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Since I can never be first with a new set
I'll continue to fill in the holes I can in the review index.Set#: 7256
Name: Jedi Starfighter and Vulture Droid
Theme: Star Wars
Year: 2005
Pieces: 202
Minifigs: Anakin Skywalker
Price: I paid 5,500 yen, which was too much.
MSP: $20, £14.99
Peeron
Brickset
Bricklink
From Amazon
Quote
Anakin Skywalker fights the greatest space battle of all, as he confronts the power of the Vulture Droids in his Jedi Starfighter. Only a master of the Force can defeat these powerful opponents, but does Anakin have what it takes to win. It includes Anakin Skywalker figure and 202 LEGO building pieces.
I bought this a little after the Jedi Starfighter with Hyperdrive Booster Ring set, which has 60% the same build, and a vulture droid, which I got a far superior build of in the Naboo N-1 Starfighter and Vulture Droid set, so I think this would have gotten far higher marks if I'd gotten it in 2005.
The Instructions/ The Pieces
About 40 minutes, a 40 page small book, with a sheet of stickers. Not a set for sticker haters, 3 pairs on the one little ship, and 4 pairs on the second littler ship.
Anakin, in that short period of flesh color, but no big eyes.
Lot's of prints and stickered pieces.
The variety of pieces.
The Build
The base without the wings or cockpit, 10 steps in.
19 steps in. Everything is finished up to the cockpit, and Anakin's inside. The rest of the steps are for the wings.
The Finished Product
Flaps closed.
And open.
Back view
Side view
Nice looking wing details
And the cockpit opens with a pivot piece on the back
The Finished Product Part 2
Vulture droid front view
Back view
And side
and in walking mode
Overall
Design: 6/10 It looks decent and all, but it isn't all that special, and in a few places (the wings in particular) it's a little flimsy. Not bad, not special. The vulture droid particularly suffers in that it is far inferior to the 7660 set. I might mod this one to work as smoothly as that one does. The two pronged fighters are sort of interesting, and I'd like to get the red one from the 7283 Ultimate Space Battle, but I like the triangular ones better overall, like 7669.
Build: 6/10
Nothing special, it's a set that has been repeated. Took 40 minutes.
Playability: 8/10 There are no actions going on, without unlocking vulture droid bricks, but a kid would have fun with it.
Minifigures: 6/10 Anakin with long hair. Probably this is an interesting figure, since it is a 'middle' figure, after flesh was being used instead of yellow, but before the cartoon eyes were brought in, so maybe there's a little collectability here. The ship has an R2 head that physically makes no sense with the build (where's his body stored?). I think the set would have been much better if it threw in a body for R2 outside the ship. That was a little lame.
Price: 4/10 I bought it three years late in Japan, so I paid probably double the original price. If it was new in the States, I'd give it an 8/10, but with each year, the satisfaction goes down, since this is a set that TLC has reworked and improved. I appreciate that they did that, but it makes an older set like this seem kind of rusty.
Overall: 7/10
This was my first Lego set I kind of questioned myself about. If you find it cheap, I think it's alright, or you're a rich collector, it won't phase you. But for the average Joe, it generally sells for more than it's worth, and is overshadowed but much cooler descendants. I don't regret buying this, but it was the first set where I started to think I had to think about the older sets I bought a little more.
Cheers all.
Edited by def, 03 May 2009 - 10:35 AM.
indexed and poll added
This great set gives you a neat (if flimsy...) Vulture droid, a yellow JSF (the set that all of the kids would look forward to when Ep.III came out), and one great figure that is somewhat rare to find, since it was only in a few sets. I agree that the design on both ships could be better, but both were good first attempts. 
