Lego Republic Frigate – Review (Set 7964)

The Lego Republic Frigate is a part of the Star Wars theme, first appearing in 2011.

The iconic ship features in the Star Wars Clone Wars animated TV series and is the fore-runner to the Tantive IV featured in the opening sequence of Star Wars A New Hope.

The Lego Republic Frigate is a large set that will satisfy fans of the series and also those interested in space vehicles in general.

Lego Republic Frigate Details

Lego Set Number: 7964
Pieces: 1015
Minifigures: 5 minifigures: Yoda, Eeth Koth, Quinlan Vos, Clone Commander Wolffe and Wolfpack Clone Trooper
Price: US $119.99 / £102.99
Ages: 9-14
Released: 2011
Theme: Star Wars
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Lego Republic Frigate – A Little Background

The Republic Frigate, otherwise known as the Consular-class cruiser (Charger c70 retrofit) was a space craft used by the Republic forces during the early part of the Clone Wars.

In other words it is a ship, modified from a larger ship that was used by the good guys in the Star Wars series :0).

Similar ships have been released by Lego; the Republic Cruiser (set 7665) which was an earlier ship in the Star Wars timeline and featured in Star Wars Episode 1 as well as the Tantive IV (set10198) a later version of the cruiser featured in Episode IV A New Hope.

All are beautiful ships and seem to capture the elegance of space travel more than other ships in the series (totally my opinion of course).

Lego Republic Frigate – A Closer Look

When I first saw this set in early preliminary images, my first thought was, “Oh no! Not another gray Lego Star Wars set.”

You see I love Star Wars and my son loves Star Wars and we both love Star Wars Lego. However if you take a look at all the large playsets and vehicles in the Lego series, many of them are gray.

You have the Millenium Falcon, Republic Cruiser, the Star Destroyers, the Endor bunker, the Death Stars, etc-all gray!

I don’t have all of these sets (I wish!) but my son has enough gray pieces and plates in his collection to build a life size Death Star (Ok, slight exaggeration).

So when I saw yet another big gray Star Wars Lego set that I knew my son would love, I cringed a little at the thought of even more gray pieces. But then, over time, I began to love this set more and more. In short it grew on me, and now that I have seen the Lego Republic Frigate set (including the minifigures) in person I can’t remember not loving it.

The Ship

The build of the ship is quite straight forward; a technic structure supports the plates on the outer. There are two instruction manuals, both quite thick but no difficult parts. The six bags are numbered in the box which helps simplify the process and makes it a relatively quick and simple build-about 2 hours.

The final product is sturdy and reminded me of the AT-TE (another gray vehicle) from 2008. The Lego Republic Frigate measures over 19 (48cm) long, 11 (27cm) wide and 5 (12cm) tall.

Playable features include:

A detachable escape pod
Opening cockpit
Rotating turbo-laser cannons
Proton torpedo launcher
Retractable undercarriage (4 legs make up the landing gear)
Opening hatches and detailed interior (Storage compartment, pilot seat and dashboard)

For those who actually play with their Lego sets (cough cough!) the ship comes with a sturdy handle (much like the Republic Cruiser) so you can pick it up and fly it around without touching the more sensitive areas of the ship and knocking plates off.

This makes it a great set for kids.

The Minifigures

It was the minifigures that completely sold me on this set.

For people who collect the Star Wars minifigs, this set is going to be hard to pass up because only one of the five figures has been featured in other sets before, and even that one is a hard figure to track down.

The set features three Jedi; Yoda (the one figure not exclusive to the Republic Frigate), Eeth Koth and Qunilan Vos aa well as two “Wolf” Clone-Troopers; Clone Commander Wolffe and Wolfpack Clone Trooper.

The detailing on the figures is sublime and all except Yoda have back printing on their torsos. They are an appealing group of figures and I can already imagine the adventures they are going to have in the hands of my son. It is nice to have a set without Anakin Skywalker or Ahsoka Tano for a change.

The ship doesn’t come with any of the “bad” guys, so no battle droids but I guess Lego assumes most people who would buy this set already have enough of them. It also means this set can be used as a diplomatic ship, rather than a battle ship, which is probably the orignal purpose of the Frigate.

Lego Republic Frigate Review

This is an easy set o pass over, especially if you already have alot of gray in your collection.

However it is a fun set and one that kids can enjoy because of the figures and the handle on the top which allows them to get right in the action and fly the ship around without fear of bits falling off.

Once I cast aside my initial judgement and took a closer look at the set, I loved it.

Lego Republic Frigate Ratings

Value For Money: Not bad for a large set – 4/5
Play Experience Straight Out of the Box: Nice exclusive minifigures – 5/5
Variety of Pieces and Minifigures: Did I mention the Gray? 3/5
Overall Play Value for Kids: Clone Wars fans and minifigure collectors will love it – 4/5