I really like this UCS model. I'm disappointed that it can't be positioned at an angle, but I think it's a wonderful model. I wouldn't say it's too terribly accurate in some regards, but the ship looks hilariously odd in a few shots on Kamino in the film, so I think they took some liberties in making something a little more pleasing to the eye with the set.

Wow, prices on this have really gone up. I bought a used copy on Bricklink for $150 three(?) years ago ... now it's going for $300-$500 on eBay.

I never realised just how few pieces this set had. It cost a jaw-dropping $175 here in Australia, making it comfortably among the most overpriced sets ever released. Hell at least that Smaug set had a giant molded dragon to partly justify its outrageous price. What does this have? Nothing.

Why must you show me to what I can’t have!!!

For anyone who might complain about the price/part ratio take note that this set has a lot of medium to large size pieces. In the image used in this post I only see one 1x1 piece, a white cheese slope in front of the canopy.

I seriously would not have guessed this was old enough to be RSoTD.

Prequal UCS sets don't feel as epic as originals. That's just how I feel.

@phi13 said:
"I seriously would not have guessed this was old enough to be RSoTD."

You just missed a POTC and a Ninjago set, after the comment hoarde from Scalaville.

@MCLegoboy :
For as much as I like their overall designs, one thing that always bugged me about the prequel hero ships is how R2 _does_not_ fit inside any of them. For this and the Ep3 fighter, there’s not enough depth for his body compared to where his head appears. For the Naboo Starfighter it’s less of a geometric impossibility, but the only way his legs fit inside the N1 is if he quickly rotates 90° as soon as he disappears up inside the hull.

@guachi :
No, this is still gigantic by minifig scale, but the UCS N1 is pretty close to how big they’ve made some of the minifig versions.

@water_jedi_17 :
They only did four as it is. This, the tiny N1, the Darth Maul bust, and the Grievous statue. Maybe they really did just need to wait for the kids who grew up on the prequels to finish growing up and start earning disposable income.

The astromech in this set always freaked me out for some reason. Don't know if it's too large compared to the ship, or the printing is to high quality compared to a minifig, or if it's features aren't molded or what, but it frightens me

The model isn't bad, but the ship was a really boring choice for a UCS set. I hope the Republic Gunship will sell better than this one so we'll get more prequel-based UCS sets.

I love this ship, despite not being much of a prequel fan--something about that classic pie-wedge shape, and those two big engines. It's very sleek and swooshable.

But I was always disappointed in the UCS. I do own it, but of all the UCS I own it's my least favorite and I doubt I would have bought it if it weren't on pretty deep discount. I like it enough, but it's got some pretty glaring flaws. The underside is practically an afterthought. I would have loved to see landing gear and at least the bottom of the engines. And while the paint work accomplished in bricks was nice, there's a pretty nasty gap on either side of the nose. Honestly, the system version from 2002, 7143 is still in many ways better.

@bananaworld said:
"
@purpledave
This could just be my imagination, but I seem to remember seeing somewhere (Clone Wars? Incredible Cross-sections book?) the astromech's head detaching from the rest of its body when put into certain starfighters, leaving it free to pop up in an unlikely place.

It is entirely possible that I've just made that up."

I don't know about the lore, but remember sorting loose minifig parts when I came across the head from R4-G9. I spent the better part of several hours on Brickset, BrickOwl, and Bricklink trying to identify the astromech, and it never occurred to me they would make a set with a head-only astromech. It was not one of my finer moments.

Ditto R4-P17 as here and in 6205 and 7283 as well as R2-X2 in 75032 (which may or may not have also led to another exasperating search).

Regarding comments not selling well, there were far more popular, interesting and more playable sets like 8017 Slave I, 8129 AT-AT, 8098 clone tank to chose from first at a similar price range.

One of the sets I really regret selling! One of these days I'm going to have to buy it again...

This is one of the sets that got me into buying Lego to resell, before I found Bricklink. It was available for what seemed like months at ToysRus for £35 and I bought some everytime I went there. Still got a few in storage

I got this as my first SW UCS on resuming collecting Lego five years ago - as a lot have already said its not the most complicated build but its a nice ship and looks decent in the collection. I'd love them to do a bigger re-build with the modern pieces and techniques but it will never happen....still given I got this via BL for less than the RRP I can't complain.

It's so weird to see a UCS prequel set since I'm pretty sure this is the only one....

...Until the Republic Gunship hopefully soon

Wasn't this set reviewed fairly recently? I know it was a 'throwback' review, but still... seems strange to see it pop up as Random Set relatively soon after that xD

@PurpleDave said:
"It would be cool if it were possible to build the full droid like the GWP R2-D2 that was released years later, but it would pretty much require custom prints or stickers to get the color blocking correct on the body."
Technically, I think, that wouldn't have been accurate to the movie? I feel sure I read, maybe in the DK Essential Guide, that R4 was built into the starfighter in Attack of the Clones; she only got a full body when the Jedi switched out the Delta-7s for the Eta Interceptors of RotS.

...not that it did her much good, since she got brutally decapitated by a buzz droid in Revenge of the Sith. My favourite astromech droid, why? D:

I have this set, and love it, only gripe is the stickers are the old type material, so mine are peeling and cracking

A $99 UCS set...what a concept! I'd like to see more of this in the UCS line. Not everything has to be $199-299.

Edit: and I say this realizing 2010 $99 is the 2021 $129-149.

General Kenobi!
You are a bold one!

still a very respectable model, not a lot of older ucs sets stand the test of time, but the look of this one is still spot-on

I think an uncle of mine owns this, and I was quite amazed when I first saw it. It may not have aged well, but it certainly got me interested in ‘exclusive’ LEGO.

This was the first model that I got that was larger than minifig scale. I was 13 at the time and just started to appreciate the models themselves without the figures, though to this day I still prefer minifig scale sets. It was also my second UCS set, a few months after the Imperial Shuttle. Good times.