Review: 7930 Bounty Hunter Assault Gunship

[lowlead]

What is that?? Was my initial reaction when I saw preliminary photos of this set for the first time. I'm not a SW The Clone Wars fan, and I don't normally invest money in lesser known/non-OT sets...then along came this one. For those of you who are skeptical about 7930, wondering whether or not it's worth the money ($49.99 USD), perhaps this review will help.

-Three bags of parts labeled 1, 2, 3 to assemble cockpit, wings/tail, and engine nacelles respectively.

-The Build: 7/10 for unique color scheme, not much repetition, sturdy, and high swoosh factor. Applying stickers to curved surfaces can be a pain, so when you're about to tackle the two angled cockpit stickers I can say that I had good luck by applying them from back to front, using the rectangular end for alignment and guiding the sticker along its inside edge. The pointed front edge falls in line quite well this way. One aspect of the construction that I appreciate is that its modular for easy storage, pics illustrate this feature. Straightforward build otherwise.

-Functionality: 8/10 Plenty of neat features considering the size of the ship itself. The swinging side doors and opening cockpit are well conceived in my opinion, although when the side doors are closed there's little room for a minifig, but a prisoner hold isn't designed with comfort in mind anyway. There's a place to store two rifles or blasters up inside the cockpit hatch. And perhaps the best surprise is the pivot function for the engine pods. As you can see below, the entire dorsal tail section slides aft on top of tiles to swing the nacelles 90 degrees via a few technic parts inside. Again, quite clever for the size of the ship, and not something that was apparent by looking at preliminary photos. The minifigs speak for themselves, Aurra Sing being the star of the group.

Overall, this set has won me over. Definitely a candidate for a couple more copies for future endeavours I hope this review helped!























Some decent spare parts...

[Aharown]

Good review, lowlead. Lots of photos are always nice.

This set is worth getting for the three unique minifigs alone, although the ship is quite nice too.

Aurra Sing has to be one of the best Clone-Wars style mini-figs, IMO. The style actually suits her character quite well.

[Draykov]

I wasn't really interested in this set upon first hearing about it, and seeing it in the display at Target recently solidified that...it's pretty dinky. However, I am very pleased that it includes an all new printed tile with Aurebesh on it:


Bricklink lists it as Part 3068bpb378 Tile 2 x 2 with Alien Characters and Key Controls Pattern

Super nerds will note that the red text says "LOCK."

[BobaFett3650]

We also note that the black letters say " LEGO" and "JENS."

[MrCRskater]

Just built this the other day and thought I'd throw in my 2 cents.

There is a lot to like about this ship. The design and the color scheme are quite striking, something different to showcase in your collection. Also makes for a great parts pack. The overall look of the ship is pretty sharp. The functionality, while inventive, is a little loose. The engine nacelles tend to sag back when their in the horizontal "flight" position. Also, the hinge on the cockpit roof is not a friction or click hinge, so it flaps open at gravity's slightest provocation. However, the side doors on the cockpit are very elegant, one of my favorite aspects of the ship. This is also one of the most swooshable ships you'll ever lay hands on.

I was also very impressed with the minifigs in this set. Of course, Aurra Sing has been long-awaited, but Sugi is also pretty slick and Embo is just as awesome as he was in the Clone Wars cartoon. The variety of armament in this set is also appreciated (pistols, knives, crossbow, sniper rifle, blaster rifle).

Two big problems with this set: 1) the detainment cell is WAY too small. It's remarkably tight to fit an average minifig in there, and if your bounty has a unique hairdo or headpiece, forget it. 2) Large stickers, and lots of 'em. While they do add a lot to the look of the model, they are a pain to apply accurately and I hate pigeonholing those large panels and cylinders with great big stickers.

On a final note, the finished model does seem a little small for the $50 price tag (probably because it only has 389 pieces). While it has a great complement of parts, figs, and functions, it just doesn't measure up for the price. If you can get this at even $40, it's a much better deal.