Soulless One (Grievous' Starfighter)

The titular build of this set, Soulless One is pretty well replicated in brick form. The designers pulled off the sleek and round "hot rod" vibes from the movie. They also add some nice bits of greebling on the sides on the engine pods and inside the cockpit! Speaking of the cockpit, Grievous fits inside very well and strikes an imposing figure from here.

Soulless One has twin stud cannons plopped on either wing and also has a laser bolt slung underneath the main body. These play features well-placed and don't get in the way of handling the craft during "swooshes"! If you dislike the top stud cannons they're pretty easy to remove and you wouldn't even notice them missing.

However, I do have some nits to pick. The distinctive stripping of this craft isn't well conveyed. The stripes kinda disappear when the craft is at a distance. Looking at reference images and the previous LEGO kit, these strips are quite prominent from most angles/distances.

A more minor issue I have is that the ship is a bit front heavy. This leads to issues with the rear landing leg and the cockpit canopy. The rear leg doesn't really get firm contact with the ground, so the leg kinda just ends up spinning into any position it wants. A similar issue occurs with the cockpit. Any slight tap sends the cockpit flying forward and exposing Grievous. Both issues make the rear area of the kit more fiddly than I feel it should be.

Mini-Figures

General Grievous

This may be a old figure, but this is my first time owning this version of Grievous and what a figure it is! Grievous' body and head are molded in gray plastic with a healthy slathering of white paint on top as well as some painting for his face. No see-through white prints here! The legs are also very nice, being molded in white with grey paint applied on top. In contrast to the other pieces, the figures arms feature some of the pretty bad white prints over the gray plastic molding.

Grievous comes with his iconic four light sabers, two green and two blue. These all stow away in hidden cavities in either of Soulless Ones' engine pods.

Obi-Wan Kenobi

The Obi-Wan included in the set fits pretty well. I like the battle damaged tunic print on his torso and the expressions printed on this head. Both of these items, along with the blaster, allow for the landing pad scene to be played out accurately! In addition to the scene-specific items Obi-Wan includes his light saber to push the play value even further.

Airborne Clone Trooper

This is a great figure! I love all the clone troopers and that's true here as well. The printing is fantastic as is the Airborne Trooper helmet. His Kami is a bit fiddly to get laying right but once it's in position, it stays there. My only downside id that this trooper is stuck in this set. Which leads to the conclusion...

Conclusion

While I've spent most of this post gushing over how this set replicates the Utapau Landing Pad fight scene so well I do have a serious gripe with this set, the price. In fact, I have a serious issue with LEGO star ship set prices in general. TLG seems to always have two price points for Star Wars Starfighters, wither a reasonable $30-35 or a ridiculous $70-80. While some fighters, like the "Y-Wings", make the piece count "rule" for the $70 price point a lot of the other ships don't.

I have yet to get a Tie Fighter or X-Wing because they have such a "Feels Bad Man" vibe every time I go to look at one and it sucks that Soulless One seems destined to the same fate. If it wasn't for the fact that I wanted both this Trooper and Grievous this set would've joined the other fantastic kits I passed up due to a screwy price point. I would not recommend this kit, unless you need to have a Soulless One for your collection!