[Review] 75078 Imperial Troop Transport

[darththeling]

Hello Eurobricks members and web crawlers alike. Let's review a set that I feel isn't getting near enough love this wave: the Imperial Troop Transport 75078.

USD $12.99

CAN $15.99

UK $11.99

GER €16.99

FRA €14.99

Product Description: Track down the rebels on planet Lothal with the armored LEGO Star Wars Imperial Troop Transport battle pack. Issue your Stormtroopers with stud shooters, load them up and get ready to deploy. If they come under attack, jump onto the roof and fire the dual flick missiles from the turret to send the rebels running for cover! Includes 4 Stormtrooper minifigures with assorted weapons.

• Includes 4 Stormtrooper minifigures with assorted weapons
  
• Imperial Troop Transport features a dual flick missile turret and space for 4 Stormtroopers and their weapons
  
• Also includes extra ammunition
  
• Weapons include 4 stud shooters
  
• Load up the troops and track down some rebels
  
• Man the turret and fire the flick missiles
  
• Store the extra ammunition in the storage box with handles
  
• Expand your LEGO® Star Wars collection with this great battle pack
  
• As featured in the Star Wars: Rebelsanimated TV series
  
• Imperial Troop Transport measures over 3” (8cm) high, 2” (6cm) long and 3” (9cm) wide
  

I wanted to do a review of this set because I think it's an all-around keeper - a well rounded battlepack with some great value. It's also going somewhat unnoticed in a wave with more exciting designs and figures. It's true this kit is only 4 of the same figure, but in my opinion it's a solid figure to have four of. If any moderator wants to add a poll, be my guest. Otherwise, feel free to reply with your impression of the set.

Here's the front of the box, standard 2014-2015 wave "Rebels" grey/orange.

And the back. Love the four-shot at the top right.

The contents:

Here are the stars of the show - the Star Wars: Rebels-era Stormtroopers. From what I've read the printing/grill on the front of the trooper mask is a cause of some protest for Lego Star Wars fans - some say it's too grinnish, distorted and unfamiliar. We'll get to that later.

All four troopers are identical, except two of them have a different facial expression.

Here's the troopers' backs.

And with the stud shooters, which although I agree are somewhat not-so-great for minifigs, have had success recently integrating them onto ships and vehicles.

Here are some steps throughout the build, which is surprisingly more time consuming than it looks.

And that's the whole Imperial Troop Transport. Does it look like the real one? Sorta. With that economy of pieces? Certainly.

But... it's small. It's actually around the right height... about as high as a person standing, a bit taller. On the show, there are three placements on both sides for troopers to ride in (or prisoners to be transported in) and this model only has two per side. Big drawback: there's no interior. But I guess the general shape is represented with pretty small pieces and simple slopes.

If you can squeeze those 4 studs into the crate, great. Slide the cargo crate in the middle (always nice to have more of those) and the troopers pit more or less easily into their placements. If they are holding guns, particularly stud shooters, it is cumbersome to align them in properly.

Very few spare pieces left over, but I do like me some extra x1 white round studs. You can turn them into jogan fruit. :D

All together, here's the side view...

... and the front. Neither side is a beauty, these ITT blobs look best at an angle.

It's a surprisingly sturdy build though, all together. Here's a look at the underside. This kit comes with enough 1x2 trans clear bricks to make some people happy... about 6 or so in total I think.

Here are a couple of my improvements: First of all, give these troopers some proper blasters. Second, that turret on top doesn't look right. Not a fan of the flick fires on something so small. So with two black lightsaber hilts, I switched around the turret a bit in the hopes that it looks a *tiny* bit more screen-accurate.

Ratings:

Personally, I love this kit because the price is great for the number of troopers you get... and I don't mind the Rebels-era stormtrooper helmet variant. Some people do, though. They don't like the shape of the mouth and I can understand that. I'd also read that some don't like how pronounced the blue grill details are on the sides of the mask. Well here's a bit of a perspective: I have a number of "vintage" stormtroopers from various sets all the way back to 1999 and the printing on stormtroopers then was terrible. Here's a comparison:

Yes, there's a huge gap in printing between the "teeth" of about a dozen of my Millennium-era troopers (above, right) and it looks sad. I have all of them assigned to the bowels of the Death Star and on board the ISD so that most people don't see them. Compared to these old dudes... four troopers for fifteen bucks, IMO this kit is a no-brainer. Snap these up on sale! I plan to get at least two more next sale and then I'll store some away for future gifts. I can only hope that the episode 7 kits coming out are this generous in an offering - 4 troopers for $15 is a great deal. You can never have too many troopers. ;) Can you?

Parts: 9/10 Decent! These are useful slopes and bricks in grey, a few clear pieces and grey plates. You could probably do a lot with this pile of pieces.

Price 10/10 Absolutely stellar. Bring a shopping cart when these are on sale... unless you only can stand pure original trilogy stormtroopers.

Build 8/10 It's okay... I built two of these and got lost briefly both times because the pieces looked so similar. Again, the flick fires make me crazy and I had to tweak it right away.

Design 7/10 Scale wise: the size of the transport compared with the AT-DP is pretty close to what we have in the show. There is criticism to be leveled here, though. Looking at the wide berth of the transport in the show I think better pieces could have been chosen to create the round front. And I know it needed to be a certain price point but... I dunno. Take out the stud shooters and make it a full stud wider? I would have enjoyed an ITT at a $25 or $30 price point but I'm expecting some clever MOC'ers here to come up with something.

Minifigures - 10/10 Awesome. The reason I am doing this review is to give this sweet, misunderstood set for what it is - a battlepack for Imperial Troopers that hasn't been matched since 7667 Imperial Drop Ship back in good old 2007 (OMG it was USD $9.99). I won't ding points for the helmet because it is meant to be a representation of troopers from Star Wars Rebels... and that's how they look. And sometimes It's great to get four-of something in a battlepack instead of two you want... and two you don't.

Playability- 9/10 This is a pretty solid set, it looks okay without troopers, great with them loaded and there's a Lothal vibe where they're parked. It's solid and is easy to handle and manipulate.

Overall 9/10 My final thought... run and don't walk the next day these babies are on sale. As a Canadian AFL, there aren't that many sets that I feel are of such good value even at regular retail price. If you like the Rebels Troopers, now's your chance to really expand your imperial army. Feel free to add your comments, ratings and why.

You can, of course, re-enact some rad battle scenes on top of these transports:

"Your master has deceived you into thinking you can become a Jedi..."

Rebels Season two can't come soon enough!

Edited May 15, 2015 by darththeling

[Graham Gidman]

Thanks for another great review! Proves this is a set I want.

[duboismerci]

Great review!

I am in love with this set! (I got 12 of them when they were 20% off) I wanted to review the set before building them but you beat me to it

This is the best battlepack vehicle ever, It can fit the four minifigs included in the set, is accurate to on screen material (downsized version) and has play features. The last BP vehicle that could fit all minifigures was the imperial dropship... that was effectively the first stormtrooper BP. Also at 12.99 for 144 pieces Its under the 10 cents per piece ratio which I thought was impossible for a BP. Only critique I can make is they could have used 4 different faces since they are stormtrooper and not clones. But that's being picky.

A big 9,5/10 for me!

Edited May 14, 2015 by duboismerci

[WhiteFang]

Thanks for the review. I am totally in love with this battle pack. It is a great way to amass Stormtroopers without dividing into factions or ranks. All four minifigures are just stormtroopers. I think this is perfect even though is targeted for SW Rebels.

[Tariq j]

Thanks for this great review, I think this is arguably one of the best Battle Packs we've gotten this year.

[jjh]

Terrific review. I agree with so many of your points. Please keep the reviews coming. Thanks!

[Flieger]

Thanks for the review!

This is the best battlepack vehicle ever, It can fit the four minifigs included in the set, is accurate to on screen material (downsized version) and has play features.

I like the swamp speeder of the Kashyyyk BP better, but I agree it is a fine little build.

[dr_spock]

Thanks for the review. I don't mind the blue print on the helmets. I am waiting for a sale to get a couple more.

The new stud shooters look about the same size as the early SW sets that had them armed with the megaphone and trans-orange-red stud.

P.S. You should add a poll to to the review.

[CHUD]

Just picked this up and finally have all the Rebels sets....until next month lol. Have been focused more on ships and less on minifigs but these battle packs are a really great way to build up an army and now I'm seriously considering it. Thanks for the review!