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The previous LEGO T-6 shuttle wasn’t really a must-have for me (though the minifigures would be nice to have), especially since it was a retired set by the time I was looking to acquire some Star Wars sets to add to my collection, but the new one hit the market during a sale and I rushed to grab one for just under $80, instead of the $100+ RRP. I have to admit, the fact that it had Ahsoka (who I’ll admit to having a soft spot for) and Sabine Wren with a Mandalorian helmet (which was fetching high prices for the previous version) were the main factors contributing to my desire to nab this one for myself.
The build itself was good, I tend to dislike monotonous repetitive builds… but I expect with many builds, and especially the ships of the Star Wars theme, that there will be a mirrored portion of building for symmetry of the construction such as with the wings of some ships… and I didn’t feel that edge of annoyance with this set… maybe because its not a large build.
The central part of the T-6 was quite interesting to put together, having never used the ring or ‘turntable’ piece that allows for the 360 degree rotation of the shuttle’s wings. There are a couple of storage spaces too, which is always a good thing to have on a vehicle to add play value to a set.
The end result is quite nice, I like the look of it and it has grown on me since I built it as well. The mini figures are all cool too, with nice detail… though some arm printing on Sabine would have been nice for some extra detail there.
And though the playability of this set is good, it is not great; the twin landing gear flaps which fold out to stabilise the ship when it is ‘parked’ (or on a bench for display) are not the best as a stand as the wide wingspan can cause it to be unbalanced if the landing gear aren’t in the correct position; also, the spinning wings are a nice attribute, though to be able to hold the fuselage and turn or spin the wings means that your fingers get in the way (I kind of wanted to be able to hold the middle and spin the wings around as fast as I could, but you need to hold the fragile extremities for this to happen).
If you want to display your T-6 shuttle with the wings in a vertical position, you will need to build or purchase a stand designed specifically for this purpose, and if you manage to display it vertically, then you should only show the top of the wings (as the box shows it) because the underside are unfortunately lacking in the colour and design of the top side. It would have been really cool to have that same red pattern underneath, even if it was still the underside of the LEGO bricks.
I had a heads-up that the stickers on the top side design were a part of the pattern that was built into the wings and so did as one person suggested and didn’t apply those stickers when told to by the instructions, but instead applied them once the wings were completed and I could follow the lines of the pattern made by the red plates to make for a neater looking finish.
The T-6 shuttle has a total of 601 pieces, a nice opening cockpit and dual stud shooters either side of the cockpit on the wings, it sits 10cm high in its landed position, is 27cm long and has a 24cm wide wingspan. LEGO have priced it at A$109.99, while Big W & Amazon AU have it at the more affordable A$79 (and thats not even on sale!). If you happen to be interested in the ship only, the you can pick up a new one (never built), without the minifigures, for A$25-$30 on bricklink.com. So if you are a fan of the Ahsoka TV series, or like to have a variety of LEGO ship designs in your collection, then its hard to go past this set at its cheaper end of the market value… especially since the older model is now valued at twice the price for a complete used set (or triple for a new set).
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