[Review] 8091 Republic Swamp Speeder

[Rufus]

Eurobricks, I bring you another new review:

8091 Republic Swamp Speeder

Shop @ Home says:

Battle Separatists on any terrain!

Swampy planets like Kashyyyk are no problem for the Republic swamp speeder! With hidden wheels for “hovering” action and flick-firing blasters that automatically move when you rotate the engine, this armed and armored vehicle from the Clone Wars is ready to fight against the Separatists’ droids wherever they attack.

Set Number: 8091

Name: Republic Swamp Speeder

Year of Release: 2010

Pieces: 176

Figures: 5

Price: £29.99* | US$29.99 | EUR 36.99 | AU$ 59.99

* I paid £39.99 in TRU!! I was robbed. It’s a TRU exclusive, which apparently means they can charge a £10 markup, which they’ll knock off later when no-one buys it, except mugs like me.

Was it worth this exorbitant price? Let’s see…

The box Front

Note the Limited Edition logo.

Back

The box opens with thumb tabs at the side, but I used a knife.

And on the side, the reason many will buy this set:

The box is quite big: 380 H, 260 W, 55 D (mm). Billund air comes at a premium these days; fortunately 8091 comes with plenty:

The Contents

Tipping the contents out, we find three bags, not numbered, the instructions and a small sticker sheet:

The Instructions are clear, with about 5 parts per step; I didn’t find any colour issues:

Pieces

There are a few pieces of interest: 3x1 tiles, nice printed computers (the only printed pieces in the set), and of course Barriss (yes, she has tan skin):

Minifigures:

Let’s have a look at the figs. First off, the bad guys (or so we are led to believe at this stage… ):

Nothing too exciting, if you already own lots of these. Personally I have few battle droids (and no SBDs) so I’m happy.

The Republic peeps:

Despite this apparently being a Clone Wars set, Cloney has a PT-style helmet and black head. Let’s have a closer look at Barriss, caped and uncaped:

She has a black cape and hood, and it’s not easy to see but she has blue torso printing (front-only) with girly curves like Juno Eclipse.

Barriss Offee - who is she?? The name seems vaguely familiar, but I might be thinking of Barry at the office.

According to Wookieepedia, she was the padawan of Luminara, and was apparently featured in the Geonosis battle scene in Episode II. I don’t remember her. Her Order 66 death scene was cut from Ep III, it seems. Perhaps a CW fan can fill in more details. Here she is in the flesh, as it were: (image from Wikipedia)

I prefer her in plastic. I think Lego did a good job!

And finally, the speeder:

After about 40 bricks, the base is taking shape:

An interesting technique is used to keep the front underskirt ‘smooth’:

Control seats are added, one on each side. You can just make out the little black levers; their attachment to the studs beneath is a little weak but it means you can swivel them easily so the figs can grip them.

The steering mechanism is simple but clever:

And there’s another new design of flick-fire missile. Woo-hoo.

The complete set (I didn’t apply the stickers):

Barriss: Turn right, Cloney! There’s some of them battle droids over there!

Cloney: Where? I can’t see - I can’t turn my helmet! And I have no eyes.

Barriss: Blast, you can’t control this thing whilst holding a lightsaber. Why don’t they give us somewhere to put it?

What Barriss doesn’t know is you control the speeder by twisting the rear engine, which turns the front wheels in the same direction, along with the flick-fires. Too bad if you want to go right and fire left. The treadless wheels don’t grip well on smooth surfaces, but work reasonably well on carpet. The turning circle is quite wide, so I wouldn’t want to park this thing at the supermarket.

You can also spin the fan on the engine. Woo!

Here’s what the speeder should look like: (Wiki again)

Overall: It’s all about Barriss.

The speeder is quite nice, and the steering and flick-fires make for playability I suppose, but on the whole it’s not greatly exciting. I don’t know how this fits in with the Clone Wars story, but unless they produce more Episode III-like sets this is going to look lonely on the shelf, if it doesn’t get demolished before then.

Barriss, on the other hand, will proudly join the other Jedi in my collection.

Design: 3/5 The steering mechanism gets it some points, but otherwise it’s a little plain. Looks like the real thing, simplified.

Build: 3/5 Half an hour or so and not particularly challenging

Playability: 5/5 The speeder might be fun to push around the floor for a while, and you could have a mini battle between the figures.

Figures: 4/5 A new Jedi, and it’s nice to see the PT clones again, but a lot of people will groan at more battle droids.

Pieces: 3/5 Not many people will say ‘At last! 3x1 tiles!’ but some will, I’m sure

Price: 1/5 There’s no excuse for this. I don’t like price ranting, but this set has 10 pieces more than the landspeeder, and the same number of figures, yet is £5 more expensive at RRP. Not to mention the extortion of Toys R Us!

Overall: 19/30 (63%) You’ll really have to want Barriss.

Hope you enjoyed the review. C&C welcome!

Rufus

Why battle droids never rest:

Edited January 17, 2010 by KimT
indexed and poll added

[doctordark]

I really want this but the price is horrible

[commdr_neyo]

Great review! I aree the price is horrible, but I still want this set!

Did you note your Clone's mouth pattern is pretty misprinted?

Edited January 17, 2010 by commdr_neyo

[Clone OPatra]

Thanks for the review, you did a good job showing off the set.

It's a bummer that the mouth on the Clone Trooper helmet is so off, it makes him look very funny. BY the way, since the Clone torso is sort of a redesign, would you mind taking a back picture of it? Is the back slightly different from the last EpIII clones?

[prateek]

Awesome review! This is a good set, but it's a shame that it is so expensive.

[Darth Legolas]

Great! Still waiting for mine to ship!

I was wondering if the fan only controled the front guns, but I was right and it steers the wheels too! The ship looks a little bit too big in the front, but honestly I don't mind! I love the printed control panels. I think I only have a handful of them from Endor and the Death Star, so two more are always welcome! Barris looks great, I'm sold on the Phase II trooper with dotted-mouth pattern, and if I get that SBD, I'll finally have an even number of them! Two more BD's are always welcome. I have enough to fill the small gray baseplate from the Aqua Raiders base (you know, the bottom one from the connector bridge, I think maybe 20X20 studs? Larger?) and I love army building!

[RoryoCox]

Brilliant review.

I love this set but its a pity about the price and the so called 'enemy:.

I wish they had included a new enemy but having included Barriss made up for it.

[ILikePi]

Thanks for another great review Rufus!

After seeing this, I definitely won't be purchasing it at normal price. Way too small, and Barriss doesn't look that appealing to me at all. However, I do like the clone trooper with the new dotted mouth pattern (I'd like to also point out that your helmet is misprinted ).

Droids are always good to have, but I would rather have had at least two of the droids switched out for another clone trooper or something else.

So I shall be waiting for this to go on sale before purchasing it. If it doesn't, then I'll have 30 extra dollars for spending on other themes!

[Rufus]

Did you note your Clone's mouth pattern is pretty misprinted?

Ooh, so it is! I didn't even notice. It's not that obvious in 'real life'.

It's a bummer that the mouth on the Clone Trooper helmet is so off, it makes him look very funny. BY the way, since the Clone torso is sort of a redesign, would you mind taking a back picture of it? Is the back slightly different from the last EpIII clones?

As you wish ...

'mafraid I don't have any other PT clones to hand to compare.

[KimT]

Great review

Thanks for adding this one to our evergrowing database of Star Wars reviews.

I bought this the other day and I Barriss.

Though for once I'll agree that this set is seriously overpriced just because it has Barriss and is a "limited edition" set

Poll added, indexed and posted on the frontpage.

[Jar Jar]

Great review! Does anybody think Barriss would soon be rare, because this is a speacial edition set? We might get a CW version of her soon.

[cagri]

Thanks a lot for the review! It looks like a 20 USD set, not a 30 USD one. I'm not buying it and this looks so wrong:

[BlueDragonZ]

Thanks for the great review. Barris is probably the only reason why i'll get it. Kind of weird why they put a different clone trooper in this set rather than the clone wars ones.

[Clone OPatra]

As you wish ...

Thanks! The back really is quite different, I like that new one a lot!

Yours:

From Bricklink:

[Ratbat]

I might get it. But $30 is bullsh*t.

Edited January 17, 2010 by Ratbat

[badboytje88]

Although this set is way overpriced, I will still probably get it for the female tan fig.

[VBBN]

Great review!

While I'm not a fan of the Minifig or price, it's still a decent set. Sure beats the speeder we got in that Wookie set a while back. I would get it if it were on clearence, but the "Limited Edition" tag doesn't seem very appealing.

[Zenox]

I might have said this million times, but

I WANT IT!

[SWMAN]

I think the most disappointing thing about this set, (besides the price), is the fact that the SBD has two normal arms. I was really hoping that Lego would continue with the "rocket arms" that they used in the CW ATT.

[ILikePi]

The back really is quite different, I like that new one a lot!

Me too! In fact, if I were to get this set, I would have gotten it for the clone trooper more than for Barriss!

[Commander_Rob]

Good review, rufus.

I am not so sure about this set, the design is pretty OK (despite the stupid wheels) and the figs are good too (although I`d have to find my Luminara to go with Barriss, at the moment, she is lost somewhere), but overall, it is not overly convincing and far too expensive: the price is the same as the Separatist shuttle, but that had a few more pieces and overall felt like a larger set.

So I might get this, if only for the new Clonetrooper design.

[Wout]

Thank you for the nice review.

This set is 40 euro and atleast 10 euro to much.

If it had Anakin or Obi-wan in it instead of Barriss, it would obviously be less expensive.

The set is quite nice and has some nice printed "computers".

It would be be nice if the SBD had a different new arm in this set.

The problem is I "really"wanted Bariss, So I "really want this set, because the price on Bricklink would be maybe for Barriss alone already 40 euro.

You shall see: When I finally got this set, Tlc will make a smaller payable better set with Barriss in it.

More information on Barriss Offee Wookiepedialink

[Mofo Jones]

I'm thinking about getting this set, but I will wait for a sale. I'm not paying full price, much less the TRU tax for this.

[KimT]

I know this might be a lot to ask, but can we skip the price comments on this set?

I'm sure we all agree that it's kinda overpriced, but let's stick to commenting on the set itself.

Design, playability, figs and so on.

The price rant is drowning the "real" review discussion on this one.

Thanks in advance.

[Mofo Jones]

I rarely pay full price for any set, but in any event, apologies for the damage to the camel's back. ;)

The set looks good. I didn't get any of the Wookiee sets in 2005 so this is a good chance to get that part of the set. This might be better with CW clones, as the Phase II clone is a bit out of place.