Now, with 2020 being all wrapped up regarding LEGO for me, I'll continue my reviewing with some of my most interesting sets: the Star Wars series! Even though I don't have that many sets of this series, they still are a center piece of my collection.
While this set is only two years old, it is my first X-Wing, can you believe it!? I'm not sure why, but I simply did not manage to get my hands on one of the earlier versions of this epic spaceship. And, while this set is way overpriced, like all SW-sets, it is an almost perfect depiction of the iconic T-65!

Parts

With more than 700 parts, this is a medium-to-large model and it holds some nice parts, yet nothing too special. We have four spring-loaded shooters and two of the newer stud-shooters, acting as the proton torpedo launchers. These shooters are merged with a 1x2 plate, so they can easily be used in all kinds of MOCs! There are quite some TECHNIC pieces for the mechanism to open and close the S-files. The cockpit window also looks very nice. Four white rubber bands are also included. There is also some interesting recycling of known parts: we have four wooden barrels in grey as parts of the thrusters, pickaxes as parts of the air intakes (?) and two revolvers as parts of the engine in the back of the ship!
This set comes with 10 stickers, if I recall correctly, which is OK for a set this size.

Minifigures

Four minifigures are included in this set. Two astromech droids, R2 and the grey Q2 and two pilots for the X-wing. Both are well-known characters from the original SW movies: Luke Skywalker and his best friend turned crispy toast Biggs Darklighter. Both have a small blaster at their disposal and Luke also has his lightsaber, of course. All figures have a detailed design, from the richly printed torsos to Biggs' authentic moustache. Unfortunately, only one pilot and astromech can fit in the ship at one time.

The build

Quite an interesting build, we have here. Even though some parts are a little repetitive (the wings), the main mechanism to open the S-foils needs extra attention and care when built. There are quite some TECHNIC parts included in the internal structure and the moving parts of the ship, so very young builders surely will need some help. Some parts are a little fiddly, for example the four thrusters and the moving parts of the wing-mechanism. The rubber bands have to be applied with quite some tension, so I hope, these will last a while.
For an experienced builder, everything is quite manageable and can be done in about 45 minutes.

The completed model

The T-65-X-Wing model is some 32 cm in length and 30 cm in width. This is almost true to scale, with the ship from the films being some 13m in length and 12m in width (source: Jedipedia). The model accurately depicts the iconic slender design of the starfighter with the few stickers adding nice, realistic elements to it. The openable cockpit has enough room for the pilot, a small computer and some sort fire extinguisher, I guess. Behind the cockpit is the space for the astromech, which can be switched, depending on who pilots the ship. There are also two tiles on the upper S-foils which indicate the ship's registration and its pilot: one red stripe for Red-One and Luke, three stripes for Red-Three and Biggs. This is another nice addition to the set's realism.
The fighter's armament is completely available, with all four Lasers and two proton torpedo launchers. The lasers are four spring-loaded shooters, while the torpedoes are two stud shooters.
The main gimmick of the set are, of course, the openable wings. Other than with older sets, where you had to open each wing separately, this X-WIng has an interesting mechanism, where you only have to move one lever to unfold the S-foils simultaneously. To close them again, you can either pull the lever back, or push the stud, that sticks out on the underside, back up. This also serves as an automatism to close the wings when the ship lands. There is also a foldable landing foot underneath the nose of the fighter.

Overall opinion

Being a long-time fan of all things Star Wars, and of this one ship in particular, I really can't judge completely unbiased. But I'll try.
What's positive for me is the realistic, accurate design of the set. Using hinges to create a smoothly tapering nose - sweet! The white/red colour-scheme might be a little odd, but it still looks very nice. The mechanism to unfold all wings simultaneously is a masterpiece and works very smoothly. The large amount of shooters makes this an absolute action-set for intense LEGO space-battles. The very detailed minifigures are another great plus for me.
What I did not like that much was the design of the underside of the main hull of the ship. The part where the grey stud sticks out looks somewhat odd, both if the wings are opened or closed. The medium grey inverted roof tiles in that place harshly subtract from the streamlined design of the vessel, even though they are necessary for a balanced stand. The landing gear in the front is not that stable as i would have hoped, but can be folded up almost completely, which is nice. The official retail price of 100€ was a cruel joke, hands down.
So, while still not being the perfect Star Wars-set, this one here comes pretty close! Nice design, neat functions and an interesting build. Definitely a recommendation - for a reasonable price.

This is one of the most iconic ships in Star Wars and translates greatly to LEGO. The mini figures here are great and have an amazing new dual moulded helmet piece for Luke and Biggs. The X-wing has a decent amount of stickers but it also has a lot of brick detail as well. The set is pretty accurate but the laser cannons on the wings are shorter than they are on the other X-wing sets. There is a lot of playability to this set than previous X-wings because it has stud shooters where the proton torpedos are located and spring-loaded shooters for the laser cannons, although the spring-loaded shooters detract from the look they are easy to remove so that is nice. It has a landing skid at the front but has plain light grey bricks as landing gear at the back. The cockpit is a printed piece which is nice. It also comes with stickers for the Red Five tiles and Red Three Tiles so that you can change them out depending on who is flying the X-wing. The droid seat is accurate in how they sit horizontally and not vertically. This particular X-wing had a design that allowed for a switch at the top to be pulled back so that the S Foils opened quickly and if you pushed a cone on the bottom the S foils would close quickly. Overall I would highly recommend buying this set before it is discontinued because it probably won't be for a while that we get anther X-wing.

I got this for my 10th birthday. Now this a really cool set, but it is so big that I am sort of scared to play with it by dropping it.

It is really cool!

It's been six years since we've gotten an update to the original trilogy X-Wing and a lot's changed since then. This new X-Wing borrows a bit from the past where needed, but it's largely a complete redesign, taking full advantage of new parts and techniques. Without a discount, it's a pricey set, but it's also the best we've ever seen at this scale.

Pros

• The proportions on this model are fantastic compared to the movie. Compared to 2012's offering, this X-Wing is two studs longer in the fuselage, and two studs shorter in the wing span. The stock photo makes it look a little stubby, but in-hand, it's perfect. The engines are a big part of this--previous X-Wings have always had engines slightly too small, and even the UCS has this problem.
• Speaking of the engines, it's awesome to see the technique used in the UCS adapted to this scale. The intakes when the foils are closed nearly touch, which is exactly how they should be. They're not perfect, but they're the best non-UCS X-Wing engines we've ever had.
• As usual, there are some extra minifigs thrown in. I'm glad we got Biggs--I prefer less obscure characters and he's a perfectly appropriate fig to include in this set. We also get a nice looking astromech, R2-Q5. I honestly have no idea who he is.
• The new canopy introduced with the T-70 also looks great on the T-65. This is the first update we've gotten to the minifig X-Wing canopy since the introduction of Star Wars back in 1999. It's about time!
• R2 faces forward instead of sideways. We've only ever seen that in a UCS class model until now.
• There are spare tiles included with Biggs' Red 3 markings which is a nice touch. I don't expect to use them, but I appreciate the attention to detail.
• I was pleasantly surprised to find the computer tile was printed. A piece like this is typically a sticker.

Cons

• There's a gap behind the engine intakes. I plan to try putting a technic pulley wheel (the old school ones with the 6 holes in them) in place of the small bush and expect that will help it quite a bit.
• There's another big gap in the rear section where the wing folding lever runs.
• The price outside the US and without a discount is pretty steep, even for Star Wars.
• No folding rear landing gear. Maybe that's not a fair complaint, but I'm putting it in here as a challenge to Lego. They did it on the Y-Wing, why not on the X-Wing?

Neutral

• I'm giving up my previous X-Wing for this which means I'm unfortunately giving up an R4 droid. I really liked that guy.
• The S-Foil mechanism works easily and reliably. I had no problem with 2012's mechanism, but this one is slightly better.
• The usual caveat about stickers. So long as they don't disintegrate, I'm fine with them.
• There's a lot of talk about the price--I picked this set up for 20% off over black Friday. With that discount, this set is actually pretty good as Star Wars price per part goes. But that was in US dollars. Abroad, even with the discount, this is a pretty pricey set.
• The wings are a bit thick when closed, but let's be honest, who's swooshing their X-Wing around with the S-foils closed?
• The bolt shooters and stud shooters are an improvement over flick-fires, though I'll probably be removing them from mine for aesthetics.
• The new minifig helmets... I get what they were going for and the integrated orange visor looks good, but the helmets are a lot bigger now because of the way they're constructed with that visor. So much so that the scale of the minifig's head looks way off now.
• There's a fire extinguisher behind the seat. Probably should lend it to the Falcon since that ship actually does tend to catch on fire from time to time.

Like last year's minifig scale Y-Wing, this new X-Wing continues the trend of approaching the UCS line in terms of design and detail. Almost every section of the ship has improvement over the previous offering. For example, the rear/hyperdrive section has lots of clever detail including the use of minifig revolvers as greebling. I'm personally really excited to see what the future holds for Star Wars sets, though I'm not quite as excited about the continuing price trends that will no doubt accompany them.

Summary

The X-wing is arguably the most iconic Star Wars spacecraft, and as a result Lego has produced it reguarly: by my count this set is the 19th iteration (in various scales and colour schemes) of the X-wing. Its most recent predecessors in this scale date to 2015 - Poe's X-wing (set 75102) - and 2016 - Resistance X-wing fighter (set 75149). This set has a lot in common, at least ahead of the main fuselage. In general I think it looks the part, has nice minifigures and is a nice build. However, IMHO there is no way its European and UK prices are justified. Considering the fact it shares a similar piece count to the 2015 and 1016 sets, the fact that much of the design is similar, and those sets were already (somewhat overpriced) a 80 euro price would be much better. IMHO - unless you are desperate - wait for a discount to get this set.

Build experience

I enjoyed the building of this set. There are a few stickers, but most are easy to apply; the two most difficult stickers are the ones on the two top intakes, due to the curved surface they are placed on. The construction of the main fuselage felt eerily similar to that of Poe Dameron's X-wing; the difference is in the wings and the mechanism used to move them into attack position. The mechanism to move the wings is different from its predecessor, and the location of the rubber bands has changed a little. Overall, the build was a little under 2 hours of fun. As usual, there were bright off-colour pieces included (like the teal round 2x2's, red 1x1x2 high studs on side bricks and such. Thankfully, they are well hidden inside the structure. The age range is given as 8-14, and indeed, most 8 year olds should be able to build this set.

The minifigures

Three of the four minifigures - Luke Skywalker, Biggs Darklighter and R2-Q2 - are unique, while R2-D2 is found in four other sets.

Luke and Bigs share the torso and legs (both with very nice and intricate prints). They have different dual face-prints. I like the moustache on Biggs, but I would have liked to see a little more difference between the two facial expressions he has. Similarly, there is little difference in the expressions of Luke. The two helmet prints are different, and look very good.

R2-D2 is well known. The dome print has shown to be problematic in the past (out of register/crooked), but on this version it was good. R2-Q2 has a similar 'torso' print as R2-D2, and it looks very good, IMHO. His dome print is also unique, and seems to be in register as well.

The build

Overall, the build of this X-Wing looks good - much like a smaller version of the UCS X-wing (set 10240). To me, it looks the part, although the wings - when closed - look a bit on the thick side (as each is three plates thick). I think the designer made the right choice to retain the nose/cock-pit section of the 2015/2016 X-Wings. I am not a fan of the mechanism used to move the wings into the attack position. It now leaves us with a big hole in the top. The solution for the 2015/2016 sets IMHO was much better. I am also not sure whether the exhausts could have been attached differently, but to me they seem vulnerable to coming off. I like the solution for the rear end of the X-wing. Overall, I would say this is the best version of Red Five yet.

Play vs display

This set is equally a play and display set. It looks good and is big enough to serve as a display piece. As a play set, it has great swooshability. It is fairly easy to handle, the balance is OK, and mechanism to open up the wings works well. That said, the release mechanism for that (a pin sticking out underneath) is quite easy to trigger. The two pilots and droids are a nice addition. I doubt most kids will be bothered to switch out the two identifiers for Red Three and Red Five.

The verdict

Overall, not looking at price, this is a good set. I would not go as far as saying this is the best X-Wing in this scale. It is the best Red Five, but I am not a fan of this wing-operating mechanism. There are enough play features to make this a fun play set. However, the big issue with this set is the price. It simply in no way feels like a 100 euro set. To me, its worth - maximum - is around 70-75 euros. Yes, there are four minifigures, but they by no means justify its RRP. Personally, I would look for a discount before getting this set, as I did. I see - thankfully - that it is offered on BrickLink for much more reasonable prices.