Set Review - 75006 Jedi Starfighter and Planet Kamino

Though not a polybag, these little Planet Series sets appeal to me in so many ways.  And really if it weren't for the gigantic sphere these would certainly be polybags.  I'm really a sucker for itty-bitty Star Wars spacecraft (or itty-bitty any LEGO thing) especially ones that I recognize.  For the record, Star Wars is Episodes IV, V, and VI.  The I, II, and III that came out later were epic in and of themselves but difficult for me to reconcile with the prior later movies.

The biggest draw for me in this set is that I recognize the spacecraft (and that the set has such a great part out value).  Dark red makes my pupils dilate.  Though lime tends to make me squint so I'm not totally sure of the end result here.  The planet is dark azure and is probably the closest we've come to an Earthy looking planet (so far...).  Some of the parts are in new colors such as the dark red 18° slope and the 1x1 round tile with Republic logo on it.  All in all it's a good parts pack with multiple quantities of several of the pieces.  The droid is obviously new and very desirable based on it's Bricklink fetching price.  Apparently some people gotta catch 'em all.

The build of the ship employs some nifty little SNOT techniques.  I was impressed by the design of the hull.  Placing two slopes bottom to bottom means a total of 6 plates.  The 2x wide assembly of the ship is only 5 plates wide.  But adding the brackets on either side with their half plate wide brackety parts brings it 6 plates.  Simple genius.

The stand appears to be of a new design.  I haven't looked at the other 2 series 3 planet sets yet but I'm wondering if this new base is due to complaints.  The previous design was with a technic pin connector and always struck me as a little flimsy.  The ships would swing around at will, knocking their poor pilots in the head before crashing over on their sides.  My daughters and I would test to see which ones were most (or least) resilient.  The new design consists of a 2x2 round brick and a 2x2 jumper plate.  The ship snaps into this static stud and moves nowhere.  If you really like the whirly bird routine then retrograding is no big deal.

I was a little underimpressed with the miniature droid on the starfighter.  What you are given is a flat silver round plate on top of a dark red 1x1 plate.  I was stymied as to this feature until I looked at a picture of a larger version of the set.  In my opinion (and I have lots of them) the droid would have been better represented with a dark red round plate over a white 1x1 plate.  For comparison, just look at R4-P17 itself.  Am I wrong?

For collectors this set is a must.  For minifig enthusiasts this set is a must.  For a parts pack this set is a must.  If you hate minifigs then sell off the droid to some Jawas and your parts end up being free.  Being the parts hoarder that I am I bought a dozen and spun off the droids.  Must have been the dark red.