[REVIEW]: 8088 ARC-170 Starfighter

[hatcher]

Indexed

Set Name: ARC-170 Starfighter
Set Number: 8088
Theme: Star Wars (The Clone Wars)
Year: 2010
Pieces: 396
Minifigures: 4
MSRP: $79.99 (CDN) $59.99 (USD)

The second version of the ARC-170 Starfighter to hit the shelves, this one is released under the clone wars brand. Is it worth getting? Lets take a look.

From Shop@home:
Blast the Separatists out of space with the powerful ARC-170!

Droid forces beware – the ARC-170 Starfighter™ has arrived! Built with the latest in Republic technology, this Clone Wars™ fighter-bomber carries a crew of clone pilots and Jedi Master Kit Fisto™ into battle anywhere the enemy strikes. Turn the gear on the back to open and close the S-foil attack wings, then push it to launch auto-firing flick missiles!

Includes four minifigures: Captain Jag™, Clone Pilot™, Kit Fisto and Astromech Droid™
Turn gear on back to open or close the S-foil attack wings!
Push gear to launch auto-firing flick missiles!
Measures over 7" (17cm) tall
Wingspan measures over 19" (48cm) wide
link: http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/cli ... 6d%253D322" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Re-releases tend to get bashed as being unnecessary, or ugly, (unless they are clearly superior to the original, such as the Slave-1 re-release (all 3 versions)). How does this one measure up?

Here is the front of the box (sorry the left side is cut off, its a BIG box). The 2010 boxes, at least the second wave, seemed very long and thin, in comparison to previous Star Wars sets.

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The back of the box shows some of the other sets available in this wave, and some of the play features of the set. The ARC is clearly supposed to be the pre-cursor of the X-Wing, but it reminds me more of the Y-Wing, as this reminds me more of a WWII bomber than a fighter.

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The contents of the box. An instruction book, 2 large loose white pieces, 4 numbered bags (1,1,2,and 3) and the dreaded sticker sheet. Since I still haven't decided whether to display this set or break it up for parts, I didn't put on the stickers.

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The cover of the instruction book

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A random page from the instruction book shows that this set uses numbered steps complete with parts needed.

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Here are the contents of bags numbered 1. These parts give us the minifigures and the parts to make the body of the ship. Nothing jumps out at me as being new except the minifigure parts.

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As we start the construction of the body, I am shocked that I am adding flick fire missiles this early! That's them, the green cones sticking out of the front there.

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The gear box mechanism before it is attached. This will be used to open the wings, but it also is used to launch the flick fires.

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And in place. (Sorry about the glare, a professional photographer I am not).

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The technique pieces here will be used to hold the engines later.

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There should be a sticker on that dark grey slope to represent the controls. I remember when those were printed elements. Considering the price they are charging for this, I am a bit disappointed.

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More pieces added on give us a better idea of what this ship will look like when finished.

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the front of the ship added on using hinged pieces, a technique I first remember seeing in the wookiee catamaran back in 2005.

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These pieces give us the middle and read pilot seats, and the basis of the droid location.

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More pieces added to the main body

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The front of the ship top view

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And the bottom of the front of the ship.

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The bottom of the front of the ship completed. I am very impressed with the use of the elements to have the studs on the bottom like that.

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Nearing the end of the this section.

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These parts are I believe the tail laser guns. They move from left to right so the rear pilor can shoot down any droids that get behind them. Too bad Biggs didn't have something like that on his X-Wing during the battle of Yavin.

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Just about done now. The hinges are in place to hold the cockpit windshields. (Are they still called Windshields in vacuum?)

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And the completed body of the fighter, with spare parts on the side. Its a sleek looking craft at this point, but it still has no wings or engines.

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The pilots and droid have been added now. While I think it would be highly impractical in real life, the droid sits between the middle and rear pilots.

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On to bag number 2. This bag contains the parts to make the engines (when you add the two large white pieces that are not bagged). As you can see, it is almost all technique parts. I am not a fan of technique as a style, but I know it has its uses in complex sets like this. However, I think technique should be hidden as much as possible, but in this set, its right out there.

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What's in the cardboard? Why its elastic bands. Is this a new thing? Do all sets with elastics package them this way instead of the old large plastic holders?

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Now, on to the build. Since there are two engines, one on each side, you just build everything twice. Everything here is held together by a long axle.

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This part of the build includes something I never thought I'd see in a Star Wars set, trans-pink disks!

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The giant engines on the front

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These odd looking contraptions will eventually hold the wings in place.

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Here they are in place next to the engines.

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Another set of axles through the sides, they will be used to open and close the wings.

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The completed engines and spare parts.

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And the engines added to the body of the ship.

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The final bag gives us the parts for the wings. There are 3 wings on each side, two non-moving wings, and 4 smaller moving wings. There are 10 white 2x4 tiles here. Cool!

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Since the two solid wings are mirror ikmages of each other, I'll just show one at a time.

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And from the bottom

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There are guns of some kind on the bottom, here is the mechanism for holding the guns on.

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And here we have the completed fixed wings in place.

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The moving wings are very simple, so here they are. 2 for each side, one faces up, and one faces down. The two with the round tile go on the top (there is supposed to be a republic symbol on them, but its a sticker. I remember when the republic symbols were printed,)

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And the wings attached (bottom view).

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And the completed ship from the top. It is very long in both length and width. And, it looks very nice. As far as I can tell from looking at pictures of the original ARC-170, the wings and engines are almost the same, with the bulk of the changes coming in the design of the body.

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Here is a shot of the wings open. You turn the wheel at the back, and the mechanism inside spins, opening, and then closing the wings. You can just make out the mechanism that pushes the wings open.

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The cockpits open.

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And last, but not least, the minifigures. You get, from left to right, Kit Fisto, Captain Jag, a Clone Pilot, and an astromech. I think his name is r4-P44. The only difference between Jag and the other pilot (since they are clones after all) is the helmet colouring. Kit Fisto is the same as his previous incarnation, with a soft plastic head.

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Here are the backs of the minfigures. The clones have torso printing on the back, but not the droid or Kit.

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Here is Kits head on its side so you can see how it looks, Jag without his helmet on. The orange visors are painted onto the faces.

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And one final shot of r4-p44, just because I think you can't get enough astromechs.

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Final thoughts. While the ship is ok, its not exactly one of the iconic vessels from Star Wars, and certainly not the first one to pop to mind. And, at full price, its absolutely ridiculous pricing. The minifigures are good, especially Kit Fisto, so if you are a completest like myself, and just have to have everything, or you missed the first one from 2005, I'd say get it, but wait for a sale. (Toys R Us Canada is having one this week (Feb 25th - March 4th, 2011)

[koromo]

Nice review, yet another one I thought of doing heh. :)

I had built mine recently during yet another snow storm and had it side-by-side of my dusty ROTS version.

The main hull is a much better design than the first release, especially the nose construction. The main engines though bigger I think the originals looked better. The new s-foil mechanism is clever indeed.

I am tempted to take the nicer features of the first release and build them in the new one, especially any of the printed bricks. The canopies (windscreens) are structurally better but I just couldnt bring myself to play with the stickers in this set.

I got mine on a sale plus some tru-buks to knock the price down further. Happy hunting and building.

[legohunter]

Thx for the detail and pics. The only thing I don't like is that the orange visors were painted onto the clone faces. Couldn't TLC keep the visor as an individual piece, could they.

Thx for this second release, I did not have to pay skyrocketed price for first ARC-170. I am now looking forward the upcoming Millennium Falcon.

[Luciant]

This is probably one of my favorite Star Wars sets. The foil and the mechanism that makes the wings move is spectacular. I almost went and bought another one I liked it so much.