Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsVery cool looking model, with some downsides
Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2017
The key strength of this model is that it looks just so cool. The all-black pyramid-esque shape is fairly unique within the Star Wars lego lineup. Overall this is a sizeable, satisfying set. The main pilot's seat and console are very impressive too. And with very few stickers! (Always a plus). Minifigures are good (save for one exception, below) - I really like the face detail and backpack builds on Pao and Bohdi, and the death troopers feel really premium. With this and the U-Wing set you can build a sizable Rogue One scene.
However there are some things that I didn't so much not like about it, but that annoyed me.
1. Six minifigures, but no pilot. Krennic would not fly himself around, he obviously has a staff. It seems like this was a ploy to make you buy another set (perhaps the soon-to-be-released microfighter version of this same craft) in order to have a proper, period-appropriate pilot minifig.
2. The way that the side, front and back panels lay against each other lets the model achieve the cool angular effect, but they don't feel that secure. If you pick the model up and whoosh it around it will feel like the body is coming apart, but that's just the doors moving a bit. I would have liked if they snap into place in some way, perhaps with a ball joint like the U-wing's folding wings.
3. The interior has to use a lot of space to accommodate the mechanics of these opening panels. This entails a lot of struts and levers and some strangely bright technic pieces and plates, and thus looks rather ugly. This is definitely a set to display figures on the outside, like in a scene.
4. The biggest logical flaw in the design is that the interior space can only be accessed when the wings are folded down (such as when the ship would be in flight). This doesn't make sense as you would want to load/unload the shuttle when it's landed. If this came with a stand so you could display it with the wings folded out, it would actually be great. But it doesn't, so you have to display it with the wings folded.
5. Finally, and I know this is a feature of a lot of modern lego sets, but there are so many pieces that are just pointless in this set. It over-complicates the build to increase the piece count, but in parts of the model that are literally invisible once the model is complete. For example - tons of places where you connect two 1x4 technic blocks to just create a basic 2x4 block that is then covered up with other plates. There is no mechanical need for this, it's just a way to make a 2x4 block using five pieces instead of one. Multiply that by dozens of little instances and you have maybe 100 more parts than is really necessary, and thus a higher price. If this added complexity was visible in any way I would allow it - for instance, the dorsal wing is built in a really strange but satisfying way that looks cool in the end - but in so many cases it makes no impact on the model.
I think this set compares poorly to the new U-wing set - both are pretty large models, serve as shuttles/transports in-universe and come with a lot of main character minifigures. I think the mix of figures and the build mechanics on that one are just a bit better overall than you see here. If you already have the U-wing I'd recommend this set to complete your Rogue One collection, but if you don't have the U-wing I'd recommend you go with that one instead.
