I have always felt this set is the worst designed set... in fact most of the 2008 sets i feel are bad.

 

has anybody done an update on this ship? I have done some strengthening to the sagging front and fixed the middle.... has anybody done anything else to it? or are we just waiting for a new one?

I would agree this is an awful design from Lego. But let us not forget this set was designed for children, as they have squeezed in play functions that do not fit to the sleek design of the venator. Maybe try removing the canon and bomb dropping function, so you can make the model thinner. If you are looking for a scale Venator design look at Anio or Primus's design, they are some of the best, and most accurate. Here is a thread you may be interested on: 

 

I would argue that there were many good sets in 2008 including the first UCS Death Star and the battlepacks and the AT-AP. All being said I do agree the Venator is one of the single worst TLG designs ever. While overpriced Assault on Hoth is not as horrible as that overweight star destroyer! (Nothing wrong with being overweight, but when your model is five times thicker then the source material that's a problem. 

40 minutes ago, Ellisss_2 said:

I would agree this is an awful design from Lego. But let us not forget this set was designed for children, as they have squeezed in play functions that do not fit to the sleek design of the venator. Maybe try removing the canon and bomb dropping function, so you can make the model thinner. If you are looking for a scale Venator design look at Anio or Primus's design, they are some of the best, and most accurate. Here is a thread you may be interested on: 

 

I saw that post. And my statement is that it looks horrible, has a bad build. And... is not for play with children. My son got it in 2008, i helped him build it. And watched him play with it. it flexes and falls apart. I have done mods. 

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The venator was 09... but the 2008 gunship is the same thing. It looks good, but play wise it is horrible... the 2013 is so much stronger.

I saw Sahidko's mod and it is good, but was wondering if there are others... I feel this one is best left alone... and maybe build a nice Midi version.

Edited December 13, 20168 yr by broomhandle

Not only was the set bad, but Emperor Palpatine's face was hideous! Plain hideous! It's extremely disturbing

So i guess the question is... Is this the worst Star Wars Lego set? I would have to say yes...

Tell me about the 7676. It was my first big set, I spent a good 8-10 hours building it as a kid. The next day when I wanted to play with it, it broke down in my hands...
 Still a great set though, I love it.

As for the 8039, it's not bad but not great either. Once I tried to build it, and when my best friend saw it, he told me to step aside and we heavily modified it to a Venator that's actually looks like a Venator. Granted it doesn't have many play features but it looks nice and that's enough.

But if you think 8039 is the worst SW set, just take a look at things like Podracer Bucker, Ultimate Lightsaber Duel or the original Sith Infiltrator.

7676 has structure flaw. the top section is not secure to the mid section. And the wings and engines are also not secure. the newest version fixes all these issues. 

as for the old sets being bad. I feel they do not count because they are just old. I actually just sold off most of my 99-01 sets. As i feel they were really cool back then, but just outdated and vintage now... they were never bad sets. Just old.

7676 and 8039 are poorly designed/engineered sets... 8039 wins for me as the worst designed set.

I liked this set because it was a venator until you guys pointed out its flaws  Any way I am one of those waiting for a new one. My brother got one and put it altogether just to have a little kid touch and break it, which really upset him. But now most of the ship is used in a base and the venator is pretty much just the structure with a little covering.

Wow, glad I didn't spring for this for the obscene aftermarket value this set currently demands... would be much better off doing a MOC from scratch. If you have a good sized Clone Wars display this ship is kinda important for your Republic forces. I do recall skimming through the parts list looking for rare/pricey pieces and the only ones that appeared to be in the category are the two large Republic logo plates on either side of the hull. 

A terrible set one of the worse. I long for the day of a Venator UCS set

Hmm I don't know... As much as I'm perfectionist when it comes to design (and especially when the Venator is regarded) I kind of feel with Lego designers on this. They had to implement some interior in it and given the complex shape this destroyer has, such task is impossible without big sacrifices on accuracy. Venator is far, far more challening than classic ISD.

I'm not saying this set is particularly good. In fact I agree that it looks quite awful and absolutely not true to the original. I also think, though, that there isn't much better way of designing this WITH some interior for minifigs. Not in this scale and certainly not with the lego set design restrictions.

I believe that I know nearly every Venator MOC ever built and shared on the internet. Excluding the micro scaled versions, these are all non-playable, moreless fragile standalone display sets. From those, the smallest and most affordable design that I'd call accurate enough is the Primus' design, which is about 3k ish pieces and is already quite big. (I don't consider my own design - I believe I may be somewhat biased on judging that one :D ). From there you can only go bigger - Thire5 design (improved by Anio) is 5k bricks beast already and you need a dedicated dining table to display that one...

What I'm trying to say that spitting on this 8039 lego set is easy but to the date noone has developed a competing design that would be so much better. I'm sure that there could be minor adjustments applied - some more details, greebling on sides, perhaps even slight structure improvements, thats e.g. what sahidko did. But on the whole, unless loosing the interior features or the (limited) swooshability, any significatnt improvement seems rather impossible to perform.