Review: 7915 Imperial V-wing Starfighter

[Draykov]

This may be a fluke, but has anyone else had an issue making the canopy close all the way on this set? On the set I opened and built, the forward edge of the canopy has a tendency to raise up a bit when in the "closed" position due to the tension at the back where the handle on the windscreen snaps into the plates with clip.

[cas]

Yes. Mine is like that, it always seems to be open just a hair.

[Draykov]

Interesting...on the little fighter that comes with 7066 Earth Defense HQ from the Alien Conquest line, the same canopy and connection is used, but it doesn't have that problem. I guess it has to do with the bricks the canopy covers when closed. On 7066 it's a wedge brick.

I want to like the V-Wing, but the fact that it's an unintentional convertible is a problem for me. The figs are great though.

[Robzula]

Strange. The canopy on my V-Wing closes tight, but the canopy on my 7066 starfighter sits open a hair. Must be a lot of variance on that piece...

[fallenangel327]

I had always remembered the wings BOTH folding forward for landing, right? I know in Battlefront 2 they operate that way. I will of course re-watch EPIII again to try and tell (with no luck probably), but was really curious on someone else's take on this.

Nope. This set does it accurately. Aside from that, though, I felt that this was ultimately a step back, and that 6205 was far better...

Well it looks like I was wrong and the wings on the new set do rotate. Or at the very least, they can be attached horizontally. (This would explain why LEGO shortened the guns.)

It's a little bit strange though... if you zoom in on the picture above, you can see that the way the wings attach to the main body doesn't look much different from the connection on the previous rendition; what's more, the wing panels are still individually movable via bar clips (using the more recent 1x2 plates w/ vertical handlebar). And we all know you can already choose to display your 6205 in this manner. (Just fix the wings like this.)But you can see a Technic bit around the larger panels... perhaps there's a gear of some sort in the rear of the ship (similar to the 4502 or the 7259)?

In addition, I don't think that the nose on this set is actually longer than the nose on the previous rendition; it's just that LEGO has opted to use only one pair of 3x12 wing plates in the front (as opposed to two pairs on the previous rendition); the section around the cockpit (which was represented with 1x4 wing plates on the 6205) are now 1x3 wing plates, and shifted several studs forward at that. (It's very inaccurate.) I think that the rectangular area around the cockpit makes up for the removal of the second pair of 3x12 wing plates, so the nose looks about the same length.

The large panels around the droid socket are definitely shorter; they are 6 studs long here, whereas they were 8 studs on the previous rendition. (Again, inaccurate.) As I've said before, LEGO has switched out the click hinges for bar hinges, which actually seems like a step back. (Not unlike the other two points I've mentioned.) But it looks like the droid socket itself is only two studs wide rather than four, so the ship doesn't actually acommodate the whole droid. (Consistent with the last rendition.) It looks like Lord Embo's wish was granted.

The triangular structures on the rear of the wing pivots are slightly more accurate (and those look like new slope brick pieces) but the way they're attached looks a bit awkward.

That new oversized canopy piece just looks so terrible... not only is it out of scale with the minifigure, it's actually out of scale with the rest of the fighter. Compare:







All in all, this set looks like a step back for LEGO.