Review: 75104 Kylo Ren's Command Shuttle
Posted by CapnRex101,
There has been a great deal of speculation surrounding several of the new characters in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but few have inspired such intrigue as Kylo Ren, the mysterious villain of the movie. 75104 Kylo Ren's Command Shuttle is, suitably, the only set to feature the much-anticipated Kylo Ren minifigure and his inclusion is probably the most appealing aspect of the model for many people. It certainly was for me when the range was released.
However, my feelings have changed. Now that I have built the model I am much happier with the set as a whole than I was originally, particularly with regard to the shuttle itself which has surpassed my expectations, which were admittedly rather low. The minifigure selection is also very impressive due to both the quality of their individual designs and the appeal of the characters, many of whom play key roles within the First Order.
The price is perhaps a little less appealing, pitched at £99.99 in the UK or $119.99 in the US. With 75105 Millennium Falcon priced only a little higher, 75104 Kylo Ren's Command Shuttle needs to be something really special to contend with that set. Let's see if it is...
Box and Contents
I think the most interesting aspect of the box artwork is the appearance of a mysterious, verdant world in the background, the same as the one which appears on the box of 75103 First Order Transporter. There have been rumours that Yavin IV might appear in the film, the terrain of which closely resembles the flora seen on the box here. It may instead be the hitherto unknown planet of Takodana; we will have to wait and see.
The back of the box shows the command shuttle in landing mode as well as some of the play features and the interior of the craft. As with all of the new sets based on Star Wars: The Force Awakens, there are some rather attractive shots of the vehicle in the style of computer readouts as well as a shot of the accessories included.
Inside are six numbered bags and a neatly packaged instruction manual, which contains 163 pages. It was nice to find that there are no stickers in this set, although I would suggest that this is to the detriment of some areas of the model.
Minifigures
Kylo Ren is shaping up to be one of the standout characters from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, a fact supported by the impressive sales of his action figures so far. This minifigure is very impressive in my opinion, despite the notable simplicity of the design which closely resembles that of the costume. Unusually, the head is printed with the same design as the helmet, allowing you to display Ren with the hood up or down.
This is a welcome feature as the helmet component is proving divisive among fans. It is clearly oversized but that doesn't bother me too much as the level of detail and accuracy more than makes up for it in my opinion. The ragged cape, which is made from a soft and pliable fabric, is unique to this figure at the moment. It matches the movie beautifully, as do the designs printed on the front and back of the torso as well as the legs.
Ren's lightsaber has provoked an enormously varied reaction. I was disappointed when it first appeared in the teaser as the design of a lightsaber is ideally suited to manoeuverability, something which a cross guard reduces. However, if used in the appropriate manner I could easily be won over. The LEGO version is not a perfect representation of the prop from the movie as the cross guard does not emanate from the hilt, but I think it looks alright.
I'm looking forward to learning more about the character of General Hux as we know very little about him at the moment, only that he is the commander of Starkiller Base and is determined to flex the muscle of the First Order while other leading figures prefer to bide their time. The minifigure features detailed printing all over his black uniform and wears a brand new hat, which is complete with the First Order logo.
My favourite part of the minifigure though is the face, which is printed with a sneering expression that matches this shot of Hux from the film. It is rare to see a LEGO head which so closely resembles the appearance character on which it is based, so this is very impressive.
The First Order Officer shares the same headgear as her commanding officer, albeit in a different colour, but her head and torso designs are unique. It is pleasing to see some variation between the design of this officer and that in 75101 First Order Special Forces TIE Fighter, although they both have code cylinders stored in their pocket and shiny silver belt buckles which contrast nicely with the dark grey of their attire.
I have it on good authority that this First Order Officer will appear with a small role in the movie, in which case I will be keeping a lookout come December!
Two First Order Crew members are included, varying only in their heads beneath the helmets, one of which is black while the other is white. I am always glad to see a greater variety of ethnicities represented among licensed LEGO minifigures so this is a pleasing trend; it is just a shame that the same was not done for the Stormtroopers.
The headgear seems like a combination of the Death Star Gunner and Imperial Navy Trooper helmets from the Original Trilogy and the black uniform is similarly familiar. The absence of leg printing is notable but doesn't impact upon the figure too much in my opinion.
The sixth and final minifigure is a First Order Stormtrooper Officer. I discussed the excellence of the new Stormtrooper in my review of 75103 First Order Transporter and that is maintained here as the helmet, head, torso and legs on the officer are all identical to those of the standard troopers.
Like the First Order Snowtrooper Officer included in 75100 First Order Snowspeeder this commander wears a red pauldron. The design has been adjusted for these figures as it now features some printing around the neck which is hardly noticeable, but demonstrates attention to detail on the part of the graphic designers.
The Completed Model
Firstly, we should discuss the elephant in the room, that being the fact that the wings are unable to form the 'V' shape which they are supposed to. This is plain to see in the trailer and the absence of such a feature does detract from the set as a whole, but there is really nobody to blame for the error and it would be unreasonable to do so. We know that the designers began working on these sets in spring of 2014, long before the angling of the wings on the shuttle was decided upon. Other toy companies evidently saw the preliminary sketches at around the same time as all the toys based on this craft have fixed wings. It is simply something which we will have to modify ourselves. If you are looking for inspiration to do just that, I recommend JANGBRiCKS' video about a simple but functional modification which he has made to his own set.
One inaccuracy which cannot be explained is the inclusion of a pair of tiny flaps underneath the wing superstructure. This is not present on the shuttle in the movie and did not appear in any of the early sketches, so was presumably something which the designer added of his own accord. I actually quite like these little flaps but would have preferred to see some more accurate landing pads which could retract into the underside of each wing.
The sheer height of the wings when they are extended is very impressive, measuring over 40cm high. I don't mind the studs which cover the exterior but the interior face of each wing needs improvement as it looks rather messy at the moment. The inverted slopes near the top of the wings look particularly out of place in my opinion, as do the black 2x2 slider elements which could easily have been replaced by a few dark bluish grey inverted tiles.
However, I like the laser cannons fixed roughly where they are found on the Lambda Class Shuttle and the spring-loaded shooters concealed beside these function very nicely without interfering with the appearance of the model. I also think the wings look great from the outside as a result of the shape and colours which have been used. The mechanism by which the wings are raised and lowered for landing is easy to use and works brilliantly, although once again it is not at all faithful to the movie as the wings are supposed to telescope rather than folding down so the two sections are parallel.
Under most circumstances I would overlook this kind of relatively minor issue, but in this case I think it could have been implemented quite simply as the lower half of the wing is easily wide enough to accommodate a second section inside. For play the absence of this feature does not impact upon the set in the slightest but I think they would be even better if they were a little more faithful to the source material by incorporating a sliding motion as the wings retract and extend.
By this point you might be wondering why I began this review by stating that I liked 75104 Kylo Ren's Command Shuttle as I have said little to support such a claim so far. By far my favourite section of the model is the central crew compartment which is dwarfed by the enormous wings but is in fact quite spacious.
The armour plating looks absolutely splendid, with a perfect mixture of light and dark greys as well as lots of attractive details included. Despite the rather simple configuration of the engines I think they look marvellous and the entire assembly is constructed very firmly, using both Technic and System elements to form a strong frame.
There is lots of room in the cockpit with a seat for the pilot as well as space for several minifigures to stand. Accessories can be stored on the clips in here and there are also a few control panels which add some welcome detail.
The floor of the rear section is, in fact, the boarding ramp. Grill pieces have been used to represent the slight stepping of the ramp which is visible in the footage from San Diego Comic Con but, as usual for this kind of set, it is almost impossible to access and the vehicle is far too close to the ground when landed to allow a minifigure to disembark via the ramp.
More minifigures can be placed in the seating area at the back of the craft, which has room for two figures to sit facing one another. I appreciate the effort which has gone in here as it would have been easier to leave this space empty, but once again it is difficult to access this section. Nevertheless, it is possible to seat a couple of figures inside and you can store Kylo Ren's lightsaber on the ceiling where there are a couple of clips included solely for that purpose.
Overall
I like this set a lot more than I had anticipated, although it is far from perfect. The central section looks absolutely brilliant from the outside and I like the silhouette of the craft from the side but there are one or two areas which look a little unfinished to me, most notably the interior faces of the wings. If just a few of these little problems had been rectified, I think this would be a much more interesting set.
On the other hand, the minifigures are excellent in my opinion and I like the vast majority of the shuttle itself due to the high level of detail and accurate shaping. I suspect it will grow in popularity once we have seen the craft in action during the film as it has scarcely appeared in promotional artwork or trailers.
Kylo Ren and General Hux are definitely worth adding to your minifigure collection even if you do not intend to buy the entire set, an understandable position given the standard of some of the others based on Star Wars: The Force Awakens. At its present price point I would favour 75103 First Order Transporter or 75105 Millennium Falcon over this set, but at a reduced price I think this would be worth purchasing. Unfortunately, it currently falls into that familiar category for Star Wars sets: not bad, but there is room for improvement.
Our final Star Wars: The Force Awakens set review will be posted in the next few days, so stay tuned!
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26 comments on this article
A lot of nice features on this one: but the whole lack of a V-shape is a glaring omission. It might be easier to buy the old Imperial Shuttle: snag Kylo Ren from the internet, then pretend Kylo has a "classical taste" in his spacecraft...
Oy. I appreciate the detail here and the massive size, but man this set has issues. I love all the figs except Kylo. His helmet looks hideous, and that lightsaber will doubtlessly be a very useful part but looks plain wrong on a hilt. The boarding ramp is utterly useless, and everything about the wings is messed up. Luckily, just like the other sets, it's very easy to mod and make more accurate.
And the price. Blech. If it was $100, I might be able to forgive some of the bad things.
It isn't all that hard to mod it so that the wings fold out, like Jangbricks did in his video, and apart from that, this set can easily hold its own against the X-Wing and Millenium Falcon, which IMO are the best of this TFA wave.
@PicnicBasketSam: It's £100 in the UK, so if it were $100 that wouldn't be very fair would it?
Terrible errors at this price point!
Fail!
Due to the cost & complexity of new moulds other toy manufacturers have an excuse for not including v-shaped wings if they became apparent late in the design process. Lego, with its small, modular, pre-existing components is just being lackadaisical. A problem it is increasingly succumbing to. If you bought all the poorly designed sets Lego have churned out this year may be you would have all the components you would need to solve their design flaws.
@Bricklunch - Set designs are generally finalised about fifteen months in advance of release, at which time the folding of the wings had not been revealed, although it probably had been decided upon by the filmmakers.
That's not what he's saying, @Pagani88. He knows the value of currency. He means it's too expensive, so it should be $100 (and the equivalent in other currencies is implied). He can't very well list how much it should be in every single country!
I wish there were more pictures to illustrate the points being discussed, such as the troopers' faces and the lightsaber.
I would probably just order Kylo Ren and the First Order Stormtrooper Officer. Too bad that Kylo Ren is like $45 on Amazon.
I am sure this set will come out again in 2-3 years time with the correct wing configuration and some other improvements. Just like the MF has come out multiple times.
Kylo Ren's helmet is too big, but the face printing is too small... D:
I really hope they make a UCS version of this for 2016. I think it's a good candidate and hopefully they would make it very movie accurate.
If they really did a phenomenal job with this set, then the high price tag would be justified (every LEGO X-wing ever is a good example of this justification). There's so much lacking here though...the great figs, huge amounts of space, and well-shaped cockpit aren't enough to make up for the terrible underside of the wings and the relatively low piece count. The wing shape is forgivable I guess since all the other toys did the same thing. Would definitely get Final Flight of Destiny's Bounty over this.
The problem I'm having with a lot of these TFA sets is that until I see the film, all I see in the sets is a mass of grey...maybe after the seeing the film I'll feel different but all the first order stuff just looks boring to me.
Think that this may be my next TFA purchase...
I know the extended stories aren't necessarily cannon anymore, but in one side-plot, the huge stone temple used as a base on Yavin IV was supposed to be an ancient Sith temple, so that may tie in with Kylo Ren searching for the origins of the Dark Side.
i love the last picture. cool set.
See Brick Commander's post on the Eurobricks thread below, where he explains why the V-wings were not included in the LEGO set.
http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=98085&st=9425
^ He is exactly right. The wing configuration was adjusted late last year, only a couple of months prior to the release of the first trailer, or so I am told.
@8BrickMario - Additional photos are available in the relevant album on Flickr; I simply couldn't fit them all in this review.
Seems as if this set is an unacceptable level of inaccuracy and should have been redesigned or not made at all! (However the minifigs are good).
I kinda hope this ship doesn't get blown up in TFA, so we can get a more accurate version for Episode VIII.
Nice picture BTW :)
Star Wars has always been pricey, but these are getting out of hand
Looks kinda horrible and incredibly crude - for the price I would expect something a bit more polished and as it stands looks unfinished and it doesn't matter if the V-shape isn't there as it can be modded. I do like the new storm trooper however.
The main problem is really that the ship just isn't that attractive in the source material. I keep thinking it looks like a giant bug or something that belongs in Galaxy Squad.
It's not the first time SW material has come up different in toys from how it appears in the movie. Funny how people are all over the prototype White Boba Fett after-the-fact, but if that's how the toys were originally -- uproar!