This is my first Star Wars Lego set. I have always considered myself aligned to non-themed sets and have never really considered the Star Wars Lego line. That being said, I have always liked the look of the large UCS Star Wars sets for their accuracy.

There have been several of these sets marked down 30% for a while at my local toy store and this was one of the UCS Star Wars sets that I have wanted.

This set represents a nostalgic journey with both Lego and the release of the 1st Star Wars movie before it was relabeled Episode IV, A New Hope.

There are several reasons why you should include this set in your inventory.

Box/Instructions

Red Five is the call-sign for the X-Wing fighter that Luke Skywalker flew when attacking the Death Star during the Battle of Yavin. Skywalker was able to successfully fire a proton torpedo into an exhaust port in a trench of the Death Star in the third attack run of the battle.

The box includes photos from the movie showing the Death Star, the attack run in the trench being chased by two TIE Interceptors and Darth Vader in his TIE/X1, the proton torpedo entering the exhaust port and finally the explosion of the Death Star.

There are three instruction books with ten separate building stages. The books come in a bag with the sticker sheets protected by a cardboard insert.

Parts

The parts are arranged in 11 numbered bags matched to the ten building stages, step four has two bags.

There is an amazing array of special parts. No matter where your Lego interest lies, this set will include a selection of parts to compliment your inventory.

• There is a good range on sand coloured parts.
• There is a good range of angled plates.
• There is all sorts of SNOT parts.
• If you are wanting to compliment your Technic models, you will find lots of sheaves and wheels to make better crane purchases or Technic models.
• If you are waiting for the release of the Lego Ideas Exo-Suit, there are lots of parts to compliment Exo-Suit MOCs.
• If you are waiting for the release of the Ideas Research Institute, there are the parts to make a Cassegrain reflector telescope on an equatorial tripod mount or other similar institute equipment.

After making this set however, you will probably keep it on display as it is that good.

The X-Wing function is enabled through the use of Technic Angular Wheels and Shock Absorbers. The wings open and close smoothly.

Included in the set is an orange Brick Separator. I cannot overstate how useful these tools are. Gone are the days of using finger nails or teeth to separate stuck parts. This part is fantastically versatile.

Minifigures

The glaring omission in this set is the absence of a Luke Skywalker minifigure. Given the size and complexity of this build, and the role this X-Wing fighter with Skywalker as pilot played in the whole Star Wars plot, it would have been nice to have a Skywalker minifigure as pilot.

I purchased this set knowing that this minfigure was absent and plan to buy set 75032 to obtain the minifigure to complete this set. I do think however, that the Skywalker minifigure should have been a standard inclusion.

There is an R2D2 astromech droid stalwartly supporting an absent pilot.

The build

The build is complex but the instructions guide you well. There are several places where two or four instances of a component is constructed but as the parts are well segregated in the numbered bags it is very easy to separate the parts into two or four piles and make multiple instances as you go.

For me, Lego has transformed from 3D buildings starting from a 2D plan being built vertically up from a base plate into very multidimensional SNOT modeling.

This build has cemented my understanding of the modern methods used by Lego designers in modeling multidimensional sets. It has been a transforming journey.

The completed model ...

Looks great on it's display stand.

It comes with a sturdy display stand including an X-Wing design information plate.

The toy store gave away a 2.0m x 0.6m cloth banner depicting a Lego Star Wars scene from the Clone Wars set, the Geonosian Cannon.

Overall opinion

For a range of reasons, you need to get this set. As a stand alone UCS Star Wars set, this is one of the iconic sets you should aim to acquire; Han Solo's Millennium Falcon and Darth Vader's TIE/X1 being the others. All these star fighters were involved in the Battle of Yavin.

If you are wanting special parts then there are plenty included in this set.

I suspect though, that you will want to keep this model made up on display so you probably want to purchase two models.

Design
It's very big. Structurally, it is strong enough to play with carefully (you can even hold it in one hand), but you are likely to smash into a lamp or a wall or something if you really try to play-simulate flying (I'm projecting what a kid would probably do...).

WHY no landing gear? I'm tempted to create something for that purpose. They managed to fit the front gear onto the smaller, previous X-Wing model, so I'm not sure why they couldn't do that for this one.

I really like the way they did the following:

• The X-Wing configuration mechanism uses springs (shock absorbers) to hold the wings together, and then a rotating "plate" pushes them apart when you want them apart. This drastically reduces the potential fragility of the design. Diagonally-opposing wings are connected, so there is an automatic balance that eliminates the need for strong positional hinges and such.
• The cockpit is very clever. From the seat, to the joystick, to the targeting computer, very nicely designed.
• The engines practically look like they are parts from a normal plastic toy, rather than being made from Lego parts. I especially like the use of the hinge plates at the exhaust.
• The slight diagonal on the sides was nicely done using standard parts mounted on a diagonal, rather than parts with a built-in diagonal mounted squarely. Works very well. Also necessitates the use of a lot of flat pieces, and creates a structural clamshell with a top and bottom half. But it's still strong enough so kudos.
  
• The differing angles on the fuselage near the wings are true to the original movie, giving it the quintessential asymmetric hexagon look.
  

Hi guys,
my revision will cover the approach how to apply the canopy sticker on a professional level only. I'm dealing with self adhesive foils for years so here are my hints how to apply the sticker to look very well.

The trick used is named TRANSFER FOIL. This special self adhesive foil is used to transfer (usually) letters cut-out and by cutting plotter from background paper to desired location. If you work with some regular shapes like rectangles or circles, transfer foil is not needed, but if you have something like text - i.e. irregular shapes spread over your background paper the only way how to place them well is using transfer foil.

What you'll need:
- piece of transfer foil (for this set is enough approximately 10 x 15 cm), slighty bigger than canopy sticker dimensions
- scissors
- sharp blade (razor blade)
- and of course your skilled fingers :)

Now how to do it in a few steps:
- first separate elementary parts of the sticker according to LEGO instructions, you should have two triangle shaped sides, one back a and one big front piece. But DO NOT cut the pieces precisely around their shape, and leave some blank around it!
- separate the outside unnecessary leftovers of transparent foil out of each part of the sticker.
- then cut out of each piece "unwanted" inside transparent part representing the "glass" than would look ugly after applying. At this step you MUST cut it precisely without any inaccuracy, otherwise your model will look bad. Be careful when cutting and try to cut only the sticker but not the background paper.
- now prepare appropriate piece of transfer foil - the rectangle of it about 1 cm bigger at each side than your sticker, i.e. if the back sticker is about 1 x 4 cm, the transfer foil will be 3 x 6 cm
- separate the transfer foil out of its background paper and stick it over the prepared piece of the sticker
- flatten the transfer foil over the sticker from the center to outside like if you make circles or spiral or star to avoid bubbles
- now try to remove the transfer foil from out of the sticker backgroud paper. As this foils bonds more than sticker bonds to the back paper transfer foils hould keep the sticker
- apply the sticker to the canopy as accurate as you can and flatten the sticker together with transfer foil with circle, spiral or star strokes again (to avoid bublles). Don't forget you have only one chance to stick! And avoid any dust or dirt that would degrade your work!
- once applied, remove carefully the transfer foil off the canopy with applied sticker and repeat the steps to apply the rest of stickers

Transfer foils can be bougt ususlly at local dealers of professional self adhesive films. Try to google one that is closest to your location.

And do not forget elementary points! Transfer foil must bond more than sticker bonds to backgroud paper, but must bond less than sticker then bonds to the background (i.e. canopy) and you should work in a clean place.

Hapy transferring!

Hawran

This is my first review of any set, but i feel like its an important one because if youre an afol like me youre going to research the heck out of a set like this till your eyes bleed. Let me start by saying that this is my first ucs (ultimate collectors set ) and it was a great first ucs set to begin with i feel.

Box/Instructions

the box is as you'd expect, large and awesome artwork on it. The instructions are split into three awkward books. I really wish they had made one nice booklet like the delorean. But understand that its a large set and one book would be too much. Personal preference i suppose.

Parts

Not a whole lot of unique pieces. But the beauty of this build is that its not repetitive at all. The wings are detailed enough to make building them not so monotonous. But as we'd all guess the new sets are in numbered bags. It makes the build go faster. But i like the challenge of separating and organizing. Again just preference.

Minifigures

No mini figs except r2. Totally disappointing. But if you buy this set my guess is that you have an extra rebel pilot. Stick that bad boy in there. If you dont just grab the new micro fighter for ten bucks and grab that awesome mini fig and stick it in the cockpit.

The build

This build took about 6 hours. Its a hefty hefty build. You need a big table( which i did NOT have uhhh) or else the pieces start to overwhelm you. But the bag system eliminates pieces everywhere. It is absolutely attention to detail. You goof off once youll pay for it later. I made two mistakes and it took me about half hour to rectify them. Lots of stickers in this set which is why i havent given it solid 5 overall. The cockpit stickers are going to make you want to ritually commit suicide with your lightsaber. So so so hard. But i guess its legos way of saying this is an adult build deal with it. The other stickers arent too bad. But do not let this one small fact deter you from getting it. Still is so awesomely satisfying when you do it right.

The completed model

This is a big boy. Its About 5 pounds (which doesnt sound like a lot but it is) and sits nicely on the shelf no problems. It looks amazing next to the smaller versions. Really a solid model. No zoom factor in this toy unfortunately. But again dont let me stop you from taking it and zooming around with it. Cool use of colors and can open and close wings.

Overall opinion

I love star wars. You love star wars. The x wing is ICONIC. This is a must have for any afol. Its a fun build. Its beautiful to display. It is a great display piece. A little pricey but for a ucs its awesome. Do it. Do, or do not. There is no try.

I have recently completed building this set, and overall I think this a very good UCS set, which gives a very good representation of the X wing from the films. I don't own the original UCS Xwing so won't compare the two. The size of the model is just right imo, and can be positioned either side on as in the image above, or face onto the plaque. The designers didn't incorporate landing gear into the design which I think lets it down a bit. The cockpit is very detailed, and the technique to open and close the wings is very good. The set includes an R2D2 minifig. It is not in proportion to have included a Luke mini fig, so I don't mind that its not included, although it would have been nice for an exclusive minifig Luke to have been included anyway.

Another thing to mention is stickers. I don't normally mind stickers, I think they add another dimension and challenge to a build. There are several in this set, including 4 tricky stickers that have to be applied around the cockpit canopy. Lego obviously realized that these were difficult to apply as they included a spare set. At this price a printed canopy would have been nice, something they included in later versions of the UCS Y Wing I believe. The other thing to note is I had a missing or incorrect piece. I had a 3x3 light blueish grey plate instead of a 2x3 one. Its worth mentioning that I had another missing or incorrect piece in the SSD I have just built. I've never experienced missing pieces in new sets before, and here's two in a row, I wonder if there has been a dip in Lego quality control. (The SSD also had one light blueish grey plate a slightly different shade to all the rest). This all sounds rather negative, but didn't really detract from another wise enjoyable build.

The ship is actually quite "swooshable" and is a nice size and weight for an older child to play with, (to heavy for younger hands) but I imagine like mine, most of these will be display models only, a role they do rather well.

Overall a must buy for the collector, and a great lego set.