The first set I got after my "Dark Times". Though I got around 2015 off of BrickLink. I remember seeing it on LEGO.com. I hadn't been interested in any LEGO sets since 2007ish. The Clone Wars sets never interested me. I didn't check regularly to see what they had.

I'm no expert on the 'true' dimensions of an X-wing Fighter, but this set always felt like it nailed it. No other set (excluding UCS) has achieved the same before and after.

Sad I missed out on it :(

@MCLegoboy said:
"Porkins!"

He looks like he’s lost a lot of weight, except around the mouthal region. But I guess dying will do that to you.

I like how you can change the tiles on it.

I am more shocked we haven't had an R5-D4 figure in so long, the character was last seen in the 2014 Sandcrawler. I feel with the droid's return to the Star Wars mainstream with The Mandalorian we are due past for "Skippy" to be in a set again.

"I used to date this one wing once, now she's my X."

@Loganmaglio said:
"I like how you can change the tiles on it.
"

Ah, I was wondering about that; I couldn’t see in the set images but it seemed fairly clear the intent was to swap it between Luke and Porkin’s designs of X-Wing and I wasn’t sure how much tinkering around with logos that took

My first X-wing. Those photon torpedoes were difficult to keep with a 6-yr-old battling TIEs all day.

My first X-wing bought as an adult. It's very dated today, but it was an amazing advance for the time, compared to the 4502 / 6212 model. The nose taper was improved, the lower fuselage step was the proper height, the aft fuselage had a proper hexagon shape with inverted construction, the bottom wings were built the same as the upper wings and mounted upside down, the wings had wedges on them, the laser guns were the proper length and nicely detailed, it had proton torpedoes for the first time, it had stickers representing the details in the front of the engines, the back engine extensions were long, solidly mounted, and detailed, the droid and pilot printing were far more detailed than in the previous version, and for the first time we got a red cone head droid. This is still a really good X-wing, even though in many respects it's been made obsolete by 75218 and 75301 .

Ahhhh, if only mine looked like that. Sadly the white bricks look far closer in colour to tan these days.

It always bugged me that the only way to launch the torpedos was to de-clip them. Glad later sets included stud shooters there.

Hubba hubba!

This is the set that brought me out of my Dark Ages. I'd been buying CMFs and small City sets for my little boy around this time, but I finally took the plunge for myself when I saw this on discount at a certain online store. It sits now fully assembled inside a trunk because I don't have any space to display it.

It's also gone yellow in places, which is annoying.

@Atuin said:
"I'm no expert on the 'true' dimensions of an X-wing Fighter, but this set always felt like it nailed it. No other set (excluding UCS) has achieved the same before and after.

Sad I missed out on it :("

The UCS ones still annoy me. The slope of an X-Wing's canopy matches the slope of the craft's nose, they make one single line and it looks so ... perfect.

Every official model still has the interface between sloping canopy and then horizontal nose, and on UCS it's pretty unforgivable, especially these days. Give Mike Psiaki the job of next X-Wing. If anyone can work out some sweet lines on craft, it's him!

@lost_scotsman said:
"Give Mike Psiaki the job of next X-Wing. If anyone can work out some sweet lines on craft, it's him!"

It's funny you say that. I remember that before Mike was hired by Lego, he had built what was considered one of the best Lego X-wing MOCs at the time.

Edit: Found it. https://www.flickr.com/photos/pmiaki/6338245530/

@NotProfessorWhymzi said:
" @PurpleDave said:
" @MCLegoboy said:
"Porkins!"

He looks like he’s lost a lot of weight, except around the mouthal region. But I guess dying will do that to you."

except we all know he broke off to visit the KFC orbiting the Death Star."

Rumours have it he later joined the Gotham City PD but fell to the Dark Side (corruption).

Ah, the 2012 one. This was the first big innovation on minifig-scale X-wing design since the 2004 one, which was basically cloned for 2007. I like it, as it's still a lot cleaner and simpler than the 2018 version. And this released alongside a TIE too!

That said, this wave also examplified that models would only increase in size, and later mostly just part count. I'm glad we now have somewhat more affordable models of the ships.

@M_Jibril said:
"It's funny you say that. I remember that before Mike was hired by Lego, he had built what was considered one of the best Lego X-wing MOCs at the time.

Edit: Found it. https://www.flickr.com/photos/pmiaki/6338245530/ "

Wow, that's one nice model. The official sets have been slowly itterating towards something great while he just straight up nailed it 12 years ago!

@xboxtravis7992 said:
"I am more shocked we haven't had an R5-D4 figure in so long, the character was last seen in the 2014 Sandcrawler. I feel with the droid's return to the Star Wars mainstream with The Mandalorian we are due past for "Skippy" to be in a set again."

Yes, after watching Mando S3, I was pleased to discover I was apparently ahead of the curve by buying this. I paid £38.99 for it, according to my email receipt; ironically this was before I was really interested in Star Wars, I just thought it looked cool.

@M_Jibril said:
" @lost_scotsman said:
"Give Mike Psiaki the job of next X-Wing. If anyone can work out some sweet lines on craft, it's him!"

It's funny you say that. I remember that before Mike was hired by Lego, he had built what was considered one of the best Lego X-wing MOCs at the time.

Edit: Found it. https://www.flickr.com/photos/pmiaki/6338245530/

"

OH OF COURSE, I completely forgot that. That was an incredible MOC, and really inspired me to get back into MOC'ing back when it was on BrickShelf.
How could I forget that :)

Blown my mind, I never realised till now that was the same actor!!!

@xboxtravis7992:
Technically, we didn’t get R5-D4 in this set, either. Looks the same, but Porkins’ astromech was R5-D8.

@Binnekamp:
Nailing the looks doesn’t mean it’s able to pass the Design Department. It could have illegal techniques, unstable connections, or use retired parts.

I still own this one. Despite the most recent model having a more accurate cockpit mold, I hate the current one's wing-pop mechanism that essentially moves the entire back of the craft. This version has the wings move independently (awkwardly with the technic pieces, but they work). I'll take it.

@PurpleDave said:
" @Binnekamp :
Nailing the looks doesn’t mean it’s able to pass the Design Department. It could have illegal techniques, unstable connections, or use retired parts."

...I never said it would make for a good set as-is. I was just praising the bonkers building techniques for what they are.

@PurpleDave said:
" @xboxtravis7992 :
Technically, we didn’t get R5-D4 in this set, either. Looks the same, but Porkins’ astromech was R5-D8.
"

Yes this is R5-D8, but Brickset lists it as the same figure for both characters.

It's a case of prop recycling in the original Star Wars as well, just as it is in LEGO. Drop in the R5-D4 prop behind Porkins for pick up shots of pilots in the cockpit, call it a different character and there you go. The original trilogy has a lot of cases especially with the astromech droids of the same prop being re-used in multiple shots, Biggs' droid is identical to an Imperial one used on the Death Star as well.

There is actually some wild variation on R5 props in the saga. Return of the Jedi introduced a second R5 dome variant where instead of the "Three eyes" there were two cylindrical eyes set in the droid. Allegedly most of the R5 props got either sold to Disney to use as set-dressing in the Star Tours theme park rides, or boxed away in the archives so while shooting The Phantom Menace when Lucas asked "where are the cone head droids?" the prop department had to whip up a new R5 dome fast to get it out for shooting. It results in the third variant of the R5 prop in the films, since the dome in Phantom Menace was a rush job it has a more stretched shape to it, and looks quite off from the two variants in the original trilogy. I can't remember if any R5's showed up in the sequels or the spin-off films, but by the Disney films it's hard to tell if Lucasfilm built the background droid props or if they just invited fans in the Astromech Builder's groups to show up to the set for a day or two with their home built droids. Really the only R5 I know is prominent in the Disney era is R5-D4 with its role in The Mandalorian, and that is a pretty good replica of the 1970's prop.

@xboxtravis7992:
I remember there being an astromech that has a tall, pointy cone top, but I’m pretty sure it made it into the SW:CCG, which means OT, possibly even pre-PT.

If they did invite astromech builders in, it would have been hilarious if Artoo Deco made it in the film.

@PurpleDave said:
" @xboxtravis7992 :
I remember there being an astromech that has a tall, pointy cone top, but I’m pretty sure it made it into the SW:CCG, which means OT, possibly even pre-PT.

If they did invite astromech builders in, it would have been hilarious if Artoo Deco made it in the film."

The most pointy top astromechs are the R4's which were introduced in the 1977 film. Lego has only done the round top R4's like R4-P17 that were introduced in Attack of The Clones, I would love a proper R4 with a new mold for the conical dome.

R2-Deco is a fun droid, I see it pisted on astromech Facebook groups sometimes.

The Disney movies and films have also introduced the RO, R6 and R9 astromechs to canon. I was shocked to see an R9 in the "droid cantina" in Mandalorian season 3, since it was an obscure droid even in Legends.

I have this. Kind of... I basically Bricklinked all the pieces and I got different variants of Luke and Artoo a couple of months ago. Pretty decent X-Wing regardless and it looks great on display, even though the 2018 one is arguably better.

@xboxtravis7992:
We do a show in the Toledo area in March, and I’ve seen Artoo Deco there in person two years running. The guy who built him must be somewhat local to that area, since it’s a short, one-day show.

Wish they had sets like these today