Fondor Haulcraft
Andor was a great Star Wars show, but there wasn’t much in the way of merchandise. Gone are the days of giant vehicles, playsets, and cool aliens. If you want one of those cool ships, you’re gonna have to look somewhere else.
I loved Luthien’s ship – The Fondor Haulcraft. This kick-ass vehicle has a great design AND Lightsabler blades! There are no toys of this ship. In fact, the only way that I know of to get one is this MOC by 2bricksofficial. MOC stands for “My Original Creation”. This is a fan build, and instructions are published for you to go pick your own parts.
This kit consists of 1597 parts, and does not include decals or minifigures. A few things to note about this build:
– In the original build, the cockpit comes from the Razorcrest kit, and is a $40 part on Bricklink. These instructions have been modified to build the kit with parts available through Webrick. Also missing from this set is the missile launchers under the wings, and Luthien’s scooter.
– The instructions I got via PDF were confusing, and at some times terrible. I built this as my first MOC and I almost threw it across the room. I was able to figure a lot of it out due to seeing other steps, but be aware that there is a high-level of difficulty building this kit.
I was not prepared to sort out the entire kits parts to get building. Fortunately I had a cool table I could use to act as brick compartments.
Check out the video to see my frustration with the build. My first issue was connecting the front assembly to the body of the ship. There are parts that disappear between steps, and I had to rebuild this connection to make it attach. My fix is in the video, and once done, it’s solid.
Then you have instruction pages that look like this.
The instructions are likely generated out of Stud.io, and my guess that this was an error. There are many steps like this, however you can skip a few steps ahead and infer where the parts are supposed to go.
This set is what brickmasters call “Playset scale” – while not accurate in size compared to a mini figure, it’s designed to be playable with the figures. A good example of this is the Star Destroyer sets.
There are lots of gimmicks and fun features packed into this build. You can tell it’s not an official lego kit, but it’s good.
The wings can pivot at two connection points for a variety of poses.
The lightsaber blades can slide out of the fuselage to replicate the scene in the movie. Mine took a bit of coaxing to get out.
Two doors store spare missiles, but the launchers are not included. Perhaps they are just meant as engine detail?
The entire living area opens up to reveal a lounge, bed, storage area and even a dressing area. Be aware that you need to rotate the canon before you open it. This set was missing ONE PIECE – the door to the secret storage area. Webrick was not able to replace it due to it being out of stock, so I may track one down on Bricklink.
The cockpit area is a long corridor with seating for one.
There’s an opening side door:
There’s also landing gear, but it does not retract:
Also I forgot to take a photo of it, but the rear compartment opens to reveal a bank of 6 stud launchers and storage for the optional Luthien scooter build (not included).
This kit is not for the faint of heart, but it’s currently the only way to get this ship into your collection. This build is a good option to save some dough and not have to throw down for the expensive official Lego parts.