Not Lego ARC-170 StarFighter

I've been a fan of the ARC-170 ever since episodes 1-3 came out, sure the movies were not quite as good as the originals, but some of the new ships were awesome. Similarily I like the Republic Venator Star Cruisers.

Both of these models were made by Lego some time back, but as usual have been discontinued also for some time now.

Having missed the original releases I was left with the choice of buying either second hand or outrageously priced new ones off eBay. Until I came across a chinese knock-off on the AliExpress site when looking for Lego lighting (ask super lol). Anyway having found the ARC-170 being offered at the bargainous price of $16.99 with free shipping it was simply a no brainer to get one and see what the quality was like.

Well I'm glad to report it is superb, in fact you'd be hard pushed to tell the difference between this and the lego model unless you look closely and notice the studs don't have 'lego' imprinted on them.

While I usually prefer to buy the genuine Lego sets, when it is a discontnued model which I can't get hold of anyway apart from on eBay I don't have such a bad feeling about it, especially when I save so much cash.

Anyway here are some sample pictures;

If you are wondering about the size of the model when constructed it has a wing span of about 12" or more, to give you a clue the dark grey thing it is lying on is a laptop

[Super]

That is cool and those are neat characters too. All you need now is some fishing line and you can hang it in an attack position over your bed. Add in some sound effects and its off to dream land. Thanks for sharing Nigels.

Although I enjoyed the original 3 movies probably more because for its time they were way ahead technically, all the others were just Okay with me.....ouch...stop throwing things at me.....ouch

I tend to agree about the movies, stand alone they are fine, the only downside is that you know from the first one what the eventual outcome will be and sit there wondering how palpatine manages to fool the almighty jedi so much lol!

But from a technical perspective the episodes 1-3 were streets ahead of the originals and introduced some excellent ships to model, I so got my eye on the UCS type Venator Republic Cruiser on sale on AliExpress. For once this is a model that Lego didn't create, it is based I think on a MOC, but it is awesome in terms of design (and price for a clone!).

It would be possible to add some sound effects even if not correct by cannibalising one of the Revell 'force awakens' x-wings for example and of course don't forget there are lighting kits which could be pressed into service to light it. As for the fishing line idea, I'm a bit past that as I'm too tall and would end up keep hitting my head on it lol!!

Anyway next purchase may well be a Millenium Falcon or the Executioner Super Star Destroyer... Watch this space

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Oh, I forgot to add I was impressed with the selection of minifigures as well, I didn't have that Jedi, R2 unit or the Clone Fighter Pilots among my Star Wars minifigure collection

I would say that in this context, this was the better method of acquiring a set like this as there was no respective "official" Lego set for the Cruiser, but for future reference, you could:

1. Use Lego's recently updated bricks and pieces service to choose the parts necessary to complete whatever set you wanted to create (through using the checklist of parts present on the back of all Lego instruction manuals, which Lego also has publicly available online).

2. Purchase any sticker sheet, (if the set has them), off of Bricklink, a very trusted third-party source for Lego products.

3. Minifigures can also be purchased off of Bricklink, but it might be best to search for them on eBay based on their price and rarity.

After that, it's as though you had bought the genuine set (Bricklink even sells the boxes of sets)! Just something I thought would be relevant.

Hi Fred,

I totally agree with all you say, however the brick parts service is not really a viable solution as it often does not have the key bricks you need so you would then have to source them from bricklink or somewhere similar at silly prices. Frankly unless it was only a few bricks you need doing it this way you'd be better off buying one of the brand new sealed sets from the speculators on eBay even at their rip off prices.

Overall I don't feel particularly guilty about using this method of obtaining this set, after all its not robbing Lego of any revenue as its not in their catalogue anymore. Add to that I do give them more than a good percentage of my disposable income as it is lol!! Being also able to give the finger to the speculators as well actually makes it feel somewhat good. If it wasn't for their sort they probably wouldn't be prohibitively expensive anyway...


Cheers, Nigel

I believe it was recently changed so that granted the parts aren't so rare and were more classic bricks and not as rare i.e. printed bricks or special size cockpits, it is possible to acquire the pieces necessary for their "original" price instead of using the Pick a Brick service they've had this whole time. But I would agree, you shouldn't feel guilty in this context.

I know the service you mean Fred I have checked it out when I wanted a couple of parts to complete a set I bought 2nd hand off eBay which turned out to be complete. The set was only about 4-5 years old yet they didn't have any of the parts I needed - various sloped bricks, but in a particular colour - or the sticker sheet. I even emailed them asking and the response was if the set is recently deleted you may be able to get the sticker sheets, but they don't hold stocks as such, just what is left over from the original production run.

I should also add the bricks in this new service are not cheap, they are generally way more expensive even than 'pick a brick' which in itself is not cheap, but at least acceptable if you just need some stuff to complete a set and they are not 'special' parts.

Anyway I've just now ordered a 'Wookie Assault Ship' another model I missed and which I'm not even sure I've seen listed on eBay, although to be fair I've not looked too hard for it lol!

On the subject of Chinese 'knock offs' of Lego things here's some minifigs I just received.

First up a set of 'The Beatles' to go with my model of the yellow submarine (original lego) that I got off eBay minus the figures for a cheap price

Next are a bunch of minifigs that are lego style, but as far as I know not Lego 'knock offs' as these have never been made by Lego, what we have are six models of characters from 'Assassins Creed';

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