Intro

This is one of those LEGO sets that really isn't done any favours by the choice of box art. For years, I had seen this set as the ancient, clunky ancestor to newer, sleeker versions of the Delta 7 star fighter and as such never really considered it worth getting. The choice of the box artists to feature the model with its 'wings' perfectly horizontal rather than angled downwards was always what pushed me away from it. That was until I found the set for a surprisingly incredible price used on eBay and bought the set on a whim — after building it my opinion of the set completely reversed.

Parts

There's really nothing all too interesting here other than the large selection of really nice printed pieces that really add to the set. The set is mostly dark red and white with a smattering of lime green, so there is mostly no colour discrepancy with newer pieces.

Build

The build goes together extremely quickly, but the simplicity of the build is quite charming. A few aspects of the build definitely date it, with some strange choices such as putting the engine exhausts on the landing gear, but these things all add to the charm of buying such an old set.

Minifigs

There is only 1 minifig included, or 1.5 to be more specific. The Obi-Wan minifig looks great, I almost miss the yellow toned Star Wars figs. I especially like his hair piece representing Obi-Wan's luscious hair as seen in Attack of the Clones. The head piece for R4-P17 looks great as well, and although it would have been nice to get a body and legs for them as well, it is canonically accurate to just include the head.

Finished Model

The set looks much better in person than I was expecting based on the box art alone. Whereas I had initially assumed that the set entirely lacked the ability to angle the wings, this is in fact false, although they definitely don't angle as much as later models. As such the model actually looks quite sleek in person, in many ways even more so than later sets since it doesn't have the awkwardly high cockpit that has plagued Jedi star fighter sets since Saesee Tiin's star fighter from 2012. The printed pieces really elevate the set in my opinion, although I don't personally mind stickers all that much. Finally, the colour scheme of the ship is just very pleasing and makes a nice splash of colour in a mostly grey theme of sets.

Value

I can't really comment on the original value of this set since I bought it so much later, but I can say the set is larger than I expected considering the part count.

Final Thoughts

Overall this set vastly exceeded my expectations. Its definitely dated, and newer versions of the ship are probably more accurate to the 'real' thing, but I think that, at least for now, this is my favourite version of the Delta 7 Interceptor LEGO have produced.

This set was the original Jedi Starfighter, however has a very different design to the others, using older hinges and the older grey colours which were discontinued around 2004. The angle of the wings is flatter however I think that this provides the ship with a more sleak look, which the newest version released recently fails dramatically at this with it's higher cockpit. I would say that this is one of the greatest downgrades of ships, giving the mtt a run for it's money. This is by all means at least partly due to the high quality and interesting build if the set which even on repeat buildings, the hallmark of a great set.

The ship is very light and can be picked up from almost any angle, especially in the centre due to it's durability which is definitely due to the simplicity and large pieces, which I think is acceptable as it has a lower price point than any other Jedi Starfighter. On the second hand market, the ship has a surprisingly unchanged and is somewhat easy to find on eBay, bricklink etc.

This is an Episode 2 set and it´s about the part of the movie where Obi-Wan flies to Kamino with the red Jedi Starfighter.

Parts

- Mostly red and white

- Basic, not a lot exclusive parts (but it contains R4´s headpiece)

Minifigures

- Obi-Wan Kenobi: He is a good, old-stylish minifigure with yellow face.

The completed model

It breaks quite easily but is good for display. A little bit bigger than many of the Jedi Starfighters.

Overall opinion

It´s a good set for Episode 2 collectors.

If there is one year in which Lego produced some of it's best Star Wars models, 2002 would be in the running as a major contender. Something happened to Lego in the early part of 2002 that is a little hard to put a finger on. It seems that Lego took a new direction with the design of it's sets. They started to look more accurate than before; Less like a collection of bricks, more like a scale model.
It's as if Lego made a decision to stop designing ships and vehicles around the brick, but to start designing the brick around the ships and vehicles.
As a result 2002 saw the introduction of a lot of newly shaped bricks and elements, along with some great new colours that tied in with the Star Wars universe.
The first sets to benefit from Lego's change in direction were the brand new models released to tie in with the new Star Wars movie that year; Attack Of The Clones.
The Jedi Starfighter is one of those sets. It's one of the smaller sets released that year, containing 139 pieces all told, and not a challenge to assemble for any builder.
Don't be put off by that, as the Jedi Starfighter is still a good build that includes some simple technical aspects, moving parts, and surprising building methods.

Construction starts with the underside of the craft, starting at the rear, assembling thrusters and landing gear, before moving forward to assemble the front landing gear.
The front and rear landing gear use click hinges in their assembly, making them retractable so they are able to be tucked away when the ship is in flight. This neat way of mounting the landing gear would later appear on other ships such as the revised model of the famous X-Wing released in 2004.
The lower portions of the craft contains a lot of grey bricks with one bright blue 2 x 8 brick hidden neatly in the middle of it all. The blue brick adds support and keeps the front and rear halves of the lower fuselage together.

The middle section of the build lays on many plates, tiles, bricks and hinged flaps, and to be honest, it all looks a bit of a bulky mess. It's hard to imagine anything as streamlined as a Jedi Starfighter could come from this apparent junk pile.
After this stage, where it all looks like it's gone terribly wrong, you begin construction of the delta wings. This is where the build starts to look like something intelligible again. The wings sit on top of the aforementioned hinged flaps and thankfully manage to hide a lot of the mess formed in the earlier part of the building process. The hinged flaps are only there to let the wings drop into their proper place, therefore they cannot be moved into another position once properly assembled.
Surface detail on the wings is good with directional cannons mounted on click hinges, and movable air/speed/brake flaps, similar to those found on a Snowspeeder.
The left wing contains a round tile printed with a Republic emblem (no sticker), whilst in the same place on the opposite wing, an R4 droid's domed head is placed. Like it's on screen counterpart, the droid stays put within the wing of the craft so no droid body or legs are provided with this set.

Construction moves on to the rest of the upper portion of the craft, beginning with the sleek and slim nose. The nose slides into place quite neatly at the front of the junk pile, between the two wings. The nose uses a lot of white parts and surface detail is non existent. Instead, tiles are used to give the nose a very smooth and polished look, hiding the typical Lego studs beneath.
Jumping to the rear of the craft and it's here we are met with some new brick designs and a very interesting new colour. Lime Green! It took me a while to become accustomed to this colour, especially since it was placed alongside bright white and two shades of red. And since this kit was released before the movie, it seemed like a mistake on Lego's part to include such a weird and vibrant colour.
I'm used to it now, and if I'm really honest about it, any Jedi Starfighter that isn't decked out in traditional Republic colours looks odd to me.
The rear of the craft is finished off with a tail. The tail is printed on both sides and simply clips into place, but not before the middle section of the craft is dealt with.
Using two large, printed, curved slopes, the middle section of the craft is mated up to the nose, and that junk pile underneath is finally covered up for good.
More printed sloped pieces are arranged to form a cockpit, along with a neat transparent canopy. A printed tile placed in front of the pilot forms a control panel.
The pilot happens to be Obi Wan Kenobi, found here wearing a microphone headset and sporting a long, dark orange hair piece. He's not the most spectacular minifigure to have ever come out of the Lego factory, but he is only found designed like this in this kit. Later renditions lose the long hair piece or Headset.

If anything, this set proves what Lego can do with a very low number of bricks, especially when some of those bricks happen to be new pieces that have never been seen before, let alone used so effectively. The new bricks help give a a realistic silhouette to the Jedi Starfighter, mimicking it's smooth lines and streamlined profile, and giving fans a taste of things to come, as the new design trend of making bricks to fit the ship has continued to this day.

if you compare this set and the other two jedi starfighters (the 2008 and 2009 ones) you will find that this jedi starfighter is bigger than the others

figure
pros: can only be found in this set
cons: none

ship
pros: flaps on the wings open, has landing gear
cons: cockpit is not 100% airtight, cockpit cannot open

pieces
pros: flap piece at the back of the ship, binoculars
cons: none

build
pros: easy, strong
cons: none

price
pros: worth it
cons: none

I recommend this set to any starwars fan
I hope you found my review helpful