def Posted March 26, 2009 (edited) This ship is more famous as a LEGO ship than as a Star Wars one. It appeared in the first five minute of the Phantom Menace, then got blown up, but also, it is the precursor to the Rebel Blockade runner. In the Star Wars universe, red is the diplomatic color, and this ship is a bonanza of red. Half the LEGO I own I wanted to buy, and half I just had to buy. This falls into the second category. Was it what I wanted? Set#: 7665 Name: Republic Cruiser Theme: Star Wars Year: 2007 Pieces: 919 Minifigs: R2-R7, Republic Captain, Republic Pilot, Qui-Gon Jinn (Light Flesh), Obi-Wan Kenobi (young with hood and cape, light flesh, tan legs) Price: I paid 10,000 yen MSP: $90 U.S., £70 Peeron Brickset Bricklink From Lego.com The Star Wars™ saga starts with a bang!The limited edition Republic Cruiser is ready to shuttle Jedi Knights, ambassadors and diplomats to trouble spots all across the galaxy! The famous red starship from Star Wars Episode I features an opening cockpit, extending hidden blaster cannons, rotating sensor dish, landing gear, detachable escape pod, and more. * Roof removes to reveal detailed interior with cargo containers and space speeder mini-vehicle! * Includes Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn, and all-new Republic Pilot, Republic Captain, and R2-R7 astromech droid minifigures. The booklets Two big booklets, over 130 pages of building instructions An ad to take you waaaaay back to 2007 Four pages to display features Unfortunately, that ship on the right doesn't actually fly The Pieces This set has loads of gorgeous bright red pieces, with plates and pieces, discs and slopes. Enough technic blocks to support the heavy ship weight. Obi Wan, Qui Gon, a pilot and a captain, plus an R-unit. This set famously had the double Obi Wan head, so mine had the Qui Gon head in a separate sealed package, and I have two Obi Wan heads. The Jedi have nice capes that have held their shape up until now. The Build This ship is fairly heavy, so a fair amount of Technic is needed to support the weight. Lot's of pins in the early build. This is about 12 steps in, and the landing gear has been finished. About 20 steps in, the base is made. Everything will attach to this part. Then we move onto the nose. Notice that the black piece is slightly longer than the grey pieces. This is the escape pod deployment mechanism. The cockpit is built... And attached with an elastic band. When the hidden beige part is pushed, they spread out, and, in the underside, that black piece is ready to lock in the pod. That is then attached to the first build. Now on to the tail. This is a fairly flat area, but then the greebling comes... This has a pile of radar dishes on it, which apparently "are manned by two communications officers who specialize in deciphering strange languages and decoding complex alien signal pulses." By twisting the yellow knob the large dish above spins. The best you can do on an unarmed diplomatic craft The tail locks into the back with Technic pins, and the ship is no longer top heavy Next we add the hull. The captain monitors transmissions, while the R-unit hangs out with him. On the other side, we have storage for a mini ship and lock box we'll see later. Lastly, we have the pod where the Jedi get stashed. This is a slightly wobbly bit. The lid stays on simply through gravity. The Finished Product Wow Double wow :wub: It doesn't look so great head on, it loses some detail. On the other hand, it looks great from behind. Possibly, a bigger orange disc would have gotten a better engine feel. The overhead view is very imposing. This looks solid, and has a great shape. The pilot is very comfortable in his cockpit, ample room for him. You can barely see it, but there's a brown piece, that if you flick it, reveals little guns, but not flick fire missiles. And they pop out that grey piece. The pilot has this little ship to fly around on (too bad he didn't use it before the ship blew up) And his lock box with a pistol and binoculars. Another view of the highly greebled tail side. This Technic piece holds up the whole ship. If you pick it up anywhere else, it'll break something. The top is covered by a build that slides snugly into place, and comes off by tugging that little white piece. Surprisingly strong. Here is the beige release pin for the pod. One push, and gravity does it's business. The Final Verdict Design: 10/10 This is a beautiful ship with lots of detail. The red, white, and burgundy work great together, the ship is quite stable (if you hold it right), and has a few play features. Build: 9/10 This is a delightful ship to build (this was my third time ) It's surprisingly not repetitive, as most of the mirrored parts are built at once. Just a few hull parts are duplicated. There are difficult points with the round engines and the escape pod, as they can be wobbly and collapse when pushing pieces together. If you build it on a wood floor like I eventually did, it's not a problem. Playability: 8/10 It's not so great for kids. First of all, it's heavy, so you won't be flying it around unless you want a workout. There are no guns, so the kids would have to want to have a diplomacy battle I just put them up on my mantle, and I quite like the pull-away cover on the hull, plus the escape pod mechanism is brilliant. Minifigures: 9/10 For the price, they could have thrown in some battle droids or something, but I'm happy to have the Jedis here, and I used the R-unit with my X-Wing when Wedge is piloting it, and give R2 a break Price: 10/10 A great price, no complaint. Near that 10 cent/piece sweet point, plus a fairly rare color (bright red) and some rare minifigures. Overall: 9/10 Actually, 10/10 for me. I don't recommend this for a kid to play with. It strikes me as a mix between the regular Star Wars Lego series and the UCS. I wish I had an UCS Blockade Runner to compare it to. But, as an adult collector, this is the most mature ship in my collection, and the least toy looking. For me, that's an incredible job on TLG's part. This is not a famous ship, so I get the feeling that it was a labor of love on the part of their designers. Great. This is a 2007 set, no longer in stock from LEGO, but still available here and there (Toys R Us Japan is selling them for 10,000 yen right now). I strongly recommend picking this up while it's available if you haven't already. "I have a bad feeling about this." Cheers all. Edited March 30, 2009 by KimT Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CloneMe Posted March 26, 2009 Very nice review. I really would like this set. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Natman8000 Posted March 26, 2009 Excellent review! I really like this set since it is large and has lots of fun parts to it. The minifiguers are nice but it would be great if they also included another Astromech droid. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
prateek Posted March 26, 2009 i love this set, its at a great price. i like the green astromech Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
soc399 Posted March 27, 2009 Thanks for another great review! I love this set, and seeing the review really makes me want to rebuild mine. The outside of the ship is beautiful, but I've always wanted to add a better interior. If you remove the hidden guns and the silly glider, there should be enough room for a proper inside. Has anyone else modded it? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
baby Posted March 27, 2009 Nice review! I really like the dropping mechanism. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hewman Posted March 27, 2009 I'm not a big fan of episode 1 at all but this set is beautiful and was a pretty good price here in Aus of $150. I ususally stick to episode 4-6 sets but I was very tempted to get this one. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RileyC Posted March 27, 2009 Im hopefully getting this set in the near future. I love the young obi wan and the qui gon minifigs they are the best. The ship is well designed and looks like the real thing in the movie Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Future74 Posted March 27, 2009 Very nice review! I'm waiting for mine... seeing this review I havent made a mistake buying it; it looks great. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
darkrebellion Posted March 27, 2009 This set is really great in my opinion, thanks for the review . In my opinion this is another one that sparks cause of its originality respect the line. Is a pretty uncommon ship and they make a really good representation of it. A great set . Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KimT Posted March 30, 2009 This is without any doubts one of the best Star Wars sets ever made. Not much more to add than that. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
yellost Posted April 1, 2009 Nice review for a really nice set. I'll always remeber it, I had to stop eating for a month to afford it... Fortunately, it was more than worth it Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Snake...SNAKE...SNAAAAKE?! Posted April 2, 2009 IMHO, this was the big shocker of 2007. A truly excellent set with an incredible essense. Awesome review Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Big Cam Posted April 2, 2009 (edited) Def, I love your pics, you have nice bokeh in the "I don't like the looks of this" picture with obi and quigon against the droids. very nice work! Edited April 2, 2009 by Big Cam Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
yumiyoshi Posted December 23, 2009 not the most famous ship, but one of the most beautiful set. i got it in my wish list even if it's on the wrong side. the red color is amazing. thank's def for the review and those great pics! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
echobasehoth Posted December 23, 2009 great review. the review made me want this ship, thank you Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BlueDragonZ Posted December 23, 2009 Thanks for the review. Very nice set making me want to buy it. Too bad i missed out on it when it was at retail so i'll pass on it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Destroydacre Posted December 23, 2009 Thanks for the review. Very nice set making me want to buy it. Too bad i missed out on it when it was at retail so i'll pass on it. This set actually can still be had for retail price on ebay. I purchased a sealed copy a couple months back for $80. Retail was $90 IIRC. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CELESTRIAL Posted December 24, 2009 I was lucky enough to get this for my birthday last year, and i think by far it is one of my favorite sets. fantastic review for a fantastic ship i love reviews with a lot of pictures. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Disturbia Posted December 24, 2009 Ahh, the Republic cruiser... one of the pride and jewels of my collection. It's accurate, cost £70 (which is cheap for something that size) and I needed a Qui-Gon and young Obi-Wan. Fantastic review def! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Fallenangel Posted December 16, 2010 So sorry I'm bumping this after a year, but I was remembering the rumour about a modified Consular and thought of this set... Something that really, really bothers me: Am I the only one who thinks this set is too fat around the middle? I mean, just look at the studio model. It looks like those trapezoidal flaps should be a whole lot thinner, and the section directly above the salon pod looks all wrong. But then I read all these comments about how this was one of the best LEGO Star Wars sets ever - I believe even KimT said so - and I'm just kind of confused. Such obvious flaws aren't easily overlooked, especially with the number of Prequel, Clone Wars, and Neo-Clone Wars fans on this forum... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KimT Posted December 16, 2010 Yeah, there's an obvious difference, but I always consider the model difference on the following basis: It's a LEGO model and should be considered as such. It's meant for play and that may influence on the final design. I'd love to have a "real" model of the Republic Cruiser, but that doesn't mean I can't live with or accept the design that TLG ended up with. I stand by the comment that this is one of the greatest LSW sets ever made - in accordance with the above reasons. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pldeutelephonz Posted January 11, 2014 Got this set and its a great model but doesn't have much playability Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
