Review:8019 Republic Attack Shuttle
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$59.99
€69.99
£49.99
$99.99
Reviews
Agent Charge
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| Review:8019 Republic Attack Shuttle by Agent Charge | |||||||||||||
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- “Beware, Separatists!”
- ―The Republic Attack Shuttle
History and Overview
I got this set second-hand as a result of a trade with one of my friends. The ship was missing a few parts, but it doesn't make that much of a difference. I can always replace them with other ones. I also missed out on getting the Clone Pilot, which was rather of a disappointment to me. The set has some really nice pieces, which are useful for using in my various MOCs.
Overall, I would say that the Republic Attack Shuttle is great–it has come really nice features, and has a good, mostly-sturdy build. The weapons are great, and it's a really good model for my The Clone Wars collection. It is one of my favorite Republic ships that LEGO has made so far.
The Minifigures
First of all, I'll start with the minifigures. Now remember, I only got Mace Windu and the Clone Trooper from the trade, but not the Clone Pilot.
Mace Windu is a great Jedi, and one of my favorites in the movie. I like the dark beige/sand clothes, but especially the torso markings. They're great, and I have used them for many of my MOC minifigures. The torso has no back markings, but that is okay. The face is good, if you're going to use it for Mace Windu. I don't usually use this face for my MOC minifigures, as the eyes are too high up compared to normal minifigure printings, and many hairpieces look stupid on him, but it may be because he doesn't really have hair in the set. The only other con about this minifigure is the arms and hands. In the movie he has white clone armor over his forearms, and black gloves. In the set, however, he has dark beige arms and brown hands. I personally don't really like this. Instead of having the 'real' arms, the ones included in the set, I swapped my beige arms and brown hands for white arms and black hands, and it looks so much better. Mace Windu's lightsaber is really cool. Purple. Ahh… The only problem is that I lost it (well, not me, one of my younger brothers), which is quite annoying. The other two minifigure in the set are the the Clone Trooper, and the Clone Pilot, whom I will discuss next.
The Clone Trooper is awesome! I mean, he's Clone Wars! I like his front and back markings, and use the torso for many different MOC minifigures. The head is great, and so is the helmet, but I don't use them as much as the torso. The blaster included for him is nice, although I like snipers better, and would have preferred one of those instead.
I didn't manage to get the Clone Pilot, but I really like him anyway. Clone Pilots are much like the Clone Troopers, but they have more markings, including some yellow printings.
The Ship
That's right. Now we're up to the main pert of the set: the Republic Attack Shuttle! I really like the shuttle, and has many play abilities. First of all, I'll start
with the wings.
The wings of the ship are nice, with all the colours and stuff. The grey at the light grey nearest the body of the ship is nice, and then with the maroon at the ends and yellow symbols. I modify my wings by adding on a transparent dark orange stud near the back, and a Republic symbol near the middle of each wing. The Republic symbols can be taken from Clone Walkers, which is where I got mine. The way the wings can rise and fall is great, and I like the angles at which they rest when down–not too low, and not too high when they are up. The wings connect onto the body, the next part of the model that I will evaluate.
The body of the ship is the main part. Underneath are some stationary landing gear, which are nice, even though they don't retract back into the body of the ship. There is a hole in the middle bottom for the bar that holds the missile in to fall through, and the plates which hold the bombs in, but can also let them drop. The interior of the ship is really nice. There is a blue seat at the front, and a weapons cache at the back. At the front of this you can put blasters, and there are two clips for lightsabers, although you can also clip snipers and blasters onto them, which I often do.
The bombs are kept at each side of the section with the seat and the weapons cache. The bombs themselves are really great, and there are four included. They have a light grey pole running through the middle of them, and therefore are much stronger then if they didn't. The bombs can be dropped by turning a black hinge at the back. One of the nice functions of the bombs is that you can either have one of them drop in turn, or both at the same time. On the area with the seat, there is a hinge with a separator to separate the bombs, so that only one will fall when it is turned. The plate the holds the bombs in, when turned, raises he separator for the second bomb. When the plate is put back to it's normal position, it lets the second bomb slide into the place of the first bomb, which is then able to drop. If the separators are taken off in the first place, then both of the bomb will drop at the same time, giving it more variability. I personally
like to drop each bomb in turn. On the outsides of the bomb section are two big
cylinders, which I will talk about next.
The cylinders have the main engines at the back, and guns at the front. The build of the guns, IMO, is ingenious. The guns at the front have a long gun in the middle, and a smaller one underneath. Above the long gun is a half-circle of black studs. This build is really cool, and I like how they can rotate. At the back of the cylinder pars are some 6-stud engines, which are on a tilt. On the inside of these is the hinge to drop the bombs. Above this is the rest of the back section, which includes four more transparent-light-blue-stud engines, and the hinges to open up the roof of the model to access the inside. At the front is the cockpit, my next part to talk about.
The cockpit can fit two seats, one at the front for the pilot, and one directly behind it for the gunner or passenger. My favorite function of the cockpit is the way the glass can open, with one part going up to the front, and a second section that rises at the back. I also like the guns at the sides, and how they use mallets to hold them in. The design at the front of where, in the movies, the door would go. The cockpit is connected onto the body by some hinges, although the friction on mine have worn down, and the cockpit sometimes falls off, which is annoying. At each side of the cockpit are the hinges to open the top of the ship, which I will next evaluate.
The top of the ship has two parts: the bomb roof, and the passenger area roof, which is also the missile section. Two hinges stop the roof from rising, but the hinges can be turned, allowing the roof to open up. The roof over the missile section is hinged down, but can be lifted slightly to slide bombs in. The only problem with this is that it is hard to put the separator down then loaded this way. I really like the patterns on the bomb roofs, with the white sloping pieces, and then the hinge piecers for extra detail. The other part of the roof is the missile area, which will be discussed next.
The missile section is really cool, and probably my favorite part of the set. It has a nice, sleek build, and I like the maroon sloping pieces at the front, as well as the pole in front of the missiles. The white bar to hold the missiles is is nice, and I like the 8 flick-fire missiles that can be easily fired, especially since they have the 'light bulb' pieces at the front. The missile section works quite well, but there is a slight problem, which I will discuss soon. The way the missile section works, is that a bar at the back is pushed, which in turned pushes a piece, which fires the missile. A rubber band pules the part that fires the missile back, the bar with the missiles slides down, and then he next missile can be fired. The set includes a small, white rubber band, but after much use, mine broke, and I now use a different one. The problem with the missile section that I mentioned above is this: sometimes, after much use, the bar that pushes the piece to fire the missiles can sometimes bend upwards a bit, and, the rubber band not having a lot of power, can not pull it back. The bar is kept there by the friction, disabling any more missiles form firing, until you manually push it back. This problem be fixed, however, as I will now tell you. There is a 2x2x1 space above the bar, in which the bar bends into. By getting a 2x2x1 piece, and placing it in the gap, and then putting the top piece on. You have to be careful, however, that the hold of the white piece is not pointing upwards, but to the sides, enabling it to move better. After doing this, the missiles fire easily again, although you do have to be careful to keep the top piece pressed on tightly, or the bar will still bend.
This is what it is supposed to happen
The bar bending when pushed
The hole upwards–this is the wrong way
The hole to the sides–this is the correct way
place 2x2x1 brick in
Push the plate on, and you're done!
Value for Money
In NZ (New Zealand), this set is $139.99. I think that this is a bit much, as in the USA it is much cheaper ($59.99 US), even with the change of currency. I think that it is more about $120, or somewhere around there. I'm okay with the price though, as it is a great set.
Overall
Overall I would say that the Republic Attack Shuttle is great. It comes with some really nice features that work easily, or with little trouble, but can be fixed. I would recommend this set to anyone, although I don't think that it is sold anymore. This is my second favorite Star Wars ship that I own, the other being Plo Koon's Jedi Starfighter.
| Overall Rating |   4½ / 5 |
| Play Experience | 4½ / 5 |
| Minifigures | 4½ / 5 |
| Value for Money |  4 / 5 |
| Ship | 5 / 5 |
| Pieces | 5 / 5 |
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