[Review] 8036 Separatist's Shuttle

[def]

Of the 2009 sets so far, this was the most interesting looking. Aliens, an egg ship, and a big hat. It's also not very Clone Wars looking, so it was a nice change of pace. How does it rate?

Set#: 8036

Name: Separitist's Shuttle

Theme: Star Wars Clone Wars

Year: 2009

Pieces: 259

Minifigs: Nute Gunray, Onaconda Farr, Battle Droid Pilot with Blue Torso, Battle Droid with 1 Straight Arm x 2

I paid: 46.20 yen

MSP: $29.99 U.S., £31.29, 73.20 yen

Peeron

Brickset

Bricklink

From Lego

Conquer the galaxy with the Separatists!

The Separatist shuttle transports Nute Gunray to conquer, loot and battle on planets all across the galaxy! With a droid pilot and two battle droid bodyguards to carry out his orders, the Viceroy of the Trade Federation plans to recruit Onaconda Farr to the Separatist side – whether the Rodian senator likes it or not! Shuttle features movable landing gear, opening cockpit and sliding passenger compartment hatch. Includes Nute Gunray, battle droid pilot, 2 battle droids and Onaconda Farr figures.

* Includes 5 minifigures: Viceroy Nute Gunray, Onaconda Farr, droid pilot, and 2 battle droids!

* Features opening cockpit and retractable landing gear!

* Turn the knob to open the back hatch and hide Nute Gunray inside!

* Shuttle measures 7 inches (17.8cm) long by 3 inches wide (7.6cm) by 7 inches (17.8cm) tall!

The Box

The box was smaller than I expected. Actually, the set was smaller too. Even after reading a review of it, I thought the inside was going to be bigger. The Instructions are quite minimal, so all the features are shown on the box instead.

The Pieces

There are four bags, but no pieces that jump out as being great. The color scheme is the same as other Trade Federation sets, like the ATT and the Droid Gunship.

The sticker sheet is... expected. Most of them go on one piece, over the cockpit. I managed it alright.

I love these mini-figs. This is the first reason why I bought the set. Nute Gunray and Onaconda Farr, new sculpts for me since I've never had a Greedo. And I like the fish people. They were remarkably poorly done in the movies, very puppet looking. Much like with Dengar, I love when the Lego company takes the crappiest characters in the movie and make a mini out of them. (This is not to be confused with Jar Jar who is most annoying, not crappiest)

This is Nute and Onaconda in the flesh, as it were.

I'm pretty tired of battle droids. I don't consider them figures at this point. Here, you get three, the blue one being the pilot.

The Build

I took some brief pics, upon request. These pics are about ten steps apart.

The egg comes in halves that snap together.

The technique on the fin is quite nice, using those side-stud pieces to hold it together.

The Finished Product

I really like the design of this ship, with its insectoid styling. It looks really cool with the landing gear down. I was surprised at the smallness of the set. The interior only has room for the two figures.

From head on. Notice the gap in the fin. This allows the cockpit to open while the antenna is there.

Great shape on this, an egg with a big fin. Simple is best.

The back is the door for Mr. Gunray. By using the crank, it doesn't close tightly, and you need to squeeze it shut with you fingers. But, it will open up just a little on its own. Not a deal breaker though. The back looks fine to me.

With the landing gear up. This is slightly awkward looking, since the front and back tuck in differently and don't have any specific place to go, but it's original. Still, let's just call it quirky.

From the back. I like the heaviness of the fin. You can see the legs just touching here.

Features

The cockpit opens up, and the droid has plenty of room to stand. Much much better than the droid gunship.

Here is the opening hatch at the back. Nute stays tucked in at the back. And he is tucked, it's quite dark in there.

And Nute comes out on a slidy seat. The seat is nothing special, I would like to see a back on it. But it's functional.

The Final Verdict

Design: 9/10 For the pieces it comes with, it gets lots out of them. Nobody was clamoring for a Nute Gunray ship so I imagine this ship was chosen by the Lego designers as one of their 'special projects' and they gave it the love that comes with a minor ship like this.

Build: 7/10 Nothing special. The only interesting parts are the opening door at the back, and the SNOT technique in the fin.

Playability: 7/10 It swooshes, it has fun landing gear. But the characters don't lend themselves to much of anything. They are great as part of a MOC scene perhaps.

Minifigures: 8/10 As I wrote before, I don't care for more battle droids. The first 40 were enough for me. But I love the other two. They're great. The only thing that would make them better would be if the Onaconda head were in the soft rubber that Yoda and Plo Koon's were.

Price: 9/10 This was just a little more than Anakin's Starfighter, and less than Ahsoka's Starfighter, and much less than that other space egg, Count Dooku's Solar Sailer. In terms of Star Wars Lego pricing, this is a good deal, 250+ pieces and two new mini-figs.

Overall: 8/10 This is a good ship, and a must have for Star Wars Lego fans. It's a quirky minor ship from a dark corner of the Star Wars universe. For the average kid, it'd probably be less exciting, since these are not characters they probably know. Heck, one of the characters is an ambassador! Do kids like ambassadors? Well, I do anyway. This is a set more for adult geeks than for kids. That means it's a good ship for me!

Onaconda channels his inner Zoidberg, and Nute has yet to forgive him.

Cheers all.

[Raphy]

Awesome review! i am so getting this set.

[SWMAN]

I voted outstanding for the simple reason that for $30 you get 2 unique, never-before-seen figures. This is pretty uncommon these days. And usually if they are new, it is just a new Clone or Jedi.

[Optimus]

It feels more like a $20 set because of the size, but the figures are decent and make it somewhat worthwhile. Great review!

[Svelte]

Thanks for the brilliant review! Your photos are top notch, as usual!

This is definitely my favourite of the Summer CW releases. I never noticed its an egg with a fin attached, but you're right - and it is a brilliant, simple shape.

I agree droids don't really count as figs, but in the context of the TV series, they are probably a necessary inclusion, and at least we get some variations from time to time, such as the blue torso here or the new SBD arms from the AAT.

I take issue with the assessment that this is a 'quirky minor ship from a dark corner of the Star Wars universe', though. It's vital to the CW series, which is what these sets are based on. These babies are often seen zipping around, and the set as a whole is obviously inspired by 'Bombad Jedi' as we can see from the figs.

It may have a limited interior, but the sliding door mechanism is great, and I quite like to have a palm sized, sturdy model with a reasonable scale instead of the sometimes odd choices that designers make (compare the length of Anakin's Y-Wing to the Venator ).

[ILikePi]

Great review, def!

I agree with everyone before me; there are two great, exclusive minifigs, it seems pretty small (but looks cool), and it has an ingenious double sliding door.

I also like the inclusion of two battle droids and one battle droid pilot. LEGO could have just put one "droid pilot" like the one that was in the Droid Gunship (just a regular battle droid with two straight arms), but it's great to see that they decided to put three, with one hard-to-find droid pilot with a blue torso (previously only found in the MTT).

The shape of the ship is great, too. I, like Svelte, tend to like smaller and sturdier models much better than huge, weak, and not-to-scale sets.

Nice "funny pic", too!

[Big Cam]

Good review, I like all the angles of the finished product but I was missing the build process, alot of reviews have that and I think it add's to the fun of the review.

Either way, great review, I'll definetaly be getting this set.

[The Rancor]

The review is amazing, especially the final pic, which must have been paintstaking to create.I too would like to see the build of the ship, but it's not completely essential.The set would be worth it for

Edited July 29, 2009 by The Rancor

[def]

The review is amazing, especially the final pic, which must have been paintstaking to create.I too would like to see the build of the ship, but it's not completely essential.The set would be worth it for �20 or even �25, but �30 is pushing it, and I might wait until Christmas.

However, I still do want the set, for the unique figs and another droid pilot (which isn't really a fig). I'm usually a 'specialist on ground assault and low altitude cruisers, I'm not usually a fan of deep space ships (such as the Y-Wing, A-Wing, TIEs, Vulture Droids etc.)

How do you get so much light onto your photography area def? I've used an adjustable lamp on the brightest setting plus natural light, but it still is not as blinding as yours. Perhaps I need a new, brighter lamp.

Thanks! I've added a build for you and Big Cam to take a look at. I usually don't show it for smaller sets, but I guess this was big enough to justify it

As for the pics, the final pic didn't take long at all, about half an hour in Photoshop. Photoshop is one of those programs which takes a little time to get comfortable in, but once you are comfortable, you can whip through the processes. I wrote a brief tutorial on how to do it in the Reviewer's Academy.

My "studio" is a piece of Bristol board and a window. My balcony windows face north, so if I take the photos between 10 and 2 pm, I get pretty good ambient light, and no hard shadows. In my review of 7256 (linked in my sig), I took the pics around 4 pm through a west facing window, and though the pics are alright, the shadows are stronger than I like. After that though, I need to put them through Photoshop, touch up the colors, boost the brightness, and then the whites. The build pictures I added here, I took from 8 am, so the first few pics are grainy with stronger shadows, but as the half hour goes by, the light gets better. No direct sunlight is needed though.

Here is before:

And after:

Since this isn't about the review, let's continue it in the photography thread of the Reviewer's Academy if you'd like

[Inconspicuous]

Thanks for the great review def! I was unsure about getting this set, but now I can't live without it. I loved the feature video and the image at the end. Any more reviews headed our way?