Review: 9491 Geonosian Cannon

[Masked Builder]

The Geonosian Cannon, I was looking forward to this set, two Geonosians, Barris, and a new Commander Gree, not to mention some great orange parts, were just too tempting to pass up. I picked this up as soon as I found it and was pleasantly surprised at how cool the cannon model was.

Name: Geonosian Cannon

Set Number: 9491

Pieces: 132

Price: $19.99

Ages: 7-12

Minifigs: 4

Theme: Star Wars

Year of Release: 2012

Bricklink

Brickset

S@H

You can see all of the pictures in their glory in their Flickr Set.

Gather your forces and disable the Geonosian Cannon!

Led by General Barriss Offee and Clone Commander Gree, the Clone Army is mounting an attack on the planet Geonosis. But it won’t be easy. The Geonosians are expecting them and are firing back with their powerful Geonosian Cannon with dual flick missiles! Includes 4 minifigures: Barriss Offee, Clone Commander Gree, Geonosian warrior and Geonosian zombie.

Box:

We move onto the box, the front has the usual Darth Maul art, as well as the pane on the right showing the four new minifigures. The Geonosian art that the cannon has been put in is excellent as always.

The back of the box continues the dark blue color scheme. We also have three panes showing possible "play" scenes, and then three images of the cannon.

LEGO has plopped Barris on the top of this box. I can't wait to get my hands on that dark blue hood!

Contents:

inside the box we have two numbered bags, loose Geonosian wings, and the manual. Both the wings and the manual were bent pretty nicely, though a book fixed both.

Manual:

The manual shares the same art as the box front, though we get much more of Maul's lightsaber on the top here.

Inside, the pages have the soft grey color scheme common in Star Wars sets.

Of course where there's room, LEGO has placed Darth Maul in the upper right corner.

Another newer addition to the manuals is this very nice layout of the set, showing the minifigures as well as the cannon's functions. I really like this, it just has that Star Wars "feel" to it.

Lastly, there's a short, four pane, comic meant to encourage the kidddies buying this to play out stories with the set.

Minifigures:

Barris and Gree are nicely detailed, Gree has a new helmet and torso print, fitting of the colors he bears in the show, and Barris has new dark blue torso print, a shot cape, and a dark blue hood. I really love the hood in that color. Both are very accurate to the show versions, Gree has his belt thing, and Barris has her short cape and hood.

Gree's belt printing continues on his back, and we can see Barris' cape much better from here, she has no back printing.

The Geonosian's wings are so large, they have to be in their own picture. I'm really happy to see a reintroduction of Geonosians, as I missed the first one, and these are so much better. On the left we have our warrior, he's exactly the same as the one from the Geonosioan starfighter set, but with wings, and on the right is our Geonosian Zombie, he's got the same print as the Warrior, but in dark bley. Both were given guns for this set, which I think are pretty accurate.

Now their backs, you get a first glimpse of just ho detailed the wings are here, more pictures of them soon.

I've removed their wings so you can see their backs better, again, they're the same, but in different colors.

Here's an overhead shot of the wings, LEGO has given the Warrior a full set, and printed eaten wings on the Zombie which is true to the show, and adds that extra level of detail.

A close up of the front of the Geonosians, they're very detailed and one of my favorite Star Wars minifigures yet. The gun design is quite ingenious, three parts is quite a feat to get something that matches pretty well.

Of course, here's a comparison of the two Barris Offee minifigures we've gotten. While they're different eras (It's confusing) I think I like the Clone Wars one better, maybe it has something to do with the dark blue hood...

Wow, the minifigures from this set are just great. All of the detailed print, new designs, and the addition of wings really make this set worth the $20 by themselves.

Parts:

There were three parts that caught my eye as I built the set, the dish, the funky curved part, and the 1x4 slope. Mostly, I was just excited to see all of the new colors that the parts are in, dark orange anything is rather hard to come by.

Five left-over parts, nothing special here, not even a cheese slope.

The Build:

So you start the build by constructing the main body, pretty straight forward, it's just the basics to hold the model together.

Then you move on and build the two feet. You use all of the curved bricks to build them. It doesn't look like much without the gun, but we'll fix that.

Lastly, you build the actual gun. The gun has most of the weight of the set, and really adds a good depth to it.

Complete Model:

And it's done! I am very happy with the set, overall, nothing too plain and the minifigures are really quite nice.

The front of the cannon shows the cannon part of the model, as well as the "feet" of the cannon. The droid arms with the "handle" parts are a nice addition to add a bit of depth.

The controls are visible from the back, along with the sticks used to launch the flick-fires, more about them next. All of the curves present really make this look Geonosian to me.

I really like this area. The way all of the dishes line up just looks so interesting.

Functions:

The cannon can "aim" up and down about 60 degrees, the way the legs are attached limits the movement more.

When you press the sticks on the back, they push the flick-fire forward and launch it. You do have to press pretty quickly to make it launch.

Final Thoughts:

I'm so happy with this set. The minifigures are accurate, the cannon is cool, and the price is even better. The only thing I might have added was a Clone from Gree's legion, then it would be perfect. Other than that, this set holds up to my standards, most of the time, I have a good idea of which sets I want well before they come out, so I have a general liking of them already. Flick-fires are getting a bit old, but I like their use in this set, I like seeing multiple parts interact to do one function.

Ratings:

Playability: 8/10 It's a fairly playable set, mostly between the minifigures though.

Design: 8/10 The cannon is designed pretty well, and I could see it on Geonosis blasting Clones.

Price: 10/10 The set was well worth the prices LEGO is asking, heck, I probably would have paid $5 more.

Minifigures: 10/10 The minifigures are exquisite, perfect representations of their show versions.

Parts: 9/10 I was quite happy with the selection of new colored parts in this set.

Total: 45/50 An outstanding score for such a small set!

"Would someone care to explain why I have a gun?"

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[XimenaPaulina]

Another nicely done review Masked! I like the way this set corrected the inaccuracy of the previous Barriss Offee fig, changing the black hood to dark blue and reducing the length of the cape as both should've been. Though I still prefer the non-CW face, the best set-up would be to swap the CW head with the non-CW one then you'd have the perfect Barriss! I'm still waiting for the right opportunity to grab this set, it's not an instant must-have but certainly a good addition to one's SW collection.

[ACPin]

I managed to snag six of these when TRU had a sale for them at $15@ plus a $10 off coupon for $50 purchase. Just waiting for another chance like that to get more of them so I have no complaints about this set.

AC

[Bobsy]

I got the feeling that this started out as a battle pack that had too high a piece count to be sold at that price point. Four minifigs, a small(ish) build... it just has that feel about it. And at RRP it just strikes me as way too expensive for what you get. It's functionally very similar to the 9488 Elite Clone Trooper & Commando Droid Battle Pack, which is easier on the wallet. I would never have paid £20 for it, but as Tesco Direct are selling for just over a tenner I picked it up.

Nice enough set, but not particularly exciting. Buy on discount, or leave on the shelf.

[Brinstar]

Great review but I can't help but feel the score is on the generous side. This doesn't really feel like a twenty $/£ set. The main attraction is the mini-figures, especially the geonosians, which are a drastic improvement over the previous iterations. I've seen it on sale for close to half price, which is a much better deal.

[Bilbo Baggins]

Wow Those wings are amazing, I may have to pick this one just for the Geonosians. Too bad the Barris is CW though

[Ferrik]

An excellent review, Masked Builder. The minifigures and the set itself looks great.

[Masked Builder]

All of your feedback makes all the hard work worth it, thanks guys!

I managed to snag six of these when TRU had a sale for them at $15@ plus a $10 off coupon for $50 purchase. Just waiting for another chance like that to get more of them so I have no complaints about this set.

AC

Dang. That's an excellent deal. Definitely worth it to expand your army.

Great review but I can't help but feel the score is on the generous side. This doesn't really feel like a twenty $/£ set. The main attraction is the mini-figures, especially the geonosians, which are a drastic improvement over the previous iterations. I've seen it on sale for close to half price, which is a much better deal.

The score is one of the things I have trouble with, it's all personal opinion.