Review REVIEW: 75098 Assault on Hoth

[Bob De Quatre]

Introduction

The battle of Hoth is maybe the most known conflict of the Star Wars' Original Trilogy. So naturally AFOLs were waiting for TLG to reproduce that battle in Lego. And they've finally done it! But...

I guess everyone reading this review has something to add after that "but", so I'll try to ignore everything that had already been said about that set and to review it with an open mind.

Thanks TLG for the opportunity to do this review, which will of course only reflect my own opinion.

Set information

Set Name: Assault on Hoth

Set Number: 75098

Number of Pieces: 2144

Theme: Star Wars

Year Release: 2016

Prices: £219.99 / $249.99 / €249.99

#75098 on Brickset

#75098 on Rebrickable

Packaging

The box is pretty big. So big that I just couldn't take decent pictures of it... So I'll use the official images from TLG. The front of the box shows the whole set, except for the Tauntaun den, with the classic Star Wars logo and the Lego Star Wars UCS logo. On the top of the box you can see the 15 minifigures included in this set, as well as the Tauntaun and the Wampa.

The back of the box shows the back of the set, with the Tauntaun's stable, and the numerous play features.

Content of the box

The box is 2/3 filled with 18 bags, numbered from 1 to 13.

There is also some loose items: two 3026 6*24 white plates and two 6082 dark bluish grey BLURP. Two plastic bags contains the whole assemblies for the Tauntaun and the Wampa. The thick instructions booklet and the stickers sheet come packed together.

The 21 sticker don't have the glossy look and stand out when applied, especially the white stickers on white parts.

Instructions booklet

The instructions booklet is pretty thick, with its hard cover and 280 pages.

Inside you'll find pages about the Lego Designer team and of course the battle of Hoth. I found these few pages quite interresting.

Instructions are clear to follow and shouldn't lead to any error. Unlike some reviewers, I don't think they are too simplistic or childish.

Minifigures

The set contains 15 minifigures and 2 large figures! Let's start with the named minifigs: R3-A2, K-3PO, Toryn Farr, Han Solo, Wes Janson, Wedge Antilles and Rebel Officer, who has the perfect name you can have to be an officer in the rebellion! Everyone here gets a backprinting, except for R3-A2. Rebel Officer gets a mustache, but no leg printings! Wes and Wedge are dressed as classic rebel pilots. What I miss the most is probably a hood for Han. Riding a Tauntaun without a hood will freeze his ears!

Continuing with the named minifigs: Jeremy the Tauntaun, Luke skywalker and Bill the Wampa. Of course, when I took the picture above with all the named characters, I didn't forget Luke was still hanging in the Wampa cave...

Luke has a double printed head, before and after meeting Bill. Sadly, no legs printing for him!

Then we have 7 non-named characters: 5 rebel troopers, including 3 in cold resistant outfit, and 2 snowtroopers. the snowtroopers don't have any leg printings, but they have a skirt! Back printing for everyone, but no double-sided heads.

Interesting parts

The interesting parts of this set obviously include the Tauntaun and the Wampa. There are some rare parts, the only exclusive being the #64225 4x3 wedge in light bluish grey. 1x4 yellow tile with black stripes are nice, especially since I didn't own any!

Build

With bag 1 we'll build the left side of the trench and the whole imperial assault force, with its impressive E-Web blaster and a snowspeeder... Good luck guys!

Bag 2 finishes the left side of the trench and brings the central part. We also build two canons and an 1.4 FD P-Tower.

The trench is completed with bag 3, with which we build the right side of the trench, a loose snow patch, and two DF.9 batteries. In this bag, we also get 3 rebel troopers, who already outnumber the imperial forces.

Bag 4 brings us the shield generator, with its four three round structures.

With bag 5 we'll start building the T-47 airspeeder.

And finish it with bag 6. Lots of stickers on that T-47.

Bag 7 will start the Echo Base entrance, with part of the door opening mechanism.

With bag 8 the Echo Base entrance is complete, with blast doors and lookout tower.

With bag 9 we'll build the small control room.

Bag 10 contains the Wampa's ice cavern. Luke can be suspended to the upper side of the cave and use the force to pull its lightsaber from the ice. I'm still wondering how a wampa can enter this cave...

Bag 11 brings us a small moving crane, a small service vehicle and the Tauntaun stable. I always thought the Tauntaun was a carnivorous creature!

The building of the v-150 ion cannon starts with bag 12...

... And ends with bag 13.

Spare parts... Always welcome.

The complete "outside" set finished.

The "interior" parts of the set.

Play features

The play features of the set are simple but effective: the big door opens and closes, the studs shooter shoot studs and the lookout tower goes up and down... But let's take a look at what is, in my opinion, the nicest feature: the swapping elements. The two cannons, two DF.9 batteries, and the 1.4 FD P-Tower can be positioned at 7 different places on the trench part, the loose snow patch, and the Echo Base entrance.

The shield generator also has a nice play feature as it can explode with a simple hit on a lever on the back of the build. But as you can see, when I was taking pictures, all my attempt resulted in the middle section always dropped down back in place... That may not have been the case with a four sections shield generator...

Speaking of accuracy, the ion cannon firing sequence is really nice, as a pull on the back lever will pull back the "barrel" and shot the two darts one after the other. Toryn The ion cannon opens on the top to reveal nice firing and target control center that can fit a minifigure. The hatch can be closed with Toryn Farr inside. The 1.4 FD P-Tower has the same play feature, but there are no controls, and the hatch doesn't close. It seems pretty useless to me...

Why?

We have all read previous reviews of this set, and most of them were pretty harsh. I must say that I have mixed feelings toward this set. The minifigures, the lack of new elements, the use of older designs, etc... it's obvious that choices were made. What were the constraints that led the designer to make those choices? Sell price? Budget? Disney requests?

All models look like they aren't finished, or at least needed a few more bricks. This is really visible on the ion cannon and the Echo Base doors.

The name of the set, "Assault on Hoth", isn't well chosen too... The imperials are clearly outnumbered and have almost no firepower. How are they supposed to blow that 3 sections shield generator with just a snowspeeder bike? I would have sacrificed the wampa cave for an AT-ST. But what would have been the price to even the forces? While adding an AT-ST may have been possible, I don't see an AT-AT added to the set without a big price increase. And isn't that set already too pricey? Again I'm wondering what led to that lack of imperial forces...

The Ultimate Collector's Series label. What does it mean? How is it applied to a set? Is that set worth of the label? I'm not in favor to give that label to playsets. To me a UCS is the Falcon, the Star Destroyer, the X-wing, not Assualt on Hoth or the Ewok Village. I think the UCS label is now only a commercial label that TLG applies to its Star Wars sets if they reach a given price tag. "Yes madam, it's an expensive box with lots of small plastic bricks, but it's an Ultimate Collector's Series box!"

There is one last question that I'd like to ask: do we AFOL have some sort of responsibility? (Yes, you can start throwing rocks at me...)

We expect a lot from TLG. And we are almost never happy. For years we wanted a Battle of Hoth set, and asked TLG to release one. Just take a minute to think at what would be your dream Hoth Battle set. Do you visualize it? Now try to fit it in a 250€/$ box... You'll have to make choices. And I'm sure your set won't appeal to me, but mine won't please you. And both won't please another AFOL... TLG tried to satisfy all of us AFOLs, with a product that is mainly aimed at children. They failed. But I'm sure kids will have a lot of fun with that set... Fun...

Conclusion

Design: 6/10 - The designs are simple and nice, nothing more.

Parts: 6/10 - Not the best part selection I've seen, far from it (curved slopes!!)

Build: 7/10 - Hours of good builds, but nothing complicated or with advanced techniques.

Playability: 8/10 - A nice playset... for kids. Some good ideas.

Minifigs: 8/10 - Saved by the number of minifigs, but they could have used some more printings and accessories.

Price: 5/10 - Star Wars sets aren't cheap, and this one is way too pricey.

Overall: 40/60 (66.6%) - A percentage score that may scare many of us! With reason... Too expensive, minifigures are ok but barely, almost no imperial forces... But still a nice playset. If you don't have oldest Hoth sets, I think you can enjoy the content of this set. Else, I think that Ben Kenobi could say "This is not the set you're looking for..."

[Covi]

Thanks for the review and your personal opinion Bob!

PS: Nice photos!

[Markalus]

Firstly, nice review Bob. I'm not sure what you mean though when you ask "do AFOLs have some sort of responsibility"? Do you mean a responsibility to not voice too much negative sentiment based on own selfish ideas of what an Assault on Hoth should be? If that is the case, and this set was truly designed purely with children's play in mind, it begs the question "does a review even belong on a site that is openly exclusive for AFOLs/TFOLs and threatens banning if an individual is not eighteen(ish) or above"?

[Midlife-crisis]

Great review - really nice pictures.

I´m not a fan of this set, now i´m a bit shocked 21 Stickers?

How much printed parts are included (except Droid Heads)?

[YellowCorvette]

Thanks for the review, but this is still a awful set for me. Most of the components in this set is unfinished and looks terrible, little to no exclusive and new parts, mediocre minifigures, too overpriced, and a uninteresting build make this set a big "no" for me. This set didn't deserve the UCS tag, and it shouldn't be.

[LegoFjotten]

Thanks for the review Bob!

This set was doomed from the start for us AFOLs I think. If they had left out the UCS branding and selected a more fitting name for the set it would have been just a regular & expensive Star Wars set (albeit a big one). Now it is everyones favourite chopping block...

[Darth Dino]

Hi

if someone would set this set rathing (66%) in releation to the average set rating we see on sets, especially Star Wars, its the worst set of all. Honestly, we dont see set rating below 70%, whatever the rating is based of, or whoever did the review.

With that background im happy about the revoew and the honest opinion of the reviewer. I. a normal world 6

66% is quiete ok or even good, for a Lego review, especially a Star Wars review, its a bad set.

Bob, its a good review with lots of great pix. Its not your fault that the Bacta Tank is the highlight of that set. Ooops, there is no Bacta Tank....

Dino

[Schneeds]

Q: Is there a specific feature of the Hoth Battle set that you like best?

A: We took some liberty when creating the extendable lookout. It's a detail taken from the the rebel base on Yavin 4 from the previous movie, so we just assumed every Rebel base had to have lookouts and we just don't see them in The Empire Strikes Back. The Rebels always need to watch out for approaching Imperials, right? Even though it has to be freezing cold up there!

I don't even know what to say to that. Not that it wasted a ton of pieces, but that's just stupid on so many levels. And that was the least of the liberties you took with the set.

(ps: they picked up the imperial fleet on scanners, not look out towers)

Edited May 31, 2016 by Schneeds

[MontyPython]

Thanks for great review!

[DarthTwoShedsJackson]

Lego should've released this set on April 1st... Nice pics in the review, though, if only a bit yellowish.

[Forresto]

Excellent review Bob! You definitely seem to have entered into this with open eyes which is impressive considering how big an impact this set has made throughout the AFoL community.

Here's my only question, how do you think your opinion would have changed if you had to buy this rather then receiving a review copy? Your review seems extraordinarily fair, so i'm not questioning your sincerity, I really want you to know that since you cannot tell tone on the internet. You do talk about the set being expensive as well. I'm just curious how your mood would have been having completed the model and also being down $250? (Unless I read it wrong and you did buy it?)

Edited May 31, 2016 by Forresto

[Hold0511]

Good review Bob - played straight down the middle and very fair.

I guess the difficulty for me on this one is that unlike most UCS sets, this has been out in various parts and sets before - therefore not much is really new or different, and the two main new 'builds' the Ion cannon and the shield generator both look unfinished (well if counting that missing 4th blade as unfinished)....Now having missed the previous Hoth sets I decided to buy the set, but unlike the other UCS sets I've got, I walked away with that nagging doubt....

[Lobot]

Thanks for the great review, Bob

Unfortunately, even your excellent photos don't make this look anything other than mediocre. And, as I've said before, the cost is totally indefensible but it seems to be following a trend of significant price-hikes amongst other licensed sets. I really don't know what TLG were thinking when they decided to release this; hopefully the UCS Snowspeeder will be in a totally different league, otherwise I might need to find another hobby.

[mickywrx]

It wouldn't have been too bad, if TLG had marketed it differently, and either slashed the pricing or increased the minifig count.

If they'd marketed it as a playset, and not a UCS set, there wouldn't have been as much of an uproar. The price point is ridiculous, since it's clearly aimed at children. Knock £50 off the price, add another 8 Imperial troops and then it would start to fit the name of the set and maybe a pricepoint that parents would consider as the "big" birthday/Christmas present. As it is, it's a jack of all trades and master of none.

Also, sure I read that the Snowspeeder just fits through the blast doors, if that's not a design fault then I don't know what is.

Thanks for the review Bob, it's help re-affirm my view that it's a set I'll never buy, which is a shame as Empire is my favourite film of the OT.

[Artanis I]

Still unsure about this set, it's so expensive and so disappointing, but still, it's Hoth.

If it was up to me regarding this set: I would drop the UCS tag, change the name to Echo Entrance Assault or something like that, sacrifice the snowspeeder & its minifigs and remove the wampa cave & Luke (make that bit a separate set), use the parts allocation to complete the back of the cannon & door and add another bike or something useful for the imperials and make up the minifig difference with 3 or 4 extra snow troopers. Keeps the size & cost roughly the same, but gets rid of the "incomplete" feel and makes it feel more like a battle, than 2 guys versus 15 or whatever plus a bunch of irrelevant stuff going on.

[Cyanide-Tipped]

No hate on the review...it was well done! Thanks for the honesty.

Not a fan of the set either. Waiting for someone to buy two Hoth sets and make a "finished" one like someone did with the Maz Palace one. :)

[Tariq j]

I think it's not the fact that it's UCS is the problem. It's the fact that when you look at other UCS sets like the Ewok Village and Slave I this set does not have any intricate or Unique designs, it doesn't look that impressive on display, and there's not much detail or wow factor in theme overall set.

Even if you've never seen Star Wars in your life before a set like Slave I is not only visually impressive, but there's sense of satisfaction and achievement when you build it. And again, this set doesn't have much of that.

I think they should have had a fully furnished interior with a removable roof and possibly some cheese slopes on the top to create a snowy outcrop look. In any case, great review Bob

[hisamk]

Review and photos are great, thanks!

Not so impressive even thought it displayed in front of a LEGO store. Not like other UCS, it just like several small set put together to build a Hoth theme. 75138 can do the same thing.

[Dazz]

Thanks for posting this review. Your efforts are well appreciated.

I think it's not the fact that it's UCS is the problem. It's the fact that when you look at other UCS sets like the Ewok Village and Slave I this set does not have any intricate or Unique designs, it doesn't look that impressive on display, and there's not much detail or wow factor in theme overall set.

Please don't mistake the Ewok Village set for a UCS set. Just because it's obviously superior to a "real" UCS set like Assault on Hoth doesn't make it one.

[Tariq j]

Thanks for posting this review. Your efforts are well appreciated.

Please don't mistake the Ewok Village set for a UCS set. Just because it's obviously superior to a "real" UCS set like Assault on Hoth doesn't make it one.

To each their own I guess. To me, a UCS set are the things I mentioned above. Unique designs, an impressive display piece, something that has an excellent level of detail, something that gets people's heads turning. And furthermore, it's very unique to anything that's preceded it. That, in my opinion, is what makes a set UCS, but I can understand if you think otherwise.

Edited June 5, 2016 by Tariq j

[Juke]

I'm kinda considering getting this set just for the figures and the snow speeder

[RetroInferno]

I'm always a bit surprised by people saying this set has some redeeming qualities in it's mini figs: Sure, getting a lot of standard troopers ( rebels ) is nice, but main cast wise it is soo poor! No Chewie, Leia, R2, 3PO, Han doesn't get a hoodie, Rieekan.... Any way, shape or form of this set makes me angry...

[analogkid81]

I'll pick this set up when it goes on sale, preferably 50% off ;)

[DaiSkreeming]

As has been said before, I'm sure, this set looks like one that was originally going to be a non-UCS playset, but got too large to not be shoved into that slot.

It's just weird.

[Quicksilver321]

Nice review ;) would pick up this set only for the Snowtroopers :)