Review: 8096 Emperor Palpatine's Shuttle

Set ID: 8096 Emperor Palpatine's Shuttle

Number of Pieces: 592

Year of Release: 2010

Minifigs: 4

Purchased Price: About SGD160

I have absolutely no recollection of how this vehicle looks like in the movie. None at all. Or maybe it doesn't even exist in the movie and this is one of those made-up vehicle to fill the void of a barren spell in the LEGO Star Wars production. Just maybe. This is also not to be confused with the Imperial Shuttle, which is another classic vehicle in the array of Star Wars transportations.

I almost wanted give this set a miss because I seriously find it ugly. It looks "bricky" and weirdly proportioned, with 3 wings that largely defy the logic of aerodynamics. But then again, I can list a whole lot of other examples of vehicles in Star Wars that are counter intuitive to logic and engineering, but yet being able to zoom through space at warp speed. Welcome to the world of science fiction. In the end, I succumbed to the temptation to buy it when I managed to get a 20% discount, thinking that this might be the one and only version that will be launched by LEGO. Should that be the case (at least it is true until today), this will be a rare set. 

Building Experience

At almost 600 brick count, this is by no mean a small set. It comes with 4 packets of bricks - 1 for the cockpit, 1 for the main fuselage, 1 for the wings and 1 for the dorsal section. As I put the set together, my disappointment of the aesthetic was soon replaced by the admiration to the design of the fuselage, which actually housed the laboratory where the transformation of Anakin to Darth Vader took place. And this is the more challenging part of the construction, with a fair share of technics bricks used here. 

As I was building the fuselage, I kept asking myself "Why is this here?" and "What's the purpose of this piece?" etc, and when the whole fuselage was completed, I could almost see the light bulb popping up above my head. Very clever design. Very clever. 

This is how the transformation works. A pair of rubber bricks hold the Darth Vader helmet above the Anakin's minifig which is lying down on the hinged operating table. I was wondering why the table was hinged rather than fixed ... By pushing the pair of rubber bricks towards the head of Anakin, the helmet will lock nicely onto the minifig and a further push of the pair of sticks will lift the minifig upright, levering on the hinge of the operating table! How did the LEGO engineer ever think of such an innovative design?  I really have to take my hat off for these designers. Kudos! A word of caution on this maneuvre is not to push it too hard at one go, otherwise the minifig or the helmet may jolt off the set, something that happened very frequently when I was a little over enthusiastic when playing with it.

The other parts

After being impressed by the design of the laboratory, I thought very little of the rest of the set, especially when I completed the dorsal section of the vehicle. The design of the dorsal wing was a let down, with the studs of the bricks facing the left side of the vehicle and the bottom of the bricks facing the right side. The asymmetrical nature of the dorsal wing made the vehicle looks better only when viewed from the left (which explains why LEGO used this angle to take the picture for the box). The picture below shows a little more evidence of what I meant about the dorsal wing.

The dorsal part can be attached onto the fuselage by mean of 4 "latches", 2 at the front and another 2 at the back. The latches are quite well concealed but perhaps due to this reason, they are not easy to hook on. You will also have to adjust the dorsal part to and fro to get the "catch" right before you can latch it on. If you choose to buy this set for play rather than for display, then I strongly recommend that you discard the dorsal section and leave the laboratory exposed. Frankly, you have little to lose.

The other 2 wings can be folded up, a useful feature when you run out of space on your display shelf. A pair of ski-like undercarriage can be found at the belly of this vehicle. With 2 stud-wide per ski, this is a very stable set when the undercarriage is deployed. The space in the cockpit is generous, thanks to the large curvy bricks that are used on both sides (see below). Curved windscreen completes the aerodynamics look of the cockpit, with 2 strips of stickers on either side of the windscreen.

Minifigs

Emperor Palpatine is a must (hint: check out the name of this set). Anakin comes with a battered torso and scarred face, a grim reminder of the battle with his master. The 2-1B medical droid is on deck to help with his surgery and transformation. Instead of a fully covered helmet, the Clone pilot's helmet is hollow at the visor section, revealing a painted face of the pilot. The recent versions of the helmets have  seen much more details and thoughts put into them. Great job, LEGO!