Review: 8001 Battle Droid

[Dfenz]

Name: 8001 Battle Droid

Theme: Technic/Star Wars

Episode 1

Year Released: 2000

Parts: 336

Minifigs: 0

Price: n/a (Bricklink average as at July 2010 €45)

Age: 9+

This weekend I decided to finally take apart my technic star wars figures to make way for the newer sets. These are the first of my star wars sets to be dismantled so its a key moment in the Dfenz household, some may say a slippery slope which could lead to other sets heading to Watto's junkyard. Anyway as there are a few of these sets missing from the star wars review index I've decided to add a brief review of this and other technic star wars sets. No doubt others could do a better job but this might suffice in the interim.

First up the final family gathering of all the sets before they retire.

This set was stored on my bookshelf for about 4 years. It has been constructed once.

Here is the list of parts per Bricklink Bricklink parts 8001

The set is rather flimsy and indeed of all the technic star wars sets I've found this one to be the least stable. The reason for this is that the tension in the legs is created by rubber bands. In the course of this review 3 of the bands snapped as they had become extremely brittle. There is a trade off in some of these Technic sets between stability and flexibility.

My picture of what happens when rubber bands snap

With strong rubber bands in place the battle droid can stay upright if properly balanced. The balance can be adjusted by pressing a middle section 'boat stud' rounded plate [2x2]. The other moving feature is the ability to raise and point the droids gun using a technic gear at the rear. What is really neat is that the gun is held in a shoulder holster and the movement grabs the gun and points it forward. This is achieved using two magnets similar to that used in the trains and star destroyer 10030.

This set didn't take long to dismantle and I recollect it didn't take too long to build but like all of these technic sets its important to get the pins and parts in the right positions. There's lots of fiddly bits. In addition to the above-mentioned magnets I didn't notice too many unusual pieces but I'm not a technic expert so what might be unusual to me could be run of the mill for those in the know. The few grey pieces in the set are 'old grey's which many welcome but tan technic pieces are most prevalent.

A picture of some parts

Like all of the sets of this series the instructions are very clear with a call out of the parts required. As others have noted it is unusual to see human hands in the pictures demonstrating how the features work but it works very well. If I recall correctly the parts for this set came in three bags. First we construct the legs and waist, then from bag 2 comes the upper torso and head while finally from bag 3 emerges the parts for the back and arms.

There is an alternative model. In this instance an AT-ST.

The instructions also have advertisements for new '1-2-2000' pit droid 8000 and destroyer droid 8002. There are additional red technic lift arms and yellow pieces to 'upgrade' the droid to more senior status. It might have been a bit optimistic to expect people to buy more than one of these but the ability to customise is nice. Instructions on pages 77 to 81 show how this is done.

All in all, I'm not sure its worth the current €45 average price on Bricklink but I suspect the price is inflated by the star wars label and completionists like myself will always generate a decent after market for these sets. As far as accuracy goes, its actually not too bad. Perhaps its one of the easier droids to replicate in technic. If I could give the set rating it would be an 'average'.

Build 7/10 (Easy build for the number of pieces although technic sets aren't always the easiest to dismantle.)

Functionality 7/10 (It is designed to sit on a shelf - its not the most stable. Gun capture and pointing works well)

Design 7/10 (Not a bad representation for the parts)

Parts 6/10 (Nothing too fantastic here. Plenty of technic tan and two magnets - rubber bands which become brittle over time)

Price 6/10 (The current Bricklink average price is a bit steep - it may have been much better value upon release)

[prateek]

Nice review. This set is good, but I love that AT-ST alternate model. BTW, are you going to review the other ones too?

[XimenaPaulina]

Thanks for sharing this review Dfenz! Good job on the review. These technic SW sets usually don't get a lot of attention compared to the more mainstream SW sets, it's really nice to see these reviewed. I actually appreaciate this technic BD, and pretty nice collection of technic SW sets there. Hope to see the other sets reviewed as well.

[Dfenz]

Nice review. This set is good, but I love that AT-ST alternate model. BTW, are you going to review the other ones too?

I intend to complete the gaps in the reviews so I'll be adding reviews of those sets that are not already reviewed. While I've taken pictures of the other sets and made some notes this was because I wasn't sure what sets had been reviewed when I was dismantling the sets earlier today. I don't think its necessary to add second reviews.

By the way if someone with more techie knowledge than me can add a poll to the review that might be useful.

[brickfoot]

Good review.

[Lego basher 135]

I intend to complete the gaps in the reviews so I'll be adding reviews of those sets that are not already reviewed. While I've taken pictures of the other sets and made some notes this was because I wasn't sure what sets had been reviewed when I was dismantling the sets earlier today. I don't think its necessary to add second reviews.

By the way if someone with more techie knowledge than me can add a poll to the review that might be useful.

Do you mind adding me to your friends list?

[lightningtiger]

Good review 'Dfenz' - this series is interesting and this set is the better one out of them in my opinion.

I hope you spare rubber bands ?

I'm a conformist! !

[XimenaPaulina]

By the way if someone with more techie knowledge than me can add a poll to the review that might be useful.

I think only the mods can add the poll to someone's review, or if the reviewer is already a Knight (and up) he could add his own poll.

Do you mind adding me to your friends list?

I don't mean to mini-mod but I think this type of post (personal and off-topic) is better sent using the PM function.

[def]

Thanks for sharing! I did the reviews here of 8002 (Destroyer Droid) and 8000 (Pit Droid), and I thought I had bought this too, but it was my memory playing tricks on me. I'd love to see the AT-ST put together. The alternate models were really cool on these sets. Did they have alternates on later Star Wars-Technic sets?

An interesting line, but I think the first series were the best; Technic robots make sense, the Darth Vader one doesn't

[Brickdoctor]

This set always intrigued me; thanks for the review!

[BrickClick]

Thanks for the review!

I like the look of this set but IMO the alternate AT-ST looks far better!

Thanks again for the review