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When we got the first pictures of this set I thought; "Well that's a good deal for $20." As I went on my hunt for SW LEGO at TRU, I looked for the Geonosian Cannon first, I was going to pick this one up second, but they were sold out, so I picked this up. It had looked like it was worth the money, but I just wasn't sure until I held the box in my hands. You guys know I'm all about the minifigures, so with three new ones, I could not get this. Enough talking though, let's get started!
Name: Droid Escape
Set Number: 9490
Pieces: 137
Price: $19.99
Ages: 7-12
Minifigs: 4
Theme: Star Wars
Year of Release: 2012
Bricklink
Brickset
S@H
See the Flickr set for more pictures.
LEGO S@H said:
Land the escape pod and hide from the Imperial sandtroopers!
C-3PO and R2-D2 have the secret plans to the Death Star, and must avoid capture by heading to the desert planet Tatooine in their escape pod. Will they land safely and avoid being captured by the Imperial Sandtroopers on their swoop bike? Includes 4 minifigures: C-3PO, R2-D2 and 2 Sandtroopers.
Box:
The front of the box has the excellent Maul art, and it seems that the "Droid part" jumps hands between the pictures. We've got a large "Warning" image, which manages to block some of the box art.
On the back of the box has the same lovely blue color scheme as the front, and LEGO has designed the images in quite a "Star Wars" way if you ask me.
The 1:1 image is of one of the new Sandtroopers, along with the "new" image.
Contents:
So we've got two bags, two loose pieces, the manual and the sticker sheet. Large parts usually aren't put into the bags, as usual.
The sticker sheet is very large, with six stickers, none of which I will apply.
Manual:
We've got the same art as on the box here on the manual, though it's a much wider print.
The inside is quite clean too, a light tan and a nice gray color scheme.
Darth Maul appears in the top right corners where there is room.
A good looking layout of the set on one of the last pages, a good blue color.
There's a simple one page "comic" on one of the later pages.
Again we see a one page ad showing what figures come in what set.
And then on the next page we have a great layout of all of the minifigures in every set.
For some reason, we've got a one page ad for Ace Assault II in here.
On the second to last page we've got an ad for LSWIII, why we have an ad for this a year after it came out, I don't know.
Minifigures:
My favorite part of most sets, the minifigures! LEGO has done a complete overhaul of all of the figs but R2. C-3PO is a much better color, the two Sandtroopers, and have totally new print including sand to complete the dirty effect. I just can't get over how amazing these figures are, I'm still drooling over these guys.
The Sandtroopers have backpacks just like in the film, and 3PO has some wires showing on the back too.
R2 and 3PO are both really nice, though R2 isn't new. C-3PO is though, and he looks so much better, the droids are really the duo in all six films.
A quick comparison between the 3PO that came in the original and the new one. The new one is so much better, printed eyes, exposed wires, better colors, need I say more?
LEGO is no printing faces onto the black heads, making a great Clone head. I really like this addition. I will say that I've moved the pauldrons above the back brackets so that they don't become mashed.
These guys are so detailed; they even have sand printing on their backs. It really adds a lot to the overall figures.
I do happen to have a Dewback, and the Sandtrooper really enhances the creature.
Parts:
We've got three interesting parts in this set, a half circle brick, the curve wall brick, and the cone piece. While none of them are new, they're rather rare in my collection, so I've included them here.
We've got four extra parts, no cheese slopes in this set, but the chromed 1x1 plate is good to have another of.
The Build:
First you build the speeder, nothing special, but you use some good parts to build all of the angles.
Then you build the bottom half of the escape pod.
And then build the top out of about seven pieces, really simple.
Here are the two small items that the set includes instructions for.
Complete Model:
Ah the joy of completing building a set. Overall, I really like it, the minifigures are great, and it's just so much better looking than the old one.
I have no idea what this speeder is based on, but it is a fun little build. We've got two little air scoops on the front, not sure where the air goes.
The back is pretty ugly; all of the structural bits are visible here.
Now onto the escape pod, I'm not too sure that it had thrusters on the front, other than that it looks pretty accurate.
And the back has a fairly nice looking engine array, the whole 'pod is very clean.
You can remove the top to play inside, though it's rather small. I wouldn't want 3PO piloting though.
I really like the angles that the engines are built in, it's really just cool to look at.
Final Thoughts:
I'm really still in love with the minifigures from this set, even six months after it came out. I definitely bought this for them; I had most of the parts already. The rest of the really is lacking, the minifigures really are the selling point of this for me. It is always good to get some brown parts though, I still don't have enough. There is some playability, but I wouldn't recommend crashing your set into the floor, or sand for that matter. Where the speeder came from, I don't know, probably just to bump up the part count.
Ratings:
Playability: 6/10 While there's not too much to play with totally in this set, you can play with it a good bit.
Design: 7/10 It's definitely an improvement over the first iteration of the set, but still nothing too special.
Price: 8/10 The prices was okay, $20 is a good median price point, and with 137 parts it's not an awful deal.
Minifigures: 10/10 Three completely new minifigures, all of which are gorgeous, get's this set a 10.
Parts: 9/10 LEGO has done a very good job making use of the parts they already had to build this set.
Total: 40/50 Forty-out-of-fifty is a good score for a midsized set.
"How did that come out of me?!"
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But I may pick it up for the figs, just because they're awesome. 
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