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When giving advice to aspiring writer's, most authors tell them to "Write about what you know." So in that vein, I will use set 8014 - Clone Walker Battle Pack as my first review.
I own 15 copies of this set. To say I am familiar with it would be a gross understatement. I could assemble the walker in my sleep, if ever that was necessary. I've even assembled the set while traveling at 65 mph (and yes, I was driving. Not sure if that's a good thing or not.)
Set #: 8014
Name: Clone Walker Battle Pack
Theme: LEGO System / Star Wars / Clone Wars
Year: 2009
Pieces: 72
Minifigs: 4
Price: USD 10.99, CDN 13.99, EUR 14.99, GBP 9.79
Links: Bricklink, Peeron, Brickset
PACKAGING
The Box:
There's nothing special about the box front. Standard Clone Wars style white border, the "Build Your Army" logo in the bottom left. The art does show the walker in action, firing those flick fire missiles. That's probably the farthest the missiles will ever fly.
And the Back:
The back of the box shows what everyone is likely after in this set: The Minifigs! Four nice phase I clones, including a Gunner. In a pinch, the Gunners make nice substitutes for Pilot Clones. It also shows one regular clone in the full commander gear. Take a good look, it'll be the last Commander you see in this review.
Along the bottom is a picture of the two Battle Packs for this year. I find it interesting that you get a picture of the set you have in your hands on the back, but this is intended as an impulse set of sorts, so I guess that's OK.
I apologize for the crumpled look of the box. I had taken some pictures of a brand new, unopened box, but the photos came out blurry. I had to dig it back out of the trash
.INSTRUCTIONS
Front:
Back:
Parts List:
Random Instruction Page:
The instructions are very clear. No issues trying to discern Dark Gray from Light Gray or Black. That might be because of the limited piece count, though. The back has a part list, as is standard in almost all sets nowadays. The opposite page has a nice scene with some of the 2009 Spring line in action.
THE BUILD
The Contents:
There are three bags that come with this set. The largest contains most of the big pieces. The medium sized one has the small parts. The minifigs are spread out between these two bags. The third bags contains the Clone Gear, in a nice Black color. As I said before, I own 15 copies of this set, and I have yet to open one of the Clone Gear bags. So don't expect any photos of the gear. I'm not going to do it, no matter how you whine and plead
The DSS:
Can it really be dreaded? There are only two stickers. They aren't THAT hard to get aligned correctly, but it does ake a little patience to get them on straight.
MINIFIGS
What Everyone Wants:
There they are. Three bright, shiney Clone Troopers and one Clone Gunner, just begging to be deployed into an RGS or AT-TE. Because this set is relatively inexpensive, they do make excellent filler for your phase I vehicles. There are only three Blaster Pistols, so unless you open the Clone Gear bag, one of the clones will be going into a gunfight without a gun. The Walker's pilot doesn't need a gun, right?
CLONE WALKER
The Walker - Front View:
Side View
Back View
The Walker in this set is almost an afterthought. As far as Battle Packs go, it isn't a bad vehicle. The legs could use a little more detail, but it really does fit nicely into the Clone Wars theme. The flick fire missiles feel like they belong here, as opposed to just being tacked on. The cannon on the front is simple, but effective.
I find the parts selection to be rather nice. I like using wedge plates in my MOCs, and this set comes with two pair. It has two nice 1 x 4 Bricks with studs on the side for SNOT techniques, which is always useful. And the finished walker has two cheese slopes in Light Gray. I no longer need to substitute Dark Gray. Yeah!
The legs do move, which is a plus. Unfortunately, any position other than both feet flat on the floor is unstable, which limits the poseability.
The Walker, with Friends:
Here is the Walker with a pilot and a passenger. I'm not sure why LEGO keeps giving us vehicles with two seats. A single seat walker with three ground troops would have worked well. It probably has to do with circumventing the No Action Figure clause in their contract. At any rate, I am not really thrilled with the two seat aspect of this set. But that is what MODs are for (more on that later).
DIE, Clankers!:
When the droids see this, it usually is the last thing they see.
Extra Parts:
Here are the extra pieces that come with this set. Did I mention that I love the Light Gray cheese slopes.
HUH
Now, for the Huh Moment:
As I mentioned, I have bought a lot of these battle packs, mostly for the clones. Imagine my surprise when I realized, just last week, that the clones have two DIFFERENT face prints. They look like mirror images of each other, but they are clearly different. I hadn't heard anyone mention this before, so I thought I'd throw it out there.
Of course, this revelation caused me to channel my inner DeNiro.
Are you looking at me?
Are you looking at ME!?
You must be looking at me! I'm the only one here!
Thank you, thank you. My acting skills are unparalleled.
Playability: 7/10 - The flick fire missiles don't fire well, at least the legs move.
Minifigs: 10/10 - Four Clones. 'Nough said.
Design: 6/10 - The Walker is solid, if not very well detailed.
Price: 10/10 - The Price-to-Parts might be off a little (as it is on all BPs). But four clones for $11 ain't bad at all.
OVERALL: 33/40 - If your looking for cheap clones, look no further. If you're looking for a great Clone Wars era vehicle, then this set isn't for you. But I'm guessing you knew that already.
Here is a link to the Brickshelf Gallery (when public).
MY MOD
As I have mentioned several time before, I have many copies of this set. 15 copies is enough to pack both versions of the RGS, both AT-TEs, the new AT-OT (all un-MODDed) and a MODDed Twilight full of clones, and still have enough left over to have one clone for each of the 15 Walkers. But the Walker has two seats. What to do?
MOD it, of course:
This MOD is cheap (~$0.40 on Bricklink) and can be done with minimal changes to the original Walker.
Top
MultiQuote
. DiNero part was good.
I want this set so bad but I can never find one. And BTW, can you post a pic of your army? It sounds tempting 
Posted 19 November 2009 - 12:24 PM
I only got 3. 
