[REVIEW] 75362 Ahsoka Tano's T-6 Jedi Shuttle

[Clone OPatra]

Now that the dust and the hype have settled a bit on the Ahsoka show, is the current version of the T-6 shuttle worth picking up? Read on as I take a look, and compare it to the closest analogue I had on my shelf: 2021's 75316 Mandalorian Starfighter.

SET INFORMATION
Number: 75362
Name: Ahsoka Tano's T-6 Jedi Shuttle
Theme: Star Wars
Released: 2023
Part Count: 601
Minifigures: 4
Set Price (RRP): 74.99 EUR / 64.99 GBP / 109.99 AUD / 79.99 USD / 99.99 CAD
Links: Brickset Bricklink Flickr set

INTRODUCTION
Every year there are one or two Star Wars sets that really tickle my fancy. This year, it was this one; it's a cool ship in universe, I never had the original one, the details looked good and it finally has a new piece for Ahsoka's montrals after the pretty poor use of the Shaak Ti one. It's never good to set high expectations, but will the set live up to mine anyway?

To give fair warning, I have watched the Ahsoka show, so I'll be referencing how the ship compares to its on-screen counterpart here and there, but I won't needlessly dive into spoilers.

Thank you to LEGO for providing this set at Eurobricks' request.

THE BUILD
Last year I derided the Scythe for having a box that did a terrible job selling the set. There's no such issue here, with a front of box that pops, and a back that shows off all of the set's features (though Sabine is just kind of jumping into nowhere...typical Sabine).

The model thankfully requires only four stickers, and the major decorated part, the cockpit, is printed - thank the maker! They have cruelly stickered that part too many times.

You can view full bag contents pictures in the Flickr album for this review. Here I'll just point out a few things.

The build launches right into the centre bulk of the ship, and interestingly includes two cool minifigures right in the first bag. I'll never understand why LEGO doesn't either parcel the figures out over the entire build, or else go back to throwing all of them in the first bag. Perhaps they want to let kids start roleplaying straight away?

Bag 2 feels like a hallmark contemporary ship build: lots of SNOT, fiddly bits and sub-assemblies that don't yet look like anything.

Bag 3 gives us our baddie and already completes the entire middle section, which now looks like something.

Bag 4 delivers the final minifigure, and builds the first of the wings. The instructions have you put down the sticker on the 6x12 plate with reduced studs before adding the dark red parts overtop, but I thought that would be a pretty bad way to go given that the sticker is supposed to fill the gaps of the red diagonal red stripe created by the plates. I put down the plates first and used them as a guide for placing the sticker instead.

Bag 5 feels like mirrored deja vu.

And bag 6 caps things off with the smaller but no less important cockpit, which easily slots on, and could be pulled off again to use as an escape pod in an unofficial play feature.

 

THE MINIFIGURES
There's no denying that the set packs a fantastic complement of figures: four named characters detailed from head quite literally to toe, with three new moulds to boot. At a glance, they look superb, though fear not: I will have nitpicks.

Detail of course continues around the back. The orange print fidelity on Ahsoka looks fairly decent, if not a perfect match for the orange plastic. Huyang has a printed 1x1 on a neck bracket to weakly represent his back protrusion with extra arms. This doesn't have the effect of conveying his arms, and I've seen the arguments that he's both the wrong colour and could/should have been a multi-part moulded droid like 2-1B medical droids and commando droids. While the colour issue is undeniable, for playability and customising's sake I prefer him in this form as a minifigure.

Unfortunately I do have three issues with the Ahsoka figure, who should've been perfect. For one, her main expression looks rather expressionless, which yes, arguably matches her demeanor for at least half of the series, but doesn't make for a compelling face nonetheless. Second, while printed arms are cool, the effect doesn't really work because of the resulting large amount of orange. Her arms are completely wrapped all the way up to above her biceps in this costume. They really needed to be dual moulded with dark blue lower arms and either grey upper arms and orange printing, or maybe orange upper arms and grey printing. Lacking that, entire grey or dark blue arms with the orange shoulders printed would have been more accurate. This print on orange arms just doesn't do it.

Ahsoka's angry face also looks a bit strange, but I must say that Sabine is pretty perfect, especially her smiling face in the image above which excellently captures Natasha Liu Bordizzo's portrayal of Sabine.

My final issue with Ahsoka is her new montral piece, which isn't as perfect as it could be. Back in 2008 LEGO created a perfect montral piece incorporating moulding and gapless printing that seamlessly replicated Ahsoka's look. Using the Shaak Ti piece with high up printing alluding to Ahsoka's Season 7 headband was a very weak effort, but even this new piece has gone the route of Scarlet Witch with a moulded area for printing that's noticeably larger than the actual print. If LEGO could get it right in 2008, they could create a piece with no noticeable white between the headband and her head, but here we are.

Marrok the man of green mist-ery meanwhile has a pretty cool helmet for medieval figures.

The figures come with an appropriate amount of accessories: lightsabers for Marrok and Ahsoka, a choice between a lightsaber and blasters for Sabine, and a wrench for Huyang.

THE T-6 SHUTTLE
The completed shuttle looks pretty flash. The colour scheme works well, and the shaping and proportions all feel right. The rear engine section also looks quite good all around.

Of course, the ship gets even more fun once picked up (stand not included), and that look from the back is just excellent.

With big hands it's not easy finding a place to hold it that allows you to spin the wings around, though the build is sturdy enough to be gripped in the following position, which did leave just enough room for the wings to clear my hand.

Spinning the wings around reveals the elephant in the room: the totally bare other side. It's an eyesore without a doubt, and one that LEGO sneakily hides in almost all official materials. The designers would have evidently run into trouble trying to fully mirror the dark red striping if they tried at all, given that plates don't exist to match the 90-degree triangular tiles used on the top. Nonetheless, the total blank grey slate does reek a bit of giving up. While that's significant, it really is the only flaw in the look of the model.

 

SHUTTLE FEATURES & A NOTE ON SCALE
I wouldn't be the first person to point out that the shuttle feels kind of... small. It's dense but looks and feels small in hand for a USD $80 set, and is of course also quite small next to minifigures compared to the source material.

Those round stickers on the sides of the top fin for instance? Those represent doors to the interior. Good luck Sabine!

Now, people don't usually level the same criticism at playscale ships like the Millennium Falcon or Ghost, which are also very undersized, but I suppose a key difference is that with those types of sets you can replicate most of the key scenes you'd want out of those ships. You can't put four or six figures in the Falcon cockpit, but you can put two. The interior isn't as large compared to figures as it would be if it was to scale, but you've still got the seating area and storage areas inside, and then some.

We see a lot of scenes in the interior of the T-6 in the show, but on the model you can't even get a single minifigure inside the middle of the ship. The side flaps lift up just for some storage areas.

The cockpit, meanwhile, has the scale of a starfighter cockpit, and disappointingly can't even fit Huyang, who often pilots the T-6 in the show.

All that said, I'm not sure how much the scale bothers me personally. Yes, if LEGO had allocated this a roughly USD $150 spot, it could've been big enough to have some interior, which would've been great. As it is, it's a fantastic model to display that you can also shove a minifigure into to pilot and generally swoosh around, which might not be what you want if you're trying to re-enact all the types of scenes from the show, but does work as both a display piece and a toy.

COMPARISON WITH 75316 MANDALORIAN STARFIGHTER
With only around 60 more parts though costing USD $20 more, Ahsoka's T-6 seems pretty comparable to another twisty-wing ship from recent memory: Bo-Katan's Mandalorian Starfighter.

Though the T-6 is quite dense as I mentioned. 75316 is a fair bit longer than this set and slightly wider as well. The T-6 looks practically stubby by comparison.

In fact, the Mandalorian Starfigher has arguably more shelf presence altogether, what with its larger overall profile and more striking colour scheme. That said, the T-6 still looks good from this view.

 

CONCLUSION

75362 Ahsoka Tano's T-6 Jedi Shuttle packs a lovely, displayable model (bar the underside) and four highly detailed, though not perfect, exclusive minifigures. The ship does feel like it's on the small size for the price, though it would be fair to feel negatively about its size compared to the show as well, given it can't capture any interior at this scale.

For me, it succeeds as a display model that can also be played with, and its scale makes it easy and fun to swoosh around, provided you find a good spot in which to grip it.

All in all, how you'd feel about the set depends heavily on what you want out of it: a small-scale nearly exterior-only model of a T-6, or a set that captures all of the T-6's features from the Ahsoka show? From my perspective, appreciating it as the former, here are my ratings:

SCORE
How do I rate this set?

8 MINIFIGURES

The minifigure lineup is excellent overall, but the design flaws on Ahsoka bug me enough to bump it down a couple of points.

8 PIECES

I didn't see anything particularly interesting, and the piece count feels slightly low for the price, though it's great the cockpit is printed.

9 Design

The ship has a great design overall, though the bare back is a disappointment.

7 Playability

It's hard to rate the playability, since it has all the external playability you'd want from a ship, but is sorely lacking interior playability.

7 Price

It easily could and should have been at least USD $10 cheaper, as the price feels a tad high for the size of the model and number of parts.

7.8 OVERALL - Not a top score from me, though overall still quite a decent set. Was I too soft or too harsh? Let me know what you think.

[Flawless Cowboy]

Very lenient review imo. For kids, I imagine they’ll have fun spinning the wings to their hearts content. For adults, it’s not an acceptable display model. No detail on the underside, clumsy curve of the wings due to the model being too small, a cockpit that only fits one figure, stickers in place of obvious brick-built options, zero detail captured along the ridge of the wings, etc. 

[Clone OPatra]

1 hour ago, Flawless Cowboy said:

For adults, it’s not an acceptable display model. No detail on the underside, clumsy curve of the wings due to the model being too small, a cockpit that only fits one figure, stickers in place of obvious brick-built options, zero detail captured along the ridge of the wings, etc. 

Fair. I suppose we have very different standards for something on display. Personally I've never been into the adult-oriented and very detailed sets, and I like to display playscale sets as long as they look decent. I currently have the Mandalorian Starfighter and Bad Batch Shuttle on display flying above stuff like the latest Fighter Tank (which I'll admit itself looks pretty bad, but covering it in clones hides it), if that says anything about my taste.

To me, the T-6 is perfectly decent to put on my shelf as I'm not looking for something big or very greebly, though it is much more detailed than the previous version, for instance. My litmus test is really just "does it look cool", and for me, this satisfies that test.

[Space78]

Great review.  Thank you for going into so much detail, including pictures.  Bought this set as a Christmas present for my daughter who is a big Ahsoka fan.  I'm sure she'll enjoy it.  I think the most disappointing part will be the terribly small cockpit.  Fitting Ahsoka and Huyang in side by side should have been a high priority for the designer.

[MKJoshA]

I had really high hopes for this set when it first leaked. But the more I've seen photos then less I've liked. Maybe it's because the old T6 shuttle is still one of my favorite Lego Star Wars sets. It still holds up to today's standards and has room for 4 full-size minifigures! This one is just sad in comparison. I love the color scheme, which could have been the set's saving grace. But the lack of underside pattern is the final nail in the coffin.

I'll still be getting this for my son who asks every day if he's going to get it for his birthday or not. But I would have bought 2 if the set had ticked just a few more boxes.

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Fantastic review and interesting details!

Very nice pictures of the different Asoka! 

[Clone OPatra]

2 hours ago, MKJoshA said:

Maybe it's because the old T6 shuttle is still one of my favorite Lego Star Wars sets. It still holds up to today's standards and has room for 4 full-size minifigures! This one is just sad in comparison.

I don't have the old version so I have no personal connection to it, but after watching MandR's comparison video I've got to say I feel your favourable opinion toward the old one might be a bit of nostalgia talking.

The cockpit size is certainly better for play than on this one, though it could only technically seat 2 (not 4), but apart from that the proportions and exterior detail on the new one are way better. The old version's mid section was stubby and pretty much lacked detail altogether - which is totally fine, but the new one shows how far LEGO has come with some aspects of greebling and design in official sets.

The old one also didn't have any pattern on the underside of the wings, just blocky red around the edge, which doesn't excuse the new one's lack of pattern, but doesn't elevate the old one by comparison either.

19 hours ago, Space78 said:

I think the most disappointing part will be the terribly small cockpit.  Fitting Ahsoka and Huyang in side by side should have been a high priority for the designer.

Agreed. Even if the new one's cockpit feels like roughly the right size proportionally for the model, it's a big shame that you can't throw at least Ahsoka and Huyang in the ship together at all to go off adventuring.

1 hour ago, LEGO Train 12 Volts said:

Fantastic review and interesting details!

Very nice pictures of the different Asoka! 

Thank you!

[WhiteFang]

Beautiful review, Clonie. Love the write up. I bought this set recently and it is something I enjoy a lot, considering that I miss the earlier shuttle. Thanks for doing this review for us.