Cool pirate Mo.

Wow is this an ugly rendition of a B-wing. Obviously the parts weren't available and techniques were unrefined in those days so I'm sure they did the best they could. I actually like how they tried with the torpedo tubes. If they somehow could have put 2 more of those jet engine parts behind the ones that are already there, they would have been the perfect length.

^^Then again, episode IX is in 5 days.....

It's like Huwbot is telling us to be prepared (sorry, not you Mufasa!)

I always wanted this set. It was the only one of the original Alphabet fighters I never got. I think it was too expensive and Christmas/Birthday gifts didn't favor me in 2000.

Owned this back in the day. It was a little flimsy and skinny, but I loved being able to own an actual B-WING fighter. I am not even sure Hasbro had made one again at this point.

Lots of fun. It was great completing the Rebel starfighter quartet.

Oh, this one I own. Bought it when it was first on shelves. So happy there was SW LEGO to build the Rebel fighters. Always loved this set and this is a good classic one.

Still own it! I love that they gave us a control room with hinges to fold out and extend the length of the area. The generic technicians in the early years of the theme were fun to get as well.

I didn't get this set. I was very picky about the first wave of Star Wars sets. I thought this set was unnecessarily big, with wings spanning at all directions. And there are a lot of color varioations on the model. But, X-Wing was nice, so was the speederbikes. The rest, especially the Millenium Falcon was... not so nice. I remember buying Tie Advanced vs Y-Wing set just for the Vader figure in '99. I still have the Y-wing built, but the Tie Advanced was not satisfying so I had to but a newer version and disassemble the old one.

So I didn’t and don’t really collect Star Wars (except the odd Episode I set) back in the day, but these quaint designs and that beautiful Star Wars logo just ooze nostalgia.

Would be nice to get a new b-wing soon, missed the boat on the 2014 one.

It's nice enough. :)

@Brickalili said:
"Ah the first of about a thousand different rendition of the B-Wing. I reckon if you lined up all the B-Wing variations Lego have made and looked along them, you'd see more B-Wing than was ever in the films XD"

There have only been three minifig-scale B-wings. In 2000, 2006 and 2014. So I dont think we can accuse Lego of making too many of them. I'd LOVE an updated one. And not some crappy Rise of Skywalker version.

I have to ask, because I've honestly never got this...

Just how does this starfighter resemble a letter 'B'?

The A-, X- and Y- Wings I can see where they come from with it. But this... I just don't see where they get the B.

It is of course not the most accurate and detailed of the 3 released, but the first! And those first models of Star Wars ships were simply magical. On top of that, 3 is the most accurate and really beautiful, but as a playset, 1 und 2 were miles ahead. 2 came with the landing dock that allowed you to display the fighter very neatly and gave you some special play feature. 1 though is a different league - not only did it come with a Home One like base display for operation of the fighter and your whole rebel squadron, it was the only model that had storage space! If you're flying into unknown regions of the galaxy, you need some storage space. To bring along your trusty R2 unit or to pick up something new. I still think this is an easily overlooked feature of 1 B-wing.

The little base looks almost more interesting then the ship itself.

But, beside the droid, the parts are generic enough to build a lot of custom things with even outside of Star Wars as it uses yellow figures.

Simpler times for sure.

But maybe that's just me and a 15 year dark age from 2001-2016 that I'm still not liking fleshie figures in newer licensed sets.

@BionicleJedi said:
"I have to ask, because I've honestly never got this...

Just how does this starfighter resemble a letter 'B'?

The A-, X- and Y- Wings I can see where they come from with it. But this... I just don't see where they get the B."

B is for blade wing fighter. They look like blades ??

Another fine example of how LEGO Star Wars design has improved over the years, second only to last week's RSOTD 7150 Sith Infiltrator. I think the control center and its printed transparent panel piece was more interesting than the fighter itself, but it was Star Wars so it was all good.

Am I the only person who thought it was weird that they came out with Biker Scout troop figures well before the standard Stormtroopers appeared?

Every time I have a chance to fill up a survey with TLG, I mention that I want to see a new B-Wing. I was still in my dark age when the previous one came out. As there seems to be some of them in Episode IX, my hopes are quite high.

Dude, this hits me right in the heart.

@Danno76, @NathanR2015

...well I feel dumb now xD Thanks for clearing that up, though!

I suppose I should have known the letter designations weren't supposed to be based on the shape of the ships; since the Star Wars galaxy doesn't use the Roman alphabet anyway, it wouldn't have made much sense in-universe to name the ships as such.

Though I now have to wonder: does that mean it was just coincidence that the X- Y- and A-Wing fighters *do* look like their respective Roman letters? Or were they named as such out-of-universe and it just stuck in-universe too?

@BionicleJedi The Roman alphabet does exist in the Star Wars universe so I'd say the X, Y and A-wing were definitely named after those because of their shape. The Roman alphabet is used in high level languages and a lot of products in that universe (such as droids and starfighters) are designated with the Roman letters, not Aurebesh, to come across as a bit more luxurious.

But that's just an in-universe explanation that came after all of the out-of-universe naming conventions of course.

@oldfan said:
"Am I the only person who thought it was weird that they came out with Biker Scout troop figures well before the standard Stormtroopers appeared?"

While I never thought about it much as a kid, it is surprising that the first Stormtrooper was never released until 2001 with the TIE Fighter, and even then, there was just the one while the Scouts came in pairs with 1999's Speederbikes. And with subsequent Tie Fighter models in mass production over the next few years, there were more pilots, too. 2002's Ewok Attack had another Scout and only one regular Stormtrooper. There was also Final Duel II, which came with an Officer and a Stormtrooper, but if you bought multiples of that, you would also have an army of Lukes. 2003 saw the introduction of Snowtroopers with the AT-AT and it came with two of them. Stormtroopers rarely came more than one in a set. There were the four special printed versions in 2005's Imperial Inspection, but that was $50 and if you had 2001's Imperial Shuttle, you didn't have much incentive to buy another unless you really wanted the figures, and 2006's Imperial Star Destroyer only came with two. The first time you could ever really acquire Stormtroopers in multiples within a smaller set would have been the 2008 Battlepack. It's interesting how regular Stormtroopers are so plentiful in the universe, but they are rather scarce in LEGO sets and are often outnumbered by variants.

@Oldfan I noticed it as a kid and thought it was weird. I remember asking my parents for a couple of the 2001 kits specifically because they had regular stormtroopers, not just biker scouts.

I have this one displayed with a good number of those original run Star Wars sets. They were/are blocky compared to recent iterations (if there are any), but being the first official Star Wars sets, I didn't care.

I should set up a second shelf with recent versions for comparisons.