2002 was an excllent year for the Star Wars Lego collector. A new film had just been released, giving Lego another year of great new models, many of which included the new designs in brick and whole new range of colours. It was an exciting time, and with the release of the new film, the Lego Star Wars models were proving more popular than before.
One ship to enjoy this popularity was Jango Fett's Slave 1.

From looking at the box art, you could instantly see that this model was very different from the earlier one released in 2000. The box gave you a glimpse of what was inside - the new bricks, the authentic colours, the added details. What it didn't give away was any real hint of the model's size.
No doubt a lot of people would be comparing this model to the first Slave 1 and had a lot of questions that needed answering.

The build starts, as usual, with the assembly of the minifigures. Two are included in this set - Jango Fett and his young son, Boba. Both figures are unique to this set, at the time of writing, Jango in particular, being of special interest for the collector.
Jango uses the same jetpack and helmet mold found on the earlier adult Boba minifigure, but is silver instead of green. The helmet markings are painted on in black and two shades of blue. The helmet slips over a black head piece as before, but Jango's head piece is printed on one side with Jango's face. Remove the helmet/jetpack, twist the head, add the included black hair piece, and voila! You have a Jango Fett that can move around without all of his combat gear strapped on. A neat little touch.
Jango's Torso is grey with silver armour plates painted on. Very flash! His arms are purple!
This colour seems to have been added especially for the Jango Fett figure and the larger Technic model of Jango, released around the same time.
Jango's legs are also moulded in this new funky purple colour. A very unique mini figure, indeed.
The young Boba figure is less spectacular, legs and torso molded in baby blue, the torso having some detail paintwork to depict the tunic Boba wears.
Boba's legs are of the short, non posable type and his hair is of the long type, not often seen in the Star Wars Lego universe. It is molded in black, of course.

Moving on to the ship, and construction begins with the lower rear portion of the model where you are instantly introduced to a new part in a new colour - rounded slopes in dark blue!
As construction moves on there is some use of standard bricks in standard colours - bright reds, blues and yellows. These turn out to be hidden in later stages, so don't panic. This part of the build is in 16 stages and concentrates on the loading ramp and bomb bay doors. These are mounted on click hinges, so won't fall open willy nilly. Included here are 3 transparent orange globes (siesmic charges), more dark blue elements and even more new round slope pieces in another cool new colour - sand green!
The next stage deals with the lower front part of the ship and poses no problems in construction. Once again, plenty of dark blue and sand green slopes are used, as well as white slopes and round bricks.
This front section then connects to the back section to form the overall base of the model. Things are shaping up.
The next stage of construcion is fairly lengthy and deals with the bulk, center section. Here you are introduced to some Technic axles and two 10x1 Technic bricks. Along with a magnet, this little part of the construction seems to have no purpose, but lets move on.
This little section adds bracing to the conjoined front and rear sections you built earlier, and it is now apparent that the Technic axles will be used to attach the stabilizer wings. But what is that magnet for?
This middle section also contains the cockpit which is mounted on the Technic axles, so it can rotate with the stabilizer fins, thereby staying upright at all times. What's more, both figures will fit into this cockpit at the same time as there is plenty of room.
The rest of the middle section fills up with more bricks of various shapes and colours, including opening hatches which conceal hidden cannons.
At this stage, you end up with a rather non descript looking lump.

Moving on to the sides of the model and you are faced with a flimsy construction with the new slope pices in black, mounted vertically - two on each side of the ship.
Next up, you move briefly on to the underside of the ship and finally find out what that magnet is for. It seems Jango's Slave 1 comes complete with a prison cell. This is a box with hinged doors on either end. On top of the box sits a magnet. This small construction then slides into place inside the ship, from underneath, held by the other magnet.
This is a nice design which will add a lot of playability for younger collectors.

Moving back to the sides of the ship, and it is now time to build the stabilizer fins. These are nicely detailed, using a combination of basic bricks and plates, Technic, and what look like parts borrowed from Bionicles. I could be wrong. These are all moulded in the relevant colours - Tan mostly, with some greys and details in yellow.
You are instructed to build two of these, and they are then attached to big grey cones. The finished constructions then slide over the Technic axles, one either side of the model, between the flimsy upright black slopes. It actually looks very realistic, and shows how much attention to detail Lego have put in to this Slave 1, and shows that it the design really benefitted from the use of the newly designed bricks.

Moving to the underside of the craft, you are required to add seven exhaust ports and a large radar dish at the front. These also raise the craft off the ground a little and lift the prison cell clear so it is fully supported only by the magnet.

Topside again and it is time to add the tail end of Slave 1. This isn't just a block thrown together with only the absolute minimum number of bricks. Not a drop of imagination is wasted.
This top rear section contains storage compartments and an engine which is accessable via hinged service hatches either side. It also houses the four cannons which are mounted on plates with an axle underneath. Two cannons per plate. These then slot into a brick mounted either side of the tail. The cool thing is that these cannons don't swing freely, but click into place as you turn them. This allows you to line up the cannons perfectly either side, making for a much more eye catching model.
This tail construction then fits into place on top of the rear of the ship and to finish things off, a large one piece canopy in a transparent smokey colour sits over the front half of the ship.

Overall this is a very enjoyable ship to build with engaging instructions, up to Lego's usual high standards.
Only two things stand out in my mind as slight flaws. The first is the flimsy design of the stabilizer guards - the black upright slopes - which tend to fall off if the ship is held wrong. The other gripe is minor. Although the scale of the ship is better than that of the 2000 model, and the overall design is excellent and life like, I can't help but think that the ship is a little too short and stubby. It needs stretching out by a few studs just to give it a more balanced appearance.
Otherwise, this is an excellent model and well worth it's original price tag.