Seen only briefly in the original release of A New Hope as a model that Luke Skywalker was playing with and from what I’ve heard but didn’t notice myself as a real flying craft in the special edition version of the episode the T-16 Skyhopper has been requested by many fans.

This rarely seen but much talked about vehicle from the original Star Wars trilogy was for a very long time considered a most unlikely release by The LEGO Group due to the two above reasons but with the release of it in the January 2003 wave it was a pleasant surprise for most.

So it’s review time now.

The box:

See my review of 4480 Jabba’s Palace.

The instruction booklet:

See my review of 4480 Jabba’s Palace.

The building of the set:

Not much at all to say here, as it’s very easy to build.

The set itself:

No cockpit canopy? Yikes, poor T-16 Skyhopper pilot as it’ll get real nasty for him during flight but I guess the LEGO designers thought that the goggles will help a bit and I assume they left it out in order not to have to make a new part as well as a mold but it looks bad.

And to me at least it looks real bad and it looks like the designers didn’t finish off the set more then 75% but except for this little mistake the sets rather good and a nice feature is that all the markings on the T-16 Skyhopper is pre-printed unlike the 7163 Republic Gunship.

The LEGO version of the T-16 Skyhopper looks pretty much like the “real” thing as far as I can see especially since it’s made out of LEGO parts but of course accuracy can be discussed but I’ve seen so little reference on this vehicle that I can’t really comment it but it looks okay.

To sum things up:

All in all a very nice little set and a surprising release by The LEGO Group of a vehicle that didn’t get much screen time at all but a cockpit canopy would definitely have made this set much better then it actually is as it only seems like the designers finished it off at 75% or so.

So therefore I’ll give the T-16 Skyhopper a score of 3 out 5.

There you have it people. Hope you enjoyed my little review and contribution.

Kindest regards,


Lars “Sweden” Olsson in Sundsvall, Sweden.