Lego 9492 TIE Fighter

Prologue

This is truly an iconic starfighter together with the X-Wing Starfighter. Below is a cover art of the set. Like most Lego Star Wars sets, it features minifigures galore that are stuffed in sometimes with no reason at all. There is only a cockpit for the TIE Fighter but we get 4 minifigures as well like the X-Wing. 

The Complete Build

The build was not tedious and repetitive, the whole fighter consists both sets of the wings and the centre piece with the cockpit. Here is the full frontal view of the set.

Here it is with the cockpit raised where a cramp cockpit houses the TIE pilot. The fighter console is sadly not realistic at all and just consists of a red translucent flat grille tile. The top printed piece is a nice addition to an other wise quite featureless TIE Fighter.

The rear looks slightly funny, like a bee's bum but I think we can let that one get away. Maybe they could have used a dome piece instead.

Here is a side shot of the TIE Fighter. The wing panels look quite awesome.

 



Finally here is a scan of one of the last few pages of the instruction manual showing notable features of this set. Which is not too much I am afraid. It is the TIE Fighter after all. Just 2 wing panels jammed into the cockpit sides flown with an expendable TIE pilot.

Final Thoughts

This set was bought when Bricksworld had their annual 20% discount on sets together with the Lego 9493 X-Wing Starfighter. It is not as exciting a set as the Lego 9493 X-Wing Starfighter. So the question then comes, is it worth buying? I have looked around the internet on the reviews for the other revisions and I must say this is really a significant improvement over them. The only weakness of this set is that at a certain angle there is a gap between grey and the black edge of the wing panel. I think if budget allows, get this to complement the 9493 X-Wing. The colour scheme in this set are more representative of the TIE Fighter as well, instead of the black and blue of the previous version. I leave this review with a 3/4 view picture of the whole set.

 

Lego 9493 X-Wing

Prologue

This is truly an iconic starfighter together with the TIE fighter. Below is a cover art of the set. Like most Lego Star Wars sets, it features minifigures galore that are stuffed in sometimes with no reason at all. I mean come on, this one has 4! There is only a cockpit and a droid bay on this starfighter. Of course some would not complain since the minifigures are usually very detailed and well done though somehow one cannot shake the feeling that they are throwing them in to simply jack up the price of a set.

The Complete Build

The build was not tedious and repetitive although both sets of the wings need to be build in mirror image of themselves. Here is a 3/4 view of it in the attack mode. Had to perch it on a box to show it in this mode.

Here is a frontal view of the set. The overall design is quite good considering that Lego bricks are generally quite angular whereas the X-Wing Starfighter has some subtle angle here and there. I do love how the engines and lasers look. The front of the starfighter is not too badly recreated in this set as well.

Here is a close up of the inner wing and cockpit. The mechanism to open apart the wings is not too noticeable except it is rather colourful.

The mechanism used to close the wings are by means of 2 sets of rubber bands. That kind of spoils the overall profile of the X-Wing but I guess for such a small set, there is no better way to do it effectively. The X-piece is turned in order to open up the wings.

Finally here is a scan of one of the last few pages of the instruction manual showing notable features of this set. Which is not too much I am afraid.

Final Thoughts

This set was bought when Bricksworld had their annual 20% discount on sets together with the Lego 9492 TIE Fighter. It is a fun set to own and certainly a person would want to hold it in attack mode and swoosh it around. So the question then comes, is it worth buying? I have looked around the internet on the reviews for the 2 other revisions and I must say this is really a significant improvement over them. Even if you own the previous 2 versions, I think if budget allows, it is justifiable get this set together with the TIE Fighters to do aerial combat with each other. The colour scheme in this set are more representative of the X-Wings, it is the core of the Star Wars franchise and most of all, it looks quite good on its own as a display set as well. I leave this review with more pictures of the whole set in swoosh poses no less.

 

Lego 10188 Death Star

Build - Level 2

The heavy building starts and boy did I look forward to it. It starts off with making the floor of the next level. This was solidly made with 3 layers of plate as shown below. Pretty much like a kueh lapis cake.

The floor has one quadrant empty and is ringed by a bunch of bricks attached in a SNOT. I have a tendency to keep knocking into the 3-piece sucker all the time breaking it off since it is attached simply by studs.

Next up are the different quadrants on this level. Actually not really quadrants as there are 5 sections to this level but some really take up a quadrant. The first one I want to focus is one that is empty. I guess this represents the unfinished part of the Death Star before the rebels blew it to kingdom come. It looks very spacious indeed.

Next up is the all famous trash compactor scene. The wall of this closes up together but not in parallel but more like from a V-shape position to parallel by means of technic elements. You can see on the upper left the rod to pull to close the walls.

Here is a shot with the door closed and the trash thrown in. At this stage the Dianoga is not in there yet.

Some people may not remember this scene but before Obi Wan confronted Darth man, he went to power down the tractor beam. This replicates the scene. The blue round 2x2 bricks are inverted and represent the "beam of power".

Now when we pull one of the levers, it falls down and the tractor beam is offline. This is a fun play feature.

Next is this area which I am not sure what it represents but it features a cannon that actually fires. It is spring loaded making it one of the more powerful ones out there. Lego has a tendency to make those flick fire missiles which are kind of weak. Give me this or the cannons any day.

Not sure what this quadrant represents but it looks like some repair bay. To make up for its less than interesting Star Wars background, the lift in the foreground is down...

and when you crank the handle in the middle right of the picture, it goes up! Up, to the next level and where our review continues!

Next: Stay Tuned!
Back: Prologue & Build - Level 1

Lego 10188 Death Star

Prologue

My biggest set to date and it is a Lego Star Wars set Death Star. This set promises a long build time and plenty of enjoyment if one takes it slow and easy. This set is an Ultimate Collector's Series (UCS) and it stands at 3803 pieces. I personally feel that big sets are to be savoured and build slowly. Especially sets targeted towards adults, these sets have unique building techniques and play features which I do like to spend time admiring.

The set came double-boxed. The outer one is a plain brown box and the inner one is the one which you see displayed in stores. Usually Lego separates the set by numbered polybags but since this set is so huge, it comes in numbered white boxes instead. The instruction manual is a bit special too. Instead of a stapled one, it comes in a ring binder format which makes sense naturally, since the booklet is so thick.

The start of the build begins with a great thing which was assembling all the minifigures for the set from bag 1. At that point, it did not include the droids and the Trash Compactor Monster (Dianoga). The whole ensemble is fantastic even as it is and this groupie shot shows the whole cast and genuinely was so very cool. At the time of its release this set had the most number of minifigures.

Build - Level 1

The start of the build begins at the base. In order to make sure someone could still move the set without toppling it from static friction the designers had placed a copious amount of studs to the base.

I guess because the lowest level had no play features, you can see that they made it very low, probably to save on the bricks.

One thing I have to say is that although I do not particularly like stickers, I did like the light panel ones. They made the set look more hi-tech and all.

In the next part of the review we will then look at the next level where all the heavy serious building starts and all the wonderful play features start to appear as well.



Next: Build - Level 2