Review: 75214 Anakin's Jedi Starfighter
Posted by CapnRex101,
Exactly ten years have passed since Star Wars: The Clone Wars arrived in cinemas around the world on the 15th of August, 2008. The popular animated television series dominated the LEGO Star Wars range for several years, commencing with 7669 Anakin's Jedi Starfighter and later expanding to encompass more than 70 sets.
It therefore seems appropriate that 75214 Anakin's Jedi Starfighter should be released on the tenth anniversary of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, particularly given the announcement that the series will soon be returning! This set contains 247 pieces and includes far greater detail than its 153-piece predecessor, perfectly representing how LEGO product design has continued to develop during the last decade.
Minifigures
Minifigures based upon Star Wars: The Clone Wars often featured large eyes, reflecting the style of the animated series. However, that practice came to an end in 2014 so Anakin Skywalker includes a pair of black eyes, two different expressions and a metallic gold headset, taking inspiration from Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. His hair piece remains the same though and looks superb in relation to the onscreen character.
Anakin wears a black Jedi robe, featuring dark brown sleeves and a black pauldron which protects his chest. I like the reddish brown highlights on both sides of the torso and the legs are printed with similar detail, contrasting with the original figure from 7669 Anakin's Jedi Starfighter which featured plain black legs. As usual, the Jedi is armed with a blue lightsaber.
R2-D2 accompanies Anakin and remains unchanged from the standard figure that was introduced in 2014, featuring a pearl silver dome with dark blue highlights. The panels on the front of R2-D2's body look perfect but there is no detail on the back which is unfortunate as I think that would be a welcome addition. Furthermore, the printing on the head is not entirely straight and this is definitely something that LEGO should improve.
The Completed Model
Numerous models of the Delta-7B Aethersprite-class light interceptor have been produced since 2008, several of which were similar but for their colour scheme. This rendition borrows design elements from 9498 Saesee Tiin's Jedi Starfighter and is accordingly sturdy, featuring a rigid tail fin and measuring 27cm long. The yellow and dark bluish grey colour scheme looks brilliant, consisting primarily of brick-built patterns but using a few stickers where necessary.
Jedi craft rarely include shields, relying instead upon a skilled pilot and an exceptionally narrow profile which is difficult to target. The vehicle is therefore very sleek, particularly at the nose where it narrows to a sharp point and looks great when compared with the source material. The transition between the nose and the angled wings is reasonably effective in my opinion, although 9498 Saesee Tiin's Jedi Starfighter was perhaps even better in this regard.
The Delta-7B Aethersprite-class light interceptor is distinguished from the earlier Delta-7 variant by the position of its Astromech droid socket, just in front of the cockpit. R2-D2 slots in here neatly and some stickers are applied to the pieces in front of the droid, faithfully recreating the starfighter's shape from the animated series. An additional sticker forms the Republic emblem on the starboard wing and both wings include stud shooters too.
Opening the cockpit canopy reveals a printed control console and room to seat Anakin Skywalker. The dark bluish grey head rest is a wonderful detail and the reddish brown upholstery inside looks splendid, although the grey flooring appears slightly out of place. Even so, the cockpit is nicely detailed given its small size and I love how the trans-black canopy hinges forwards, just like in the television series.
Four more stickers are applied at the rear of the craft. The resultant pattern looks perfect from either side but does not line up correctly when viewed from behind, unfortunately. Nevertheless, I like the shaping of the structure which surrounds the cockpit and would be tempted to modify 75191 Jedi Starfighter with Hyperdrive from last year as this design is far superior in my view.
The underside of the Jedi Starfighter is less detailed, as one might expect. Nevertheless, it features two large engines, a clip for storing Anakin's lightsaber and a retractable landing leg towards the front of the vehicle. Viewing the model from this angle also shows the Technic assembly which supports the wings, forming a very sturdy structure.
Overall
75214 Anakin's Jedi Starfighter feels like a worthy celebration of Star Wars: The Clone Wars' tenth anniversary. It improves upon its predecessor in every regard, including far more detail and offering greater play value by virtue of its sturdy design. It seems a shame that the droid ejection function from 7669 Anakin's Jedi Starfighter has been omitted, although the set makes up for that in other areas.
The price of $19.99 in the US seems very reasonable but this set costs £25.99 in the UK. That is a little too much in my opinion, particularly when compared with sets of an equal price like 75215 Cloud-Rider Swoop Bikes which offers better value. Even so, I would recommend this set to fans of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and hope we will see further models based upon the series in the future.
I hope you have found this review informative. Let us know by liking this article and share your thoughts on the set in the comments below.
The set is currently available from shop.LEGO.com:
USA ($19.99) | Canada ($24.99) | UK (£25.99) | Germany (€29.99) | France (€29.99)
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34 comments on this article
In 2018 where every Star Wars set is overpriced comes this set and the US price is a pleasent surprise.
I think I like this set more the more I see of it. It was a hard pass to start with but it's really growing on me, and I'm not quite sure why. Not a fan of that USD to GBP conversion though, that's rough.
I am actually very pleased of the CW return and there were a ton of models from that series that nevwr made it to Lego form.
Glad to see we will finally be getting CW figs without the big eyes and cartoony print.
What good memories! 7669 was the first SW set arriving home, and still complete on its box, despite the kids ;-). How fast these 10 years have passed !! Great reissue and a good tribute to Clone Wars comeback.
I think "The resultant pattern looks perfect from either side but does line up correctly when viewed from behind, unfortunately" should probably read "doesn't line up" instead, unless I'm misunderstanding it.
In what part of the world are TV shows displayed in cinemas?
I’m asking for a friend.
@paulmison - Thanks, that has been corrected.
@peterlmorris - Star Wars: The Clone Wars began with a film, released on the 15th of August, 2008. The television series followed a couple of months later, starting on the 3rd of October in North America.
Looks great! It looked like more of the same until I saw pictures of previous versions of this set. The design has really improved a lot! My only gripe is that a constant slope down from the astromech droid to the nose would look better than the sudden curve at the end.
7669 was my first set ever and kicked off my obsession with Lego along with the Complete Saga videogame. I normally avoid getting 2 models of the same SW ship but I might pick this one up for the sake of nostalgia.
I don't remember if I had the original one or not. Either way it's a must have IMO :D
Nice build, I'm going to get it someday, but definitely at Belgian RRP of 35 euros… Simply ridiculous. Luckily I've already seen it in a shop for 30 euros and it'll eventually cost 25 euros… But still, such a shame the Benelux RRPs are so inflated!
I remember I bought the older version just to get R2-D2. I'm considering to get this one just for the sake of nostalgia.
Whoah, CW is coming back!? This shall yield Clone Trooper minifigures! HAHAHAHAHA YEESSSSS!
Nice review by the way, looks like a good set.
I'm so excited since I know that a new season is coming. To watch it first of course, but also with hope that we'll get new renditions of old CW sets and even more : never released ones. As I have the previous version of this one, I was decided to pass on it but the more I see it, the more I am tempted to buy this improved design. It looks sleeker, more accurate, and as mentioned very close to Saesee's version. It also looks that as for 75191 the cockpit is too high compared to the original design?
Hoping to see an updated Twilight...
This is a very good rendition of the starfighter in an new form. However, Clone Wars likely won't be as easy to access as we think - it's going to be exclusive to Disney's streaming service and I'm not even sure if they confirmed when that's going to come to the UK. There are plenty of Hondo memes out there saying "we're pirates, we don't know what that means" but I would probably have to go with a short subscription or something.
I remember the original set being one of the first sets I ever owned as a kid. Had hours of fun playing around with it and modding it later on down the line to make a “super star fighter” out of it. Very tempted to purchase this for pure sentimental reasons as the original, to me, was one of the main reasons I got into LEGO (not to forget Bionicle, that kept me out of a dark age).
A bit OFF, but can't keep it in...I can't fathom these prices. It costs 38 CHF which is basically 1:1 conversion rate to USD, and Switzerland has pretty low VAT, so that can't be the reason. Even the £ price is much better than that.
Basically with this pricing, it's never worth to buy anything from LEGO, especially when for example TRU is selling these already discounted the day they come out, they seem to understand that.
I get it, TLG doesn't have official stores in our neighborhood, and the webshop orders ship from the Netherlands, but that is not that far, or expensive to ship that would justify these prices. Ridiculous really.
But now, more ON: like someone mentioned before, I feel the same way, the set is starting to grow on me every time. Already on first look pictures it seemed much better shaped than the Delta-7 with Hyperring, and good to hear that it is in real life as well. Not a fan of the wing angling, and the gap though. I don't have a grown-up Anakin yet though, so probably going to pick up on clearance.
Great looking set, but like the general consensus from European users seems to be, LEGO is ridiculously overpricing sets in recent times. Next years sales numbers imho will reflect this. Whether LEGO will take notice and react remains to be seen, but the way they are going about pricing in European countries at the moment they will definitely lose ever more sales. From what I gather from friends, family and colleagues interested in LEGO, they feel the same way.
I have the same issue with this set as I had with the original, the droid socket on the ship should be sideways not straight. Appreciate this is a small set but with some of the amazing techniques in building these days, I would have thought this would have been a more accurate design. Especially as the ejector function has not returned.
It would be nice to get a modern CW/Ep3 Anakin without the pilot headset sometimes.
Austinpowers, to go on with your argument, I must say that for a few months and SW sets waves now, I don't purchase at first day on LEGO.com as I used to do, but for a few rare occasions now (when I consider that I really want a new set and that the price is fair, which seems to occur... Less and less with time passing by). For instance, I want five or six of the Solo's / SW new range but will wait patiently for a good discount anywhere else. As mentioned in another article, I have found for my birthday Destiny's Bounty at 115 instead of 165, which is no hard choice to make. And that will be the exact same thing for this one. I like it a lot, but not a full price here in France. Just as for Hoth Medical base, Snoke's room, Imperial hauler and so on... We can find sometime good discounts on the official shop, but not for each set we want and often too late because fast out of stock. So I don't know if the way I now consider my Lego purchases can confirm your feelings and a statistical inclination, but you can count me in this ascertainment. And as mentioned a few times here and there, we often read in comments complaints about the high or overpriced sets. And if, as consumers, prices are obviously always too high and a central point, I notice that money, prices and so on take now more place in conversations than the pleasure of building Lego. I really hope they take in mind consumers feedback.
@Brick't: agree completely. Same feelings here. Part of the problem also seems to be that we see the US prices of many sets which are much cheaper, sometimes almost 50%. Even though in some states US customers have to add sales tax to the RRP shown, that is still far less than the pricing in European countries. Different prices for countries that all pay in Euro also acerbate the problem. I mean, I can count myself luck to live in Germany, where we tend to get the cheapest of the Euro prices, but even then it is generally far more expensive than in the US. And if you live anywhere else in Euroland, prices are even worse - especially on licensed sets like Star Wars.
Take the set in this review: 19.99 USD versus 29.99 Euro in Germany
The highest US sales tax I could find was about 15%.
If we add that we get around 23 USD final price (at max), at current exchange rates that equates to about 20 Euro. Compared to the German RRP we pay a 50% markup! In what way is that supposed to be fair? Germany isn't more wealthy than the US. It doesn't make sense. It's time that customers showed LEGO that we won't put up with it any longer. From what can be gathered, sales are already down. And the trend will only continue from there.
And that is not even starting to talk about the prices of sets in countries like Australia or New Zealand.
Front looks wrong.
Please could you review the new sandcrawler. I'm umming and ahhring about it.
The ads have gotten out of control. I understand you have to make money, but it is extremely annoying to try and read an article if you are not logged in. Yes, the ads go away if I do log in, but I shouldn't have to just so I can read an article without an ad showing up at every paragraph break. It is extremely unfriendly to new users. Please consider dialing it back. The actual set looks nice, just couldn't be bothered to try and read around all the ads.
@CapnRex101, is it possible to modify this version to fit in the Hyperdrive ring in 75191 Jedi Starfighter with Hyperdrive?
I have had several of the R2D2s with bad dome printing lately, the worst of which was from Yoda's hut. QC definitely needs to improve on this.
Until now I didn't know that the Cloud Rider Swoop Bike set had 355 pieces for only 30€! I found the prices for SW sets too high lately. This, the X-wing, the Cantina, the Echo Base set.. It really doesn't make me love to collect LSW sets.
Regarding the RRP i.e. Germnay and USA. I do see many Lego sets (and many other products) are priced usually with the same figure i.e. USD19.99 and EUR19.99. And it feels right, given the slightly higher sales tax in Germany combining with the currency conversion.
Well, I do not understand why then this set is priced USD19.99 and EUR29.99. Which I hope to know more about the justification for this uncommon pricing!
The 7669 Anakin's Jedi Starfighter has been on my wanted list for a while now, but I recently replaced it with this newer version. I really like this one and I'm surely getting it in the near future. I'm happy LEGO moved away from those big-eyes cartoon style minifigures.
Not a bad set wish lego would release more clone wars sets
This was a day-one buy for me, and not just because of the amazing price. $20 for nearly 250 pieces would've been a steal 10 years ago, never mind today. But more than that, the original 7669 was the only CW set I ever got back when they were in full swing with the "crackhead" minifigures. I didn't really care for that look, but the set was a birthday present from a friend who didn't often have much money to spend on gifts, so I treasured it. And now we have a version that's up to par with newer sets, and no crackhead minifigs.
I welcome the omission of the ejection feature from the original model, as mine never worked properly and it made it impossible to invert the ship without Artoo falling out.
We've actually been getting Clone Wars tie-in sets without the weird minifigs since early last year with Yoda's Jedi Starfighter 75168, followed by General Grievous' Combat Speeder this past winter. It seems that Lego, even if they had no knowledge of TCW's revival, was still holding out for the eventuality of its return.
And even before those two, we had Anakin's blue Jedi starfighter in 2015 and the TX-130 tank last year, neither of which showed up in TCW, and both of those had "normal" minifigs. If anything, the cancellation of TCW freed Lego up to make anything they chose, canon or otherwise, set within the Clone Wars era.