It is cool, no doubt. It is huge. It’s got the “wow” factor. But a lot of the kids who will play with this one are under the “9-14″ age bracket on the box and will play hard. This LEGO just doesn’t stay together like others do.

I put this together with my son and while it took a full 30 minutes just to sort the pieces by color and probably 4 hours of total building time, he was very excited to start role playing. I was impressed initially at how it was designed and at all the neat little extras (bomb compartment, sliding gun bay, escape pod, etc.).

But it is the playing is the problem. LEGO thoughtfully designed in a handle for lifting/flying the craft. But therein lies a problem. The connecting of the floor of the ship to the superstructure isn’t strong enough and several times a day the bottom literally drops out. First time he picked it up and did a sweeping “fly by” with it the whole bottom detached and flew off! This happened even with light playing later that day and following days.

Even with our own additions to strengthen it won’t keep it from bottoming out. Some other pieces come off real easily during play, but that’s typical for Lego’s and they go right back on. But the top and bottom separating requires several minutes of re-aligning and re-attaching.

In my mind, for the high price tag (luckily I saved about $40 with holiday deals) the craft should stay together a lot more solidly for “play time” with kids.

One star for “durability” (yes, Lego’s are unbreakable, but the vehicle often comes apart). The 9+ year olds won’t play at the same physicality as younger kids, but this Lego is way too cool for the 8 and under crowd to skip (this was all my 6 year old wanted!).
Rating: 1 / 5