Review: 7931 Jedi T-6 Shuttle

[Masked Builder]

I was really looking forward to this set when it originally came with Quinlan Vos. But when Lego gave us the real pictures I was really bummed out that they took him out. Turns out it's still an okay set even without him. The T-6 shuttle has popped up quite a few times in The Clone Wars so let's find out how it compares to the real one.

Name: Jedi T-6 Shuttle

Set Number: 7931

Pieces: 389

Price: $59.99

Ages: 8-14

Minifigs: 4

Theme: Star Wars

Year of Release: 2011

Bricklink

Brickset

Shop @ Home

The Brickshelf Gallery. (When moderated)

Box:

The front of the box has some great art of the T-6 flying in space. There's also a couple of shots showing you how the shuttle's wing rotates, and a great picture of the the new minifigures.

From the back the features are prominently displayed. The Rex art has also moved to the back of the box which I haven't noticed before. The minifigures are also posed around in the lower left-hand corner.

The top of the box has an great close up shot of the minifigures. I'm not very bothered that Obi-wan or Anakin came in this set but I'm rather upset that Anakin replaced Vos. Being this is only my second Anakin from a set I'm good with getting another one.

Contents:

Here's what comes out of the box. My manual was not bent up that badly but the sticker sheet was. Five total numbered bags means not a lot of digging around in a huge pile of parts. Bags 2 through 4 are, sadly, rather empty of parts.

The sticker sheet, unlike the manual, was bent up fairly well. We get two larger stickers and three smaller ones. I usually don't apply many, if any, of the stickers but I'm thinking about putting the Republic logo sticker on. Vote in the poll to help me decide!

Manual:

Here's what the front of the manual looks like. Much the same as the box but a bit wider. There are a few laser blasts around it along with the flick fire missiles shooting. This is pretty generic for a ship set. But I still think it's cool!

The first page, rather than putting together the minifigures, shows you what each bag builds. This is something newer for this type of set. Some of what the bags build can explain why the bags are so empty.

On page 12 of my manual there was this funny lighter colored dot. Did anyone else get this? I can come up with no good reasons for this to be here. Other then this my manual had good color consistency. Which is great with quite a few other manuals that have printing inconsistency.

One of the back pages of the manual has similar art to the back of the box and some great shots of the new minifigures with the names of the figures and and a few more functions displayed here.

After the page above there's this amazing new picture of most of the new 2011 sets. We've got some great action going on here. The T-6 shuttle is being piloted by no one! What's up with that? Really this is normal for Lego. On the next page there's a nice picture of the box art for all of the new 2011 sets.

Parts:

The small of the #1 bags yields these parts. There are quite a few parts that have only been seen in a few other Star Wars sets, including the "T" bar. Another interesting bit is that Lego gave us four of these half arches rather then two of these arches in red.

Here's part of what comes in the larger bag. Not bad at all. We get some of the new minifigure bits along with a bunch of white arches which have been used quite a bit lately. Shaak's cape comes in a small cardboard casing which, unlike the instructions, prevents it from being bent up.

The rest of the parts include quite a few structural bits for the inner workings of the T-6. Twelve of these parts are make up the bulk of this picture. They're quite useful for turning the studs in a MOC.

So all in all bag 1 yields us the minifigures and the back half of the ship. The ship is built in four sections this is the first part of the four. It looks like the ship will turn out fairly well from here.

Bag two gives a bunch of plates for the right wing. Quite a few of them are the first time I have ever gotten them. Most of the tile parts would have stickers on them but I usually don't apply them.

This is all that bag two builds for us. Rather dissapointing isn't it? The wing is rather thin. The turn table parts are rather rare and quite old. At 20 years old they're one of the oldest production parts that I have ever seen.

Baggy #3 gives us basicly has the same parts as bag 2 but some of the parts are mirror images. A few of the parts are for assembling the ship which adds a few parts to make this bag have more parts then bag 2.

Yet another wing for the ship. Not much else to say here as this is pretty much the same build as the other side.

Here we have quite a few curved parts and an amazing new printed windscreen! I can't talk enough about it. The printing is spot on and about the same color white as the molded parts. I was expecting to get some of these but Lego had other plans to fill in the curved section of the cockpit.

I was quite surprised that Lego has us build the flick fire missiles in bag 4 rather than bag 1. The cockpit looks all around like a very good representation of the real one.

Minifigures:

From the front the new minifigures are quite cool. The printing is spot on and the new head tails are quite interesting. I really like Tiins print as he's got so much detail on him.

Saesee Tiin is the only minifigure with back printing. Shaak Ti, Anakin, and Obi-wan I can understand all of them not having back printing. Obi and Anakin are older minifigures so Lego may not want to change their printing, Shaak Ti doesn't need it as she comes with a cape!

Here's a nice shot of Shaak Ti and Lego's version. The first thing that pops out at me is that Legos one is red, and I mean red! It looks fairly odd if you ask me.

As it turns out Shaak Ti and Ashoka are the same species. Who knew? They're both Togruta, their bright colored bodies confused preadators. They look enough alike that I'm sure they're the same species now.

Thanks to KielDaMan I now have a Clone Wars picture of Saesee. The color, printing, and head tail size are very accurate if you ask me. I do think his head sticks out a bit to much in the back though.

The Finished Build:

So here we have a nice comparison image of the T-6 to compair to Legos model. I can't really tell if it's white or not but I had the same issue with the RAS. It's also apparent that Lego's model is to small.

Lego did, on the other hand, get the shape right. They usually do but size is almost always an issue with most fans, including me. I may try to do a minifigure scale ship but we'll see.

So from the front view here we can see that it has a very interesting profile. The colors are about right too. I really think that Lego has done a great job with the overall shape.

The side shot reveals, to no surprise, that the wings aren't even a full brick thick! This is about my only gripe with this set. The flick fire missiles can also be seen poking out of their housing.

This shot shows just how thin the back of the shuttle is. There's a bit too much engine showing for me but you can always fix that with some modding. You can kind of tell from this shot that the wings aren't even the same thickness all the way down them. Again I'm not a fan of this.

Here's a nice shot with the wing rotated vertically. This side looks great! Flipping it around to the other side reveals the ugly bottom side of the wing. The little black round piece is where the Republic logo sticker would go.

These two little Technic bars are essential to holding the ship upright when you land it. You can also see the eight tooth gear that meshes with the turntable to keep it from rotating freely and you have to rotate it by hand, which is great.

The cockpit seats two and, with some quick modding three. This is a very major problem for me, as The Clone Wars shows up front that the ship seats four. I think a larger better version would be able to set four.

Flick fire missiles:

Pushing either outer engine results in a missile firing from the front of the engine. Quite ingenious if you ask me. I'm happy with how far the missiles fire.

Final Thoughts:

Ratings:

Playability: 8/10 The playability was better then I had expected. The flick-fire missiles worked better then I had expected.

Design: 5/10 Design would have been much better if Lego had SNOT built the wings. This may have helped with the part count too.

Price: 5/10 Price was a big issue for me when I first heard what it was. but after thinking it over I realized that this was an okay deal for the two new minifigures.

Minifigures: 9/10 The minifigures were absolutely great! Shaak Ti and Sasse Tin were long awaited charters for me and I'm quite happy to have them.

Parts: 7/10 Part count was terrible for this set but the variety of them was very nice. Quite a few of them I can't wait to use on a MOC.

Total: 35/50 Overall an okay score of this set. Had this set had more parts it would definitely had a higher score.

Obi-wan: "Anakin! Get out of the cockpit!"

[commanderneyo]

Excellent Review of a Excellent But UnderRated Set. Great Review MaskedBuilder

[KimT]

Thanks for the great review.

I agree that the use of red half arches and white full arches is a little odd.

I do prefer the hafl one though

Saesse looks better than I'd expect - I was worried they'd cut part of the "hat" off in the back like they've done with the AT-AT drivers and such.

A great review that I borrowed a picture from for our flickr, so that I could link it here.

Also this has just been blogged as well.

[Rufus]

Lovely, comprehensive review, Masked B!

I actually think this ship has a great design. It's been on my shortlist for a while, even though it's CW. And who could baulk at the chance to get a wonderful Shaak Ti figure.

Not so sure about Saesee. Move over Anakin - he's well on the way to being the ugliest CW fig!

[prateek]

Great review. I like this set, but it's too expensive. The centre console thing looks very nice IMO

[WhiteFang]

Nice review. I saw the CW episode and I am quite fond of the shuttle mechanism. However, the price is quite hefty and the only reason which I could pick this up, is to complete and acquire the 2 unique Jedis.

[lightningtiger]

Excellent review 'Masked Builder', I agree with 'commanderneyo' unrated set - I have a raincheck of sorts at Myers for this (oh, and Naboo along with the bounty hunter ship too ! ).

It seems that most of SW/CW sets have capacity problems, the T-6 in CW is a four seater, but to make it a true one with side-by side seats.....it would be wide, a UCS size and styled set......sounds like someone might MOC one at some stage eh ?

Thanks again for the review, and may the brick be with you !

[Ceroknight]

thank you for the review! I agree, Shaak Ti isn't appealing as she was before...

I'd apply the sticker, the black piece looks very awkward with the whole set

[Masked Builder]

Thanks everyone! I'll let the poll run for a few more days then we'll see what I'll do.

A great review that I borrowed a picture from for our flickr, so that I could link it here.

Also this has just been blogged as well.

That's great!

[Brickdoctor]

Nice review, Masked! Pictures are a little washed out, though.

I really think I would've liked this set if it was executed properly. As it is, it's a giant stack of plates in the arguably two most common LEGO colors this side of the Rishi Maze, with two not-so-great figures. If it was, say, Shaak, Saesee, Quinlan, and a rarer generic like a Phase 1 pilot, in dk. red and white with SNOT/Technic wings (see Imp shuttle), then I'd probably get it.

[Flare]

Great review buddy! Now I wish I had this set...

[TheBrickHitHouse]

I'm finding I'm loving this set, when I did just get it for the figs.

Has a really interesting look and there isn't much about the set I can take issue with

[Masked Builder]

Thanks guys!

I really think I would've liked this set if it was executed properly. As it is, it's a giant stack of plates in the arguably two most common LEGO colors this side of the Rishi Maze, with two not-so-great figures. If it was, say, Shaak, Saesee, Quinlan, and a rarer generic like a Phase 1 pilot, in dk. red and white with SNOT/Technic wings (see Imp shuttle), then I'd probably get it.

Very true. I would have like to have seen a SNOT wing and would have paid more for one but that's not what we got.

[XimenaPaulina]

Great review MB! Glad I could help with the CW Saesee pic. My thoughts on this set haven't changed - lovely new jedi figs with a decent ship that's not worth the set price.

[Stardusty]

Great review!

I'm sorry for bringing up this topic but I have one question.

One member of forum Kockice wrote that after he has played with new figs he noticed that

blue print on Shaak Ti's headtails scratched off. So, he tryed to scratch it with his nail and print on that part of the

headtail fell off easiliy.

Did this happened to your's Shaak Ti too or he just has bad luck?

And anyone who has this set, please answer, because I am planing to buy it and this is really something I didn't expected.

[KimT]

Great review!

I'm sorry for bringing up this topic but I have one question.

One member of forum Kockice wrote that after he has played with new figs he noticed that

blue print on Shaak Ti's headtails scratched off. So, he tryed to scratch it with his nail and print on that part of the

headtail fell off easiliy.

Did this happened to your's Shaak Ti too or he just has bad luck?

And anyone who has this set, please answer, because I am planing to buy it and this is really something I didn't expected.

Why would we play with Shaak Ti?

I rarely play with my LEGO - I'm an AFOL - like everyone else around here?

My daughter's been playing with this set though and I see no harm to Shaak Ti's hair at all.

[Stardusty]

AFOL's...

I like to test playability of the new set. He said that he noticed that after putting minifigs in cockpit few times.

Saesee didn't had any scratched prints or anything like that, but Shaak Ti did.

And I am sorry because offtopic.

[RjShylocke]

Turning function looks cool and the figs look great but Im tired of getting Anakin in every set at least we didnt get Ahsoka.

[Masked Builder]

Did this happened to your's Shaak Ti too or he just has bad luck?

And anyone who has this set, please answer, because I am planing to buy it and this is really something I didn't expected.

Yeah mine has started scratching off a bit.

[Caiomjc]

The two new jedi are awesome, but the set is too overpriced

[pedro]

Thanks for the review Masked Builder.

This is a great set; really distintive design with the cool switch-wing function. Highly, highly swooshable... had me spinning around in circles in the middle of my livingroom for a while. Was pretty dizzy afterwards . The cockpit really needs some work in my opinion, but should be easy to mod.

The minifig of Shaak-ti is fantastic. Shaak and Aayla are 2 of my favourite Jedi and I'm glad to see they've finally been gievn the LEGO treatment (though I still need to pick up Aayla). Saesee is great too, though the printing on my minifig makes it look like he's staring down at something... I too wish they'd included Vos but I guess 2 new Jedi can't be sniffed at.

[Vindice]

Has a bit of splurge on Lego this weekend and bought the Bounty Hunter gunship, grievous starfighter and now this! Got my 4 year old to build it which took some time but was great fun. The playability of this set is great and he loved it.

My wife who usually casts a disapproving eye over my lego purchases (especially Star Wars as she thinks i'm trying to indoctrinate my son!) thought this set was actually really good value and was impressed at the size of it.

great review, great set and a great weekend building and playing lego with my family!

[Csacsa234]

I have mixed feelings about this set, The cockpit and angine are is nice and well-built, but the wings... they could be smoother and I hate whne Lego does this one side detailing like they did in the old B-wing sets. The only thing that made me think about getting it is Shaak Ti but I bought it alone and I have to say that she is one of my favorite minifigs from LSW

[Debricker]

great review