Star Wars universe: The T6 jedi shuttle goes on many Jedi missions in the Clone Wars animated series (notably to transport Cad Bane in 'Children of the force').
Building: The engines and cockpit/escape pod is a fairly straightforward build for an older or experienced Lego builder (build time 1-2 hours). The recommended age is 8-12 so adult assistance needed while 'junior' (5 years old) found the parts. The wings are tricky (no junior for this) as there are so many similar looking plates and you have to make sure you put your left-handed, or right-handed sloping plates on the correct wing. The rotating wing 'gear' section is ... impressive.
Durability: The wings are big & made of many parts, so they will break apart if you are pushing the T6 in 'hyper drive'. Also the cockpit lid is not on any kind of 'hinge' & a major cause of 'cockpit stress' whenever a character is added or removed (ie it collapses). You have to take care when rotating the sections & removing the escape pod. Probably better in the hands of an older kid. Ours is 5 going on 6. It has a technical bit underneath to fold out & balance on the shelf.
Looks: Looks good (on one side at least). Has red and white republic trim. The main gripe is that the underside of the wings look unfinished & not at all cool.
Playability: This set is intended to pair up with the similar 'bounty hunter gunship' for a play narrative involving the holocron heist. The cockpit is disappointingly small, it only fits 1 guy comfortably (in 1 episode it holds Mace Windu, Obi Wan, Commander Cody and ... Cad Bane!)
Minifigures: This kit comes with 4 Jedi - Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Shaak Ti & Saesee Tiin. All are collectable & the designs unique to this kit except Anakin, in his usual black collar & Jedi robe. Obi Wan has a white collar piece over his Jedi robes, as 'General' Kenobi & a nice ginger sweeping hairdo. Shaak Ti has a unique white & blue hairpiece, which depicts her 3 head-tails. Saesee Tiin is an ace jedi pilot, (guy with horns like elephant tasks sticking out of his head). All are good quality models finished in hard plastic, although none have any leg prints.
Overall we like the mini-guys in this set. The playability is a bit limited by the size of the cockpit & the lack of robustness in the ship. Our guys have to sit on the wings!
Value for money: The rrp is £49.99 nearly a tenner more than the Bounty Hunter ship (which has the same amount of bricks!)