LEGO Star Wars #7964 Republic Frigate Review

Theme: Star Wars
Name: Republic Frigate
S/N: #7964
Year: 2011

Pieces: 1015

Minifig: 5
Price: RM864.90, SGD299.90, USD119.99, GBP102.99

Box

One thing that I notice from the box art is that there is a difference between the real model and the one in the box art at the rear compartment and perhaps you guys notice that too.  The front of the box shows a nice box art and the details about the set. The top side of the box shows us the 1:1 scale of all the minifigs while the back shows the playability of the Republic Frigate and advertisement of other LEGO Star Wars set.

Content

The set comes with nine numbered bags of bricks, two instruction book which comes in different sizes and a sticker sheet which in my case is damaged by the bags of bricks. Just why they do not pack them like the one in Pirates of Caribbean??? Standardize for the magnets but not the packaging of the playset?

To view the instruction, please visit: Book1 / Book2

Accessories

Guess we all already know that the lightsaber beam is new, which is in darker green instead of lime green or yellow. There is also a SE-14 blaster pistol included.

Minifigs

compare to Clone Turbo Tank this set included us with more new minifigs like Commander Wolffe, Wolfpack Trooper, Eeth Koth and Quinlan Vos. We have Yoda from AAT and magnet set already, so is nothing new. The four new minifigs' torso are printed on the both side. I just love all of the new minifigs, especially the new Clone Trooper.

Commander Wolffe have a new face which is different from other Clone Trooper, and also I do snap a picture of Quilan Vos and Eeth Koth together.

Escape Pod

The escape pod need to be decorated with some sticker to make it look better, but I do not do so since the sticker is already damaged and I have to flatten it. The pod can fit all the minifigs I think which I myself not sure as I do not try it myself, but it can support at least three for sure.

Republic Frigate

The Republic Frigate looks cool and I like the ship myself, although the design is more or less the same with the Republic Cruiser. There are quite a number of playability and compartment which some of them needs to be decorated with the sticker provided. Anyway, it is still a nice ship.

 I will start from front to back of the ship again and first of all the flick-fire playability on the cockpit roof, the flick-fire twin laser cannon. I do felt disappoint a little but without the tail sticking out from the back of the cannon, it looks ugly. Guess I just have to accept the playability, maybe they get shot down or what.

The exterior of the cockpit is nicely design. The roof can be open to place a minifig into the cockpit. Also the surface inside the cockpit is smooth (covered by tiles parts). In other words, your minifig are not attach. Also I found out that after I placed Quilan Vos into the cockpit, the roof just won't close, mainly block by Quinlan's hair.

The second playability here is the release of the escape pod. There is a button ready to be pull on the other side of the cockpit to release the escape pod, once you pull the pod will just drop off from the ship. Not sure if the technic pin will slip off if you swoosh around but it do hold very well.

Next the twin blaster cannon on top of both side of the ship were nicely design. They are rotatable and adjustable to your liking. However, there is a weakness which is very loose, it will rotate automatically when you move your ship around.

There are also twin blaster cannon placed in between two landing gear right below the ship but this one is not rotatable just adjustable.

The landing gear is retractable but you have to do it one by one since they are not connected to each other. Is can really support the ship, a very strong landing gear we have here.

Moving to compartment at the side. First the meeting room, which have a screen in it and a table with Palpatine's holographic (the holographic is printed). The compartment is very small and at the side there is a place to hold the lightsabers for Eeth Koth and Yoda.

Next the storage compartment where there is box at the side that you keep the binocular and also the proton torpedo. The storage box is removable so do the proton torpedo that you need to use. You can see there is a bar sticking out at the side. Well that bar has it function which I will later explain.

There is a handle in the middle of the frigate where it comes in handy when you want to move the frigate around. Guess this is one useful handle and very well hidden by the designer. Good job!!

Right in front of the handle is a small compartment for you to store the proton torpedo so that you later can drop it off on the Separatist.  The hatch can be open and close and to drop the torpedo just simply pull the bar at the storage compartment.

Just in case you do not get the picture of what I am saying, below are pictures that shows the bar before and after being pulled.

Here is another compartment at the rear of the ship which I think the purpose is for the gunner to gun down any enemy ship. The roof can be open and close as well which makes the process of placing the minifigs into the compartment much more easy. Sticker are needed in here as well but I do not apply it.

Finally the rear twin blaster cannon that are rotatable and again the flick-fire cannon but this time, you can fire anywhere you like.

Extra pieces

There are a lot of leftover parts again after the assembly process which makes me even like it more.

Completed model

This ship is great for display as the design looks great. The cockpit is a bit let down since it cannot be closed after I place Quinlan Vos in it or maybe I scared that I will damaged my minifigs (yes, the treasure for most Star Wars set). The parts seems useful too and I like the round thing that build the ship engine.

Playability: 7/10 Quite a number of things to be play with.

Building experience: 7/10 Is fun to build and quite easy to build.

Parts: 7/10 A lot of grey parts that can be use for more Star Wars MOC.

Value for money: 1/10The price here are insane hence drag the value for money down.

Overall: 5/10 The price here spoilt everything.