Fabulous Set for Collectors and General Star Wars Fans
The Jedi Defender-class Cruiser was originally created for the online video game Star Wars The Old Republic as the principle vehicle for the Jedi Knight/Consular character. Lego has done a great job of taking the design and making it into a set that all can enjoy even if they are unfamiliar with the video game.
Pros
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Minifigures: The minifigs in this set are fantastic, and three are exclusive only to the Defender. As with the Defender itself, Lego did a great job replicating the characters from the game. Oddly enough they are given generic labels even though two of them are certainly specific people from the Old Republic game. The Jedi Knight (Kao Cen Darach) is a Zabrak and comes with a special piece for his head to create a circle of horns. His green and brown armor is entirely unique.The Jedi Consular does appear to be a generic minifig but Lego didn't make her uninteresting. The Consular's tattooed green head marks her as a Mirialan, and her white head piece and armor are great replicas of the fancier consular gear in the video game. The Consular also carries a green double-bladed lightsaber which is pretty neat. The Sith Warrior (Darth Marr) has very detailed gray, red, and silver armor and a red hood. His head is gray and the face is printed to look like a mask to match the body armor. He also comes with two black handled lightsabers. The last minifig is a Sith Trooper, which is a human with black body armor, helmet, and blaster. The Sith Trooper also comes in two other Star Wars Old Republic Lego sets.
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Overall Design: The Defender is both good looking and sturdy (with a few exceptions). The chassis mostly consists of technic pieces, which makes the build more interesting and a bit more difficult (but not extremely hard). The exterior design is really nice, and even though the ship is primarily red and gray it's still appealing.
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Landing Gear: The four landing gear pieces do fold up, although not entirely into the ship, and solidly support the Defender when resting.
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Carrying Handle: A folding handle sits just behind the cockpit on the top of the Defender, making it very easy to carry the entire ship. The handle is integrated into the chassis and is super tough. I’ve never had the feeling that the handle would break lose while even supporting the ship’s entire weight for an extended time.
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Escape Pods: The two detachable escape pods on either side easily hold a minifig and a blaster or lightsaber. A small computer and large seat give the inside good detail.
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Cockpit: The cockpit is very accessible through two opening panels on the top of the ship. Each side of the cockpit can comfortably fit a minifig and their weapon(s).
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Holocron Storage: There are two places that hold Jedi Holocrons on the Defender. One is in the back of the ship between the two engines. The other is in a curious place and easily overlooked as it sits on top of the Defender between the opening cockpit panels.
Cons
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Escape Pods: While these are cool and functional, the top of the pods doesn’t connect to anything and only slide on. Because of this if the ship is turned over the top of the pods will fall off.
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Blaster Cannons: The Defender has a pair of rotating cannons on either side of the cockpit. While they look nice they have the tendency to break off with very little pressure applied.
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Satellite Dish: A very Millennium Falcon like dish sits on top of the Defender. It’s nice looking but also has a habit of coming off easily.
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Engines: These are nicely done for the most part, but the little flaps around the engines can come off with very little effort. Otherwise I really liked the engine design.
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Cheap Interior: The cockpit is very accessible and roomy, but very sparse as it only comes with one computer screen per seat. I added a ton lights and other controls to both sections of the cockpit and, with a slight adjustment to the seats, it still has plenty of room for the two passengers.
Overall the Jedi Defender-class Cruiser is fantastic. At $90 it’s fairly expensive but all Star Wars sets are higher on average, especially those nearing 1000 pieces. The Defender looks great as a display piece and it’s interesting and tough enough to play with as well.
15 out of 16 people thought this review was helpful.
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Great set!
I was really excited about this set since I had already got the three other SWTOR sets and they were amazing. I went to the Euralille LEGO store for an AFOL day rhis week-end and surprisingly found this set on the shelves (I mistakenly thought it was going to released later in the year) so I bought it. I built it as soon as I got back home. Here's a quick Pros/Cons of the set, enjoy reading the rest of my review for details.
Pros
- Kao Cen Darach
- Darth Marr
- Handle
- Great looking ship
- Two escape pods
- Landing gears
- Lot of space inside
- Parts I had never seen before
Cons
- Unnamed minifigs
- 13 Stickers
- Not really flickable flick-fire missiles
The Minifigs 5/5Sadly these figs are unnamed, they're probably meant to represent a random avatar from the game since in the game you create your own Jedi/Sith/Trooper... However, these a really close, if not equal to existing charachters (just like Jace Malcom named "Republic Trooper" from [9497 Republic Striker-class Starfighter]).- You get the "Sith Warrior" which is clearly a well-done minifig of Darth Marr. From what I've read or seen in videos, this is the minifig that most people prefer in this set and I've to say, it is awesome. The head, front-torso, back-torso and legs printings are gorgeous. But, in my opinion, it's outshined by another minifig in this set.- You then get the Zabrak (a SW specie, Darth Maul was a Zabrak for comparison) Jedi, named "Jedi Knight" on the box . It's most likely intended to be Kao Cen Darach, the master of Satele Shan from [9497 Republic Striker-class Starfighter], the only difference is that Kao should have a green lightsaber. To my mind, this is the one minifig that I'd take over any other in this set. However, I totally agree that this is a subjective choice that I made because Kao is more important to me than Darth Marr, just like I'd take Darth Vader better than a random Wookie.- You also get a random Jedi, named "Jedi Consular" with nice printings that uses the Luminara Unduli's hat piece from [7869 Battle for Geonosis] but in white.- Finally, you get a "Sith Trooper" with printed legs, like the black one from [75001 Republic Troopers vs. Sith Troopers]. If you own the three first SWTOR sets then this your fourth black sith trooper, including two without printed legs and two with.The Building Experience 4/56 numbered bags, 2 instructions books and 13 stickers if I didn't forget any. You first build a skeleton then add different parts to it. A few original building methods like the front section for example. There was one repetitive time: when you build the top of the middle section between the two escape pods, you have to put six times in a row the same sticker on the same part... I'm going with 4 out of 5 here because of these stickers.The completed model 5/5It looks great, it looks big, it has a lot of details.There's a lot of space within it; there's two cockpits, there's a hold, there's two escape pods and there's also two possible but not intended places to sit a minifig in the middle section. That's about 7 minifigs without trouble since these places are easily reachable.There's is a little trap by the front, between the cockpits. It doesn't really make sense and there's no picture showing its purpose. I think it's intended as an access ramp but just for the look since it's not an actual entry to the cockpits.Playability 4/5Two rotating flick-fire missiles on each side of the cockpits, so four of them. These are not easy to flick and should just be used for the look. There are two escape pods. Also there are four landing gears. Very important however: there's a HANDLE and it blends well into the design. You get a Jedi holocron and a Sith holocron that can be used in story that you could imagine, these are stocked within two little containers.Overall 5/5I expected a lot of this set because of the greatness of the precedent SWTOR sets and I wasn't disappointed. Great set, great ship, awesome minifigs, definitely part of the best sets I've built (see others @ http://www.brickset.com/brickLists/?9176). I do recommend it to any SW fan, twice as more if you play SWTOR.A little comparison with [9500 Sith Fury-class Interceptor] would be nice to end this review:For the same price of 90$, 75025 has 927 pieces and 4 minifigs whereas 9500 has only 741 pieces and 3 minifigs. However, if you forget about the price, 9500 is much more detailed and has Darth Malgus which is the best of all the SWTOR minifigs already released (in my opinion). If 9500 was priced at 70-75$, there would be not doubt which set is the best of the two.Thanks for reading my review, have fun building.11 out of 11 people thought this review was helpful.
Intriguing vessel marred by its obscurity
I picked up this set recently on a whim.
I am a big fan of its evil counter part the 9500 Sith Fury Class Interceptor and was hoping to complete my Old Republic collection of Lego sets.
The build itself was interesting enough - with a big sturdy foundation of technic pieces and an interesting collection of (to me) rare bricks and an interesting color scheme. However in the end I guess I just hold no emotional connection to the ship and its (nameless) Jedi and Sith inhabitants.
I am sure many future reviewers will disagree but I have somewhat come to regret my purchase. I guess I´d recommend this set at a discount.
This review has been rated unhelpful.
