Review: 10198 Tantive IV

Set ID: 10198 Tantive IV

Number of Pieces: 1408

Year of Release: 2009

Minifigs: 5

Purchased Price: About SGD 280

It took me too many months to finally settle down back in Singapore and started on a new job. With all the logistic nightmare finally over, I can find a breather to sieve through my LEGO Star Wars collection and pick a few sets that I thought would be worth opening. All in all, I brought back 6 cartons of LEGO from Hong Kong, made up of 80% Star Wars series, and the rest, LOTR and Super Heroes sets. All were accounted for and now they reside in the comfort of a brand new storeroom that I have rented (yes, that's in addition to the other storeroom that I have already been renting for the last 2 years)

Over the last 6 months, there had been too many distractions, but lucky enough, the summer Star Wars sets did not really impress me and therefore I did not feel the compelling need to focus too much on them. Unfortunately (or fortunately), along came the LOTR sets, some nice Architecture releases and Ewok Village, totally bursting my budget beyond what I hoped for. Few days ago, I saw the Jan Star Wars release and once again, I breathed a sigh of relief as I was once again, unimpressed. History does have a way of repeating itself and so I believe my loyalty might waiver a little in the direction of the new Super Heroes sets and perhaps, a few of the LEGO movie series. 

Having said all the above, my blog review is still dedicated to my massive and growing Star Wars collection. To kickstart my new series of reviews, I stood for some time in front of my storeroom and randomly decided to open this set - The Tantive IV. 

What's confusing is the naming of this oddly shaped ship as it is sometime referred to as the Blockade Runner. In fact, LEGO did release a "Blockade Runner" in the form of the UCS 10019 back in 2001. That was a minifig-less version more inclined towards the definition of what UCS sets are all about. This set is a slightly kiddish or rather, playable, version, with lesser brick count, details but with five minifig occupants. For a even smaller variant, try finding it beside the majestic 10030 Imperial Star Destroyer, who completely dwarfed the Blockade Runner in comparison. 

The Look and Features

From aerodynamics view point, this vehicle doesn't make any sense at all. With 11 engine boosters in its rear and a hammer head cockpit in the front, I can almost imagine the entire ship spinning out of control when all the rear blasters are fully engaged! Come to think of it, it does remind me of a hammerhead shark, without its fins, and dragging a huge a**. In the movie, this ship was at the receiving end of some relentless dogfight and that probably explains its heavily armed exterior and a few escape pods (yes, plural) thrown in. 

Don't even try to pick up the Tantive and swoosh around in the room. Don't. For two reasons: (1) Chances of some parts falling off is VERY high. And (2) it is quite heavy. So what is this set good for? Any points of playability? Or display? For the former, there are indeed quite a number of features and movable parts to play with but for the latter, the ship does't really stand steadily by itself, courtesy of the lack of a proper undercarriage / display stand.

Undesigned undercarriage

Box Art

This set was released in 2009, during the year of the 10th anniversary of LEGO Star Wars. A unique Darth Vader minifig logo and the wordings of "Anniversary Edition" just made the box look more exclusive than the other sets releases before 2009. The front design is kind of cluttered with too much information displayed. The rear is not much better, but at least each of the picture says something playable of the Tantive. 

Cockpit

Inside the hammerhead cockpit sits two comfortably. A few control panels lined the interior of the cockpit but the joystick seem to locate a little too far for the reach of the pilots. Accessibility to the cockpit is easy, by hinging the canopy at its rear. A pair of transparent windscreen provided some visual voids for the pilots to figure out where they are heading. The downside of these windscreens are that they are not expansive enough for the pilots to look too far on the right and left.

Mid-Section

Most of the playable features can be found in the mid section of the ship. From the top, you can see a whole bunch of blasters and cannons mounted on rotating platforms. This gives the Tantive some flexibility in taking aims at the imperial enemies flying in from every angle. The weakness of this ship is therefore at its bottom where only a pair of cannons can be found. The top of the mid section can be removed easily to reveal the interior of the fueslage. It is so easy to remove that you might not want to attempt a barrel roll with this ship should you feel like doing so. 

The huge "director's table" in the cabin looks really familiar at first sight. It was in fact the same one found in 2012's Palpatine's Arrest. There is something in the design that never fail to impress me, fully making use of the SNOT building approach instead of the traditional stud up one. There are hardly any additional room to accommodate more occupants here, which explains why they might need to relocate to the escape pods instead.

The two escape pods are located just before the engines, plugging into the body of the ship perpendicularly. Removing is an easy affair but putting them back is a much more complicated maneuver. I guess escape pods are not meant to be put back right? That makes sense then. Each pod is large enough to take one occupant, although 2 is not impossible. In desperation, anything counts.

Engine Compartment

11 engine blasters. What more do I need to say? What machine in this world will need such an overbuilt horsepower? This is probably the most sturdy part of the entire ship, and it also explains why the centre of gravity of this Tantive is certainly inclined towards the rear. There are some really intricate details on the engine bodies, which kind of break the monotony of repeated designs. 

Mother of all engines!

Building Experience

The set comes with two building booklets and quite a number of packets of bricks, unnumbered. It has been some time since I built 1400 bricks without numbered packs. But there is some form if masochistic joy and a weird sense of achievement when you build a set without numbered packs. It is a more challenging and rewarding experience. Many would beg to differ, but if you have time on your hand, do it.

Construction starts with the center spine that runs the entire length of the ship. Instead of the typical build-in-parts-and-fix-together approach, I like the technique used in this set where the entire ship is built concurrently across different sections. Even the complicated engine compartment is not built in one complete move, offering the builder some reprieve from the otherwise boring repetitive process. To be fair, building the 11 engine blasters were not entirely boring as there were details on each of these engines which sets them apart from one another. So to allay the fear of those repulsive of repeated steps, this is NOT a 11 X engine blaster step. 

Minifigs

The 5 minifigs included in this set are nothing to shout about. I may sound harsh but in recent years, LEGO has been trying to put some form of exclusivity on the minifigs in each of the new sets launched. As collectors, perhaps we have been spoilt to the extent when the minifigs are not exclusive, we are disappointed. It is also easy to forget that this set was launched in 2009, some 4-5 years ago, when exclusive minifigs are not THAT big yet. So in retrospect, LEGO can be forgiven for these somewhat uninteresting minifgs.

Princess Leia is in her easily recognizable white outfit. Printing of some fabric creases is only seen in the front of the torso piece, and the back is blank. As for the head piece, there is no double face printing as commonly seen nowadays. Leia's nonchalant expression is somewhat incongruent to the danger that she was going through in the movie, and I cannot help but to laugh at the pea-eyes of hers as compared to the current designs with lush lashes and heavy makeup. Cute though. 

The C3PO buddy pairing is not uncommon in LEGO Star Wars set already. And they even have their exclusive appearances in the Pod Escape set in recent years. There can only be little variations in terms of the design of these 2 minifigs as they, IMO, are already as close to what they should be.

I personally like the helmet piece of the Rebel Scout Trooper and Captain Antilles (whom I have little recollection of how he looks like in the Star Wars movie). It resembles that of a really cool bicycle helmet albeit a little oversized in proportion to the minifig. Both minifigs have a fair bit of details printed on the front of the torso while the backs are left unprinted. Both minifigs' head piece are printed with chin strap that look well integrated with the helmets. But once you remove the helmet, the chin strap does look like a stretch of well trimmed face hair across the face! Captain Antilles' demise in the movie is clearly captured on the 2nd printed side of the face, with a squiggly mouth. That was funny!

An observation made of these minifigs was that none of them actually carries a weapon of any kind! This is pretty unusual considering that there are plenty of space in the Tantive for them to stash away those weapons. Did I leave out a pack or was it a deliberate act of cost saving?

Conclusion

Although this is a classic ship in the Star Wars series, I am glad that it has not been over exposed (think X-Wing) in the LEGO collection. This preserves the value and collectability of the set by a fair bit. A must have for collector.

+ Size of the Tantive. Very impressive display on the shelf

+ Detailed designs, especially impressed with the engine compartment

+ Plenty of playable features in the Tantive

+ Love the SNOT design of the main control panel at the main deck of the ship

+ Although seem repetitive at first, the building experience of the engine compartment did vary to break the monotony.

- Instability of the Tantive when on display. Tend to wobble a little due to lack of a proper undercarriage

- Loose parts tend to fall off easily when playing with the ship

P.S. The Jan 2014 Star Wars sets have again been quite unimpressive. My next couple of reviews will probably revert to the older sets. Not complaining though.