6836 - V-Wing Fighter

Rating:
Pros: Nice design; surprisingly rebuildable
Cons: Few normal bricks; busy colors
Contents: 39 pieces including one mini-fig
Price: Discontinued
Reviewed: 20-Sep-2000
Reviewed by: Gareth Bowler

Swift, deadly and expendable, the android-piloted V-Wing Fighters swarmed around the E.S.S. Explorien like locusts. At the Explorien Star Base, on the other side of the galaxy, they could only listen in horror across the commlink.
"...too many of them!"
"...can't hold them off much longer!"
"...they're breaking through!"
And then, nothing but ominous silence.

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I was given this set as a Secret Santa/Secret Snowflake/Secret Nondenominational- Gift-Giving-Entity- Who-Isn't-Santa-To- Avoid-Offending- Non-Christians-Despite- The-Fact-That- Santa-Claus-Has-About-As- Much-To-Do-With- The-Birth-of-Jesus-as- Chocolate-Eggs-and- a-Bunny-Have-To-Do- With-His-Resurrection present and I rather like it. Admittedly, it's just your typical small Lego space set: wings, guns, thruster, and mini-fig; but it serves as a very good intro to its subtheme.

For only 39 pieces, you do end up with a surprisingly big ship, although this is mostly due to the large, slanting wing pieces. These are pretty neat, although I have found them less useful in rebuilds than the ones that slope the other way with the big end up rather than big end down. Pieces of note, aside from the wings, include the thruster (3x3 tapering to 2x2) and the 1x2 UFO computer tile. A short list, yes, but what do you want for $4?

The android that comes with this set has apparently not developed the telekinesis that many of the UFO aliens and androids use to steer their crafts. In addition to the computer screen, he has two control sticks to play with.

All in all, this is a good set, although it does exemplify one of the problems with the UFO sub-theme. When you get the set put together, you realize that only a very small percentage of it is plain brick. Between the pre-printed logo, mini-fig, computer tile, wings, and all the translucent parts, you end up with a very busy looking little ship. Despite this, I'm going to go ahead and give it a four...if for no other reason than I normally dislike little sets, but I really liked this one, so it must be good.