EB News Reviews: 6205 V-wing Fighter

[WhiteFang]

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....

Hello ladies and gentlemen, believe it or not! It is me again, the always annoying ever-ready sleepy alert EB News Reporter, Staudddieeeee.....

*Troopers march in and drag him away*

Alright, enough of his silly introduction. It's been a long time since we've done one of these, probably be a long time until we do another, but we found this in the Jedi Archives before the Empire takes over. Assuming that happens, which we don't because nobody knows the future or anything. Sounds like some kind of mumbo jumbo crap to me, but whatever. *cough*

SO! Welcome to another exciting episode of EB News Reviews, Pre-Empire edition! Next to me is my young Padawan our ever friendly EB News Reviewer, WhiteFang . Who am I? Don't be silly, I'm the ever handsome and charming Jedi Master of this very fine educational program. Despite this hair. Seriously, what is up with this hair?

I am actually wearing my DarkFang's Jedi outfit for this special feature? Sheesh, let's get this moving!

That's what she said.

What?

Today we are going to take a look at this old relic of an adaptive fighter plane that was used in the Star Wars Episode III era. Considering that this is a 6 year old starfighter model, you might want to note that there is actually a much newer and darker version known as the 7915 Imperial V-wing fighter after the Empire was formed to combat those pesky Rebels. Anyway, the feature below was documented in the past and it was extracted for public viewing after the Jedi Council approved it. Which is strange because there is no Jedi Council be the end of Episode III, but let's just move on now!

Name: 6205 V-wing Fighter

Theme: LEGO System / Star Wars / Episode III

Year: 2006

Pieces: 118

Minifigs: 1 minifigure

Price: USD $10.99, GBP 7.99, EURO N.A, SGD $29.90

Resources: Brickset, BrickLink

The sleek V-wing fighter can adapt to any situation! Position the wings and flaps in attack mode to protect Palpatine's shuttle from enemies. Or position the wings in flight mode to survey the area for intruders! Either way, the V-wing is ready to strike for the Republic. Includes Clone pilot and R4 droid. Position wings in attack or flight mode!

*Both staring blankly at one another*

Ahem, it appears we have been waiting for him for a very long time. I wonder what is taking so long.

If it's anything that concerns Staudie, than it's probably something bad. Or stupid. Or both. Speaking of Staudie ... I just hope he doesn't get into trouble. Again.

There you are, just because you rose to Commander Staudie doesn't warrant you to be late.

Come on, give the kid a break. Don't be too hard on him. It's hard enough being him as it is.

Oh well, it was not intentional, so don't get too cranky and look at the big picture. I went to the holding area earlier and I managed to find my new recruited pilot.

There you are, let me introduce the qualified test pilot for the new V-wing project. His name is... Erhm... What is your name again?

I am born or technically 'cloned' under the controlled Clone Registered Recruit Listing, numbered at: 100,002. A qualified starfighter pilot to control the new prototype V-wing fighter. My brothers and my superiors identified me as Captain Jet.

Pleased to meet you, Captain Jet. Even though, your faceless expression surprises me.

We all look the same, but we get the job done.

Tell us, what are the capabilities of this starfighter?

The V-wing fighter is most effective in large swarms during operational deployment. The strengths are the raw speed and agility and the weakness is the lack of powerful firing weapons. However, I am certainly confident that it will be proved most effective against droid tri-fighters, vulture droids, and deadly buzz droids.

As mentioned by Captain Jet, the revolutionary thrusters behind the raw speed and agility can be seen here. Don't get too near or you might caught by the starfighter blast.

Although Captain Jet mentioned that the V-wing starfighter lacks of firepower, but the wing-mounted laser cannons at both sides, remain to be effective enough to withhold and deliver minimum damage to enemies fighters.

What is wrong with the landing gear? It is horribly designed. How can our starfighters land safely?

I agree, it looks sub-standard and appears to have put together out of spare parts.

I admit it may looks crap but it does serve its general purpose as a starfighter, which means combating the enemies are the main priorities. Safety is not our main concern and anyway not many starfighters return to base.

Then what about our lives?

Your lives are equally important and fragile as the very life thread of the Republic hangs together with you. The survivability of the Republic ultimately depends on the sacrifice that one commits in war.

I think he is trying to brainwash his troopers...

And, he did not even address the landing gear issue.

This is the cockpit design and the controls are all in there.

Looks to me like a sophisticated starfighter with very minimum piloting controls. In fact, I do not see any from this angle.

It is there.

Captain Jet is ready to demonstrate a test flight. As you can see, the flaps on both ends can be extended to boost aerial power. The astromech and the republic slogan are placed at the top.

Let's rewind a little. I want to see the above pointers in detail.

Whose dumb idea was that? How can anyone placed an incomplete R4 astromech at the back? All of our starfighters come with full completed astromech. Not anything like this. The printed logo of the Republic is fine but I can't accept the incomplete R4 astromech. How can it be airworthy?

Due to limited space and budget, we are unable to expand into full astromech. Perhaps in the near dark future, there will be one for it. As of now, we felt this R4 will be able to fulfill his primary navigation functions.

Hmm, I am sure this is not the right deployment sequence.

Let's stand a little further away.

Test flight demonstration is in progress. All systems green.

*A hour later, Commander Staudie took on the second test flight*

I am very sure he was asking for trouble and I remembered he doesn't have any piloting experience. There goes our prototype and now we need to submit an incident report for this occurrence.

Oh well, at least we can commissioned this prototype first. At least, we will not waste more costs into R&D.

The EB News Team opinions

Shadows: Eh. It's a passable rendition of a ship that isn't exciting enough to do more with. Then they made another. And it's more expensive. Seriously, this was good enough, stop remaking 'bigger' versions of everything just for a quick buck, make something new and fill in all those gaps in the line.

WhiteFang: I got this set as my birthday gift back in 2006. It was something which I didn't expect and this set is the first Star Wars set which I was exposed to. In a way, this was definitely very special to me. I never understood how the V-wing fighter came into the picture and I can't really relate it to those iconic starfighters. However, it was pretty sleek and nice to swoosh around back then. The built was enjoyable and the minifigure was nicely designed. The only things which I do not like is the landing gear design and the incomplete astromech. It could have been better and seeing the new V-wing fighter's design in 2011, I am sure it has evolved and improved on it. Despite of that, this old classic V-wing fighter is also charming in its own rights that had fought for the late Republic.

The EB Star Wars Staff and Bloggers opinions

KielDaMan: Putting things into perspective that this was released back in '06, I felt that this was a pretty decent little set that ultimately served its purpose - that is to provide an inexpensive way for SW fans to experience ROTS in LEGO. For a $10 price tag back then, it's already a great deal to get a nice small starfighter plus a clone pilot. The design is a bit blocky by today's standards, but back then I'm pretty sure most wouldn't have had a problem with the overall look. I have no idea how well this set sold that year, though I think the only drawback it would've had is that the V-Wing wasn't as prominent and as popular as the other ROTS starfighters like the Eta-2 and the ARC-170 and add to that the minor complaint of having a 'body-less'-'head-only' astromech. The recent 2011 version already addressed most of the of the design inaccuracies of this V-Wing and thus is a better model, but if I was a hard-core collector who missed getting this during my Dark Ages and I have a Delorean waiting in my backyard, I'll be sure to go back in 2006 and get some of these (and probably also all of the ROTS sets that I missed ).

Brickdoctor: I feel that 6205 is a small set that was quite good at the time, but has since been overshadowed by later releases. It was one of the last of the older style of Star Wars sets - blocky design with minimal use of curving slopes, minifig with common, non-specialized parts, and the head-only astromech, in particular. At an MSRP of $10 USD, it was easy to acquire multiples of and filled the spot of cheap starfighter set, something that I wish we'd see more of nowadays. As an advatage of the blocky design, the set was quite solid, and there wasn't a swooshing move that I wasn't comfortable performing with this model. Nevertheless, without modifications, it simply doesn't fit in with the style of sets currently produced, and it will seem out of place in collections that include those newer sets.

Fallenangel: I felt that 6205 was a neat little set, offering a simple yet solid build at an affordable price and staying reasonably faithful to its source material in addition to providing many useful parts. What's more, the set not only works well as a display piece but lends itself to swooshing nicely. The detailing on the set's single minifigure is of an appreciable quality without appearing excessive in the fashion of more recent trends; the same could be said for that of the Q7-series astromech droid. I have enjoyed this set of multiple strengths for six years now and would definitely recommend it.

Masked Builder: Boy what an old set. This definitely brings up memories from the good old days when LEGO made sets that were relatively inexpensive but at a time when I didn't have any money. It was also the time when I had just been introduced to Star Wars and LEGO was a two or three year old hobby. I was ten when it was released and was itching to see Revenge of the Sith. My grandmother was taking me and my brother to LEGOland California, and offered to get us a LEGO set to build on the plane as we lived on the east coast. My brother picked this set and I must admit I ended up building some of it. (I got the ARC-170 at LEGOland) At the time, I thought the model was pretty good. Now having seen the movie and many great MOCs of the fighter, I know it could be much better. I would like to see this redone but I can't seeing it being much different, except for maybe having an R2 unit that could fit inside the ship. It's like the Jedi starfighters, LEGO keeps making them but they don't change to much. But seeing as it brings up fond memories I don't think I can not like it all that much.

Oky: I felt that this set is just OK. It is very swooshable, has some useful gray and dark red parts, and includes a neat minifig which appears in only one other set. It is fairly accurate, but like all sets from the 2006 wave, it could have been better. For example, the nose is much too flat. What also bugged me was the gap between the canopy and the ship itself, as well as the fact that it couldn't convert to landing mode. This required the vehicle to have some ugly non-canon landing gear and have limited playability. The 2011 V-Wing is much better in almost every way, despite its different color scheme. Nevertheless, it was a fun, cheap little set which I would have recommended back then, but nowadays, with a much more accurate and playable version available, not so much.

*Signal Fades*

Pictures can be found in My Brickshelf (When moderated)

Past EB News Reviews can be found here.

[Brickdoctor]

Typical EB News humor. Nice job, Fangy and Shadows. (and Stauder, too, if you had a hand in this behind the scenes - I have no real way of telling)

[WhiteFang]

Typical EB News humor. Nice job, Fangy and Shadows. (and Stauder, too, if you had a hand in this behind the scenes - I have no real way of telling)

Thank you Brickdoctor and also for your input too.

The writing and pictures are done by me, while a portion of the editing which is obviously updated by Shadows! We can't get hold of Staudie as he is probably out for other missions.

Thank you for the blog too! It's a great honour.

[JackJonespaw]

Nice humorous review! I had to miss out on this set when it came out.

[def]

While I enjoyed this, I found it a little baffling. I have seen a few news interviews here and there, but didn't quite know what was going on. But the important thing is, I enjoyed it. I started buying heavily (look at me, using old drug slang to describe LEGO buying ) in 2008, and though I bought back into 2005 and earlier, I never picked up this set, and never bought the one after.

I've watched ROTS about three times, but never remembered much. If anything, I remember the movie better through LEGO and the LEGO Star Wars game. Still, I don't remember this ship. I find it hard to have a real opinion on a Star Wars set I haven't seen in action.

And looking forward to your next baffling review!

[Brickdoctor]

I've watched ROTS about three times, but never remembered much. If anything, I remember the movie better through LEGO and the LEGO Star Wars game. Still, I don't remember this ship. I find it hard to have a real opinion on a Star Wars set I haven't seen in action.

There really isn't much action to see. Supposedly, it appears in the background in the Battle of Coruscant, but I've never really looked for it or seen it. Then at the very end of the movie, it gets about ten seconds of TIE Fighter-duty, escorting Palpy's shuttle and flying by the Imperial Venators.

[WhiteFang]

Thanks guys!

I've watched ROTS about three times, but never remembered much. If anything, I remember the movie better through LEGO and the LEGO Star Wars game. Still, I don't remember this ship. I find it hard to have a real opinion on a Star Wars set I haven't seen in action.

Actually, I had never seen a V-Wing in action in any of the movies too. I thought I might have missed it, while watching the cinematic action. It does not strike a strong impression, as opposed to the iconic starfighters.

There really isn't much action to see. Supposedly, it appears in the background in the Battle of Coruscant, but I've never really looked for it or seen it. Then at the very end of the movie, it gets about ten seconds of TIE Fighter-duty, escorting Palpy's shuttle and flying by the Imperial Venators.

10 seconds?

I got to re-watch the ROTS again and pause at that frame.

[Brickdoctor]

10 seconds?

Ish. Give or take five seconds or so. It's been years since I last watched Sith. Seriously, this fighter gets very, very little screen time. Which is a pity, because I thought it was one of the better PT designs. It's quite angular, which I like. If the Battle of Coruscant hadn't been so concentrated on special effects that it had eleventy-one gazillion ships in it, the Alpha-3 could have been developed into a much more recognizable fighter.

[K-Nut]

Oh great. You guys are back. Great review! I've always had a certain fondness for this ship. I don't know why.

[Masked Builder]

Nice presentation Whitefang! I'm glad you decided to finish this one. I sure hope too see more EB news stuff!

Oh great. You guys are back. Great review! I've always had a certain fondness for this ship. I don't know why.

Hey EB News is AWESOME!

[WhiteFang]

Ish. Give or take five seconds or so. It's been years since I last watched Sith. Seriously, this fighter gets very, very little screen time. Which is a pity, because I thought it was one of the better PT designs. It's quite angular, which I like. If the Battle of Coruscant hadn't been so concentrated on special effects that it had eleventy-one gazillion ships in it, the Alpha-3 could have been developed into a much more recognizable fighter.

That is going to be challenging to identify this. As mentioned, this starfighter did not participate in major space battle scenes in the movies, so it is often, if not forgotten.

Hey EB News is AWESOME!

Thanks Masked Builder!