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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!
