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I looked for this topic and couldn't see it... I'm really disappointed at the release dates for my current country, Japan. http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%83%AC%E3%82%B4...6677&sr=1-2 The 2009 Tie Fighter is officially scheduled for June, a full five months after America. A global release is unrealistic, but a half year or so is frustrating. As it is, I've already ordered this from Bricklink at a price that is competitive to the Japanese release price with delivery (I predict 5,000 yen/$60 American as the release price). So this isn't a gripe. I realize I'm unusual for the Japanese market, as an English speaking AFOL. I'm curious as to the typical release schedule. Does it always trickle east from America?

I don't like Lego Ewoks. I think they could make hoods for them rather than single color face and hoods. Oh well. Thanks for the review, the other pieces look good.

I had to refrain from this topic at first, give it some thought. Having done so, I agree with the statement a few posts up with the current sets being a work of art. Maybe they won't be in the Louvre any time soon, but they could go in a museum of design. I think 2005 was the tipping point. Older sets (nostalgic as they are) are clunky, but the new ones are really sleek and clever, and the insides are fascinating. I got a 2002 Jedi Starfighter last week, and was all excited, until I was making it, and it felt like something I could make myself.. well, actually I couldn't, but the 2008 starfighter is a lot smarter. Comparing the 2002 Slave to the 2006 one, I had the same feeling, and that 2002 one wasn't that bad. I'm pretty torn between 2006, 2007, and 2008. I have more attachment to the ships in 06 and 07, but, 08 has the best design. The Republic tank, the troopship, the two AT ships, and the under appreciated Rogue Shadow. Good topic.

I put my 6209 Slave 1 together this week, and well love it. The Jango ship was decent, especially for an '02 set (anything before 2005 has been a disappointment for me). The 6209 set was solid, well designed, lots of little details, and a lot of nostalgia. It cost me about $110 with shipping, and totally reasonable, since 2006 is now 3 years away. No regrets here .

Well, I know the name of every one of those ships at a glance, so good work. I really liked the a-wing, and the blue jedi starfighter. I'd be curious to put your slave I ship up against TLC's though, they both seem about the same scale, but yours is a little clunkier. But that is a little criticism. Not good work, great work!

Really nice. It's amazing how a little color switch can make an old model fresh. I particularly like the white guns instead of the old model's gray guns.

As a follow up, well, I bought them both I found a used Jango Fett ship for a decent price, though Jango's face paint ain't quite as good as I'd like. The ship is decent, but as suspected, upon building, I wasn't as blown away as I was looking at it on the internet. The other, 6209, I found for a reasonable price on Bricklink, with shipping, still 65% of the price of the market price in Japan... It's sellers market here I guess. That should arrive by the end of this week, and reading the reviews here and on the index, I expect a little more satisfaction. It's new, and getting a mini-figure as geeky as Dengar is making me excited. Finger's crossed.

If I factor out the ridiculous, three years late Japan fee, than it can be bumped up to 7/10 I must admit, the image of these style ships captivated me, I really needed to buy this one (and still want the red one from the Space Battle), but I just wasn't so excited when it was built. I think every owner here has their personal relationship with their ships though

Since I can never be first with a new set I'll continue to fill in the holes I can in the review index. Set#: 7256 Name: Jedi Starfighter and Vulture Droid Theme: Star Wars Year: 2005 Pieces: 202 Minifigs: Anakin Skywalker Price: I paid 5,500 yen, which was too much. MSP: $20, £14.99 Peeron Brickset Bricklink From Amazon Fore-warning I bought this a little after the Jedi Starfighter with Hyperdrive Booster Ring set, which has 60% the same build, and a vulture droid, which I got a far superior build of in the Naboo N-1 Starfighter and Vulture Droid set, so I think this would have gotten far higher marks if I'd gotten it in 2005. The Instructions/ The Pieces About 40 minutes, a 40 page small book, with a sheet of stickers. Not a set for sticker haters, 3 pairs on the one little ship, and 4 pairs on the second littler ship. Anakin, in that short period of flesh color, but no big eyes. Lot's of prints and stickered pieces. The variety of pieces. The Build The base without the wings or cockpit, 10 steps in. 19 steps in. Everything is finished up to the cockpit, and Anakin's inside. The rest of the steps are for the wings. The Finished Product Flaps closed. And open. Back view Side view Nice looking wing details And the cockpit opens with a pivot piece on the back The Finished Product Part 2 Vulture droid front view Back view And side and in walking mode Overall Design: 6/10 It looks decent and all, but it isn't all that special, and in a few places (the wings in particular) it's a little flimsy. Not bad, not special. The vulture droid particularly suffers in that it is far inferior to the 7660 set. I might mod this one to work as smoothly as that one does. The two pronged fighters are sort of interesting, and I'd like to get the red one from the 7283 Ultimate Space Battle, but I like the triangular ones better overall, like 7669. Build: 6/10 Nothing special, it's a set that has been repeated. Took 40 minutes. Playability: 8/10 There are no actions going on, without unlocking vulture droid bricks, but a kid would have fun with it. Minifigures: 6/10 Anakin with long hair. Probably this is an interesting figure, since it is a 'middle' figure, after flesh was being used instead of yellow, but before the cartoon eyes were brought in, so maybe there's a little collectability here. The ship has an R2 head that physically makes no sense with the build (where's his body stored?). I think the set would have been much better if it threw in a body for R2 outside the ship. That was a little lame. Price: 4/10 I bought it three years late in Japan, so I paid probably double the original price. If it was new in the States, I'd give it an 8/10, but with each year, the satisfaction goes down, since this is a set that TLC has reworked and improved. I appreciate that they did that, but it makes an older set like this seem kind of rusty. Overall: 7/10 This was my first Lego set I kind of questioned myself about. If you find it cheap, I think it's alright, or you're a rich collector, it won't phase you. But for the average Joe, it generally sells for more than it's worth, and is overshadowed but much cooler descendants. I don't regret buying this, but it was the first set where I started to think I had to think about the older sets I bought a little more. Cheers all.

I quite liked the Rogue Shadow, a funky little machine. And the lading gear on mine worked just fine, and tucked up for flight. My fav of the year was the Republic Gunship, I guess. I got a lot of 2007 sets too, which I liked a bit better. Rogue Shadow might be #3 for me. Definite least favorite was the Droid Gunship. A flat, dull ship. People complain on this site about empty interiors, well this had no interior. Just a disc and a tiny cockpit. Disappointing. Halfire and Spider Droid disappointed too.

I'd be happy to help out, my camera does pretty good on those big close ups, but I don't own a single plate

I'll do the Interceptor, but I don't have the x-Wing I did a bunch of reviews this week to fill some holes in the index, but I need to pace myself, so they don't get lost in the shuffle. One a day is a good pace

Set#: 4490 Name: Mini Republic Gunship Theme: Star Wars Year: 2003 Pieces: 80 or so Price: I paid 1,300 yen Peeron Bricklink Brickset I love the full-size Republic Gunship. So, I wanted to get the mini. I wasn't disappointed, and in some ways, I like it better than the big guy. The Pieces The Build I really like the details, how they get the wings in place. It took about 20 minutes to build. It's a fairly tight build, nothing flimsy about it. The Finished Product Overall Design: 10/10 Mini ships tend to impress me more than a lot of regulars, because they require so much more skill on the part of designers to capture a complicated feel. This ship really gets the feel of its daddy ship. The only critique of it is that the wings are a bit floppy, but that must have been a design choice, to replicate turning or something, since it could have been changed by changing a two block slope to a three block one. Nothing that upsets me though. Playability: 8/10 The mini ships come in different scales, this being on the big side. If I was 10 years old, I'd have been swooshing it for months on end. Price: 10/10 I'm sure it was a good price new, and I got it for 1,300 yen, maybe $11 American. For the number of pieces, that's great. It's near in size to some regular scale ships. It's about four times as big as the slave I reviewed . Average Score: 9/10 I love all my Lego ships, but I was particularly happy getting this one, especially after having built the 2008 Clone Wars version. The ship itself is kind of weird, but grows on you. No regrets, just satisfaction.

This may seem irrelevant, but an average e-bay or brickset price would be neat. Something like '2009 market price' that could be updated annually (or so). Droids are cheap, Jango Fetts are expensive. From what I can see, a lot of mini-figures go unsold and are over-estimated online, but, say, I want a figure, it'd be nice to know where a price would start. A lot of Brickset sets are 'no mini-figs' showing that a lot are floating around without sets. Another thing, to make it the best index, a front and back shot would be good. But that's being a perfectionist

I got this yesterday on sale (only 5500 yen>>>$60 American) and was a little disappointed. I'd avoided it, but all the new sets are at least a month away here. It looks a little weird in photo, and the actual build is worse, just a flat little disc with a cockpit. Only special points for the color, which will probably just look better with those 2009 sets.

I got a bad vibe off of this vid. I've spent ridiculous money this year on Lego, in a way that I won't add it up because I don't want to think about/admit it. Reading a few posts on this thread, it tempts me to put everything together to show in a video myself, just for the heck of it. But, it's not about quantity for me. I want to see all the variety of sets out there. This kid seems all over the numbers, and doesn't show much love for individual pieces, just part of his tabulation. If you asked me how many clone troopers I have, the answer would be 'a bunch'. Maybe it's because I'm a bit older, but I have to treat my purchases as part of a serious hobby, and this kid didn't give those feelings off, he felt more like a show off. Anyway, he's young, I'm sure he'll have a different attitude when he's older, and we can't be too mean to a teenager Just for the sake of saying something nice, the video made me think about buying a second AT AP, because they look nice together, and would really complement an AT TE. But I'd rather get an AT AT

I paid a bit more than 5000 yen. Is that far too expensive? I think where you live makes a difference. Americans are used to 10 cents a piece prices, but I've gotten used to 20-25 cents a piece prices here. I'm in my 30's, so the economics are a bit different for me, but I've adjusted. This is a really nice ship (as I said in the review) and my favorite of the 5 Rebel ships of the last 2 years. You could get a nicer price if you looked for a used/boxless one. Go for it! I haven't regretted any of my purchases here, though I felt a little ripped off by the Hailfire Droid & Spider Droid, which cost $41 American at Toys R Us. The A-Wing has less pieces, cost more, and I don't feel ripped off at all. Go for it!

I love the color on this. I'm really looking forward to it. Thanks.

Set#: 6207 Name: A-Wing fighter Theme: Star Wars Year: 2006 Pieces: 194 Minifigs: 1 pilot, 1 mechanic Price: I paid 5,000 yen, which was a little steep. MSRP: £9.99, $16 U.S. Peeron Brickset Bricklink From Amazon The Alliance A-wing starfighters were the fastest starfighters in the galaxy at the time of the Battle of Endor. This model of the A-wing includes a pilot and a Rebel technician with military cargo speeder. The cockpit canopy can open, guns can rotate, and a small cargo room with a container can open. The Parts There is a healthy selection of beautiful burgundy pieces, but not a whole lot that is unique. There are four stickers too. This is a special piece though, the video screen with an Imperial Destroyer on it. The best scene in Return of the Jedi comes to life. The pilot is a beautiful color. The maintenance man is nothing special, but good if you want to build Echo Base. The Instructions/ The Build This is a short set, along the lines of the jedi starfighters, that can be done in half an hour with concentration. The manual is 32 pages, plus a parts list and ads. Nothing stands out about that part of it. Action features are shown. There are two alternate sets. I suppose this was pretty rare by 2006 in a Star Wars set. The A-Wing podracer is quite a fun idea! The build is quite rapid, with a lot of pieces being put down at a time. Here the base is laid out. And a second layer is added. A few slopes are placed to sleekify it. And voila! The Finished Product This maintenance guy isn't all that special, thought the yellow is a matching color to that of the b-wing and Hoth rebel gear, so all that stuff looks united on display, in a slightly less overbearing way that the current republic white/burgandy can be. It's so so. The shape is just about perfect. Here we can see the cockpit opens from the front and the back. The little functionality it has is that little box that comes out, but nothing to go in it The turrets move though, which is something. And the little guy fits inside comfortably. Overall Design: 9/10 This is a simple ship, but simple can be good. The design is sleek, the cockpit is sturdy and doesn't come off when opening. The colors are beautiful, my favorite of the five alliance ships (#2 snowspeeder, #3 X-Wing, #4 Y-Wing, #5 B-Wing). Sticker haters can take another point off, there are four. Build: 7/10 Nothing special, clear and direct. But no shocking details. I'm realistic about how these 200 piece sets go, and never am surprised or blown away. Playability: 8/10 It doesn't do much, but if I were to have a galactic dog fight, I wouldn't worry about losing pieces. Minifigures: 6/10 I love the pilot in green, but the maintenance man doesn't mean much to me. If I were making a massive diorama, it certainly would come in handy, but I don't have the cash for that. Price: 9/10 I bought it late (2 months ago) for too much money, but it would've been more reasonable when it came out. I would've preferred to see a cheaper set with no yellow transport thingee. Average Score: 9/10 I love this ship. It's amazing looking. So personally, I give it 9/10, but 8/10 is its impartial score. I had the original too, and this makes that one look childish. A cool machine. Green leader, getting ready for takeoff! Cheers all!

Set Name: Boba Fett's Slave I Set Number:6964 Theme: Star Wars/Mini sets Year: 2004 Price: Maybe 400 yen new Pieces: 25 Peeron link Brickset link Bricklink link I got this at the supermarket 4 years ago for 400 yen, about $4 U.S. back then. I also got the interceptor, but the x-wing was gone. I love it. The pieces The product It's a mini, so there's not too much to say, it also shares an identical build to the Jango Fett Slave mini that came out in the West. It's a nice set that was cheap. Cheers. And more reviews are coming!

Set Name: Destroyer Droid Set Number: 8002 Theme: Star Wars/Technic Year: 2000 Price: No idea Pieces: over 500? Minifigures: N/A Amazon description: Fans of Star Wars: Episode I will recall with excitement the power and near-invincibility of the Destroyer Droid. With more than 500 pieces and fittings, this advanced LEGO kit has everything necessary to build that fearsome automaton. And with guns mounted almost everywhere, the firepower on these cyberfighters is enough to send even the courageous Jedi out looking for another job. Multiple connections, tubes, and fittings really help bring this model to life. Instructions for two different droids are included, but as with all LEGO kits, builders can use their creativity to adapt and change the figures they build. This kit has many small pieces and requires advanced building skills, so older children and experienced LEGO-builders will have the most success with it. May the parts be with you! Peeron link Brickset link Bricklink link My Brickshelf Well, long story short, I was there at the beginning. Long story: I was 23, working at Toys R Us in '99. When the Star Wars Lego sets came out, I nearly lost it, I stared at them daily, trying to convince myself I didn't want them. then I snapped, and ended up getting all the sets at the $50 or less price range (I was poor). This was one of the coolest. I don't love love love it, because its scale is so out of whack to all the other ships, but in and of itself, it's quite amazing. Lego started making a bunch of Technic Star Wars sets, and a lot don't make a lot of sense (Darth Vader, Jango Fett), but the Technic style really suited the Destroyer Droid. I don't know how you could make it with conventional parts. And the functions! But more on that later. I got loads of sets in the first two years, then shortly moved to Japan. Thinking I would stay a few years, I didn't consider bringing my Lego with me. Five years and a marriage later, I've asked my parents to bring it all with them when they visited. They couldn't find where I packed it and brought only the one set this holiday, so maybe I'll drop a big pile of classic reviews next year The Pieces Unlike a poster below, my set came with piles of elastics, and what my parents brought still had an unopened package of elastics in it. There are three special color bands that weren't duplicated. The Instructions/The Build: Ridiculous. 130 pages. They are a bit difficult to make out in places, and the first time, and this most recent time, I think I made a few little mistakes. This is probably the most intricate set I've made, even in comparison to the Republic Gunship or AT-TE, the biggest set I own. This is small fine details. On top of that, it includes a second set of instructions for an AAT! Ridiculous! Maybe it was the Technic thing that made them do it, but I think Lego would really boost playability if all sets, or at least mid-sized and bigger, had secondary builds. It encourages us to take it apart and build it again. I didn't photograph the build, and 2 pieces were missing (hey, my parents brought it halfway around the world! Don't be angry! ) 3/4 view. The missing pieces are the gun turret I replaced in black, and a piece right behind the head I had to flaneggle. Side view. Back view. No full front view? Sorry, camera's put away now A close up of the complex inner workings of the droid. THE AWESOMENESS Grab the back leg, tuck the head in and bush the red button. Flip the arms up. Then lock them back. Tuck the front legs up. And lock them up too. Now we have a roly-poly destroyer droid. Aw, here's a front view! Just dying to roll! Roll this bad boy, and when he hits that red button, he will pop out his front legs, thereby releasing his arms and back leg. A thing of beauty. I remember back in the day, I built it and it didn't work at all, then I rebuilt it, and it worked about 70% of the time. Now, I have hardwood floors, and it doesn't work so well, so maybe I need to tighten a few elastics or something... but I have seen it work. This is a fine piece of work. The Second Build: AAT After the building, a pile of bricks are left over. The gun turret swivels 360 degrees. An elastic trigger lets you lift the side guns. Overall Design: 9/10 The people who designed this were working overtime. The chance that I would ever make this on my own can be charted on a parabolic graph approaching zero. The one point loss is just that it's lonely in my collection, and doesn't fit in. Build: 9/10 Devilishly hard, but very enlightening, and a great use of elastics. Playability: 8/10 Very difficult, but upon success, very satisfying. Plus that second build truly extends the fun. I may just make it now! Minifigures: N/A Price: 9/10 I don't know how much it was 10 years ago in Canadian dollars, maybe $50-60, which in American or Euros, always has been up and down in the last 10 years, but compared to Lego Star Wars prices in yen, well, it is quite a nice price. Total: 9/10 average Conclusion If you don't mind the scale, this is a must have. The first year of Lego Star Wars were a bit chunky and clunky, and this set shows none of that. It's tight and smart, and easily the best of the three released at the time (#2, Pit Droid was pretty cool too, #3, Battle Droid was a bit funny looking). A very sophisticated set. My first review, I hope I covered everything (mods, please ad this to the reviews, maybe ad a poll like "was never interested/a little interested/didn't see it/I got it/I wish I'd got it" if the humor is okay, and let me know if photos need to be resized. My first review, so I'll get it in line where I need to

I had this set. In fact, I bet it's still in a box mixed with other sets in my parent's basement. Just looking at those instruction photos bring chills to me. At 5 or 6 years old, building that mini mono rail was beyond fascinating. Great great post, personally.

I got a 2006 Star Wars X-Wing set, and Luke's helmet had the paint 90% scratched off. I sent a request, and a free replacement arrived a week or two later, from Europe to Japan. I have no complaints with the Lego company whatsoever.

Last set was a Tie Interceptor bought in an online auction. The first set will is a Droid Gunship, that I wanted to buy while it was still around. 2009 will be a big and expensive Lego year for me. I've agreed to restrict it to $150 a month or so with my wife.

The Jedi starfighters are both beautiful. I'd love to see instructions for these (mostly the wings and attachment). Good stuff.