Lock S-foils in Attack Position

The 4th day of the 5th Moon, an observed commemorative day for the Force “sensitive”, once again arrived amidst this troubling period. Known as Star Wars Day, the fandom celebrate the Saga itself as a whole, a bond that binds regardless of species, races or politics…

Earlier the year, I’d mentioned that I’ll post up a review of the other set I got together with LEGO Star Wars 75299 Trouble on Tatooine, but have since yet to actually write anything about it.

Well, since May the 4th is here, might as well to finally get this done with…

I’ve been wanting to acquire the iconic Starfighter of the Rebel Alliance for quite some time now. Amongst the all available variants released over the years, all of them (aside from a select few aimed at the much younger audience) are categorized as the higher range, more expensive sets.

At least until the arrival of LEGO Star Wars 75301 Luke Skywalker’s X-Wing Starfighter.

This variant, while just a tiny wee bit smaller than its previous incarnations, falls on a much afforable price tag, many thanks to a whole lot less pieces used by them talented LEGO set designers for the realisation of the Starfighter itself.

The set consists of 4 poly-bags full of LEGO pieces, tallying at about 474 in total. Of course, an instruction manual as well as a large sheet of stickers are part of the package.

The build process is pretty straight forward, with the emphasis on the Technic-based block that is part of the S-foil Servo Actuator mechanism to deploy the titular wings.

Although there are a few inaccuracies from the source material, Luke’s X-Wing looks very visually appealing and adequately represented, from its overall sand white colour scheme, to the Laser Cannons on the wings.

Even the afterburner is represented with a clear pink LEGO piece for each of the Fusial Thrust Engines.

The build from the Starfighter’s nose cone to the cockpit is pretty interesting, with its sides being angled towards the wider end of the fuselage at the rear side of the craft.

Of course the canopy can be opened to house Luke himself, albeit he had to lie a bit to his back in order to get him fully inside the cockpit. A shame that no targeting sensor module is implemented inside for his “Let go” moment in Episode IV, not to mention a storage space for his Lightsaber since the cockpit area is too small to allow such addition.

Artoo sits just behind the cockpit on a rather raised position. Canonically, it should only had its domed head visible with the rest of its body below the fuselage’s surface. A simple fix of removing and/or replacing certain LEGO pieces inside should do the trick for those looking for accuracy.

The Laser Cannons are nicely-seated upon the end of each wings in a very secured build. Although the Magnetic Flashback Suppressor behind each of the Laser Tips are in a disc shape, they are no less a good-looking alternative which I can avert my eyes the other way. As always, a couple of spring-loaded shooters are installed underneath each of the lower wings.

It’s a bit disappointing that LEGO left the intake part of the engines hollow, instead of adding a few pieces to simulate the T-shaped as in the actual Starfighter itself.

Turning its belly over, we can see that the landing gears are represented with ski parts. They are not able to retract and are permanentally fixed in landed position, unfortunately.

Now to the main event: it’s time to lock S-foils into attack position!

By triggering a button just behind Artoo and above the fuselage, one can manually open the four wings in its distinctive X formation, much to its namesake. Unlike its more expensive brethren, this set doesn’t have the rubber band mechanism that allows the S-foils to retract, so for this one you’ll have to manually close the wings back to its cruising formation.

For a mid range build set, it comes with a nice amount of four mini-figs, including the basic and non-changing R2-D2, Luke Skywalker himself in pilot suit, Princess Leia in her ceremonial gown, as well as General Dodonna.

All of the human mini-figs have a second face behind their head.