Guest writer Russ Dawson looks back at the full 20-year history of the sets that LEGO has transformed this unique Star Wars vehicle into.
The Imperial Shuttle, or to give it the correct name Lambda-class T-4a shuttle, was first seen on our screens way back in 1983 in Return of the Jedi. It was then retconned into The Empire Strikes Back Special Edition in 1997 as well as appearing in the films Rogue One and finally The Force Awakens and as wreckage in The Rise of Skywalker. It also appeared on TV in The Clone Wars, Rebels, Resistance as well as most recently, Chapter 16 of The Mandalorian.
Regardless of scale, designer or episode, there is a single (with one exception) thread of continuity that runs through all the Imperial Shuttle sets – that LEGO has used a Slope 55 6 x 1 x 5 piece and Slope 75 2 x 1 x 3 to make the Imperial Shuttle’s imposing vertical fin. Twenty years later and even now LEGO still uses these pieces for their System and Mini-Scale releases, proving that they designed this right the very first time.
7166 Imperial Shuttle
This very first Imperial Shuttle (7166) is a very simple 238-piece build making fantastic use of the parts available at the time. Click hinges are used to attach the wings to the body and the angle in the wings is achieved using the simplest of technic angle pieces. The vertical fin wing is shaped using the aforementioned white 30249 pieces (two in this case) and the nose, again connected with click hinges, droops down slightly as expected in the landing position. Whilst in flight, the minifigures could sit in a slide-out compartment behind a drop-down door at the rear of the ship.
The minifigures – Emperor Palpatine, Imperial Shuttle Pilot and two Royal Guards – are the minimum of what one would expect to see to achieve the scene from Return of the Jedi with only Darth Vader missing for that full Emperor Arrival’s experience.
As a display set, this was perfect but once swooshed around, the vertical fin wing, held into the main body by a simple 1 x 8 connection and the cockpit canopy would have more than likely fallen off and a rebuild required
7264 Imperial Inspection
With the element count swelling to 397 pieces, 7264 Imperial Inspection came with more play features and minifigures than any other Star Wars set of its day.
The shuttle itself is almost an identical build to 7166 from 2001 with a couple of pieces different at the back of the ship, however this set came after the transition from light/dark gray to light/dark blueish gray so there is a subtle difference. Included in the set are two 55 and three 75 degree slopes.
In addition to the ship there are two side builds; a transport cart and a second cart with a crane that allows you to move boxes to and from the transport cart.
The highlight of the set is the TEN minifigures (including the same Darth Vader and two Royal Guards minifigures as 7166 Imperial Shuttle) and seven (Emperor Palpatine, two Imperial Officers plus four Stormtroopers) being unique to this set. Nowadays you wouldn’t see that amount of minifigures outside of a very large play set, Ultimate Collector Series or Master Builder Series set. Darth Vader is included extra to set 7166 and whilst a couple of thousand Stormtroopers would be needed to fully recreate the scene from the film. Some collectors lacked perspective and were just as unhappy because there was no Shuttle Pilot minifigure included!
75094 Imperial Shuttle Tydirium
Stolen by famed Rebel pilot Wedge Antilles and handed over to Crix Madine and his elite Rebel commandoes, the 75094 Imperial Shuttle Tydirium came after a very long ten years wait.
Inspired by the “fly casual” scene that came about due to the sacrifice of many Bothans , this Imperial shuttle is used to get the gang through the shield to the Forest Moon of Endor.
The set – at 397 pieces – was much larger than the previous sets, incorporating three of the sloped 55 and five 75 degree elements. When built and displayed in flight mode, the set looks stunning making those flat, round, long sets look a bit boring. Features include a flip top cockpit, a boarding ramp, flick-fire missiles and two fold-up side panels (between the wings and the vertical fin wing) access to an interior cabin that seat four minifigures. The vertical fin is now locked to the main body with technic pins so that will now survive a good swooshing about.
The five minifigures are brilliant and four of them unique to this set: generals Han Solo (Endor Outfit) and Princess Leia (Camouflage Cape) come with suitable combat soft wear, Chewbacca, a bearded Endor Rebel Trooper (that became known as Captain Rex after it was confirmed that the character had survived) and a regular Endor Rebel Trooper so what’s not to like? LEGO even thought to include the cookie that Leia used to befriend Wicket the Ewok.
Overall, this is a brilliant set, the best System version one to date but to display the most famous Imperial Shuttle scenes from the film, the missing minifigures – including C-3PO and R2-D2 – need to be appropriated.
10212 Imperial Shuttle
Even after looking at countless photos and review videos, it’s impossible to fully comprehend how impressive 10212 Imperial Shuttle is without seeing it first hand. Integral in its accuracy are three 55 degree and a whopping five 75 degree sloped elements in the dorsal fin, which is bigger than the combined heights of 7166 and 7264s vertical plane, and the finished ship is absolutely stunning in flight or landing mode.
The included minifigures – Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Imperial Officer and an Imperial Pilot – again cover the not-seen on-screen flight from the Forest Moon of Endor to the Death Star (and back) that delivered the son of Skywalker to the hands of the Emperor. A minifigure of Palpatine would have been nice but in truth it’s hard to imagine many people spent hours and hours building the set just because of the minifigures included.
Most Star Wars ships translate to Mini-Scale successfully but a handful do not- thankfully the Imperial Shuttle – of which there are four (4494, 20016, 30246 and 30388) – is generally successful with the odd exception.
If the four Mini-Scale sets were lined up together, only a true Lego aficionado would be able to list the correct release date order, so similar are they are in design. One usual giveaway is the (old) light gray pieces on earlier Star Wars sets but 4494 (released in 2004) was one of the first sets with the new light bluish-gray pieces. The 30388 (released in 2021) set has a few more modern pieces but apart from that, the sets are nearly ageless.
Unfortunately, set 30246 is the odd exception because it is the only Mini-Scale set not to use the 55 degree sloped element for the front of the vertical fin. Instead, it uses two 65 degree slope bricks for the front of the wing which alters the shape entirely. Stood by itself, it still looks good but against any other Imperial Shuttle, the flaws really stand out.
New out in 2015, foil packs came as cover-mounted “freebies” with the LEGO Star Wars Magazine (from Blue Ocean in Europe and Egmont in the United Kingdom). The quality of these ranges from near Mini-Scale quality down to Micro-Scale quality with everything in between.
So far the magazine (DE: March/UK: Apri 2018) has only had one Imperial Shuttle included with it.
At a meager 36 pieces, this set does a very good job of recreating the general shape of an Imperial Shuttle and any Star Wars fan would easily be able to identify what the set is. The front of the vertical fin is a 75 degrees slope instead of the regular 55 degree element. For a 36 piece set, it is hard to argue with this error of detail on a free set attached to a £3.99/€3.99 magazine.
The final two shuttles come with 75298 Star Wars Advent Calendar (2011) and 75056 Star Wars Advent Calendar (2014), on days 10 and 20 respectively.
The annual Star Wars Advent Calendars are meant to be fun, with a mixture of minifigures and builds of ships, buildings, items and locations. Mostly these are easily identifiable yet others fill up many pages on Lego Facebook groups and forums with discussions of various identification theories. Thankfully, the iconic shape of the Imperial Shuttle is a dead giveaway every time.
The formula is simple – a vertical fin wing piece, a wing at each side, a sloping transparent nose piece, a transparent blue engine piece and a few pieces to hold it all together. LEGO already produce the (five) important pieces so an Imperial Shuttle in nine pieces is probably as near to LEGO perfection that we will ever get.
The Imperial Shuttle might not be the fastest ship in the Star Wars galaxy. It is not the most heavily gunned, nor is it the most manueverable. It never brought down a Super Star Destroyer or blew up a Death Star. It’s a glorified bus with a few toy guns yet is one of the most visually stunning in both flight and landing mode, and is elegant in every other way.
Over the past 20 years LEGO has never failed to do it justice form, and if the rumors of a new Ultimate Collector Series version are true then the best is going to get better.
Russ is a life-long Star Wars fan, and a LEGO fan for nearly as long. Though he didn’t find his way to the LEGO Star Wars theme until 2011, his earliest cross-over was a landspeeder built out his his childhood LEGO bricks after he saw Star Wars for the first time in 1978. He is now retired and making up for lost time spending countless hours learning about what I have missed and sharing that knowledge with others.
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