Thoughts on the Clone Wars Y-wing

[JediTricks]

I picked this up last night at Target thanks to a little birthday money I had set aside for just this.

Overall, it's pretty good. It's way bigger than the classic Y-wing (wider, longer before the engines taken into account), makes that thing look like a dink, but it also has a lot in common with it so it has a good lineage feel with that. I can understand the need for price increase, this is a big ship, it's heavy and nearly as long as the Falcon, but it really doesn't feel like $60 of toy, at best like $45.

Sculpt is pretty good, generally sharp and crisp, all the inside areas have sculpted detail, even the insides of the landing gear bays have cross-hatching. The engines are removable and they sculpted detail from the original Y-wing engine inside the remaining part which is a good throwback. The ship looks good without the rear engines, a little like the profile of the Naboo Royal Starship.

Lots of weapons, most of which are actually taken from the cross-section Y-wing imagery so that's cool. The front spring-loaded torpedoes are very easy to accidentally fire while opening the rear canopy though. The interior of the hidden missile bay is spacious enough to store the torpedoes and bombs when not in play. The nose has long front cannons which is great, very accurate.

Both cockpits are well sculpted, the front one has a control yoke that can actually be used. There are 30-something stickers, and the ONLY one that is necessary goes behind the front seat, the rest are unnecessary. The rear cockpit has a control yoke but it's in the turret bubble, too high to really use.

Generally, this is a nifty ship, and I only have a handful of issues to call out against it:

- Mine came with a crack on the left engine, that's no good. It can be glued, but at this price Hasbro better replace it.

- The bubble turret doesn't rotate, this is a huge shame. The cannons only elevate about 15 degrees. The seat, while raised, isn't as high as it should be, even Cmdr Cody needs a booster seat to get his eyes over the bottom of the bubble.

- The torpedo-launching buttons are right where one would put their fingers to open the rear canopy, as I already mentioned.

- The droid slot is sculpted to accept an astromech from the regular line, but those droids are 1/4 of an inch taller than the CW astromechs so the CW astromechs look totally lost in there, the rim of the slot coming up to the radar eye. I put a cardboard lift in there for now.

- At $60+, there should really be one more action gimmick, maybe another auto landing gear like the original, or at least a swiveling turret.

[clone157]

That is a shame JT. It seems that Hasbro always leaves out something that would transform a toy from good to great. Give them a couple of years, and they will redo it. By then it will be a $100 vehicle.

[El Chuxter]

I only had two thoughts: "This thing costs too much!" and "Would the armor plating come off to make it an OT Y-Wing?"

[Bar]

Great review.
Can you take some images and post pics?
I have seen the promo images, but i'd like to see some taken by people here who have shelled out their own money to buy one.

[bigbarada]

I saw this the other day and considered buying it; but I decided to pay my rent instead.

If they're still around at Christmas time, I'll probably pick one up because I love the design. In fact, I think Lucas should digitally erase those hideous ARC-170 fighters and insert these Y-Wings into ROTS.

[Bar]

In fact, I think Lucas should digitally erase those hideous ARC-170 fighters and insert these Y-Wings into ROTS.

It would have been cool to have heard: "Oddball, do you copy?", and cut to these things for sure...
But that's not the way it went down unfortunately.
And the Arc-170 isn't that bad!

[bigbarada]

It would have been cool to have heard: "Oddball, do you copy?", and cut to these things for sure...
But that's not the way it went down unfortunately.
And the Arc-170 isn't that bad!

I thought the overall design of the ARC-170 was alright, but the "s-foils" were just lame. I can almost hear the ILM design meeting for this craft, "Well, the X-Wings had 2 wings that opened up to 4 wings, so let's make a new vehicle with 2 wings that open up to 6 wings! This will be the best movie ever!" I guess that's what's passes for creativity at Lucasfilm these days.

[figrin bran]

JT, what I do is lift the droid slot up, stick CW R2 through and then lower it down. R2 fits quite snugly, though at the expense of being a little too high up but I'd rather have it that way than sunk in way into the slot.

[Bar]

I thought the overall design of the ARC-170 was alright, but the "s-foils" were just lame. I can almost hear the ILM design meeting for this craft, "Well, the X-Wings had 2 wings that opened up to 4 wings, so let's make a new vehicle with 2 wings that open up to 6 wings! This will be the best movie ever!" I guess that's what's passes for creativity at Lucasfilm these days.

I suppose.
I have often thought the Arc-170 would have looked cool with just traditional X-wings. It's a different enough body that even if it had X-wings it would have pointed in the right direction, style-wise. even in a contemporary company like Lockheed-Martin, you can see a design lineage in their products, so it's easy to imagine that X-wings could have been an innovation that led to the T-65.
If i display an Arc-170, it's always with the S-foils closed. They look too weak when opened up.
Anyway.
Back to the Y-wing!!!
Anyone got good pics yet???

[JediTricks]

I only had two thoughts: "This thing costs too much!" and "Would the armor plating come off to make it an OT Y-Wing?"

The OT Y-wing is the BTL-S version, while the CW version is the BTL-B. I'm thinking "Strike" vs "Bomber", but it is a cool idea. The rear cockpit wouldn't match up though with the bubble turret.

Great review.
Can you take some images and post pics?
I have seen the promo images, but i'd like to see some taken by people here who have shelled out their own money to buy one.

Thanks.
I'm a little busy right now, but I'll see what I can do. It's really big so it's hard to take photos of the whole thing from 1 shot.

I saw this the other day and considered buying it; but I decided to pay my rent instead.

If they're still around at Christmas time, I'll probably pick one up because I love the design. In fact, I think Lucas should digitally erase those hideous ARC-170 fighters and insert these Y-Wings into ROTS.

Rent schment. I know what you mean, I was so tempted to touch that birthday money I had set aside for this a month and a half ago but knew I wouldn't be able to afford the Y-wing if I did.

I am not in love with the ARC-170 either, but I think it's funny that Lucas could literally do exactly what you're saying with ease.

I thought the overall design of the ARC-170 was alright, but the "s-foils" were just lame. I can almost hear the ILM design meeting for this craft, "Well, the X-Wings had 2 wings that opened up to 4 wings, so let's make a new vehicle with 2 wings that open up to 6 wings! This will be the best movie ever!" I guess that's what's passes for creativity at Lucasfilm these days.

I don't really mind the S-foil wings, although your point is totally accurate, but what bugs me is the squat, rounded body that houses 3 guys AND a droid but has less weaponry than an X-wing, and then it has those wide, ugly wings and fat, silly-looking cannons. The ARC-170 and the V-19 Torrent have the same complaint from me in fact, that their primary weapons are WAAAAAY out at the ends of their wings, they're big ugly box cannon weapons and they're in a location that's utterly useless, the guns that far away from the gunner means poor aim every time and it makes it easier to bank into one's own fire.

JT, what I do is lift the droid slot up, stick CW R2 through and then lower it down. R2 fits quite snugly, though at the expense of being a little too high up but I'd rather have it that way than sunk in way into the slot.

I tried that, it didn't look right to me, and the figure kept dropping down when I'd bump into it. That's why I made a half-inch-tall cardboard riser, that and I just don't like how it looks with the figure sticking out too far.

Back to the Y-wing!!!
Anyone got good pics yet???

RS has some decent pics of the production model: http://www.rebelscum.com/TCWvehYwingBomber.asp