Review: 7659 Imperial Landing Craft

Set ID: 7659 Imperial Landing Craft

Number of Pieces: 471

Year of Release: 2007

Minifigs: 5

Purchased Price: About SGD 126

Nostalgia has always been my soft spot. With every release, there are always more sets falling into the "vintage" zone for the Star Wars range, and without the time and space to build everyone of them, more and more sets are slipping out of my radar range and sit quietly in my exclusive LEGO Star Wars Store room. From time to time, there will be this unexplained gravity towards these older sets, which brings back the nostalgic good old days.

Until recent years, I have always mistaken this set as a cheaper and smaller variant of the Imperial Shuttle. After constructing the UCS Imperial Shuttle two years ago, I had categorically ignored the existence of this set, thinking that it will be a waste of time to go back to a variant of humble proportion. It took a mishap in my LEGO storeroom, where I had a whole stack of boxes tumbling over me, that this set caught my eyes again. Amidst the mess in the storeroom, I somehow gravitated towards the box, picked it up, dust it, and for the first time, took a good look at the picture on the box (It was really THAT dramatic) "Pick me! Pick me!", the box seemed to call out to me. Without a second thought, I took it home.

"Pick me, Pick me!"

Unlike many other sets that I have built to date, the compelling reason why I wanted to build this was solely to satisfy my curiosity. If this is not a variant of the Imperial Shuttle, then what is this weird looking craft? Having little recollection of it in the movies, I resorted to flip through my DK Visual Dictionary and Vehicle Guide. Nothing found. That simply shows how little its significance in the movies. Some website classified this set under the "Expanded Universe" range which I do not collect too. Despite all of these confusions, the box still appealed to me, and for two hours after I did that, I was not disappointed.

So, what is IT actually?

Pretty cramped cabin with only 2 seats

It will be fundamentally wrong to say that the Landing craft bears little resemblance to the Imperial Shuttle. Its triangular fin profile, rotatable wings, white body and sloping canopy forms the familiar silhouette of the Imperial Shuttle. But unlike the Shuttle's prestigious cargo, the Imperial Landing craft is used mainly for deployment of common troops and logistics. This craft has a wide body to serve the purpose and it is designed to carry four passengers - two with seats and two ... without?!?  Guess the budget was cut in the last minute and the designer has to forgo the other two chairs?

Hinged canopy will be much preferred

The two troopers without seats are to be placed behind the spring loaded cannons, supposedly operated by the two deprived troopers. The pilot has it easier with his exclusive cockpit, and a big one too. A 2X1 printed SNOT brick serves as the control panel for the pilot. Despite the luxury of space, the designer did not intend to hinge the canopy to the cockpit, so it became quite a hassle to always remove the canopy entirely whenever the pilot needs to access the cockpit.

Clip on mechanisms on the spine

The troopers are able to access the fuselage via two ways: (1) the six hinged curved panels covering the fuselage or (2) "De-bone" the Landing Craft. Allow me to explain option (2), which is a highlight for this set. Those who own the 8096 Emperor's Palpatine's Shuttle will understand this design concept well, where the fuselage can be totally exposed (for enhanced playability I supposed) by lifting the lid over it.

In this craft, the lid (formed by the six curved panels) is part of the spine that runs through the length of the craft, connecting the cockpit on one end, and the wings and engine on the other. Two cleverly designed hinges clipped the two parts together tightly when you need them to integrate again.

Two long arch bricks form the undercarriage of the Landing craft and provided the perfect stand for displaying the craft. It would be ideal if the undercarriage are retractable to give the ship a sleeker silhouette after taking off.

Ammunition

Front facing hammer like spring loaded missiles

Troop carrier needs protection too. There are probably less than 5 (maybe 3) Star Wars sets in my collection that comes with the "big-a**" spring loaded cannon. Off the top of my head, one of them was the twin-chambered TIE bomber released some years back, whose cannon design was critically put down by me in my review. But not this one. Although they share the same firing mechanism, the cannon barrels (yes, plural as there are two of them) in this Landing craft are well concealed in the fuselage and can be operated by a quick flick of a switch disguised as a forward facing flashlight. Reloading of the cannon is also an effortless affair.

Bomb chambers located at the back wall of cabin

The Landing craft also carries four luminous drop bombs as part of its armoury. These bombs are placed on a pair of latches that can be tilted to slide the bombs out of the fuselage. As innovative as the mechanism might be, the bombs do find it challenging at times to exit. The long laser blasters of the troopers are secured onto the floor board of the fuselage using some single studded 2X1, but the weapons do come off quite easily during play time. A few well designed clip bricks might serve better in this case.

Foldable wings

A fair bit of Technic parts are committed at the rear of the craft, primarily for the working parts of the rotating wings. The mesh of gears and hinges combined well to operate the wings, via the rotation of a small knob located at the discreet rear of the craft. The wings are not overly design to minimise the weight sustained by the rotating mechanism. This was a major problem for the UCS Imperial Shuttle whose similar mechanism is not designed adequately to move its huge heavy wings.

Building Process


It always take a lot of courage to open the pre 2008 sets for the reason that the brick packs are not sequentially numbered. Only in my most masochistic self (and plenty of time on hand) will I consider building those, especially brick counts close to those of the UCS ISD. But at less than 500 pieces, this set does not warrant much courage and truth to be told, it was a fun building experience.

Starting from the box. It has probably one of the simplest designs you can ever get in terms of box art - Just a desert scene in the background and featuring the landing craft firing its weapons in the fore. The back of the box showcased the various playable features with a separate panel featuring other sets released in the same wave of that season. This is a really old-school feature that we don't see often nowadays. A Star Wars 30th anniversary logo on the side panel gives the set some exclusivity points too.

The content consists of an instruction booklet and 7 packs of bricks in various sizes. It is always useful to have the smaller bricks in separate packs especially when some sorting are required for unlabelled packs. What caught my attention then was the large amount of Technic and gear parts, which were subsequently used for the engine and folding wings mechanisms. There were also plenty of whites (duh ...) with a few other grey bits here and there to break the monotony.

Complex gear system but interesting building design

During the 2 hour building process, this set does not come across to me as a 2007 at all. Some of the steps are so unique that I hardly even see them in recent years. Two technique impressed me most: (1) The firing mechanism of the forward facing spring loaded cannons, and (2) How the wings were pegged down to ensure exact symmetry during part of the building process, before the pegs are removed later in the steps.



Minifigs

As mentioned earlier, this vehicle probably made such a quick cameo appearance in the movie that I was not able to pick up who flew it and who used it in the first place. But I am quite certain it should not have been flown by a TIE  Interceptor pilot! The pilot comes with a black unprinted head piece concealed inside a well designed helmet. The torso is only printed on the front side with panel design and belt. The rest of the minifig are generally black with no additional prints. his helmet probably scores highest with me for its detailed design and close resemblance to its movie counterparts.

Four troopers were included in this set - two Stormtroopers and two Sandtroopers. Very little separate them as the latter has the luxury of an additional orange pauldron. Al troopers come with unprinted black head pieces, which seems practical back in 2007. Nobody really cares about whats inside those nicely designed helmets at that point of time, I supposed. Those helmets have not evolved much over the years and they still look pretty cool from the today's standard. The torso piece is printed on both sides with details of chest armour in the front and panelling at the back. Leg pieces are plain white without prints.

Conclusions

I have a feeling that the sales number for this set was dismal, to say the least. It does not have the most eye catching box art nor an instantly recognised silhouette. It is unfair to judge this set from a 2014 perspective but if we backtrack 7 years ago, I will be very impressed with its design finesse and brick choices. Once we sort out its identity crisis (EU or classic?), it certainly deserves a place in my collection.

+ Very interesting building technique. Quite complex but interesting - plucked in pegs and remove later to maintain symmetry
+ Well designed bomb mechanism and spring loaded missiles
+ Big cockpit, but can try to design for 2

- Rifle compartment in cabin should be clip on for better security
- 2 chairs for 4 occupants? Budget cut?
- Why is there is TIE pilot flying this?