Review: 10215 Obi-Wan's Jedi Starfighter

[Daedalus304]

Hello fellow EB Members! I have today a review of the 10215. The pictures for this review were taken after I already put it together once, so I'm afraid I don't have pictures of the parts in their bags, but I've tried to make this as comprehensive as I know how. Lets begin at the start, shall we?

First glance: The box!

I'd like to apologize in advance for any grain or slight blurriness, I'm a bit shakey-handed and had to make some sacrifices with the ISO settings.

The front of the box has all the usual details. I think it looks pretty nice, although while this angle shows the ship as a whole well; you miss a lot of details! So, let's see what the rest of the box has to offer, shall we?

Here's a bit of the side. It shows R4-P17's head for size scale since there are no mini-figures, and probably to show off the printing. There's also a picture of the ship with it's dimensions - that I would like to point out are wrong. Oddly enough, the box lists the ship as 40 CM in lentgh when it is in fact 47 CM. LEGO S@H has the correct size, so it's just best to ignore the number on the box itself (In both places it appears, they both list it as 40).

The back of the box has a much better display of pictures and angles, as well as showing the ship against a geonosis backdrop like in episode 2. In the spoiler tag below I have close ups of each smaller picture.

Looks like it got the length wrong... again!

Now for inside the box. As I no longer have the bags, here's all the pieces loose inside:

There are a good amount of parts and the box doesn't seem empty at all. There was I think five bags marked 1-3, and those I'll go into more detail later.

This is the front of the instruction manual and the sticker sheet, both of these were perfectly flat and not bent in the slightest. I've borrowed a picture of the sticker sheet from bricklink, as mine has been used.

The colours are all very good, as you can see here they are all very easily distinguishable and I never had any problems. The only tricky part is telling apart the trans-clear stud and the silver stud - but you only use one clear stud in total and if you pay attention to the part call-outs it's not an issue.

Here's the main build stages. There are 2 bags marked "1", 2 marked "2", and 1 marked "3" (If i recall correctly). But enough of this picture gazing, eh? Let's get to the build!

-After much sorting-

It's a lot faster and easier to build in order of the numbered bags, but here's aaaall the parts! The 10215 tends to get some criticism for only having 676 parts, but looking at all of them like this really makes it seem like more to me. There is a large number of wing plates, slopes, curves, tiles, and uncommon pieces.

Here's some closer-up pics of the assortment:

So many headlight bricks! Please don't count them... one of them is missing from this picture.

The printed pieces:

The white is a bit washed out thanks to my flash, but I wanted the droid print to be seen clearly. There's not much in the way of printing here, but the droid is beautiful and the control panel being printed is a very nice touch too.

The Stickered pieces:

Here's all the stickered parts. It took a bit of care trying to get them on straight and lined up, but I really like the added detail they give the ship. The only complaint I ever have with stickers is when there are Stickers Across Multiple Parts (STAMP), but they very thankfully avoided this altogether! The republic insignia, as you can see, is split into two stickers each. I'm on the fence as to whether or not I would have preffered them to be prints or not. Being a sticker it takes some care to line them up so they look good, but I also highly doubt that they would have been accurately printed enough, so in the end I think this solution is fine.

Anyways, on to the build! I've got sort of a brick-blog series of pictures here for you to see.

This is the ship at the end of the first "spread" of page. It's coming along at a fairly brisk pace, each step has 7-8 pieces in the call-out to add.

This is almost exactly half way through the build of the "Bag 1" instructions. The bottom of the ship, base of the tail, and the start of the cockpit have all been done so far. It's a pretty fun and interesting build, and the base of the tail is attached pretty interestingly.

Here's the bottom of the ship, as far as "Bag 1" goes it's finished. It's pretty nice looking I think. I'm not sure if the gap in the middle is there on the "real" ship, but there are some textured bricks and greebles in the gap to make it interesting. It's also where the stand attaches. The method they use for the slope bricks is pretty interesting, and I found it enjoyable to put together.

Here's the top of the ship, "Bag 1" completed. It's pretty slick looking up here as well, the SNOT nose and the nicely rounded tail section really make it feel like a fast ship. The lime green stands out well and I think is really a good example of colour usage, and it along with the yellow help break out the long white segment without being too overbearing.

Here's some close ups of the cockpit:

It's pretty nicely detailed, and I love the seat design. It feels pretty cozy, and it's a nice touch that they made the tail's overhang easily removable for cockpit access. It may not hinge open, but I think in this case it's understandable.

Here's the engines. It's pretty simple, but the wing assembly integrates with it pretty well and makes it not jut so much.

Here's about halfway through the build of the left wing. There's a few neat/interesting choices as far as it goes, the wedge plate in the center of the wing I found particularly neat.

Here's the bottom of the wing, it's got a nice build around the engine area. The front seems to build up to the wing slope fairly well, and the gun is fairly plain and simple. The bottom gun doesn't get too much attention later but it is one of things I wonder about, as far as alternate designs go.

But enough of that, here's the finished wing! The other side is nearly identical, other than the droid area. R4-P17 herself is, as noted, a bit big for the starfighter but I don't think it's too bad. It does, however, make for a bit of an odd contrast with the 2x2 round tile Republic Insignia on the other side. The size difference between the two is a little exaggerated.

Once you finished and attach both wings, the ship is complete! There will be plenty more pictures of the top later, but for now, let's see how the bottom of the ship lined up shall we?

The engines fit perfectly into the wing housing, and I think the end result ended up looking much better than I anticipated. While not as smooth overall as the top of the ship, it seems that they put a fairly good amount of work down here and it's certainly nicer to look at than say, the bottom of the UCS TIE Advance.

Here's the stand, simple yet effective. It doesn't use the same angled style as the UCS stands of old, but it does rotate. I may try and build or adapt an angled stand to see what it's like, but the rotating stand makes it very easy to spin around to see all the detail and shape. (And since it's fairly well balanced, kind of fun to spin as well!)

The display card is pretty nice, and I love that it's on a single piece instead of across multiple. I do remember reading a concern that the mould injection mark in the middle of the tile would disrupt the sticker, but as you can see, the whole thing is as smooth as can be.

Here's some more neat pictures as well:

The breakdown:

So here's where it comes down to the score. What do I think?

Playability/Sturdiness: 10/10 Given it's UCS nature, you wouldn't expect much here. However the model is sturdy, albeit somewhat heavy, and it's very easy to pick it up and probably even swoosh it! The droid head swivels and the cockpit is relatively easy to access. It surpassed my expectations in this regard, especially since my last UCS was the fairly fragile TIE Advance.

Design: 8/10 The design overall is pretty interesting, and I think for the most part pretty accurate as well. The droid is too big, the right-wing republic insignia is too small, and the nose is perhaps a little too flat compared to the wings. The cockpit, engine housing, tail section, and just about everything else are very satisfactory in my eyes and I think make up for it nicely.

Price: Original ($100 USD): 6/10 Sale ($75 USD): 9/10

Here's where most people trip up. The original price of $100 USD was, without a doubt, too high. If it had stayed that price the whole length of the set's production I probably would have given in, but the new lower price of $75 is just about perfect to me. the large amount of plates, hinges, slopes, and other more "uncommon" parts balance out that $7 over the 10 cents per piece ratio in my opinion.

Minifigures: 10/10 There's no minifigures here, obviously, but I've kept this scoring category because of R4. While a little too large for the ship, I think the R4 dome is a beautifully designed and printed part and am very glad to have it. I'm hoping to try, one day, to build a full body for the head (But hopefully someone more talented beats me to it!)

Parts: 9/10 The parts in this set are pretty wide and varied. There are a TON of wing plates here, especially the 3x6's. There's not much, if any, new grey colours, but the large amount of dark red and interesting lime green parts is very welcome to me. Other parts like the 2x2 Tile with one stud, and 1x3 tile, among others, are all new and great to have pieces. That, along with the variety of other useful parts, have me give it good marks in this regard as well.

Total Score: ($100) 43/50, 86% ($75) 46/50, 92%

In summary, I really like this set and ship. I've been a long time fan of the Delta-7 and was both excited and worried about how the set would turn out, however after assembling it (twice now!) I can say pretty confidently that despite it's fairly small flaws, it's a fantastic looking set and I very much enjoy having it on display. I would highly recommend getting it while it's on sale. At full price it may be a tougher decision if you're really attentive to parts/price.

I have a few more pictures (Some that are pretty neat) in the Brickshelf Gallery, once moderated.

As far as this review goes, it's the first one I've done. Any comments/tips/criticisms would be much appreciated and valued. Any requests as far as pictures or information goes are just fine too and I'll try to get them filled as soon as I can.

[Blackknight112]

Great review, I think I am gonna buy this set.

[Flare]

Excellent review, it covers the set very nicely. I like all the pieces in this...

[Brickdoctor]

Thanks for this review. Personally, I think this set is just beautiful, but even at $75 I'm not sure if I want to buy it because I wouldn't have a use for a lot of that dk. red, and knowing me even if I did keep it together I'd want to redo the wings in SNOT. That would mean buying more dk. red and being left with some that I wouldn't really use. I'm tempted to get the set, but I'm going to pass in favor of the Summer 2011 wave.

[eltsyr]

Great review with many details :-) You could benefit from a better camera though :D

I received this set a few days ago and built it with my sons. I agree with you, once finished this thing is a beast and looks much better then in the pictures I saw previously. It's agressive, it's sleak, colors are beautiful, and apart from the dozens of 1x1 headlight bricks (I still didn't get why they didn't choose lenghtier bricks with a similar function) assembly is great fun. Also after building the nose it becomes obvious that one day I'll build a real sword with legos :-p

Minifigures: 10/10 There's no minifigures here, obviously, but I've kept this scoring category because of R4. While a little too large for the ship, I think the R4 dome is a beautifully designed and printed part and am very glad to have it. I'm hoping to try, one day, to build a full body for the head (But hopefully someone more talented beats me to it!)

Actually I was thinking about that as well. However dark red cylinders bricks aren't that common and obviously you need some holes to add greebles. My idea was to use brick 41531 for the body. What do you think of it ? any suggestion for the legs ? Ach, this requires some collective brainstorming ;)

Edited January 10, 2011 by eltsyr

[Brickdoctor]

Actually I was thinking about that as well. However dark red cylinders bricks aren't that common and obviously you need some holes to add greebles. My idea was to use brick 41531 for the body. What do you think of it ? any suggestion for the legs ? Ach, this requires some collective brainstorming ;)

That or one of those 4x4 round bricks with the Technic holes that I'm too lazy to link to. That would be a more accurate width, since the piece you linked to bulges in the middle, but then you're stuck with the ugly holes on the two sides that don't have legs attached to them. Also, remember that Technic pins aren't the only way to add legs. I'm sure there's some illegal connection that could do the job. Either way, though, I'd do macaroni for the cylinder and not one of the big half cylinder pieces. It wouldn't look as clean, but I'd like to see if you could make a retractable third leg.

[Daedalus304]

[quote name=eltsyr' date='10 January 2011 - 01:16 PM' timestamp='1294690561'

Thanks for all the nice replies everyone, I'm glad you like the review!

Great review with many details :-) You could benefit from a better camera though :D

I received this set a few days ago and built it with my sons. I agree with you, once finished this thing is a beast and looks much better then in the pictures I saw previously. It's agressive, it's sleak, colors are beautiful, and apart from the dozens of 1x1 headlight bricks (I still didn't get why they didn't choose lenghtier bricks with a similar function) assembly is great fun. Also after building the nose it becomes obvious that one day I'll build a real sword with legos :-p

Actually I was thinking about that as well. However dark red cylinders bricks aren't that common and obviously you need some holes to add greebles. My idea was to use brick 41531 for the body. What do you think of it ? any suggestion for the legs ? Ach, this requires some collective brainstorming ;)

My camera actually is capable of better pictures, but when i was taking these ones I had to wrestle with the settings a bit thanks to the lighting and me being a bit more shakey-handed than normal.

I think the thing with the headlight bricks was mainly so that they could fit in into a smaller space. If they had used the 1x4 Brick with Studs on the side, there would've been a whole extra plate's worth of space in the nose to blunt the tip.

As for R4, I've been doing a lot of thinking on it and I think using the 2x4x2/3rds slopes for the back (Building it in SNOT) would probably turn out ok. Right now the legs, or the top attachment thereof, is the hardest to figure out. I'll have to play around with LDD and see what works. With SNOT it may be possible to do the third leg, as well.

[Brickdoctor]

I think the thing with the headlight bricks was mainly so that they could fit in into a smaller space. If they had used the 1x4 Brick with Studs on the side, there would've been a whole extra plate's worth of space in the nose to blunt the tip.

I would think it's because headlight bricks have an indent of a half a plate. Using the 1x4s could throw the dimensions or proportions off.

[eltsyr]

Either way, though, I'd do macaroni for the cylinder and not one of the big half cylinder pieces.

Dark Red macaroni don't seem to exist. Actually the dark red round bricks are limited. Next best candidate was Wheel 31mm D. x 15mm Technic.

[Brickdoctor]

Dark Red macaroni don't seem to exist. Actually the dark red round bricks are limited. Next best candidate was Wheel 31mm D. x 15mm Technic.

Oops, I keep forgetting that R4-P17 is all dk. red. I was thinking white.

[XimenaPaulina]

Thanks for sharing this review Daedalus304! It's always nice to see a different perspective on this set. The close-up shots really demonstrate the neat details of this ship, especially in the cockpit interior. I agree there are elements that could be improved upon this model (rear part, SNOT wings), so it would be interesting to see how others would address this. I might even get a crack of improving this JSF once I get ahold of this beaut.