Subject:
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Review of the 7191 Ultimate Collector Series X-Wing
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lugnet.loc.au
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Date:
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Fri, 1 Sep 2000 11:18:42 GMT
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Having been on holidays this week, I've had time for more Lego building than
normal. So, having just finished building the 7191 UCS X-Wing, I thought I'd
write a short review.
Firstly go take a look at the photo off the box:
http://www.lugnet.com/pause/search/?query=7191
and you will see what it *doesn't* look like. The box photo looks
greyish-blue to me. The real thing is primarily white with red, grey (light
and dark) and beige accents. Oh, and two green tiles for no apparent reason
whatsoever. I find the beige a bit "blah"; I think I'd like it better if the
beige bits were blue or yellow instead instead. There are yellow and blue
parts in the model but only in the internal areas, and are not visible when
you finish. I prefer the primary colour being white in preference to the
grey used on the 7140 baby X-Wing:
http://www.lugnet.com/pause/search/?query=7140-1
Obviously there are a lot of similarities in shape between the baby X-Wing
and the UCS X-Wing, as I am sure many of you will know the baby X-Wing, I
will make a number of comparisons (since I have both models constructed here
at the moment).
The UCS X-Wing is quite big. It is approx 45 cm wide wing-tip to wing-tip,
55 cm long nose to tail, and the starfighter is about 20cm high (distance
between the top of the upper wing laser cannon and the bottom of the lower
wing laser cannon). The UCS X-Wing comes with a black pedestal to mount it
on for display purposes, which adds an extra 11-14cm to the height from the
ground. The pedestal can sit at two angles, one holds the ship almost
horizontal (although the nose is slightly elevated) while the other is a
more rakish take-off angle (hence the two different heights).
In constrast, the baby X-wing is 24 cm wide, 27 cm long, and 11 cm high
(excluding its base). So the UCS X-Wing is about twice as large in each
dimension. The mathematically-aware among you will realise this makes it
about 8 times larger in volume. No correspondence on the volume of non-cubic
shapes will be entered into :-)
The laser cannons mounted on the ends of each wing are 32 cm long, so they
are much longer proportionally on the UCS X-Wing compared with the 8cm long
ones on the baby X-Wing. The baby X-Wing uses the standard Star Wars single
piece "laser cannon", while the UCS X-Wing laser cannons are constructed
from lots of round pieces, axles, and sleeves. The rear section of the laser
cannon protrudes a bit off the back of the wing and is a bit loose and can
be knocked off (but easily put back).
Unlike the baby X-Wing, there is no pilot for the UCS X-Wing and frankly it
looks empty without one. Clearly a minifig would be ridiculously small, but
I found that the larger figures found in some Technics sets do fit the
cockpits (albeit snugly). I used the one out of the 8239 Cyber Challenge as
he has a kind of hi-tech look about him. Although he fits wearing his
helmet, it looks less cluttered in the cockpit if he doesn't wear the
helmet. Note that there is a fairly large footwell in the cockpit, so it may
have been intended that you use these figures. (But then, why didn't Lego
supply such a figure for the pilot?).
Both sets feature an R2 Astromech Droid (as the UCS X-Wing "sales catalogue"
at the back of the instructions calls it) positioned behind the cockpit. The
UCS X-Wing uses the same "R2D2" as the baby X-Wing, so arguably it is too
small for the UCS set as it is only about knee-height relative to the pilot
and R2D2 in the movies was closer to hip or waist height (equally, the R2D2
is too big for use in the baby X-wing with its minifig pilot). However,
sitting up in behind the cockpit, it looks OK as the discrepancy in size
isn't really noticeable.
Being so much larger than the baby X-Wing, the UCS X-Wing features a lot
more detail. However, the problem with the details on an X-Wing is that I
can't identify what the details are supposed to be (due to my lack of
familiarity with real-life starfighters, I guess). The "sales catalogue"
identifies some of these things as reserve power cells, power couplings,
deflector shield projector, deflector shield generators, sensor windows,
life support, etc. So let us assume that all the lumps and bumps and grids
and grooves are indeed reserve power cells etc.
On the underside (in about the same relative position as the cockpit canopy
on the topside), there is an upside-down mounted opaque canopy which opens
to provide access into the "cargo bay". However, the real purpose of the
cargo bay on the underside is to provide an empty space at the bottom of the
model into which you slot the pedestal for display purposes. Indeed, when
you consider the scale of the model, the cargo bay is really more of a
"storage bin" in size.
The 4 wings are more-or-less identical except for:
* the 2 upper wings having an extra little flap underneath (purpose unknown)
* the 2 upper wings have a beige piece in their laser cannons which is a
grey piece in the 2 lower wings (personally I'd have preferred all to be
grey)
* the upper left and lower right laser cannons (i.e. diagonally opposed)
both have smooth barrels while the other two have crinkle-cut cannons. I
found this too asymmetric for my taste and swapped them around so the
crinkle-cuts are on the upper wings and the smooth on the lower.
Unlike the baby X-wing, the lower wings of the UCS X-Wing are mounted
studside-down. The baby X-wing has transparent orange bricks at the rear of
the 4 wing-mounted engines to simulate the burning exhaust gases, but the
UCS X-wing's engines (same position) just finish with a dark grey
bulb-shaped piece. Fortunately, the bulb piece will accommodate the addition
of a burning exhaust at back of it, should you so desire.
The real joy of the UCS X-Wing is that the wings are not connected by simple
click-hinges, but rather hidden in the rear of the fuselage, there is a
bunch of axles and gears into which the wings are invisibly connected. There
is a large Hand of God knob at the rear of the fuselage which you can turn
to adjust the wing angles from X-formation (a gap of about 10cm between
upper and lower wingtip) down into horizontal (no gap), and back again. This
may account for the studside-down orientation of the lower wing, as it
probably better facilitates the upper and lower wing coming together in the
horizontal position.
Is it an interesting set for parts? Most parts are pretty standard, but
there are some that are new to me. I recall someone saying it would be a
great set for large plates. While there are a number of large plates in the
set, there are not as many large plates in the wings as you might have
thought. If you just want plates, buy a few of those Sith Infiltrators that
Toyworld were selling for $40. That would be cheaper than a UCS X-Wing.
There is a very specialised piece designed to house the meshing of a worm
gear and a teethed gear, which I have not seen before. Since Technics sets
regularly build such things without this specialised piece, I would call it
a SPUD, but it is a useful little gadget that I can see myself exploiting
out of laziness in the future. There are also 4 large gentle gradient
slopes, base area 8 by 6 studs, with a gradient of 1 in 6. I think these
would be useful items to have in a parts collection, for example a shallow
ramp into a building for vehicles. There is also a new hinge (full brick
height). It consists of two 1x2 bricks which have a tube and a pin
respectively. The pin drops into the tube, enabling the bricks to move in
the horizontal plane relative to one another. These hinges are used to
create a slight oblique angle in the forward fuselage (which is perfectly
straight in the baby X-wing). I think the job could have been done with the
more common plate-height hinges, so I don't think these hinges are being
used to solve some technical problem.
There are a number of round pieces that are new to me. The front of the
engines is made from a 4x4 round ring (i.e. hollow). You can put an axle
through the ring (i.e. across its diameter) which is really the only way to
connect this ring piece to the rest of a model. The bulb-shaped pieces at
the rear of the engine are also new to me. There are also a few pieces that
look like R2D2's torso (but without the artwork). There are some pieces
about the size of a 2x2 round brick but with more of a barrel-shape. Other
that building "totem pole"-like structures (which the engines and laser
cannons essentially are), I can't think of much other use for these pieces.
There are two sheets of stickers, a number of which cross multiple pieces.
So far I have not applied the stickers. The model looks quite good without
them and looking at the pictures of the model with the stickers applied, the
stickers don't seem to enhance the model particularly. I am seriously
thinking of not bothering with the stickers. The cabin canopy has to have
stickers applied to a number of surfaces, but I like it better completely
clear. It would be better visibility for the pilot that way.
The model overall is fairly heavy. There are 1300+ pieces and most are
larger pieces than smaller pieces. In particular the weight of the wings
relative to the fuselage and the weight of the model relative to its stand
both seem to be a bit close to the margin. If you rock the model, you will
see a lot of vibration through it. Don't rock it too hard or I think the
model will fall off its pedestal. I have heard people say the wings drop
off, but mine haven't although they can certainly vibrate.
Although large and time-consuming, the model is relatively easy to build.
Indeed, by the 4th wing, you can just about build the wing in your sleep.
Certainly I don't believe what the catalogue says about "14+ ... it's for
grown ups ... unless you are an expert Lego builder". About the only mildly
tricky thing is to make sure that when you put the last gears into place
that the wing attachment points for the upper and lower wing are in the
correct relative positions; this is illustrated very clearly in the
instruction manual. Given that more complex Technics models like the 8448
Supercar say "from 10 years", it's hard to see why the UCS X-Wing is rated
as being so much more difficult. Maybe it's a marketing thing?
At 124 pages, the instruction manual is a monster, with pages 4-119 being
the actual instructions. However, the instructions are very "spaced out",
and 64 of those pages are devoted to making the 4 virtually identical wings.
The rest of the pages are mostly Star Wars catalogue. One page shows a
single picture of an alternate "fighter design" (no instructions), which is
best described as ugly. I don't think I shall bother with trying to make it.
So, to summarise, the UCS X-Wing is impressively large, sleek looking,
mysteriously detailed, with adjustable-angled wings. It would be better with
a pilot and without the use of beige pieces.
Kerry
--
Kerry Raymond
kerry@dstc.edu.au
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