"I will let finger pain pass through me, where there is a sore thumb, only I will remain."

The Packaging

This set comes nicely packaged with just ten bags and no stickers. Thankfully the box is NOT branded "Space" like everything else coming out this year, it seems. This is not a kid's set, appropriately marked 18+ as it should be.

The large single instruction book contains some nice graphics from the movie and some limited information. The large blades and trans-black canopies are an early treat as you remove the contents. Speaking of contents, the copy I have was missing a wedge part, could be an early run error.

The Build

The building process is not for beginners, nor for the faint of heart, really. A number of pages have step illustrations placed too close to the spine of the book. Since I like preserving my books, opening the book wider was not a welcome necessity and keeping pages open was sometimes a challenge. The complexity of the build persists from beginning to end. It's sometimes difficult to imagine what it is your efforts are amounting to. A few instructional remarks along the way help provide some sense of what you're working on.

This gets us to the worst aspect to this set. There are a LOT of instances where one must push tiny axles into stacked axle holes in parts. Your fingers will suffer. The build also gets downright repetitive as one has to often replicate the steps over and over again to get the various sections of the blades done. There were moments I thought to continue the next day, but I pushed through.

Good thing, because there are many positive highlights in the build. The whole cockpit area and the landing gears are phenomenal and truly ingenious builds.

The Minifigures

Given that this is an adult-oriented, collector's item, you can imagine that the minifigures are going to be very nice. They are, though I was disappointed that The Baron Harkonnen only had the head printed. Really, the robe is entirely impractical. His inclusion is also perplexing. Lady Jessica is a highlight, everything about the design screams elegance. I did like the others, the stillsuits were well done, and most of them have dual printed heads, usually showcasing the stillsuit mask.

Finished Product

The finished product is worth all the pain. This is a very attractive, very large, and very swooshable model. The functions rival many Technic sets in complexity and precision (indeed the set includes a very large array of Technic parts).

I particularly could not believe how well the cockpit looks with minifigs inside, two fit comfortably, and seriously the landing gear are basically Lego magic. The blades folding function is terrific as well. The actual blade movement is limited, but it is fun and looks great while swooshing around. You bet I spent a good bit of time admiring as it zoomed around our dining room. The kiddos were not allowed to touch it.

The Value

Is this set worth the price? It would be amazing at a discount, even a small one. If you are a fan of the books or movies, you will be blown away by the end result. If you like complex builds or innovative spaceship designs, you will enjoy it.

There are some very nice parts here as well, though the colors are Star Wars bland. Large helicopters will be much easier to equip now. In the end, I suspect it's not terribly worthwhile at the price point to most Lego fans, and minifig hunters may be somewhat disappointed by the limited standout minifigs.

This set marks a sad occasion, probably the first time I just could not build the set according to the instructions. While building, I used my own pieces in another colour, mostly dark grey or black, so the model would not be an eye-sore.

I understand and support the desire of LEGO to make the building as easy and enjoyable as possible, but looking at a mismatched mess while building, mostly lime, white, tan, red, yellow, and the unnecessary blue, red, yellow and tan technic pieces gives me no joy.

I am not too sure about the minifigures. I like having some to pose in or around the model, but quite a few do not make sense to me given the context and/or clothing. I would have much rather had less, and separate diorama sets with the others. And it should have contained a stand for them.

I still love the model, and Mike Psiaki did an amazing on the functions. But I do wish LEGO finds a better way to balance ease of building with model aesthetics. I would appreciate introducing more muted colours for 'colour locked' elements, LEGO has proven they can with the recent BMW double-pack (which has light-gray, not tan, axle-pins), and defining a pleasant-to-look-at colour pallet for the 'internal' pieces of a model.

10327 is probably the most interesting build showcasing LEGO's designers' prowess. Fitting so much functionality in such a small form factor is an incredible feat. Contrary to earlier sets (8455, for instance, which is the only other set I have with lots of mechanical features, levers, etc.), some short text snippets inside the instructions give some insight about what to expect: When finished, turning this rocket step element will raise and lower the landing ramp and landing feet at the same time (page 63, step 88).

I am impressed by the novelty of the Technic-System combination: step 146 on page 101 (and step 153 on page 104) where the Technic 15M Beam with some 4.85 Bush Friction W/ Knob is slotted into 3.2 Shaft W/5.9 Ball held upright by Plate 1X2 Ball Cup / Friction End. I had no idea this was possible, nor sturdy enough!

I am however incredibly upset that we ended up with some rainbow-colored pieces left and right that can be seen everywhere on the completed model. I can understand that Beam 1X2X4, W/ Cross & Hole, No. 1 only exists in white, and was unavoidable in the landing gear, but we are adults and I would gladly have traded the ease of finding brightly colored pieces to get a finished set that didn't look like it was built from spare parts... The following pieces are even available right now, browsing LEGO's pick-a-brick:

• Ball With Friction Snap is available in black (6344752) instead of bright red (.11€x20) (on the wing deployment system)
• Technic Brick 1X1 is available in white (654101), medium stone grey (4211535), dark stone grey (4210639) and black (654126) instead of bright yellow (.07€x14) (tail reactors and cockpit)
• Cross Axle 3M is available in medium stone grey (4211815) instead of bright yellow (.05€x8) (wings)
• 2M Cross Axle W. Groove is available in black (4109810) instead of red (.07€x31): they even shipped some in the set!! (48 of them) (landing feet, wing flapping system)
• 3.2 Shaft W/5.9 Ball is available in dark stone grey (6364352) instead of orange (.08€x4) (wing deployment system)
• Cross Axle 6M is available in black (370626) instead of bright red (.12€x3) (landing gear).
• One of the bright yellowish green Plate 2x2 behind the cockpit is also visible and could have been replaced by a black one (302226) (.10€x1) (it even sits on one!)

If you want the set to look perfect, you should spend those 6.53€ extra to replace the pieces I wrote about. Maybe I'll do that myself when some other set I own has the same issue.