Lego X-Wing Red Five Review

It has been a while since I have done a product review! After salivating over this Lego kit I posted earlier I gave into my most basic instinct as a collector and got it. For 330 dollars it is on the pricey side but the gimmicks you get and the size of the completed finished product do not make you feel ripped off!

Box Art

 

Fascinating!  Love the Yoda green version over the past few years many Lego Star Wars kits were decorated with the blue/white Darth Maul cover art the green is quite a refreshing change.

 

 

Design

 

 

The modelling is fairly accurate (Being Lego you cant have full accuracy) and stays overall true to the original source. As per the collectors edition R2D2 which came with a description plaque this kit comes with a plaque attached to a base! The base was a technic based design which accommodated for angle shift. But I did not find it to be stable. I got some spare cross beams and locked the interconnecting parts so that it remained poised in a fixed angle.

 

 

The plaque with the usual specification listings.

 

The largest selling point for me was the large size, difficulty level and of course the opening wing span (S Foil if you are a die hard Star Wars fan). The mechanism opens by turning the dial at the very middle. It is connected to an intricate combination of turning paddles which progressively separate the wingspan.  So I don't go crazy building the wings four times I enlisted the help of my cousin who ended up building three of them while I worked on the engines.

 

For more seasoned Lego builders they will know that Lego has a thing to recycle pre-existing packed parts from other lines to save costs. Beware of this when it comes to building the wings. The top left connector is shorter than the rest of the wings. To compensate for this the instruction tell you to clip the wing in leaving and leave an extra space. The space is not a mistake the connecting piece is longer than the other three wings. If you don't leave the space the wingspan will be uneven....I learnt this the hard way. I ended up disassembling the binder to rebuild, after putting on most of the coverings. This "design flaw" would later on be covered up by the engine.

 

 

Gimmicks

Photon torpedo bay

 

The kit includes a full scaled R2D2 Lego mini figure

 

Fully operational storage compartment.

 

Opening thrusters

 

Intricate cockpit details. The kit does not come with a Luke Skywalker figure. I bought the figure separately from Ebay. Since the design was not meant to accommodate a figure the area was too narrow to fit the figure comfortably. I modified/slimmed down a few parts to fit in the figure.

I was happy with the modifications it stayed overall true to the original design. The only real change I made was to the control stick so that it connected to Luke's foot securing the figure in place. It was the best I can do that's why the figure's positioning is a bit off centre. you may notice the cockpit canopy has a matte finish. It doesn't come like this I was originally thinking of spraying the kit in a matte top coat when I was done and used the cockpit as an experiment. Although the results turned out well this figure is too large for my cabinet. I have to leave it outside, a matte finish and dust don't really get along so I stayed with the original finish. So that I didn't lose Luke's lightsaber it is now in the cargo bay!

 

 

 

 

 

The Good

Large size and great detail
Challenging kit with more than 2500 pieces

Its an X-Wing, need I say more!

 

The Bad

Confusing design-top left wing

Unstable nose piece. Its a bit wobbly

No inclusions for a mini figure despite the hefty price tag

 

Final Verdict- 8 Otakun Helmets