead of disintegrating the enemy ships, it disables them so the ships could be recycled for parts and booty.

Rear view

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Just look at all those thrusters. I'm amazed they got all 16 thrusters on this scale of the ship. Another fact. This ship was so huge that a number of capitol ships could be hitting it and not take any major damage. In the cartoon, the ship was almost crippled, but couldn't be shot down. Eventually it was forced to crash into a... Go watch the show. It was great!

Rear side view

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Wow. Now if I could've taken this shot on a black background, you would get a better feeling of it's length. I do like how LEGO built the command tower. Which by the way is where the bridge is. Not in the nose of the ship where the minifigs sit.

Side view

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Here is where you can see those little window stickers. It does give the feeling of what scale it should be. Not something that minifigs should be running around in.

Comments: I really wanted this ship. When I first heard it was going to be released I was so hoping it would be something of a UCS. Instead, they made it a minifigure set. When I first picked up the box and saw it was going to be two feet long, I was excited to see it built. Once I got done, two feet didn't seem that large. It didn't help that the ship is skinny. But I warmed up to it. It does look like the Malevolence. And if I decide not the show the minifigures on the inside, it does look like a good Lego model.

My rating

Playability:4/5. The ship itself is swooshable with the handle to hold it. But as I mentioned, you can't tilt it too much or the front cover will come off. Inside, LEGO did a good in making the bridge. Not much room to walk around in, but enough space to set up the minifigs to fly the ship. And the back opens up for the monorail cars to slide.

Build experience: 2/5. Very easy to build. All the bags are numbered so you don't have to sort a lot of pieces. and since the ship is big, there is not too many small parts to pinch or push together. It always amazes me how the heart of a lot of larger sets use technic pieces to help hold together or help in the ability to SNOT (Studs Not On Top) on pieces.

Overall: 4/5. This is a ship worth getting if you like Clone Wars and the ships in the show. It'll make a fine ship for your collection. If I factor in the local price of $135+ for the set, then I would rate it lower to 3/5.

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!

All photos are clickable and also viewable in full size on my flickr site. Here is a direct like to my: 9515 The Malevolence.

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Thanks for the review!

For me this set is the Venator all over again, and since I own the Venator, I won't make the same mistake of buying this :sceptic:

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Great review, 'starstreak'! :sweet:

This is a great set that I haven't seen much of. The figures and pieces are really good, but it is pricey.

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Which mistake was that? This wasn't a bad set. I do like it as a static display model. But LEGO likes to make it a dual purpose set. One to play and one to display. I guess it's a win-win as it would be too exspensive as a static display and to make a a seperate play set of the bridge wouldn't sell as well.

Thanks for the review!

For me this set is the Venator all over again, and since I own the Venator, I won't make the same mistake of buying this :sceptic:

Yup. I try to factor in the price as one of my "Overall" scores. If you can get it for $100 or less, then it'll be a good deal considering it'll come with over a 1000 pieces.

Great review, 'starstreak'! :sweet:

This is a great set that I haven't seen much of. The figures and pieces are really good, but it is pricey.

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Which mistake was that? This wasn't a bad set. I do like it as a static display model. But LEGO likes to make it a dual purpose set. One to play and one to display. I guess it's a win-win as it would be too exspensive as a static display and to make a a seperate play set of the bridge wouldn't sell as well.

I guess that's the problem for me, the reason why I don't like the Venator and the Malevolence is that they are both something in between...

I prefer something that is either a play set or a display model, just a preference I guess :shrug_oh_well:

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Thanks for the review starstreak. I was excited when I heard this was coming out as its an awesome flag ship but was disappointed once I saw the final pics of it. Pademe is the only exclusive fig and is a rather high price to justify buying it just for her. Dooku and Grievous are really good minifigs but they are not exclusive to the set. Over all the set dose not do much for me and if I don't have the spear cash laying around I actually think I wont be getting this one, but I have sad that before.

I did Bricklink the parts for the malevolence from the search for R2 online game found here on flickr by our old friend KimT. I would like to see an comparison of the two if anyone owns them both.

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Finally! A proper review of this set and the reviews for this wave are now complete! :sweet: Thanks for doing this review 'starstreak'! :thumbup:

Now my thoughts on the set: I think the fact that it took this looong time before someone posted a review of this speaks a lot about the lukewarm perception of this set. I personally am not a fan of huge ships downsized for a set, and compared to the previous releases (Venator, Republic Frigate, etc) this has got to be the weakest of the bunch IMO. The overall design is boring for the most part, which is not TLG's fault but of the source material. The same goes for the minifig line-up, now this is what you call "lackluster" - all minifigs were already previously released in smaller sets (Anakin, Dooku, Grievous, two meh BDs) so no incentive of having them, and the lone new minifig - Padme - isn't even appealing at all due its CW face! :sick: I've always thought one of the best ways to help sell a huge set is to put exclusive figs in the set, but it's really mind-boggling why TLG took a major step-back from having FOUR new exclusive minifigs (Vos, Koth, Wolffe, Wolfpack Trooper) in last year's CW flagship set, the Republic Frigate, to one new measly exclusive fig in this year's biggest CW set. :wacko: An unappealing ship + yawn-inducing minifig line-up + high price = recipe for a poor-selling set.

(Sorry to be such a "negative ray of sunshine", but that's just my honest opinion of the set, but the review is great and well done! :thumbup: )

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Good review, excellent shots :thumbup:

I'm suprised to learn that Padme doesn't look as ugly as she does on earlier pics.

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Well, I'm not so hot for this bigger sets (mainly for proportions' sake), but I must say your review makes one reconsider his position a bit. :laugh:

Thanks for sharing it, starstreak!

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Excellent review. The Malevolence was designed quite well especially since the whole spaceship is supposed to be 3 miles long. :wink:

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I didn't like that look either. But after watching a whole season, it grows on you and most of the stories are ok.

Great review, too bad this set is based on CW, I just don't like that cartoonish look.

True. But I buy the sets for what they are. Many people buy the sets for the minifigs. I did that for the Avengers. But I still think the Malevolence looks nice. Same thing for the Republic Frigate. BUT on large ships, there is always a trade-off. Looks vs. minifig playability. I don't "play" with my sets as much as my son does. I like to display them. Which, if you seen my flickr site, you can imagine Lego everywhere at my house. lol.

But I think the reason why it doesn't sell, is the price. Which is why I gave it a lower score for the $130+ only collectors like myself, or someone wanting something from this set (not many people) would buy it at this time of year. Closer to Christmas, I think it would sell.

Finally! A proper review of this set and the reviews for this wave are now complete! :sweet: Thanks for doing this review 'starstreak'! :thumbup:

Now my thoughts on the set: I think the fact that it took this looong time before someone posted a review of this speaks a lot about the lukewarm perception of this set. I personally am not a fan of huge ships downsized for a set, and compared to the previous releases (Venator, Republic Frigate, etc) this has got to be the weakest of the bunch IMO. The overall design is boring for the most part, which is not TLG's fault but of the source material. The same goes for the minifig line-up, now this is what you call "lackluster" - all minifigs were already previously released in smaller sets (Anakin, Dooku, Grievous, two meh BDs) so no incentive of having them, and the lone new minifig - Padme - isn't even appealing at all due its CW face! :sick: I've always thought one of the best ways to help sell a huge set is to put exclusive figs in the set, but it's really mind-boggling why TLG took a major step-back from having FOUR new exclusive minifigs (Vos, Koth, Wolffe, Wolfpack Trooper) in last year's CW flagship set, the Republic Frigate, to one new measly exclusive fig in this year's biggest CW set. :wacko: An unappealing ship + yawn-inducing minifig line-up + high price = recipe for a poor-selling set.

(Sorry to be such a "negative ray of sunshine", but that's just my honest opinion of the set, but the review is great and well done! :thumbup: )

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True. But I buy the sets for what they are. Many people buy the sets for the minifigs. I did that for the Avengers. But I still think the Malevolence looks nice. Same thing for the Republic Frigate. BUT on large ships, there is always a trade-off. Looks vs. minifig playability. I don't "play" with my sets as much as my son does. I like to display them. Which, if you seen my flickr site, you can imagine Lego everywhere at my house. lol.

Same here, I was never a "minifig buyer" but an "overall set buyer" (or more appropriately, a "vehicle buyer"- minifigs are just added bonus IMO). But I still feel TLG could've done better in making the minifig line-up more interesting, like throwing a random CW Adi Gallia fig in there. Or maybe it's just a case of being pampered too much by last year's Republic Frigate having four awesome new minifigs? Though I do agree with the high price being a limiting selling point, for sure collectors and 'completists' would have no trouble getting this, but for the average Joe like me I just couldn't see myself shelling out those bucks for something that I feel is 'lacking'.

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Great review! I may buy this. Does anyone have any comparison shots between this and the venator?

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I really considered getting this set, I ended up just deciding that I liked Helm's Deep more so I'll just be BL'ing Padme. You've done another excellent review, and the ship doesn't look to bad.

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Excellent Review!! My son and I have been excited about this set. It's not exactly what I wanted for the Malevolence but it will have to do. Thanks for the great photos. We enjoy all these larger sets that are also playable (venator, falcon, frigate, etc). I imagine there will be some major battles taking place this Christmas!!

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Great review! I've always liked this set, though to me the interior is a bit lacking. I also missed out on Dooku and Grievous when they first came out, so that also draws my attention.

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Great review! I've always liked this set, though to me the interior is a bit lacking.

That's what pulls me away from this set as well. The exterior looks good, but the interior is just....bleh.... :wacko:

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That's what pulls me away from this set as well. The exterior looks good, but the interior is just....bleh.... :wacko:

My main issue is all the multi-colored technic bits that you can clearly see. :sceptic:

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Excellent review! :thumbup: I was happy when I heard that one of my favorite ships was being made, then I looked at the

inside, read some reviews,and was brutely disipointed! :oh3: It looks nice on the outside but inside, ouch. I know theres omly so much you can squeeze into a set before it become UCS but I think I'll stick with Jabba's palace. :wink:

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All- Thanks for the comments. I still like the looks of the ship. But I guess if they made it bigger for more playroom, the price would've been too much. For a small improvement.

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Thanks for this brilliant review. This set has received a somewhat lukewarm reception but I don't think its as bad as people make it out to be. Its a reasonably accurate representation of the source material. If the design of the ship is a little uninspiring, then surely we should blame Lucas rather than Lego? I'm not a huge fan of the opening interior, I didn't care it in the 6211 Star Destroyer or the Venator but its hardly a deal breaker. I agree that the mini-figure selection is a little uninspiring, but I'd like to get this set at some point in the future.

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