Random set of the day: Droid Tri-Fighter
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 8086 Droid Tri-Fighter, released in 2010. It's one of 29 Star Wars sets produced that year. It contains 268 pieces and 3 minifigs, and its retail price was US$24.99/£25.99.
It's owned by 9141 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
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21 comments on this article
It's kind of weird how this set doesn't come with buzz droids. It was Ahsoka's Starfighter with a Vulture Droid that did. It's the one thing this ship is really known for, not rocket droids. But speaking of those rocket droids, that was nice to get them. We now have Standard B-1s, Pilot, Security, Commander, Geonosian, Rocket, and Camouflage variants. All we're missing are the Firefighter Battle Droids, why did the Malevolence not include at least one?
This one as well as the 2014 version are just too big. The original 2005 set is still the best one.
Hey! This is one of the 410 sets I own!
@jalc_45 said:
" @MCLegoboy said:
"All we're missing are the Firefighter Battle Droids, why did the Malevolence not include at least one?"
Oh yeah, those were weird. Dark grey, red, yellow."
Um, I think you meant to say that they are the best. The very idea that there is a fire crew on every ship is absolutely ridiculous and stupid, but also completely logical and I love it, especially since they have a paintjob that resembles a firefighter suit, and even an extra bit of shell to the back of their heads to make for a helmet, and larger backpacks. It's utterly bombastic, and yet it's just the right level of camp that it works.
This was released at the time I started watching The Clone Wars (in my primary school days), and I remember really wanting this. I never did sadly.
I have this set, having seen the a friend's 7252 I don't think I noticed that this one was that much bigger, though. Having looked at the 2005 one, it definitely looks more accurately scaled. Also, for some reason the 2005 version has a spider alt-model; did TLG normally do alternative model suggestions for the early Star Wars sets?
You know that feeling, when you check the RSotD, and it's a set that you own, and you feel like you're special, and that Huwbot chose YOU?
I got this one as a gift. It’s a cool build, but did anyone ever really want to play as some Separatist battle droids? Didn’t do much for me as a standalone set.
One of my favorite Starfighter designs for sure.
Anybody else have the stickers on this particular set completely crumble into dust? A lot of sets around this era just seem to have stickers than are prone to being thanos snapped
Funny how this was actually my first LEGO set I ever got, yet I'm not really a big LEGO Star Wars fan nowdays. But as much as I don't really care about LEGO Star Wars, I have to say, this is still a pretty solid set, and one of the better starfighter designs for sure. I'd rather have this over another generic repetitive X-wing any day.
@Graupensuppe said:
"This one as well as the 2014 version are just too big. The original 2005 set is still the best one."
See out of this and the 2005 version (I don’t have the 2014 version to compare) I think I prefer this one. The bigger, chunkier look gives it a bit more of a battle ready appearance, like it’s a bit space-bourne tank ready to zoom into battle. The 2005 version felt like it was the sports car version
The stickers have started to dry and peel off a few years ago, slowly but surely. I have ordered a new sticker sheet on Bricklink and will have to change them soon.
@Graupensuppe said:
"This one as well as the 2014 version are just too big. The original 2005 set is still the best one."
I agree. It’s so much meaner too.
@MCLegoboy said:
"It's kind of weird how this set doesn't come with buzz droids. It was Ahsoka's Starfighter with a Vulture Droid that did. It's the one thing this ship is really known for, not rocket droids. "
In the movie (ep III - revenge of the sith), it was actually a vulture droid that shoot the missle with the Buzz droids. The tri droids didn't make a lot appearances.
Haven’t seen a Star Wars RSOTD since joining back in early October. :)
@MCLegoboy said:
"Um, I think you meant to say that they are the best. The very idea that there is a fire crew on every ship is absolutely ridiculous and stupid, but also completely logical and I love it, especially since they have a paintjob that resembles a firefighter suit, and even an extra bit of shell to the back of their heads to make for a helmet, and larger backpacks. It's utterly bombastic, and yet it's just the right level of camp that it works."
Real-life warships have damage control teams as part of their crews. Every crew member is trained in damage control to some degree, but any decently-sized ship will have specialists as well. The main concerns are always fire and flooding.
Now, in Star Wars, we can replace flooding with hull breaches, but on a Separatist ship that wouldn't be so much of a problem. 90% of their crews are droids and only the bridge officers are organic. Makes a lot of sense then that they'd focus on firefighting, especially when you can just switch off your fire crew and store them in a closet until they're needed.
Interesting model, although the picture makes it appear to only have 2 sides rather than 3. Very similar to the 75044 version in 2014 suggesting they found it difficult to improve on.
@Spartan_Ghost said:
" @blueshift said:
"for some reason the 2005 version has a spider alt-model; did TLG normally do alternative model suggestions for the early Star Wars sets?"
Long story short, yes. Short story slightly longer, it was common practice for Lego to include alternate building ideas, either on the box, or in the manual. I think this lasted ‘til about 2006-2008, but don’t quote me on that."
I think the Revenge of the Sith wave was the last lot of Star Wars sets to have alternate model suggestions? I know they were a big part of the original wave of sets - large enough models, e.g. 7171 Mos Espa Podrace, had a whole comic strip in the back of the instruction manuals showing the main model getting blown apart and the characters rebuilding it into increasingly bizarre contraptions, all of which were accompanied by a picture of what the model would look like built out of the actual bricks. Later sets just showed a handful of alternate build ideas on the box; by the time of the RotS wave, they were just small inset images on the back, and that was all.
By 2006 they were gone from Star Wars sets - I had both Slave I and Jabba's Sail Barge from that year, and alt model ideas were conspicuously absent -, and all the box imagery emphasised the set's functionality instead. Apparently, the practice was stopped due to complaints from parents that their children couldn't build the alternate models because instructions weren't provided for them.
Which I kinda understand? Because I always wanted to build one of the alternate models from 7257 Ultimate Lightsaber Duel but could never figure out how it worked since the picture was too small to see the details. Although I also understand that the point of them was more to inspire imagination than to replicate the alternate build exactly, so I kinda miss seeing them? They were always cool to me.
The set itself... I don't have much to say about, honestly. I do like the yellow Commander markings on the first battle droid, though ^^
This thing was a huge shelfwarmer back in the day. The LSW markup wasn't helping.
@Graupensuppe:
@bric_2roc:
@blueshift:
@Brickalili:
The original tri-fighter was probably the most accurate in terms of the total size of the vessel compared to the diameter of the center sphere. It has two problems, though. One is that the wings ended up so thick compared to their height that they probably have a square cross-section. The other is that there's a lot of empty space around the pod. With this version, the wings grew two studs, but only on the outside edge. The result is that the overall size grew four studs in diameter.
The 2014 version...I'm not sure what's going on there. It looks like they took the wings from the 2010 version and moved them out at least one more stud, increasing the gap from the 2005 version. And added a chunky box behind the pod that doesn't look like it was designed to resemble anything. It's like they realized there was way too much space around the pod, but were just shy of hitting their parts budget.
@blueshift:
For years, it was standard that any set above a certain size would come with inspirational alternate builds pictured on the box or instruction book, but it was very rare that they would include instructions for how to build them. From the SW line, I think only the Technic sets did this, though I remember wanting instructions for how to build Vader's lightsaber hilt as it was pictured on the box from one of the 1999 sets. The likely reason that they stopped doing this is that I imagine they got a ton of calls from parents wanting to get "replacement" copies of the instructions to build those sets, or complaining that they never published them.
One recent set that did include a true "alternate build", in this sense, was the 3-in-1 Deep Sea Creatures. 31088 comes with instructions to build a shark, an anglerfish, and a squid, but there's a fourth build of a sperm whale that can only be found online. So all you get in the set is a picture of the whale.