Star Wars Gunship - The Ultimate Lego Kit
Lego start their Christmas 2008 campaign with the best version of the most popular Star Wars Gunship; the excellent Republic Attack Gunship and it comes loaded with some fabulous features. One of the greatest thing about this new gunship kit are the brand new mini figures, with great facial detailing these ones are a cut about previous Star Wars characters.Lego Star Wars Gunship
This Lego Star Wars Gunship is much more detailed and bigger than the original one. Unlike the original one, this ones bay doors actually close completely. Plus the two cannons in the front and the one in the rear are bigger and more proportional than the original. My only real complaint is abundance of stickers in replace of printed pieces.So far the only stickers that I have applied are the two republic symbols, one on each side of the ship, and the console on the little command center. And I must say that even with out the majority of the stickers, this set looks great, so those that absolutely hate stickers should be able to do just fine with out them.
The Lego Star Wars Gunship kit comprises 971 pieces (not including the figures, droids, missiles, weapons and accessories) and takes about 90 minutes to build. The Gunship measures 48 cm long (from forward gun tip to aft gun tip), has a 44 cm wingspan and stands an impressive 17.5 cm tall.
These were also seen in Attack Of The Clones, but this kit has been updated from the original Star Wars Gunship from 2002 with better construction, nicer detailing, more features and a more accurate colour scheme.
Anatomy of the Star Wars Republic Gunship
The aft section of the Star Wars Republic Gunship is covered with 2 hinged doors each side. Unlike the first issue which had the side gun turrets, this one has an extra door and a longer aft compartment. The doors hinge open sideways (2 forward, 2 aft) and there is room for a whole platoon inside.
The Aratech 74 Speeder Bike is a vastly improved version of the vehicle and nicely detailed too. The control yokes are very nicely done.
Each cockpit canopy hinges open. The two front cannons rotate a full 360 degrees and across as well. There are doors to each side of the compartment below the cockpit which hinge up and contain a Clone Skimmer vehicle inside. In the compartment next to that, there are two panels which hinge up and there is a medical capsule inside which you hinge open to place the wounded in.
There is a rack in the middle to store weapons and there is also a place for the Aratech 74 Speeder Bike which flies out through the aft door. There are 2 storage lockers on each side above the aft compartment of the Star Wars Gunship.
The wing cannons have been refined with a seat so you can put Clone Troopers inside which is great. The upper front hull has an opening panel and two small Probe Droids inside. There are two vertical missile racks on the top, each armed with 4 flick missiles and there is another 360 rotating cannon at the rear.
Building the Lego Star Wars Clone Gunship
The build for the Star Wars Clone Gunship is fairly simple and straight forward. However it is longer than most other builds and can be tedious at times. The instructions did a nice job of separating the build into 6 main parts, body, doors, front, cockpit, top and wings. I was fairly surprised to find out, when I opened the box, that the set comes with two booklets of instructions. At first I thought that they accidentally put two booklets in my box until I took a closer look and saw that they were clearly marked with a 1 or 2, corresponding to which booklet was to be used first.There are lots of good slopes and white pieces, which can easily be used to make a custom republic vehicle. The dark red and lime green pieces are also nice, due to the fact that they are sometimes hard to find. The extra Assaj's lightsabers and the extra clone accessories bag was also a nice touch, something that I found rather surprising actually. My only complaint is the fact that you don't get an extra set of bubble turrets, so it is a bit harder to MOD the Lego Star Wars Gunship to include side bubble turret, like the original. But hey, you can't ask for everything now can you?
Star Wars Clone Wars Gunship Mini Figures
Mini figures that come with the Star Wars Clone Wars Gunship: Commander Cody and the regular clone look a lot better than I expected. Their helmets, even torsos to a certain extent, are a lot more detailed than past clones. They also look great with all of the Clone Commander/ARC equipment that they come with, flood light, visor, antenna, kama, and pauldron. However, I found it a bit odd that the heads underneath their helmets looked more like Anakin than Jango Fett.Plo Koon, whose head is rubber like Kit Fisto's, was also a surprise to me. From pictures that I had seen before I bought the set, his head looked a to skinny and disproportional. But I must say, he looks a lot better in person. Assaj Ventress like the other mini figures is very detailed, especially her curved lightsaber hilts. She even comes with her signature dress, not sure the technical name of it, which is a piece of fabric put on in a similar fashion as a cape, but instead is put on between here legs and torso. Obi-Wan would probably have to be my least favorite of the mini figures in this set. Although his torso is very detailed, his face looks a bit odd.
Star Wars Republic Gunship Video
A fantastic Lego Star Wars Gunship set and a great update of the old Republic Gunship. I can see collectors combining the two to get the full accurate version of the vessel with side turrets and wing turret seats. A must have for kids and adults alike and a very welcome addition to any Republic army.