Review: 75081 T-16 Skyhopper

Set ID: 75081 T-16 Skyhopper

Number of Pieces: 247

Year of Release: 2015

Minifigs: 2

Purchased Price: About SGD 50

A dozen of years can do a lot of differences to many things. My son is already 13 and I can still vividly remember the day when he was born, 5-weeks premature, weighing just under 2kg. Now he stands at almost 1.7m tall and weighing 45kg. Numbers don't lie, do they? 12 years did little to the physiques of the Skyphopper though, not that I am expecting earth shattering changes though, for a craft of this humble proportion.

With less than 100 bricks, the older version (set 4477) was a simpler affair, with very straightforward building technique and of course, some crude designs. Given that my memory of the Skyhopper was only the "toy" that Luke was playing in Tatooine, I didn't quite mind the details then. Fast forward 12 years to today, the new variant has more than doubled the brick count (and price), without really increasing its size. I could only conclude that the increased brick count will contribute more to the detailing of the finished Skyhopper, and during the building process, it was indeed the case.

Building Experience

I noticed that for the new releases in 2015, LEGO seems to have ditched the "standard box size" concept and went with what felt right instead. By that, I mean LEGO has designed the box size just enough to house the 3 packets of bricks, making good use of the interior space. One observation though, that the thickness of the box has increased slightly, making the box a little more "chunky". Personally I do not quite like the box art for 2015 Star Wars sets, but will leave that ranting on another day. A crumpled sticker sheet was also found in the box, much to my disgust.

Content including a crumpled sticker sheet

Hinges aplenty

For a vehicle of this size, I am impressed with some of the building techniques used especially on the interior of the Skyhopper. Even for such a small vehicle, LEGO has endeavoured to include some form of Technics design, which inevitably improve the sturdiness of the finished product. There are quite a number of hinging parts here, using a variety of hinges in the design of the wings and fuselage. A deja vu feeling came upon me when fixing the dorsal fin as the technique used resemble very much of that in the UCS Imperial Shuttle, but in a much much much smaller scale.

There were hardly much spares at the end of the build, which took around 35 minutes to complete.

The New "Hop"

The Skyhopper has room for just one pilot and some spaces for cargo in the triangular shaped fuselage. Entry to the cockpit can be tight as it has a "sunken in" design. Right behind the cockpit is the fuselage where a 2X2 container box is housed, and some cramp spaces where I keep the house mouse that comes with this set. Comparing to 4477, this Skyhopper comes with a couple of covered articulated windscreen (stickered by the way), made up by but the 2 transparent bricks hinged onto the fuselage. The undercarriage provides a sturdy stand to display your Skyhopper at home.

Besides the long laser turret underneath the craft, this new Skyhopper also comes with a pair of wing-mounted spring loaded missiles (yes, again) No doubt playability will up a notch but the long tail of the missiles do annoy me from time to time, especially when they get fired off when you accidentally flip or touch its tail. The housing of the missiles also have the tendency to come off the wings during the more over zealous play time as they are only attached to the wings by 4X1 studs.

Rear view 

Stickers were used at appropriate places on the Skyhopper so I can't really complain much, except for the conditions they were in when I opened the box. I know they won't last a year in the kind of humidity I live with but at least in their 'living years', they provided some nice touches and details to an otherwise boring silhouette. Special mention for the cockpit control stickers for I am happy that some thoughts have been invested to make them more real than the past designs.

Minifigs

In happier times ...

Skyhopper pilot - Honestly nobody can remember how a Skyhopper pilot looks like in the movie. A quick research online reveals only pictures of LEGO version of the pilot when I entered "Skyhopper pilot" into the search window. Nonetheless, putting the new pilot beside the 4477's version, it is not hard to realise how far LEGO has advanced in the design of minifigs. While the older sibling can be passed off as another motorcycle pilot minifig, this one comes with a very detailed pilot helmet, flight suit printed torso and double sided head piece. The translucent visor is printed on one of the faces, revealing his eyes. The other non-visor printed face is less inspirational, and I can't put a word to describe what kind of expression he is revealing. And by the way, he is equipped with a short pistol, for emergency encounters with the Tusken Raider.

Talking about the Tusken Raider, there is ONE included in the set here, and he was featured on the box design, running away from the shooting Skyhopper. This is a brand new design with a much better detailed "spiky" head piece. It certainly scores much higher in terms of movie accuracy but lost a bit of the LEGO-ism which I can't really complain about. A good compromise. The last Tusken Raider only appeared in the 2002 set - The 7113 Tusken Encounter and this new version made good of this 13 year gap with additional torso details and leg prints.

And then there is a mouse ...

Conclusion

I noticed that many of the millennium kids have very little recollection of the classic Star Wars movies and therefore this set will not resonate much with them. Even for hard core fans, this can easily be passed and re-invest the money into other more prominent sets. With all its merits and improvements over its predecessors, I would only say this is a good-to-have set and for those miifig fans who want to lay their hands on the extremely detailed and exclusive Tusken Raider minifig.

+ Much improved minifigs
+ Nicer cockpit design as compared to previous version
+ Sturdy and zoomable (although you have to be careful of firing off the missiles accidentally)

- Crumpled sticker sheet (may differ from box to box)
- Spring loaded missile design looks obtrusive