Republic Gunship Review (75309)

Get ready and hold on, as today I’m reviewing the monster UCS Republic Gunship.

Firstly, the box is HUGE! Not as big the Titanic box, but still massive. As you would expect there are tons of packets and the first few start the set with the first portion of the main deck. It appears to be not too big at first, but then you build a second section, and it starts to become massive.

The first weapons to be built are the 2 front laser cannons. They swivel on a ball and can point at basically anything in front of the gunship. Around the cannons are some lime green markings which is the only place in the set there is green (besides a bit on the wings) Behind the laser cannons there is a small opening separated from the main deck where the clone troopers (the soldiers this thing carries in Star Wars) can stand.

The next part you build is not the cockpit as you would expect, but a massive frame that goes all the way from the front to the back of the gunship. The frames structure uses lots of SNOT bricks and is incredibly strong. It needs to be to support how heavy it’s gonna get! At the back of the main deck it is held up by 2 technic rods with some controls for the soldiers.

After the main frame is done the large door at the back of the gunship is made. The door can open and close so you can see the inside of the gunship from behind. The end of the door clips onto the end of the main frame to join it up. On both sides of the frame you can also start to see the mechanisms for the opening and closing side doors.

After all that you finally get to build the cockpit. I say finally because I really wanted the joy of placing down the large cockpit glass pieces. The cockpit is built as a long section looks like a long square chocolate bar. The pilot seats are built inside of it and then you lay the cockpit glass pieces on top. The whole thing then can slide onto the gunship frame at the right angle and then can be locked into place. There is also a Galactic Republic insignia that’s stickered and lots of other cool sticker details dotted around.

After you finish the cockpit the only remaining part is the wings and the side doors, which also happen to be the largest parts of the set. The side doors are very big, and they can slide in and out to cover the inside of almost the entire main deck. They are pretty strong too, and won’t fall off unless you try to purposely take them off.

Before you put the wings on, another strong structure is built to make sure the weight of the wings doesn’t cause the back of the gunship to implode in on itself (or for the wings to blow through the top and out) At the back there is also another cannon just like the front two, it can swivel around as well to defend the gunship’s behind.

But the coolest part has to be the missile rack on the top. Inside the top of where the wings attach, there are 2 rounds of missiles that are stored in circles. They can rotate around as if they are firing and look very cool. Unfortunately, they don’t shoot, but you can’t expect too many play features from a UCS set.

The huge wings are basically built the same except they are mirrored for each side. On their undersides they have some detailed missiles as well, which look sweet. Each wing also had a sphere on the end which a gunner would sit inside. The wings connect to the main gunship using some technic pieces. The technic pieces on the wing slide into the ones on the gunship, and they are fixed in that place using technic pins and rods.

Once I had put the wings on I thought I was done, but there was even more! The last part of the gunship are the main deck moveable laser turrets and the long engines. The long cylindrical engines on the top are fixed in just above the wings. They had some sticker detailing and are made by sliding pieces onto a long technic rod. The moveable laser turrets are the last part of the gunship you build. They have an inside chair for the gunner and are held onto the gunship from inside the main deck, allowing them to move around from side to side.

After this, your gunship is done!

The final thing is the display stand and minifigures. The stand is black and has a large plate that shows information about the gunship on a sticker. The giant gunship fits onto the stand by sliding a hole in the main deck onto the centre pole of the stand. The 2 minifigures are a Clone Commander and Mace Windu, a Jedi. I was pumped to get Mace as I didn’t have him yet, and the Clone Commander was also a new clone to my collection. They both stand next to the information plaque.

Overall Thoughts

OK! So this was a HUGE SET, probably one of the biggest I have ever reviewed. We had tons of trouble trying to take photos of it as it was so big and heavy. But overall, this set was great. The building experience was super enjoyable, and it was fun creating the memorable parts of the gunship. The 2 minifigures were great, and even though they were not required, they were a great addition. Compared to the 2013 Republic Gunship (#75021) this set is MASSIVE!

For one of the only UCS sets I have made, it was a great first build! I really enjoyed this set, what do you think?

Thanks for reading!

A special thanks to our friends at Zavvi who supplied this set for us to build. Check them out for great deals on LEGO sets.