Review: 10215 Obi Wan's Jedi Starfighter (UCS)

Set ID: 10215 Obi Wan's Jedi Starfighter

Number of Pieces: 676

Year of Release: 2010

Minifigs: none

Purchased Price: About SGD142

Amongst the Star Wars UCS sets that LEGO has released, there were certainly some hits and some misses. To me, this is the latter. In terms of brick counts, this set has the 2nd least number of bricks for UCS set. The honour of the least bricks for UCS set goes to the Naboo Starfighter 10026 released in 2002, but at least that set comes with silver metallic looking bricks, which are quite spectacular. While this set, well, you can be the judge yourself. The only reason why this set qualifies as a UCS set is that it comes with a display stand and a detailed technical specs as seen below. But then again, does the Cloud City set (10123) comes with one?

I did not have the opportunity to put this Starfighter beside the 2002 version (7143) to ascertain what are the key differences between them. For the record, the UCS Jedi Starfighter is 500 bricks more than the its smaller sibling but it is certainly not significantly larger (40 cm). That makes me wonder where those additional bricks go to? The answer lies in the "meatier" wings, integrated with two rather good looking rear blasters. Of course, the longer nose and complex cockpit do contribute to the brick counts too.

Many of the Star Wars vehicle comes with an accompanying droid and this set is of no exception. The droid sits on the left wing and it is featured as a rotating oversized droid head piece mounted to the left wing. In fact, it is so oversized that it does not look proportionate to the entire ship. 

The cockpit is the star feature for me. Plenty of details can be seen here and the pilot seat is an absolute beauty. The clever use of black bricks on the light grey ones makes the seat look very real and comfortable. It even comes with a moveable hear rest for Obi Wan! Only complaint will be the use of stickers to replicate some of the details on both inner sides of the cockpit.

View from the cockpit

A pair of laser cannons can be found on the wings, with another pair found at the bottom side of the wings. With the huge array of bricks that are at the disposal of LEGO, I was amazed how unreal and out-of-place those cannons were designed. I even mistook the bottom laser cannon as a possible undercarriage when I was building it, only to realise that it is a cannon upon construction. 

Building Experience

The bricks come in three bags. One for the body, one for the wings and one for the display stand. No major drama during the construction for this set. The colours of the bricks are very distinctive and you should expect no mistaken identity along the process. One thing that I could not understand in terms of the design though. In order to create the long tapering nose of the Starfighter, the designer has used a massive 20 biege double sided single stud bricks in the spine of the nose. I am sure there are easier and less laborous way of doing this.

When finished, it is no surprise that the weight of the vehicle is skewed towards the rear, given that most of the bricks are congregated here. As a UCS set is never designed for play, it is better off mounting it onto the rotating display stand for appreciation. 

Underside of the Starfighter