The Sith Infiltrator (7961) is a great set. It consists of a cab four foul out wings and a big nose. The cab has a computer and 2 joysticks and under the seat is a double lightsaber storage the roof of the cab folds up and there is a ramp that folds down on the back making the cab easily accessible. The whole nose folds up to reveal a speeder storage and two compartments for droids which you push down a lever for them to drop out the bottom. On the side of the nose there are flick missiles (because they didn't have spring missiles when it was made). On the bottom of the nose there are fold down kickstands to support when landed. Overall this set is a great set with 4 unique Minifigures who are darth maul padme captain panaka and qui-gon jinn.

This set is the best of all Sith Infiltrators I've ever seen.  I mean, it has new variants of Padme, Qui-Gon and Darth Maul, plus an all-new Captain Panaka!  The opening hull is the best part of the ship.  And I didn't find out that you could release the probe droids with the mechanism until later, after I looked at the back of the box.

Pros

Cons

This set was perhaps the one I was looking forward to less than most of the others, but I have found it to be definitely worth purchasing! Sure, it is not the highlight of this latest group of sets, however despite this it is still a nice set to own. The Minifigures are nice, and the model itself is not bad at all, easily the best of the three Sith Infiltrators released by Lego up to now. So before you write off this set read my review and see what you think.

Box/Instructions

The box is fine, a strange shape, it is very thin, not very tall and very wide, it is not a shape I have seen before (or not recently at least). The image on the front of the box is very attractive showing the ship landed with Qui-Gon Jinn and Darth Maul (who is riding his speeder) duelling in the foreground, and Padme and Captain Panaka running towards the ship to help out against the Sith apprentice. The two Dark Eye Probe Droids have just been dispatched and are flying off into the background, which is of a Tatooine landscape filled with sand and Mesas. There is also a line up of the four Minifigures in the set with a stamp proclaiming that Darth Maul and Captain Panaka are new figures!

There are two instruction books, both were fine and I had no missing pieces.

Parts

There are many useful parts in this set including a huge number of plates of various shapes and sizes, the eight light grey quarter dome pieces are also exclusive to this set, and they could be very useful for creating your own models making the model all the more appealing. There are quite a few slopes too which could come in handy in future. There is one very nice printed piece, the dish which adorns the top of the cockpit area which also appeared in the previous edition of this set, set 7663 - Sith Infiltrator.

Minifigures

The Minifigures in this set are excellent, the characters are all protagonists in Episode I who have not been seen in Lego for a few years (or in the case of Captain Panaka, never) and because of this could be appealing to Minifigure collectors. The three figures who have been seen before are in my opinion all a vast improvement over any of their previous incarnations, particularly Qui-Gon who is far more detailed than he has been in the past. He has not been seen since 2007 and that figure did not include his famous hair, so this is the first time that has been seen since 1999. His head is far more detailed than in the past as well, which is fantastic, the torso is highly detailed too with back printing, this torso is also seen on Obi-Wan Kenobi in set 7962 - Anakin Skywalker and Sebulba's Podracers. He also includes a brown cape, plain brown legs and a green lightsaber in the new darker shade of green. Next we have Padme who has not appeared since 1999 so is brilliant for collectors who missed out on the earliest Lego Star Wars sets. This figure is also far better than the previous ones. She has plain black legs, a nicely printed torso with front and back printing, the head is double sided, one angry face, one happy face, and has also appeared on Hermione in some Harry Potter sets. The hair is the same mould as that from 1999 but is a slightly lighter brown colour. She also includes a pistol with a scope which is a nice little addition.

However my favourite two figures from the set are Captain Panaka and Darth Maul, although I cannot decide which is better! Captain Panaka features sand blue legs, a fantastically detailed torso with many creases on the front and back. He has a troubled expression on his face which is a sort of light brown colour, reflecting his appearance in the film. However it is the incredible hat which I love the most, it is amazing with intricate detailing and striking colours, the neck shield and strap are a light brown, the brim is gold and the top part is a vivid dark red, a lovely combination.

Darth Maul is also wonderful, with plain black legs, a nice torso with back printing, a black cape, and then a very nice head with the new Zabrak horn piece too! The detail of his tattoos is simply fabulous, one of the most detailed heads I think I have seen. Of course he has his trademark double bladed lightsaber and even includes a black hood as well!

The build

The build took me about an hour and was quite engaging and fun. Not the best build ever but it did have a good mix of Technic and regular brick sections to build which kept me interested. There are admittedly a lot of stickers in this set though, including (annoyingly) two stickers which must be applied to dimpled slopes, which are notoriously difficult to stick down for them to stay in place, if you touch them too much they may slip, but they are easy enough to put back.

The build was however fairly simple and could easily be completed by a young child.

The completed model

When built, I was surprised by the size of the model, it is actually very big, a similar length to set 7676 - Republic Attack Gunship. There are several features including a very nice opening cockpit, two flick-fire missiles, a place to store the speeder and a feature for dropping the two Probe Droids. This wide range of features could make the set attractive to children. The cockpit is very well detailed, with two levers and several control panels. Beneath the cockpit Darth Maul's lightsaber can be stored on a small rack. Under the forward panel where the Probe Droids and speeder are stored there is also quite a lot of detail with two stickers of exposed engine parts which look very good. This is a good set for either play or display, but is not the best in either field sadly.

Summary

Overall, despite this set's flaws, I think it is certainly worth a second look and would advise you to buy it, however the price tag is quite optimistic considering what you get so for that reason I am knocking a point off and give this set...

Overall - 9/10

The new Infiltrator has a lot of detail contour, it makes use of a rich varieties of slope bricks to create the minute details of every section, the result is a bigger and more realistic Infiltrator. The cockpit/cargo space is relatively large for a starwars vehicle, the upper hatch has a printed pattern, and although the lower hatch plate is stickered, the design is very solid and fits the model beautifully with good playability, talking about playability, aside from the probe droids that can be released, there are flip missiles (I am not a missle fan though), foldable wings, and the hatch can be opened to see the interior, where the Sith speeder can be kept.

This set also has a rich inventory of minifigs, I actually like this head pattern of Darth Maul over the old ones (even though the old one was fine too) for the yellow eyes and sharper look, but of course, Darth Maul is a rare minifig, so if you happen to have a chance to get 7663, you may want to own it too to get that version of Darth Maul's minfig. The horned head is also amazing, my set has two pieces of it, I read about this horned head and it seems that the other minifigure that has it is Savage Opress in set 7957 Sith Nightspeeder.

Padmé now has a flesh color minifig head, Charaptain Panaka's minifig is nice, but I think the look lacks the masculine feel that the character should possess, the designer may have tried to create the cool lips but ends up mis-projecting a pessimistic feel. For Master Qui-Gon Jinn, the facial expression in this set is too soft, I prefer the old one that more closely reflect the movie character.

7961 Darth Maul's Sith Infiltrator is an example of how lego should design the Star war vehicles when it comes to details, in contrast 7663 is a rudimentary model, I am glad that I have not missed out this wonderful vehicle!

My Blog entry with pictures: http://brickand.me/2011/06/20/7961DarthMaulsSithInfiltratorReview.aspx