As my building partner rediscovers a love for "Star Wars Rebels," we've been reliving the exploits of the Spectres rebel cell. A central figure in the adventures of Kanan, Hera, Sabine, Zeb, Ezra, and Chopper is their shuttle-like starship, the Phantom.
A modified VCX-series auxiliary starfighter, the Phantom docked with its mothership, the Ghost, and played a pivotal role in a number of side missions.
It didn't take much re-viewing for us to wonder about the possibility of adding the Phantom to our Lego collection. There were two versions made, and our initial research told us that both were retired and entirely out of our price range. We already had the minifigures from other builds, though, and determined that putting together the ship itself was manageable.
In deciding to reconstruct one from our own pieces, we settled on set 75048, a 234-piece construction released in 2014 that did not require a ton of unique pieces. After downloading the building manual from Lego, I set about the hours-long process of finding and setting aside the requisite pieces.
I eventually tracked down all but a handful of what I'd need to construct the shuttle, and I spent just over $5 in missing pieces (more with the shipping & handling). When everything arrived, the Phantom came to life in a really cool way.
The cockpit and the storage area come together cleverly, and it's admittedly a tight squeeze in the back. Chopper can fit, along with a helmet or a small box of explosives, but that's about it. However, the roof is easily removable to allow for easy maneuvering in the storage area.
The highlight is the fold-out wings, which roll up on landing and extend when the Phantom is in flight. The next step is creating my own stickers to round out the build, which will only add to what has been one of the most enjoyable Lego experiences I've had -- outside of the occasional "Karabast!" when I couldn't find a piece I needed.
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