Review: 7593 Buzz's Star Command Spaceship

[Oky]

Accessing...

Star Command

Databanks

Opening File...

Item #: 7593

Name: Buzz's Star Command Spaceship

Theme: Toy Story

Year of Release: 2010

Pieces: 257

Price: $29.99 USD

Welcome, Space Rangers! These are the data files of captain Buzz Lightyear's personal spaceship. First up, we have the packaging.

The front of the box features the classic Toy Story design and a small picture showing the little vehicle the set includes coming out of the back of the ship:

The back shows the ship in its launch position, the two figs with names, and some action features:

The contents include one instruction booklet, a sticker sheet, and two numbered bags, each of which include at least one smaller bag:

Here is a scan of the sticker sheet, and here is a random instructions page showing the SNOT technique of the cockpit:

It's strange that they used the technic pin technique now that they have the new piece which is the same thing in one piece.

Anyway, here is the inventory page:

The following picture shows some pieces of interest which have never (or at least rarely) been available in these colors. These pieces include the SNOT piece mentioned above in lime green and the new 2x4 tile in white.

DISCLAIMER: Do not be alarmed. You did NOT get sucked into a black hole and transported to a Belville review!

Zurg's upper body comes pre-assembled in his own bag together with his cape, and Buzz's wings, jetpack, and head and helmet come in their own bag as well, one with 3 subdivisions. The rest of Buzz's body comes with all the other parts. Sorry for the bad pic.

The picture below shows some comparisons and interesting facts. Compared to the head of a normal minifig, Buzz's head is smaller and Zurg's is slightly bigger. There is printing on the back of Buzz's torso which is a nice unexpected detail. Zurg's arms are the same long kind as those of Woody and Jessie. Zurg's cape is longer than previous minifig capes and is red on the other side, as is his collar. Unlike the collar of the Evil Wizard from the Castle theme, Zurg's collar is separate from his cape.

Here are the two figs completely assembled. The proportions are pretty accurate.

Side view. Here you can see that Buzz's helmet is unfortunately only half closed. Also, I have removed one of Buzz's wings so that you can see the slot it sticks in.

Back view. As you may be able to tell, Buzz's jetpack and hips could have used some more color, but it's OK as it is. You can also see here that Buzz's wings are identical and have the green light bulb printed on one side and the red one on the other. Zurg looks like a very pointy Vader from this angle.

Here we have the Buzz without his jetpack and Zurg without his cape. No back printing for Zurg, but he doesn't need any anyway. His shoulder pads look pretty good from the back, so they could very well be used the other way around on a custom fig.

The build begins with Zurg's blaster. Unfortunately it's just a flick-fire tomato launcher. There is only one missile, so if you loose this one, you're screwed. I would have much preferred a movie-accurate version with three barrels, but I guess this adds some playability to the set. Here is a little comparison:

Next up we have the little transport vehicle. Looks pretty cute, but what is the tank it carries supposed to contain? Fuel? If so, why is it being dragged across the floor? Oh well, it's a nice addition to the set, so who cares.

Last but not least, you have the spaceship itself! Here is the completed set:

Here is a side view of the ship. Very smooth shape, but here you can see one of the few flaws in this set: the cockpit is not airtight. This could probably be easily fixed by a few tiles though.

A rear view. Nice to see all these trans orange studs here. Would have looked rather empty here without them.

Here it is in its vertical launch position. Just for fun, I placed Buzz the way he was packed inside his box in the movie. If you look closely, you will see that all the stickers are split in half. This makes it a pain in the asteroids to apply them correctly, but at least they aren't applied over multiple pieces.

A bottom view. Instead of landing gear, we have these orange hover pads, which is movie accurate (I think).

This is the opened cockpit. As you can see, Buzz's wings have an exact span of 6 studs, so you can seat him in the cockpit with or without them.

Here you see the empty cockpit. The control panel is the only printed piece in this set, aside from the figs of course.

There is a boarding ramp in the back that can be folded down in order to load the little vehicle on board.

This is my favorite feature: In order to reveal the interior of the ship, you can split the top half open. The white clips clip onto the bley handle bars in the back of the ship when closed so that it stays closed. A very clever technique which I hope to see in future constructions. The downside is that there is not much interior to speak of, but then again, space is limited, and I can't think of much that could have been put here.

There is a hole in the wall that separates the cockpit with the cargo area which, I suppose, is meant for Buzz to crawl through to get from one section to the other.

Here it is with the vehicle inside. Of course, Buzz would have to get out for the ship to close again.

Although not advertised as a play feature of this set, you can detach the wings from the ship. The wings are slightly wobbly due to that.

Spare parts include a technic pin, a blue cheese slope, and some studs.

As a bonus, here is one suggestion of what to do with the mystery container:

More pics in this brickshelf folder.

Ratings:

Design: This set seems to be more based on the Buzz Lightyear of Star Command cartoon rather than the Toy Story movies, considering it doesn't represent the box of a toy, but the real deal (you will see the ship 1:49 into this episode). The ship has a very smooth and retro looking shape to it, and the little vehicle doesn't look bad either. As I already said, Zurg's blaster could have been more accurate, but maybe that's just me. 5/5

Parts: You get some nice purple and lime parts with this set, plus 4 white 2x4 tiles. Except that, nothing all that new, but it's all pretty useful stuff in my opinion. 4/5

Minifigs: Buzz and Zurg are both highly detailed, very movie accurate, and proportionally correct. Their should pieces look a bit big, Zurg's lower body looks a bit plain, and their heads aren't very reusable, but they look so similar to their movie counterparts that I am very well willing to ignore these minor flaws. 5/5

Build: I found the build to be quite enjoyable. Very little repetition, some SNOT, and nothing too complicated. In fact, it reminded me of some classic space sets, with the cone thrusters and little deployable vehicle and such. 4/5

Price: The price-to-parts ratio here is alright for a licensed set. Not great but not horrible either. 4/5

Playability: The ship is perfectly swooshable, you can have the wings break off, have Zurg attack it, take the small vehicle out, play inside the cockpit and cargo area, etc. A hole lot of playability for such a small set, I'd say. 5/5

Overall: 5/5 This is definitely one of the strongest sets in the Toy Story line. It's one of the sets I was most looking forward to in this theme, and I can't say I'm disappointed. There's not much I could have expected more from this set. Even if you are not into Toy Story, I can recommend getting this set for the cool minifigs and the retro classic space-y goodness of the spaceship!

This concludes this thorough and slightly nerdy review. Look out for more Toy Story reviews by yours truly in the future.

What's left to say? Oh yeah...

To infinity and beyond!!

Edited April 8, 2010 by Oky Wan Kenobi

[Matn]

Fantastic review, excellent pictures. I really like this set and its design, probably out of nostalgia. I'm not going to buy because of it's high price... 30 dollars for a small spaceship? It justs looks so small. But like I said, I think the design is pretty good and accurate. Again, excellent review.

[Svelte]

Thanks for the sweet review! Your pics get better every time! The comparison shot with Zurg is helpful, too.

Not the most enticing of the TS sets to me, but kids will love the spaceship I imagine. It's a shame we couldn't get more printed parts considering how good the other sets are in this regard, but it looks OK. Kind of pricey at $US29.99 I would have thought.

[lightningtiger]

'We meet again Buzz Lightyear' - Zurg (TS2)

Thanks for the review 'Oky Wan Kenobi' - this is a great set.

You are very right about the 1x1 trans ambers or are they trans neon amber for the exhaust ports.

Love the split hatch at the rear and the little Buzz car too.

Then there is Zurg, a very cool evil minifig - cool head on him.

Now Buzz himself is a work of pure genius on Lego's part as he does really look like the character - I love it.

And by the way 'Oky wan' MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!!!

[Big Cam]

Wow, Oky, I had no idea you wrote such good reviews! I don't think I've ever seen one of yours before, escept maybe the halloween game. You should go through the Reviewers Academy, you'd do well.

Anyway, the set is cool enough for the Toy Story line, but this line just doesn't excite me, except the green army men.

I do like Zurgs head, they got that spot on, and I appreciate the height they gave him, overall, LEGO hit this set on the head.

[Tanotrooper]

Great review

I think I'll buy it just for the figures, that long cape is very interesting...

TT

[Lordofdragonss]

Zurg:

No Buzz, I am your father!

This will be the first set I will buy if the price will be good. Because OMG!IT'SZURG! two great minifigs, and nice build starship.

And I love Zurg double cape!

Edited December 24, 2009 by Lordofdragonss

[-JD-]

Fab review Oky! This set still lacks the wow factor, but it is pretty good. The stickers and price are the let downs for me, so I won't get it. However, I'm loving the capes for Zurg!

Thanks for this review, and Merry Xmas!

[Sir Gecko]

Thanks for the review! I’m not so sure about the Buzz fig, but Zurg seems alright to me.

[Scorpion]

Why doesn't LEGO make more ships like this? Look at it's construction! No fancy parts to speak of, simple, easy, old-school. More Futuron than Space Police III (in-name-only). Give back the 80's space, LEGO!

/rant

[Dunjohn]

Wow. Impressed with that hinge-clip technique. Beats the Camper Van's one by a mile.

The Power Miners are probably doomed to suffocate because Buzz stole their last lime green air tank. Not cool, Buzz, not cool.

I probably won't be getting this set, but thatks for the great review!

[user]

Thanks for giving us an excellent review on this set Oky! You sure have a unique way of doing reviews but I find it quite entertaining.

[ILikePi]

Thanks for this very detailed review Oky Wan!

There's not much to this set, but I still like it very much. The overall ship just looks good to me.

The Zurg minifig is amazing! Sure, he could use some printing on his legs slope, but it's Zurg!

I also like the double-colored cape that he has. Why couldn't they have done that with the Winter Toy Shop caroler, though?

And by the way, do you think you can get a size comparison shot with another $30 set (like the Separatist Shuttle)? I'd like to see how large it is.

Wow. Impressed with that hinge-clip technique. Beats the Camper Van's one by a mile.

8038 The Battle of Endor uses that technique too. Edited December 26, 2009 by ILikePi

[Ben Kenobi]

Nice review, Oky.

At first I thought this set was a bit too small for the price, but now it looks pretty good. The figures are cool, although it sucks that some of the parts are nade in China.

Ben Kenobi

[Dunjohn]

8038 The Battle of Endor uses that technique too.

Yeah, but that's a Star Wars set. Nobody buys those....

[Lt. de Martinet]

Great review!

Funnily enough, this set is my least favorite in the entire line so far. I own this set as of today, and It does have better parts than are obviously apparent on the box art, but still not enough to warrant the price point, IMO. I now have two buzzes...

[Aethersprite]

Can Buzz sit down in the back compartment without that little vehicle? I don't like the use of it as a storage space for a random vehicle, so I'll be converting it into a mini command center of sorts when I get this set.

Oh, and great review!

[nintha]

I got this set for Christmas and I it. And great review.

I also really like the Zurg figure.

Edited December 26, 2009 by nintha

[Forresto]

It seems like an okay set. Good parts and minifigures but way overpriced. I mean it's more expensive then the construct a buzz

[Grimmy]

Can Buzz sit down in the back compartment without that little vehicle? I don't like the use of it as a storage space for a random vehicle, so I'll be converting it into a mini command center of sorts when I get this set.

Oh, and great review!

I'm going to put a bed in the back compartment of mine so that when Buzz rescues a fair maiden he can........................allow her to get a restful sleep while he navigates a safe voyage to bring her home. ;)

Great review. Nice scans and pics. Nice little comic pic at the end of the review too :D I love the minifig characters. I'll likely be getting this set along with most of the Toy Story sets.

[Bonaparte]

I'd only buy this set for it's parts. But the set is not the reason for me posting a reply, it's the standout review that did it. Your review is of a quality worth of a reviewers academy teacher! Your pics are perfect (clean background, focused, ...) and the review has a perfect layout (intro, comments for each pic, summary at the end).

I've given you access to the reviewers academy, not because need any training, but just so you can have a look around as you obviously have an interest in making reviews

[Oky]

Thanks, Bonaparte, I'm honored. I'll definitely consider joining the Academy.

Thanks to everyone else for the kind comments as well!

It's funny how I always get such good responses to my reviews without having passed the academy. It's like I'm a reviewer without a license.

[Bricklanta]

I don't like this set at all. I don't think a small spaceship is worth paying $30 for. Again it seems like Lego is charging mostly because of the brand new mini figs. The only reason i can see buying this set is for the colorful parts.