REVIEW: 75003 A-Wing

[Golem25]

Eurobricks ahoy! For some years now, I have been quietly lurking on this site, for the often excellent reviews, but also general LEGO news, and the odd MOC. A few days ago, I purchased 75003 A-Wing Starfighter, and I decided to return the favour to this wonderful community, by bringing you a review of this set. So, without any further ado....

Set Name: A-Wing Starfighter

Set #: 75003

Theme: Star Wars

Pieces: 177

Minifigures: 3

Year of Release: 2013

Price at Release: 30 Euro, 25 GBP,

Buy it? Inventory? http://www.bricklink...p?S=75003-1&v=1

INTRODUCTION

These past few years, many LEGO sets dedicated to the Clone Wars CGI cartoon have graced the shelves. While sales have proven that there are a lot of fans out there, people who prefer the Original Trilogy over the new movies and series have gotten the short end of the stick. In set quantity, not quality, as we've seen the latest Y-Wing (9495) and Jabba's Palace (9516) release last year. Among the load of CW sets that make up the first 2013 wave, one little gem caught my eye, bringing me back to days of old, spent with Star Wars; Rogue Squadron....

BOX

The 2013 boxes are a big step up from last year's, seeing as Darth Maul breaking his neck has been replaced with Yoda jumping towards potential buyers with his lightsabre. The biggest amount of space is taken up by the splendid A-Wing itself, flying above what appears to be Endor, with some fancy effects thrown into the mix. The lower right-hand corner reminds us that we get two "new" minifigures, along with a fairly elusive one.

The back, with some awful lens flare (sorry, first time doing a review), shows us the various play functions, as well as a scene of Han and Admiral Ackbar welcoming the A-Wing back into the hangar after another, undoubtedly succesful, mission. We also get to see the various sides of the vehicle, as well as the model flying rather solemnly towards a Mon Calamari star cruiser, while the Second Death Star is in the process of seemingly blowing up

The top of the box shows us a 1;1 image of the Admiral, along with the "new" Han and A-Wing Pilot. The latter one actually has a name and backstory (as just about every character seen in the movies), but we'll get to that later.

After carefully opening the box, we are greeted by 3 bags of parts (one or two would've been enough), a slightly bent instruction manual, and a horribly bent DSS.

CONTENTS

Talking about the DSS, there are an awful lot of stickers to be applied; 16 in total, 6 of which go on round parts (including the cockpit piece).

INSTRUCTIONS

The front of the manual shows us the front of the box, minus the minifig and age call-out, while the back features that kid all of us want to stomp off of our manuals by now. Yes, we get it, we can win things. No need to get rabid about it.

Here are the pages showing the various pieces in the set.

There's a special page highlighting all the minifigures. Don't take that literally, though; the Rancor is far from mini, while I'm missing the exclusive minifigs from 75012 (BARC Speeder) and 75013 (Umbaran MHC). I had to look twice at 75004's Pong Krell; didn't realise he came with the Headhunter.

Here's one of the pages of the manual, detailing a part of the construction halfway through bag 1. No problems with colour differentation.

The Build

In the first bag, we get to build our minifigures, and the base of the A-Wing;

Look at that (lens flare, again sowwy :3). Admiral Ackbar has only appeared in the very expensive 7754 (Home One, and coupled with an earlier A-Wing), a Comic-Con exclusive, and a magnet set. Not the easiest minifig to find in the past, but a very cool one nonetheless. Apart from his nicely detailed body and (oversized) head, he also has the cool factor that came with his movie appearance and subsequent fame

Han Solo has been redesigned (once again). His pants have been in plenty of sets before, but his torso has received a nice upgrade.

And then there's (to me) the star of this set; A-Wing Pilot! Quite a generic name for the guy who took down the Executor, and has such a cool new helmet. Fans with a good eye might have noticed that the previous three A-Wings (6207, 7314, and 7754) came with a different pilot. This fella had a generic name too, but carried the helmet of Tycho Celchu, a character with a hilariously huge backstory (http://starwars.wiki...ki/Tycho_Celchu) and the luck to survive the Battle of Endor. The guy you get in this set, however, carries the helmet of Arvel Crynyd, who was the leader of Green Squadron during that battle. And, as was said before, mostly famous for involuntarily parking his A-Wing inside the Executor's bridge; http://starwars.wiki...ki/Arvel_Crynyd

All three of them have some lovely back printing.

Arvel is the only one with a dual expression, which I tried to capture here. Very useful when faithfully recreating his moment of glory/infamy;

With them out of the way, we get to build the ship itself. Once you finish bag three, most people will already be able to recognize which iconic ship this will become.

Bag two has some very interesting pieces, namely those in the bottom left corner. The long dark red arches are new to me.

These parts, along with added stickers, brings us to this. Just missing some details and play features right now. Notice the stickered panel in the cockpit; it partly depicts the same image the other A-Wings had printed; a close-up of a certain bridge.

Bag three gives us the canopy piece, as well as a bucketload of flickfire pieces (sigh....). And a couple of odd round pieces in the bottom right hand corner. Where have I seen those before.....

Of course! This piece had its debut way back in the 90's in technic sets. They were supposed to be steering wheels for chaps like the one here, who shows off how the engine exhausts are made.

Another thing to note is the engine block. Owners of the previous ships will recall lockboxes being stored behind the pilot, but LEGO's designers opted for something different this time. Here's the manual page detailing the build;

Here you can see how it is attached to the A-Wing; it's in no danger of falling out when swooshing, especially because Arvel's helmet, when in the cockpit, is lodged inside the "hollow" part of the motor. I dunno if taking out the motor is more fun than the boxes in this set's predecessors, but it certainly helps to differentiate it. Along with the quite roomy interior; you won't be able to fit two minifigs in there without modding, but then again, A-Wings were known for being very cramped for even the smallest of human pilots.

And, at long last, the finished model! A prize worth winning, don't you think?

Now onto various angles of the ship. The rotatable guns of the older models have been replaced by 4 flick fire missiles, two smaller and two bigger ones. You can't move them in any way without having to pull the holder out of the technic socket, but it gives the children something to play with.

This A-Wing's butt, if you'll excuse my choice of words, is far more detailed than I can remember from the previous ones.

Overall

Design; 9/10

Sleek, detailed, with a lovely cockpit, engine, and special attention to the back of the ship

Build; 6/10

A quick one, nothing too difficult, but not boring either with little repetition. Though I say this after having recently built 8087 TIE-Defender....

Playability; 7/10

Landing gear, four flickfires, opening cockpit, a detachable engine, and three minifigures to choose from as pilot. I subtracted a point for losing the rotation on the guns, though.

Minifigures; 9/10

Arvel Crynyd is greatly detailed on all his parts, and his helmet is a must have piece; very faithful to the movie as well. We get another Han Solo, but with a great redesign, while Admiral Ackbar is thrown into the mix too. He, as Arvel, is very true-to-life too, and was difficult (= expensive) to get a hold of. This set will greatly bolster your Rebel fleet forces.

Price; 5/10, or alternatively, as a smiley ;_;

The set is expensive compared to its cousins. The PPR was 12 Dollar cents for the first version, the second 5.1 pence / 8.2 Dollar cents. Today's model, if retailing for 25 Pounds is 14.1, and for 30 AmeriBucks 16.9 cents. Same for Euros, though I paid 32 in-store, landing me on 18 cents. That's a lot, especially in these harsh economic times. LEGO seriously needs to renegotiate the deal with Lucas/Disney.

Overall; 36/50 = 72/100

This is, to me, the best set of this year's first wave. This might be down to OT snobbery and/or nostalgia (mission 3 of Rogues Squadron, anyone? And that's just one of the many levels you can fly an A-Wing in!), but 75003 A-Wing Starfighter sets a high mark. Both in price, and gratuitious awesomeness.

Concluding Thoughts

Well, what more can I say? LEGO has outdone themselves once again. We get three excellent minifigures (one fully exclusive, one redesign, and one hard-to-find), and a model that captures the look of an A-Wing much, much better than the previous three. Of course the price is horrendous, but also expected seeing as this is part of the Star Wars line.

I hope everyone enjoyed reading my take on things, and my sincerest apologies for the shoddy camerawork; this was my first try at reviewing something else than a video game ever. This site has given me so much enjoyment over the past few years with reviews for every imaginably theme, and this is my way of saying thank you and showing my appreciation.

If anyone has questions, comments, feedback, or wants to see some more, feel free to shoot :)

( Link to the Brickshelf gallery; http://www.brickshel...ry.cgi?f=518724 )

"Surely, these nice and friendly Imperial troops wouldn't be luring me into some kind of ruse/ploy/ensnaring device/ambush, this close to Christmas?"

As Tycho Celchu inspects this newfangled A-Wing, Arvel Crynyd runs into a strange person, wearing a helmet which eerily resembles his.

"So, uh, who are you?"

"Doesn't really matter, just read your galactic horoscope for today; it says you have to be wary of bridges"

Thanks for reading!

Oh, and never forget the spare parts!

Edited January 5, 2014 by Golem25

[lightningtiger]

Thanks for the review 'Golem25', nice A-wing....though all those stickers....oh, boy... ....but then again a new Han and a cool looking A-wing pilot......but Ackbar with a coffee cup ? ......It's a de-caf !

You could modify the guns so they can rotate though and without changing the overall look of the A-wing.

[lefty]

The original A-wing set was one of my first Star Wars lego sets (and indeed one of my first lego sets period) at age 9 and this set hearkens back to that time pretty well. The awesome figs, the little tools and accessories, the random bits of the ship that could be anything and detach for no good reason, it's all really fun. Not to mention the set itself looks really good. I just wish they'd bring back the rebel mechanics.

[Ceroknight]

Thank you for the review!

I missed the previous A-WIngs including the Home One set so this will be a great chance for me to get one and Akbar

[Calanon]

This A-Wing looks great. Thanks for the review!

[Esurient]

Thanks for the review.

This should be the second A-wing review out here in the forums and this is great!

[Sirtank]

I passed this set up at Toy's R Us last weekend, and really regret it. Can't wait to get my hands on it.

[Bilbo Baggins]

Cool review, it's surprising to see that Han Solo doesn't have back face printing.

[green dewback]

Good review, captured all the details of the set.

Fun humor is very welcomed.

For the over exposed photos maybe you can try it without flash and use photoshop or picmonkey.com to increase the brightness and highlights.

[Fighter of Frizzies]

EDIT: Never mind

Edited December 23, 2012 by Fighter of Frizzies

[Churchill]

Thanks for this great review. I love A-wings, so I'm a bit biased. I'm not sure that this version is a great improvement over the past A-wings. It still doesn't capture the "smashed cone" look that I think A-wings have. I still think there has to be a way to round out the sides, but I haven't found it yet. Overall, the look is good- but still not there. I am happy that they made an effort at the indented nose, but it's a bit wide. This too is a hard detail to get with MOCing. I could do without the flick fires. I like the use of the technic piece for the guns/targeting apparatus, but the flick fires fail here. Way too many stickers- especially on the canopy.

I think the pilot minifig is fantastic. The helmet is amazing, and has made this my current favorite minifig.

I agree that this is the best set of the wave, but as I said, I'm biased. I'm happy to add it to my A-wing squadron!

[Reevr]

This is really the only set out of the winter 2013 wave that I think I'll buy right away. I'll wait on the rest. The pilot here is the real big cafch for me. I'm so happy they finally made a real A-Wing pilot helmet :) Your pics really do a good job of showing this set off!

Here's a little fun piece of trivia. One of the A-Wing pilots in ROTJ is actually a girl dubbed over by a male voice actor.

[Thorg23]

I definitely plan to pick this up at some point since I don't have an A-Wing or an Ackbar currently, but the ridiculous amount of stickers for such a small set is disappointing.

[Only Sinner]

Sixteen stickers AND they bent it up in the box? Wow, OK Lego let's get it together. I'm really looking forward to this set anyway, as I've never had an A-Wing or Admiral Ackbar. What do you think is in his coffee mug anyway? Cocktail sauce?

[Purpearljellyblob]

Thanks for the review! Apart from the nice looking minifigures, the stickers and the instructions should always come with a cardboard backing imo.

[Im a brickmaster.]

Nice review! I really like the A-Wing pilot, its the helmet that draws me!

Also I think thats Sams head from LOTR.

[Cammo]

I don't usually hang out in the Star Wars section but this set really looks great. Small iconic vehicle + 2 instant recognisable characters from the movie. I'll probably pick this up when it's up for sale. Then all I need is a Darth Vader & Yoda since I only want the most iconic characters of the franchise.

[Darth Wayne]

I already know i am getting this set SOME time but i am wondering, what IS the actual retail price for this in Europe? I have seen it for as much as 35 euro and as little as 27 hmm...

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Great review and amazing minifigures!

[BrickieB]

I already know i am getting this set SOME time but i am wondering, what IS the actual retail price for this in Europe? I have seen it for as much as 35 euro and as little as 27 hmm...

€29,99, I've seen it for €22,50.

[strangely]

I really like the update Han Solo. The one thing they never seem to update though is his hairpiece. It irritates me how they update one thing at a time (It's like how whenever Lucas updates something for a rerelease and he only half way does it like the color corrected lightsabers in New Hope).

I sort of question including an Ackbar here. I would have preferred a new character over him (But that's probably asking too much since we got two great redesigns in here already).

I hate stickers, especially those long rectangular ones that go on the cockpit (I never get that type of sticker aligned properly and always end up with it messed up).

[Venkefedo]

I really like the update Han Solo. The one thing they never seem to update though is his hairpiece. It irritates me how they update one thing at a time (It's like how whenever Lucas updates something for a rerelease and he only half way does it like the color corrected lightsabers in New Hope).

Hasbro's often little better with their action figure updates... oh, and WHAT color-corrected lightsabers in A New Hope? Did they finally fix them in the Blu Ray? That's been one of my biggest pet peeves... Luke's blade basically became white over time, then with the DVD back in '04 it was green while on the Falcon. They fixed Vader's missing saber-glow when he's walking towards the closing blast doors after Luke shoots the panel, but they STILL (or, at least, pre-Blu Ray) never fixed Obi-Wan's 'fizzling' blade in the duel with Vader. There's one shot in particular where the glow just vanishes (due to the practical effect used when filming back in '76), leaving just a spinning tape-covered rod visible with a hint of glow at the base and a bright spot at the tip. In '04, they added the soft blue glow around the whole thing, but they neglected to paint in the bright white core of the blade! That's something that should've happened back in the Special Edition in 1997.

Sorry for the tangent... like I said, biggest pet peeve.

I also think it's time for Han to get a hair upgrade. I've taken to replacing his basic hair with the 'tousled with side part' hair used on a lot of City guys. Luke also needs upgrades, mostly in color: 'tan' isn't right at all. Luke's hair is a lot darker than many toys have it. Dark tan is a MUCH better shade for him; if the Falcon/Echo Base Luke hair was in dark tan, it'd be perfect. The basic male hairpiece is still decent for Return of the Jedi Luke and maybe Empire Strikes Back Luke.

Dark tan's also underused as hands... it's great for gloves, particularly on the Endor Rebels. Makes a HUGE difference.

[strangely]

For the blu-ray some of the lightsabers were corrected. As I said though it's hit and miss. Some shots look great, restored very well, others seem like they haven't been touched at all. I get the impression they half-way did it just to save the rest for a future release. And this on and off fix isn't limited to lightsabers (The ewoks were given moving digital eyes, which I really like, but like the lightsabers the effect comes and goes).

Yes, Luke's hair color has always annoyed me too. At least they created a better hairpiece for him. Really I'm surprised they didn't update his hair color at the same time they did Leia's. They realized she needed darker hair and they fixed that right away (Even Padme got a hair color revision in the last wave), but Luke still has his oddly light colored hair. It seems as though they have a harder time gauging accurate hair color for men (Anakin's hair color has been all over the place in the sets, I cringe thinking back to that weird red color he had for Ep 2 sets, I hope they choose better when they release more Ep 2 sets).

As for Han I just haven't found a hairpiece that pleases me as of yet. But I'm at least thankful Lego updated him some.

[Only Sinner]

I hate stickers, especially those long rectangular ones that go on the cockpit (I never get that type of sticker aligned properly and always end up with it messed up).

Here's how I do it; With some good lighting and a clean workspace, keep your elbows on the table, very carefully hold the sticker with a pair of tweezers at each end. Center it at one end and eyeball it parallel down the side. set it and smooth it from the center out and viola! You will have almost perfect stickers every time. Good luck.

[Golem25]

Thanks for all the kind comments, everyone. Next time I get my hands on a non-reviewed set, I'll be sure to make another one :)