I was at Walmart this weekend looking for deals, but the only SW Lego left on the shelf was 8036 Separatists Shuttle. It looked so lonely that I picked it up and thought I would try my first review.
Details
Pieces = 259
Retail MSRP: $29.99
Price per piece = 11.5 cents
Minifigures = 5
The Box
The box is fairly consistent with the rest of the SW Clone Wars line. Here's the front showing the shuttle swooshing along.
The back shows Nute & droids, presumably in negotiations with Onaconda.
Inside the box we find four bags, one instruction book and one dreaded sticker sheet.
The minifigures are part of the draw of this set. We get two exclusives (Nute & Onaconda), one fairly rare blue pilot droid and two regular battle droids
Both Nute and Onaconda have some simple screening on the front of the torsos and nothing on the back of the torsos. Nute's hat is. . . large but captures the look and feel of his character from the animated series. Onaconda's head is nicely molded with good detail.
The build was quick but remained interesting with very little repetition. The finished ship is shown here:
The cockpit is a little disappointing. It is small and without any computer or navigation controls.
The rear of the shuttle opens on some nifty hidden gears and has a removable seat that fits snugly in the compartment.
PRO's
Five minifigures, two of which are exclusive to this set
Nice design that is accurate to the animated series
Good swooshability of the final shuttle
CON's
Price. At almost $30, it is very pricey per piece, especially considering the number of droids they included to up the piece count.
Size of the shuttle. I'd have liked to to be able to hold more than one pilot droid and Nute.
Lack of detail in the cockpit. Anything would have helped here to make it feel a little more functional.
Final Verdict
I would recommend this set at full retail price to only serious SW Clone Wars collectors. If you get find it on sale, it is lot of fun.
My impulse control could use some improvement!