LEGO Star Wars #8096 Emperor Palpatine's Shuttle Review

Theme: Star Wars
Name: Emperor Palpatine's Shuttle
S/N: #8096
Year: 2010
Pieces: 592
Minifig: 4
Price: RM529.90, SGD159.90, USD59.99, GBP61.99

Box

The front of the box shows the playability, minifigures and the shuttle itself. The top side of the box shows the actual scale of each minifigures while at the back of the box shows the playability of Emperor Palpatine's Shuttle and pictures of other Star Wars sets that are release at the same time.

Content

There are four numbered packet of bricks inside the box which each of the bag assemble different part of the shuttle, two instruction books and a sticker sheet. On the other note, the torso of the 2-1B medical droid torsa and Palpatine's cape are packed separately.

To view the instruction book, please visit: Book1 / Book2

Accessories

No blaster are included but two red lightsaber for the Sith are given and they have metallic hilt.

Minifigs

There are four minifigs included which I assume three of them are new, except Emperor Palpatine. Anakin and Clone Pilot got both side of their torso printed and unfortunately 2-1B medical droid head cannot be move. I do snap picture of Anakin's face and Clone Pilot as well.

Emperor Palpatine's Shuttle

Since there are landing mode and flying mode, I snap the pictures of landing mode and flying mode of the shuttle to be posted here. Let's start off with the landing mode:

And now to the flying mode which look better but you sure need something higher to support the shuttle because of the wing that deploys that way. One weakness here is that the tail of the shuttle that have different surface on each side (if you get what I mean).

Moving to the cockpit,I would say it have enough spaces left after putting the pilot in it and there is a printed monitor in the cockpit. There is a seat for the pilot also and the cockpit fit the pilot well.

While here is some detail added on both side, which is a dual cannon blaster that is placed right beside the bar that hold the roof to the body of the shuttle.

At the back, there are detail of repulsor which is made by translucent light blue 1x1 round plate on both side at the rear of the shuttle. Other than that, there is a cannon (I think, quite lazy to find the spec) at rear which can be adjusted.

There is a landing gear and it works very well especially in balancing the ship when you display it as it sometimes will be imbalanced when you pose it in a flight mode.

There is two bar in front and one bar at the back to hold the roof to the shuttle. The roof can be remove easily but another weakness appear, which is the minifigs cannot stand beside the transformation bed while the roof is attached. Maybe there is no space on both the side but there are space in the middle.

Now to the interior of the shuttle where transformation happen. Firstly, there is a lightsaber holder and two seats inside (one on each side). But there are not much space for the minifig to sit and we need to have a right pose in order to fit them onto the seat.

The picture on the right shows the pose that you should adjust before placing it onto the seat.

The transformation playability looks attractive but it fails most of the time if we didn't hold onto Anakin, plus even though you manage to attach the helmet onto Anakin, it is not attached properly and you need to tighten it yourself.

The bar that is made for you to push in order to made the playability works is neatly design, you will not see two bar sticking out at the back of the ship as the length are just right when you push it inside the shuttle.

Extra pieces

Picture below shows the extra pieces that are left for future replacement in case we misplaced them or they are broken and it seems like there are quite a number of pieces which all of them are very small and easily to be misplaced.

Completed model

I would say the shuttle is very well design and the playability sure is nice but there are a few weakness that I would like to highlight. First, which is the two bar that attach the roof to the shuttle can hardly be removed as it is block by the cockpit. Secondly, the interior design which is the seat inside the transformation chamber needs more space so you can attach your minifigs onto it easily. Thirdly, the rood which is made sideways on the side prevent minifigs from standing beside the transformation bed while it is closed also is a weakness. Fourth, the transformation process which you fail most of the time. Finally, the tail of the shuttle which have different surface on both side (but that cannot be help). But overall, I still like this shuttle.

Playability: 8/10 An interesting playability this shuttle has
Design: 7/10 One thing I hate here is the tail of the ship that is place on top of the roof
Price:4/10 Way too expensive
Overall: 6/10 Nice playability and figures, design of the shuttle are not bad as well