The dark side of the brick

A few weeks back, I took apart the collection of Jedi Starfighters .  As a collection, I really appreciated the different design details for each Jedi's unique decoration.  A few weeks on, I'm now onto what Lego typically refers to as the "Jedi Interceptor".  In full-on lore, the terms "starfighter" and "interceptor" seem somewhat interchangeable but these are models of the Eta-2 Actis-class light interceptor .  Smaller than the "starfighter", it apparently packed more firepower and is faster.  So, I know which one I'd want in a fight! Actually, I am much less keen on the interceptor than the starfighter, as a Lego model.  Maybe it's just that all of them are pretty similar?  Over 15 years, Lego really hasn't innovated very much with the design - the same hexagonal flags as wings and - almost - the same cockpit canopy (on closer inspection, there are some very subtle changes to the print design).  And there's not the varia...

Back to building one of my BNIB sets... last year's Anakin's Jedi interceptor ( 75281 ).  A short build - about 20 mins all told - which was probably all I had time for this evening, having only stopped working at 8.45pm.  WFH has its downsides!  Here's a photo: The set is very similar to all the standard Jedi interceptors so the build didn't feel at all novel.  I decided to get the two older yellow interceptors off the shelf to have a look: the 2014 75038 and 2005 "Jedi starfighter" (which came with a droid fighter) ( 7256 ). As an aside, I think the "starfighter" now explicitly refers to the more V shaped model so this is an interesting oddity. The latest version is almost identical in size and shape to the 2014 version, though the lines are slighly smoother.  Both are slightly bigger than the 2005 version, which also features a bit less detail and is somewat flimsier (as all old sets are in hindsight).  Here's the "fleet: Interesting swit...