This is is a review of the 9498 LEGO Star Wars Saesee Tiin’s Jedi Starfighter that was released earlier this year. For the few years that I’ve been collecting LEGO Star Wars series, I’ve noticed that LEGO has been pretty diligent in ensuring that there will be one version of a Jedi Starfighter annually. The past releases include, 8093 LEGO Star Wars Plo Koon’s Jedi Starfighter, 7686 LEGO Star Wars Mace Windus Jedi Starfighter, 7751 LEGO Star Wars Set Clone Wars Ahsokas Starfighter and Droids and of course, the UCS 10215 LEGO Star Wars Obi-Wan’s Jedi Starfighter, just to name a few more recent ones. IMHO, each release of a Jedi Starfighter does not really different that much except for the color scheme and the Jedi and droid involved. This would translate to a lower production cost for LEGO as the parts and moulds can be reused. Nevertheless, I’m still very much into collecting these Jedi Starfighters, just for “completeness” sake. 😀
The 9498 LEGO Star Wars Saesee Tiin’s Jedi Starfighter comes in a square packaging having Darth Maul as the theme header at the top of the box. The color scheme for Saesee Tiin’s Jedi Starfighter is green and while with R3-D5 as his Droid. Also include is Even Piell Minifigure which frankly, I don’t have any idea how he comes about in this set or scene. :-p So who exactly is Even Piell? According to Brickipedia,
“Even Piell was a male Lannik Jedi Master who served during the Clone Wars. During the war, he was captured by the Separatists after recieving vital information that both the Republic and the Separatists needed to win the war and taken to the Citadel on Lola Sayu, a Separatist prison. He was later rescued by a taskforce led by Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi. However, during the escape, Piell was killed by an anooba, but not before passing on to Ahsoka Tano his half of the information. The Jedi later mourned their loss and held a funeral by wrapping him and placing his body in a river of lava on the citadel planet”
Beside the close up shots of the “New” Minifigures, the rear of the box also shows the details and features of the set including the scene of the Starfighter escaping from the gun fire of the 9515 LEGO Star Wars The Malevolence also released in this season.
9498 Saesee Tiin's Jedi Starfighter - Box Front
9498 Saesee Tiin's Jedi Starfighter - Box Rear
9498 Saesee Tiin's Jedi Starfighter - Scene
9498 Saesee Tiin's Jedi Starfighter - MiniFigures
Moving on, on the inside, contains 4 packages and 2 instruction booklets. First thoughts that came to my mind were, why is there a need for 4 packages when it’s such a simple set; and hey! no stickers? For both, I found my answers while flipping through the two thin instruction booklets. On the first few initial pages of booklet 1, it shows the breakdown of the 4 packages into the different components (Body, Cockpit, Left and Right Wings) that make up the Starfighter. Then while turning the pages, something drop out. Argh.. I knew it was too good to be true, there are stickers included in this set.
9498 Saesee Tiin's Jedi Starfighter - Contents
9498 Saesee Tiin's Jedi Starfighter - Instructions
9498 Saesee Tiin's Jedi Starfighter - Why 4 Packs
9498 Saesee Tiin's Jedi Starfighter - Stickers
At the final pages of the booklets, I also found pictures of the seven sets and the Minifigures that are released in this series. This comes in handy when you need to cross reference your collection in the years to come.
9498 Saesee Tiin's Jedi Starfighter - All the 2012 Sets
9498 Saesee Tiin's Jedi Starfighter - All the MFs for 2012
The assembly of the 9498 LEGO Star Wars Saesee Tiin’s Jedi Starfighter took around 30 minutes, give and take the number of times I stopped to make the pictures here and there. The size of this Starfighter is very much similar to those of the previous ones less of course the UCS 10215 LEGO Star Wars Obi-Wan’s Jedi Starfighter. While the shape and design of the Starfighter is very much the same with previous ones, there are some interesting designs that makes this set unique by itself. Let me run through them with some pictures accordingly.
9498 Saesee Tiin's Jedi Starfighter - Completed
9498 Saesee Tiin's Jedi Starfighter - Starfighter
In this set, there are the usage of some gold colored parts that we don’t normally get to see. These gold colored pieces very much highlighted the area that the R3-D5 Droid is sitting in. It also gives a nice touch to the overall design of the Starfighter’s dark green and white scheme.
9498 Saesee Tiin's Jedi Starfighter - R3-D5 Cockpit
9498 Saesee Tiin's Jedi Starfighter - Rear
Although the rear of the craft, especially that belwo the wings, is an area that not many people would pay much attention to, the LEGO designer still bother to put in some small details by including some nice transparent blue pieces into the engines of the Starfighter.
9498 Saesee Tiin's Jedi Starfighter - Engine
The other interesting design of the 9498 LEGO Star Wars Saesee Tiin’s Jedi Starfighter is the incorporation of an ejectable cockpit. With a slight tug, you can slide and attach the cockpit out from the main body of the Starfighter. See how the two sections are cleverly held together by the two technics pins?
9498 Saesee Tiin's Jedi Starfighter - Occupants
9498 Saesee Tiin's Jedi Starfighter - After Detaching Cockpit
9498 Saesee Tiin's Jedi Starfighter - Cockpit
Moving from the Starfighter to the Minifigures, there are three included in the 9498 LEGO Star Wars Saesee Tiin’s Jedi Starfighter. For the two Jedi Knights, their construction are pretty much similiar with specially designed and moulded head wear to create the same look and feel of the characters in the real show. For Even Piell, he is must shorter so he came with the shorter legs of the minifigures. For R3-D5, it’s a typical Droid design but with green in color to match that of the Starfighter. Something I noticed about the light sabers are that they seem to have air bubbles in them. Not too sure if it is due to the quality of the manufacturing but I would certainly feedback on these to LEGO.
9498 Saesee Tiin's Jedi Starfighter - MiniFigures
9498 Saesee Tiin's Jedi Starfighter - Saesee Tiin
9498 Saesee Tiin's Jedi Starfighter - Saesee Tiin
9498 Saesee Tiin's Jedi Starfighter - Even Piell
9498 Saesee Tiin's Jedi Starfighter - Even Piell
9498 Saesee Tiin's Jedi Starfighter - R3-D5
Overall, although the 9498 LEGO Star Wars Saesee Tiin’s Jedi Starfighter is not the most fancy and biggest set of the 2012 LEGO Star Wars release, it does have it’s own unique features that would still tempt a Star Wars AFOL to buy this set for the collection. Overall, I would give this set a 7 out of 10.