The Chronicler's Review - 2.5/5
Price ~ $60.00
Year Released - 2011
It must sometimes frustrate Lego set designers that the concept artists who dream up these exotic Star Wars ships for the movies and TV shows don’t consider the practical implications of real world construction. Star Wars is full of designs that look really cool and are easily created in the CG world of movie effects but are much harder to flush out into a real world model. The T-6 Jedi Shuttle joins an ever expanding group of Lego Star Wars models that attempts to mimic the movie look and operation of some pretty complicated (and let’s face it impractical) ship designs (the B-Wing especially comes to mind). All things considered, Lego is to be commended for this set which takes a difficult design and turns it into a satisfactory, if overpriced, model.
FOR PARENTS
Don’t be fooled you are paying a price for the 2 rare minifigures that come with this set (Shaak Ti and Saesee Tiin and no I don’t know how to pronounce them either). If having these figures are important to your child then this set, overpriced as it is, will not be a bad purchase. Unlike some of the other sets in which the minifigures are meant to be the primary attraction as opposed to the model itself (such as 7930 Bounty Hunter Assault Gunship) this spaceship is actually a decent model comprised of a versatile collection of parts in standard colors which will be useful when the ship is (inevitably) dissembled for use by your child in building original creations. Again if value is your primary consideration this is not the set for you as the piece per dollar ratio is low. This is fairly universal for Star Wars sets due to licensing fees.
FOR KIDS
This set comes with some excellent parts along with the minifigures. If you are a fan of this ship in the Star Wars TV show and want the minifigures go for it. If you want the most for your money and don’t care all that much about Star Wars I would look into something else because at the end of the day this set is just a two man shuttle and not as cool as say a capital ship from an unlicensed theme might be (a Space Police set would serve you well in this regard).
CONCLUSION
When reviewed objectively this set gets fairly decent marks. The playability of a set like this is fairly high and the pieces are versatile in both type and color. My only hesitation with this set stems from the fact that I have been collecting Legos for a long time and can remember when the price of this 2 man shuttle would have bought the young collector a sizeable capital ship. I recognize that this set is depicting a ship from the Star Wars world but to me personally I would want a cooler ship than just a shuttle for this amount of money. Still if you or your child is a Star Wars fan this set will produce many hours of happy play.
Happy Building
TheLegoChronicler
