Like most of the other entities in Star Wars, the Jedi Starfighter isn't immune to the effects of evolution while the events of the prequel trilogy play out. I can only assume that the new design in this link of the evolutionary chain is leading up to the eventual design of the TIE Figther. I mean, the front of the cockpit window is a dead giveaway really. More on that in a minute.

Here are your obligatory 3/4 front and rear views of the Jedi Starfighter. The design has changed dramatically since Episode II. While not any better, it's not any worse either. I'm a bit surprised that the wing flaps do not use click hinges, since it seems that everything that's moveable or flappable in the LEGO universe is made with click hinges these days. And that's one of my biggest problem with this set. Being somewhat obsessive by nature, I'm the type of person where each flap would have to lie at the exact same angle to create a symmetrical look. Click hinges would have greatly helped in that regard since all you'd have to do is count how many clicks up or down you want your flaps. The bar-in-clip build of the flaps allows for freeform transformations, and is quite annoying if you ask me. Trying to achieve symmetry in flap angles is an exercise in futility. With this kind of chaos, the ship overall feels delicate especially when the flaps are deployed, lowering the swoosh factor. Despite that niggling issue, I do think the ship looks pretty impressive with the flaps deployed.

The cockpit is also a bit weird. The designers seemed to be hellbent on including a control stick, but it's placement makes it seem more like a feeding tube than a control stick. Also in that picture, you can see the way Anakin's lightsaber lays across the back of the cockpit, that's how the instruction manual tells you to store the lightsaber, I'm not kidding. I miss the old days where the model would integrate storage compartments.
The cockpit hinge could also have benefitted from click hinges to add more stability. Without thinking, I've tried picking up the ship by grabbing the sides of the cockpit only to have the model fall apart on me on more than one occasion

One of my favorite developments in the line has got to be retractable landing gear. is no exception. You can see the integration in these series of photos of the front and the rear landing gear.

As I was saying before the front cockpit window sort of leads you to believe that the design of the Jedi Starfighter evolves into the TIE Fighter. The print pattern on the 4x4 radar dish isn't centered against the technic axle "plug" on the inside of the stud, so the window pattern looks a bit off. Maybe it was my piece in particular, or maybe the printing process can't guarantee such a thing, or maybe that's why they decided to use stickers. Using stickers is a cost-saving technique used to give LEGO models that extra lvl of detail without having to print a jillion elements that may never get re-used. I for one can't stand stickers. The end up cracking, peeling and flaking off over time. There were a couple of places on the ships that i scratched my head and wondered why they couldn't use already existing tile patterns instead of just laying a big ol' sticker on it. I for one welcome printed elements so that they can be re-used in MOC's. Stickers suck.

The included Anakin Skywalker minifig is a non-Light-Up Lightsaber version, but this has the headset painted on like pilot minifigs before him.

The Vulture Droid is more or less the exact same model as the 7111 Droid Fighter. Toss in some stickers, give it a splash of new color, and you basically have a redesign on your hands. Not the most thrilling model by far, but it's a cool little ship in both attack mode and droid mode. No real complaints on this model since I wasn't really expecting much, but the "head" piece probably could have been engineered better to take advantage of click hinges; like the model before it, you need to remove the head and then reattach it to a different place to transform the droid to flight mode and back.

The first iteration of LEGO's Jedi Starfighter, based off of the ship shown in Episode II, was accurate to say the least. The same could be said for this set. And like it's sister set before, 7256 Jedi Starfighter and Vulture Droid was released early as a preview set of the 2005 Episode III line up. Maybe I'm a bit biased having grown up with the original trilogy, but the designs of the Jedi Starfighters never really grabbed me the way the X-wing or the B-wing did.

Price/Parts ratio: 5/10
Parts Selection: 6/10
Minifigs: 4/10
Construction: 5/10
Design: 8/10
Swoosh Factor: 6/10
Reviewer's Tilt: 3/10
Final Score: 5.3

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