This might have been my first Lego set ever. Or my second.

Sure Lego has done a lot of better looking X-Wings since, but this one is still very special to me... it was the first and has a lot of sentimental value.

I actually had this one, might be the first licensed set I ever own. I always used to imagine that the generic mechanic dude got warped out of LEGO City into the Star Wars universe lol.

One of the First SW sets I purchased. Perfect example of a LEGO version of a SW ship before LEGO had to try to get more 'realistic' with their SW sets. Great set.

I admit I kept this one for nostalgia. The first official Lego X-Wing is pretty cool. There's something special about this one even though I have the Red 5 UCS as well as the recent minifig scale. This was back when SW figs were yellow!

I think a friend of mine in my primary school days had this. I think his dad brought it when the Star Wars sets were first released and I noticed the instructions when I came over one time.

Anyway, out of the generally ugly sets of the first few years (I’m looking at you 2000 Millennium Falcon) This didn’t come out too bad. And it was the only way to get Biggs Darklighter for 19 years. I should try and find this.

There it is, boys.

I got this set as a Christmas present from my sister's parents-in-law. It was right before I entered my Dark Age, but delayed it by a bit.

@TeriXeri said:
"Also still much better compared to the 4+ version from 2019."
Certainly a 7+ (i.e. for more advanced builders, not juniorized) model from the turn of the millennium would be better than a 4+ model now with a much more simplistic build... a bit of an apples-to-oranges comparison there, even if they're similar in size with the OG being somewhat longer.

This is one of the sets that brought me out of my dark age as my sons were getting old enough to play with LEGO (around 2010). We found it in a mixed bin of LEGO pieces at our local thrift store (along with most of two 7146 TIE Fighters). Looking for instructions online led to me finding Brickset and lots of other online resources. Neat set.

Yeah Baby! Release day purchase! Still have it built. No rubber bands on this one...

Back when I was in elementary school, we were showing off our Star Wars Minifigures and one day I came in with the Rebel Technician and nobody wanted to believe me at first, that this was indeed a Star Wars figure.

You look at some first tries at Star Wars, like the Slave 1 and the Sith Infiltrator, and they're clearly struggling a bit to get the look of them down. This one though? This is still a pretty sweet looking X-Wing

@peterlmorris said:

"It hit two nostalgia buttons simultaneously and with an irresistible force, and it was beautiful".

The force is strong with this one!

Considering the available parts inventory at the time, this is an amazing rendition that still holds up pretty well.

You know it's an old set when franchised minifigs are yellow.

Interesting even though the bricks were less specialized then, it did not stop them bringing out the fantastic UPS 7191 a year later, and then this same model again as 7142. This set has some really unusual back of the box alternative builds https://www.backoftheboxbuilds.com/category/star-wars/star-wars-back-of-the-box-builds/ , although it did inspire you to try your own alternatives or combine with other sets to make larger spacecrafts which is not so easy today.

@peterlmorris said:
"This is the set.

This is how I got back into LEGO. I was in a Toys R Us in the fall of 1999 looking for something for my nephew and I thought, “I wonder what LEGO is doing these days.”

And I saw that X-Wing and I think I said it out loud, “What?!? LEGO and Star Wars together? I HAVE to buy this!”

I was 23 at the time. I think it was special to be at the right age like that. Sure to modern eyes it might look silly or clunky, but at that moment it was perfect. It did everything it needed to do. It hit two nostalgia buttons simultaneously and with an irresistible force, and it was beautiful.

I wouldn’t trade my copy for the world. "

Same experience for me but it was in 1993 with 6286 The Skull's Eye Schooner.
Loved your trip down memory lane, and the similarity with my own.

Anyone else have issues with the the stacks of 2x2 cylinder bricks (end of the engine) coming off too easily during "flight"? When I was 10 or so I slid some red 7x stud long technic axles through them that extended a little into the main engine piece, and that seemed to brace them well. The red didn't stand out when it was in the trans orange piece on the end.

I echo many of the sentiments above. The set that jump-started my LEGO hobby after years in the dark for me.

It's going to be pretty cool seeing all the original Star Wars sets pop up as RSOTD over the next few years. I pretty much stopped buying LEGO Star Wars sets in the past year or so, but these early models will always have a place on my shelves.

It is a dream which became reality. After so many years building SW ships from space sets finally we got a real Lego X-Wing Fighter. It was Lego's best move back in those years.

People who started building and collecting Lego after 2005 don't realize how groundbreaking this design was at the time. I still love it.

Nice one!
Once upon a very long time ago I came to one of scant ('90 in Russia were exceptionally rough time) toy-shops in my city and hold in hands this very same set.
Alas. could not afford youself to buy it...
These old sets from '90 have special charm and spirit, eh?

Fun fact: many don't know the reason for the forward hatch. I believe I've even seen MandR wonder about this. It's to store the forward landing gear when in flight.

So much nostalgia for everything about this set - the ship, the figures, the box art. I was 10 years old. I was watching the original trilogy on old VHS tape recordings of TV broadcasts. Then Phantom Menace came out, the first Star Wars I’d have a chance to see in theaters. Really felt like the first step into a larger world. The first wave of Lego Star Wars perfectly coincided with that, and it played a big role in fostering a love of the franchise that would last for nearly 20 years. This set, Speeder Bikes and the original Snowspeeder laid the foundation for me. I’d always enjoyed the Star Wars movies, but creating my own adventures with Lego got me into exploring the expanded universe.

This set woke me from my dark ages.

I can't remember if this is the first LSW set I ever built or not. I know I bought all five of the initial OT sets (Landspeeder, Speeder Bikes, Snowspeeder, X-Wing, Y/TIE) at the same time, and I may have built them from smallest to biggest. But the X-Wing and Speeder Bikes were the two I was most excited about, and the Millennium Falcon (bought the first copy in town) and Slave I that came out the next year pretty much wiped out my most wanted list.

I love this set so much. Oddly, I kept putting off getting it until after Christmas in 1999! My May "good grades" gift ended up being the Episode I Racer game for PC, and my birthday in October netted me the Mos Espa Podrace set. The OT definitely took a backseat to The Phantom Menace that year for 10-going-on-11 year-old me.

Once I had the X-Wing Fighter, however, we were inseparable. The Naboo Fighter set became its wingmate, and I had many fun dogfights in my room between the two ships. Luke having a lightsaber definitely gave him an advantage!

By early 2002, this set was still a highlight in my collection. I had just gotten the Jedi Starfighter, though, and the luster was starting to come off. I spruced up the X-Wing by replacing all the red pieces with black ones, making it "Black Five" and even giving it a custom pilot with a head from one of my precious "Ninja" minifigures and swapping out the lightsaber for a katana. Now it was ready to give Obi-Wan a run for his credits!

By late 2003, I could tell things with Star Wars were about to change. The first wave of remakes were on the horizon, and while some I welcomed earnestly (Helloooo new-and-improved Millennium Falcon), the new X-Wing with Yoda's Hut gave me great consternation. First of all, from the box image, it looked gangly and ridiculous. White instead of gray??? Seaweed pieces stuck on? It even looked kind of fat behind the cockpit. The original X-wing seemed so sleek by comparison!

The comparison was made more stark when I suddenly received the new X-Wing as an afterthought Christmas gift from my uncle in 2003. To be a good sport, I built it, and to be honest, I actually really liked it. The weird coloring and "fatness" of the set was offset by the retractable landing foot and mechanically-operated wing opening function. Plus, Yoda's hut was actually a cool little building with neat accessories and the seaweed on the X-Wing was removable. In person, the set was far, far better than I expected. So now I had a difficult choice to make.

The original X-wing was dismantled and placed back in the box I got it in. But it was lovingly done, like burying a long-lived pet. I know I'm pretty harsh nowadays with how primitive the early Star Wars sets were, but the X-wing will be the one I will always give a pass to. It captured a simple-looking starfighter so well that LEGO's only chance to improve it was just to make it bigger, and that's pretty much what they've done ever since. Bulk it up and decorate it more extensively, add more minifigures, put it in a new box, and call it a day. None have the cool comics in the back of the instructions for building alternate models. None feature the screenshots from the OT as you build. None quite give the same grimy color aesthetic that only old gray bricks (pre-2004) can accomplish. In a decade rife with fascinating and fun LEGO spaceship designs, somehow they saved the best for last in 1999 with 7140.

My white whale :)
Might not be as detailed as newer sets, but this one is special, a true classic

my first Star Wars set, a little blocky but the foundation for a "have them all" Star Wars minifig collection :)

This was one I missed out on when it first came out, but I eventually got one in a used lot in 2010.

But a couple years before that, my brother made a custom Blacktron 2 one for me as a Christmas gift, and that still sits proudly upon my shelf.

I have this one! It was what I wanted most, that Christmas.