[REVIEW] 7961 Darth Maul's Sith Infiltrator

[Brickdoctor]

Personally, Maul's Inflitrator has always been a silly set. You only see it for about 10 seconds of the movie, and yet TLG's made three sets of it. This is the only one that I want- and that's mainly because of the MFs. It's sad.

All the other Sith have personal craft. Vader has his TIE x1, Dooku has the Solar Sailor, and Palpy has the Lambda. The Scimitar is a pretty good choice for a medium size vehicle-based set including Maul.

[Ralph]

Very nice review, I do like this version better as it's much better than the earlier set. Not sure if I will get this one or not, got bored with SW theme in general.

Ralph

[Mr Man]

All the other Sith have personal craft. Vader has his TIE x1, Dooku has the Solar Sailor, and Palpy has the Lambda. The Scimitar is a pretty good choice for a medium size vehicle-based set including Maul.

Sidious has the Theta, the Lambda is just a Imperial ship. (Oh and Grievous has Soulless One ).

[Brickdoctor]

Sidious has the Theta, the Lambda is just a Imperial ship.

You could also say the Theta is just a Republic ship.

[Mr Man]

You could also say the Theta is just a Republic ship.

Or you could say that Palps went one bigger than all the others and his personal ship is the Eclipse . (I want a set of the Eclipse ).

[Brickdoctor]

Or you could say that Palps went one bigger than all the others and his personal ship is the Eclipse . (I want a set of the Eclipse ).

In which case Vader went even bigger and his personal ship is the Executor. And Tarkin beat them all with the DS. (and if you're counting the dimension it would've been at when completed, we're back to Palpatine and the DS2) In any case, the fact remains that all the Sith have had personal craft as LEGO sets, and there's only one logical choice for Maul, which is the Scimitar.

[Mr Man]

In which case Vader went even bigger and his personal ship is the Executor. And Tarkin beat them all with the DS. (and if you're counting the dimension it would've been at when completed, we're back to Palpatine and the DS2) In any case, the fact remains that all the Sith have had personal craft as LEGO sets, and there's only one logical choice for Maul, which is the Scimitar.

I get you point about TLG's Sith personal ships .

BTW the Eclipse is bigger and more imposing than the Executor but not as long and has a 'Frickin Laser Beam^tm'

[The Legonater]

In any case, the fact remains that all the Sith have had personal craft as LEGO sets, and there's only one logical choice for Maul, which is the Scimitar.

Well, you could always goo back to 1999 and just give Maul the Bloodfin...

[Brickdoctor]

Well, you could always goo back to 1999 and just give Maul the Bloodfin...

...which is included in the Scimitar.

[The Legonater]

...which is included in the Scimitar.

Yes, but it would be cheaper if they went back and did a set just with the Bloodfin, like they did all those years ago.

Edited June 26, 2011 by The Legonater

[Brickdoctor]

Yes, but it would be cheaper if they went back and did a set just with the Bloodfin, like they did all those years ago.

This discussion started out with:

The Scimitar is a pretty good choice for a medium size vehicle-based set including Maul.

[Fives]

Thanks for this fantastic review! This set is my most wanted this year. I know the ship itself is only OK, but the figs are superb! Qui-Gon is the best minifig of the year! I'm glad you posted the comparison pic of the new and old Maul heads with the horns. I think the new face, overall, is better. The horns fit better with the new face because the new face was designed FOR the horns. Also, I have always felt that the old Maul face was a bit squished and needed to be more stretched. THis new one does that. As for Padme, nice to see her again, and Panaka will just look awesome in anybody's SW collection.

[Target Head]

Beaten by a few hours by Jigsaw Killer, I present my second review of a re-released set from the summer wave of 2011.

Set name: Darth Maul's Sith Infiltrator

Set number: 7961

Year of release: 2011

Price: 74.99 EUR / 59.99 USD?

Parts: 479

Minifigures: 4 (Darth Maul, Captain Panaka, Padme & Qui-Gon Jinn

Lego’s Description

Box, front

Box, back

Box, side

From Wookieepedia:

Numbered bags!

Yes, building is made a lot easier when a set contains these numbered bags.

Thanks for helping out TLC.

Manuals/instructions

Dreaded Sticker Sheet

Again a DSS. I don’t think applying these stickers is crucial to the set, they just add some flavor.

Minifigures

Darth Maul

Darth Maul close up

I like the new “hair” piece of Darth Maul. It makes him look meaner.

Comparison with older version

Backprinting

Padme

Note: the printing of the old padme is a little off. The new Padme is just beautiful.

Captain Panaka and Qui-Gon Jinn

As stated by Wookieepedia; Panaka was a very pessimistic man and prepared for the worst.

TLC probably had this pessimistic view in mind when designing the new face.

I think Captain Panaka should have had a second face, like Padme.

Too bad I can’t compare Qui-Gon to a previous version.

New weapon!

The babe with the weapons, meeeoow

The build

Bag 1 and result

Bag 2 and result

TLC helping out in the corner with a piece to scale…

Bag 3 and final result

Special parts?

I can’t really tell for sure since I only really collect SW but these parts look new.

Note the difference in quality between these pieces.

All spare parts

Darth Maul's Sith Infiltrator

From Wookieepedia, top and front view

Front

Back

Right

Left

Top

Bottom

Special features

Bloodfin

The Bloodfin was the personal Sith speeder of Darth Maul and a modified Razalon FC-20 speeder bike.

Comparison between new and old bloodfin.

Landing Gear

Well designed retractable landing gear. You can see it up and down.

Release hatches

These are used to release the probe droids.

Probe compartment, top view

Probe droid

The DRK-1 Dark Eye probe droid. I’m not a fan of the DSS (who is) but the probe droid could have used a sticker to give it some “face”.

Although they are too simple, the set should have contained three as the Scimitar has three on board.

Cockpit

The cockpit is too small for Darth Maul to stand.

His “hair” piece makes him too tall.

Opening the cockpit

I like the entrance to the cockpit.

Lightsaber storage

Main storage and flickfire missiles

Here you can store the bloodfin, just don’t fly upside-down...

A definite flaw: upside-down

This set cant be held upside-down as the main storage opens up when you do.

I cant understand why TLC didn’t solve this as this is a major issue for any air/spacecraft.

Comparisons to the 7663

As you can see the new version is a lot bigger than the old one.

The Scimitar was equipped with a rare stygium crystal-powered cloaking device which was capable of creating an invisibility field.

Ratings:

Design: 4/5 it’s bigger, more accurate and more stable.

Build: 3/5 nothing special.

Playability: 3/5 the fact that it cant be held upside down is a big let down. Time to mod.

Minifigures: 4/5 Padme! Rare. Panaka! New. Qui-Gon! Rare and re-designed. Maul, headpiece.

Price: 3/5 A bit too expensive if you have to pay full retail price. I got it for € 55,95 and that’s a good deal.

Overall: A little bit above 3/5.

You will definitely have to combine this set with the 7962 Anakin's and Sebulba's Podracers to get the full Episode I character line-up (Anakin Skywalker/young, Obi-Wan Kenobi/young, Sebulba, Watto & Wald)

Hope you enjoyed this review.

All above and more pictures can be found here in the gallery

Reviews previous versions:

7151 Sith Infiltrator by Def

7663 Sith Infiltrator by Big Cam

[/quote

Thanks for the review!

If I buy this set (I probably will), I'll fix the upside-down problem with two of these pieces: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=32530, and two of these pieces: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=3700

Great review!

[MiniJunkie]

Just finished building this set tonight - I quite like it, and the minifigs including Maul. Actually, I'm not sure why but my Darth Maul (with his head spikes on) seems to fit fine in the cockpit standing up. It closes all the way.

Looking forward to revealing it to my boys in the morning :)

[Ki-Adi-Mundi]

A very good and enlightening review. Outstanding pics...

I ordered the set on sale a while ago. Surprisingly i did so for the minifigs and the lack of interesting dark side vehicles being available.

Well, slowly the delivery should be due...

[TheDarkness]

I love the minifigs in this set, was the main reason why I picked this up (though still not 100% sure of the Maul minifig)

The ship itself is ok, a better effort than the last one though it could have been a bit sleeker.

Thanks for a great review!

[Marcky]

So apprehensive about this set, until your last line mentioning it's good with the Pod Racer set (which I have and love to no end). Guess I shall pick this set up then!

[DFOL]

So apprehensive about this set, until your last line mentioning it's good with the Pod Racer set (which I have and love to no end). Guess I shall pick this set up then!

It isn't the greatest set of the past few seasons, but it certainly isn't bad either. Personally, i'm pretty happy with my Infiltrator, especially after i made some minor modifications

[The_Chosen_1]

It's a great time to pick this one up if you're in the U.S. Right now it's 33% off on Amazon.