Earlier this year, we saw a Republic starfighter that hadn’t been seen in LEGO form for several years hit the market. Now it’s not groundhog day – but on August 1, we are getting another LEGO Star Wars Republic starfighter that hasn’t been seen on shelves since 2008! This time, it’s 75432 V-19 Torrent Starfighter; a craft that appeared early on in the Clone Wars animated series, but was seldom seen subsequently. With 567 pieces, it has an RRP of US $64.99 | CAN $84.99 | UK £59.99; you might see it on third-party retail sites like eBay or Amazon, too. Let’s see if it will receive a torrent of praise!
The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
The box and build
Five paper bags are in our thumb-punch box. There’s also a sticker sheet, but not a very big one.
We start off with a solid Technic frame for the main body of this starfighter. There’s a rather conspicuous hole in the middle initially…
But that’s quickly filled in with a moderately complex SNOT assembly. This forms an attachment point for one of the V-19’s three folding wings.
That central wing is the most substantial of the three, and has a Technic core with some rather interesting ways of integrating 3.18mm bars. It’s these that the clips are for, holding the wing steady in either configuration.
The cockpit is built up next, and here we have a mighty interesting piece! This 4-wide conical cockpit has been part of LEGO’s arsenal for a long time, but this is the first time that we’re getting it in trans-yellow. Classic Space builders rejoice! In fact, it’s already attracted the attention of some of my space explorers…
After that, the final step is to build the wings. The back one comes first, and the two side ones finish things off by attaching to some Technic ball joints buried within the engine nacelles. Although they’re built one after the other, the stickers for the engine intakes don’t go on until right towards the end.
The minifigures
With a long-awaited starfighter come some long-awaited minifigures. We have two good guys – Obi-Wan Kenobi and a clone pilot – facing off against Sith assassin Asajj Ventress.
All three feature back printing. Obi-Wan is the only one to get a reversible head. The clone pilot gets a new mould for its helmet, correctly removing the fin that appears on most other Phase I clones (and previous LEGO clone pilots).
Asajj Ventress is probably the weakest of the three figures. Her purple robes seem a little too bright for me, and I don’t like these glazed-over eyes some non-human figs have these days (Ahsoka has them, too). Still, the head printing is fantastic, and we do get her curved lightsaber hilts back!
You’ll notice that Obi-Wan has some nice arm printing, too, depicting the clone armour he wears over his Jedi robes during the Clone Wars. It’s similar in style to the Mace Windu minifigure we got a few years ago in 75342 Republic Fighter Tank. Kenobi’s do look better though, on account of the whole arm being white.
The finished model
And here it is. Our first LEGO V-19 Torrent in nearly two decades!
It’s quite tricky to get a photo of it in flight mode, but I did mange it with the help of some trans-clear panels. It looks pretty decent, although I feel like the proportions are a bit off; I think the wings are a bit on the stubby side. I’m not crazy about those intake stickers, either.
The previous iteration of this ship – 7674, from 2008 – featured a unique mechanism allowing all three wings to unfold at once. That’s not the case here: they’re all done individually. Being held in by just one clip in the landed position does make it very easy to knock the central wing out of place. It’s particularly tempting to pick it up from this point, which ends up with the same result. Having two on the bottom is better, but it’s harder to get it to clip in properly. It’s an imperfect solution.
Compare this with the other Republic starfighter currently on shelves – 75402 ARC-170 Starfighter – and the wing mechanism definitely comes off second-best. They feel quite comparable otherwise.
The ARC-170 didn’t feature a yellow cockpit though. On the other hand, that does make it less susceptible to vandalism by envious Classic Space astronauts!
Conclusions and recommendation
In my review of the ARC-170, I concluded that it was a fine set with a poor price. The two are quite comparable: the difference between them is a minifigure, 70 pieces and $5 (they’re actually the same price in the UK). The V-19 represents the marginally better deal as far as number of parts goes, and has a more interesting minifigure selection. But it’s not as fun to play with, and in my opinion is slightly less screen-accurate than its 6-winged counterpart. For those who collect them, the Clone Wars figures are enough to sway it into the recommended bracket; who knows when we’ll see Asajj Ventress or armoured Obi-Wan again. But if you’re not a minifigure maniac, I would probably wait for a discount. It wouldn’t take a big one to make it worthwhile.
LEGO Star Wars 75432 V-19 Torrent Starfighter contains 567 pieces and three minifigures, and will retail for US $64.99 | CAN $84.99 | UK £59.99 upon its release on August 1. It may also be available on third-party retail sites like eBay or Amazon.
The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
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