Oh NO! A LEGO Venator-class Republic Attack Cruiser. Get Down!!
Venator-class Republic Attack Cruiser
Rule the galaxy with the ultimate Republic starship!
Built for ship-to-ship combat and bristling with turbolaser batteries, the Venator-class Republic Attack Cruiser is Grand Chancellor Palpatines personal flagship during the Clone Wars. Open the front panel to access the Chancellors quarters, reveal the hidden wing-cannons, and drop bombs on the Separatist forces below! Includes Chancellor Palpatine, 2 elite Senate commando bodyguards, 1 clone trooper pilot and 1 clone trooper gunner.
- Includes 5 minifigures: Chancellor Palpatine, 2 elite Senate commando bodyguards, 1 clone trooper pilot and 1 clone trooper gunner!
- Open the front hood to play inside Palpatine’s detailed command center!
- Lift rear wings to reveal hidden gunnar and storage area for extra bombs and missiles!
- Dimensions: Length = 20 inches (50.8cm), Width = 12 inches (30.5cm), Height = 7 inches (17.8cm)!
- Open the front hood to play inside Palpatine’s detailed command center
- Lift rear wings to reveal hidden gunnar and storage area for extra bombs and missiles
- Dimensions: Length = 20 inches (50.8cm), Width = 12 inches (30.5cm), Height = 7 inches (17.8cm)
- Includes 5 minifigures (Chancellor Palpatine, 2 elite Senate commando bodyguards, 1 clone trooper pilot and 1 clone trooper gunner)
- 1170 pieces
This is a truly beautiful ship. The overall shape and style are dead on to the movie version However, the proportions have been adjusted a bit to fit minifig vignettes inside and still make it affordable, but I’m ok with that. Specifically, the ship body is stretched up about double and the front of the ship is quite shortened. It mostly gives the effect of looking at it at an angle even when looking directly from the side, top or front.
The construction is a complex combination of technic framing and stud-out.
There are only 16 standard bricks in the whole set. If you liked building the Star Destroyer, Twilight, AT-TE or AT-OT, then you’ll be happy building this set. The construction is where I’m scoring most of my ‘play experience’ points.
The vignettes inside are limited, but run from ok to beautiful. Palpatine’s office, desk and chair are very well designed (I know that sounds odd) and includes a death star ‘hologram’ piece. The bomb dropper is clever, though it takes up more room than I’d like. The slide out clone gunner looks tough, but again takes up a lot of space since he slides all the way across. The gun uses flick-fires, which you can only fire if you point it at the ship (dumb); it would have been far better as a technic spring cannon. The escape pod design is ok; its engines look good, but the pod portion is rough and a tired design. The bridge is very boring.
Two of the clones are older designs. The blue commandos are new and very cool. Palpatine looks like the dark side is eating away at him (they should have included his light saber and hidden it somewhere). It’s a good selection of figs, but I would like to have gotten another prominent character.
Now to compare to the Imperial Star Destroyer from 2006. The Venator is about 80% of the length, width and height of the ISD. This makes it appear about 2/3 of the ISD’s size, volume-wise. It has about 150 fewer pieces, so it should be a bit smaller. Now it costs more than the ISD (3 years of inflation and the major price hike in Lego Clone Wars), but it’s on the cheap side of Lego Clone Wars pricing at about $0.10/piece. The biggest reason why the Venator is smaller than the ISD is that the ISD was very hollow inside. The Venator is packed so full of detail that there’s little room to add or change anything. But just as important is that the Venator is a MUCH stronger model. Unlike the ISD, the panels here are mostly 3-5 layers of larger plating. The floor is made of huge plates so your hand won’t push through if you pick it up from below. And best of all, the technic beams behind the big red strip on top are a fold-out handle that is built into the strong technic frame. It’s very swooshable.
About the only thing I can find fault with on this model is that some of the joints in the plating are a bit open. The midship side openings have huge gaps. The bridge towers meet the rear ‘wings’ in gaps that are a stud wide. Like the ISD, the rear engine area has massive gaps at the top and bottom. The problem with this isn’t so much the look of the ship, as the fact that a bunch of tan/red internal connectors can easily be seen from outside. These are all pieces that are still being made in gray, so I don’t see why they used off-colors.
If you like Star Wars ships, then this is a must-buy and worth every penny. If you’re mostly into figs, this is a tough sell. $120 is a lot to pay for two common figs, two new commandos and Palpatine.
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