kaelthas

Review: 75230 Porg

Recommended Posts

IMG_5832.PNG.ba6c8e6bf95bd20370afb846aca47672.PNG

38

Hello everyone. Star Wars is an undying franchise in our universe. Have you read the review of The Betrayal at Cloud City by @WhiteFang yet? After a time travelling journey, let's come back to the present timeline to check on this cute little stocky creature from Ahch-To island which appeared in Star Wars Episode VII: The Last Jedi. Special thanks to LEGO CEE and Eurobricks for giving me this amazing reviewing opportunity.

1

(Chewbacca and the firecamp with a roasted 'porg' are not included in this set)

Introduction

Porgs are native to Ahch-To, and can be found dwelling along the cliffs of the island where Luke Skywalker stayed hidden for many years. They are highly curious creatures where one of them nearly died by looking into the light sabre opening and another one nearly stepped on the activate button. Now they are designed by LEGO designers and being release as a LEGO set. After the official photos were released in the wild, everyone loses their mind in a way that this is a scary and ugly looking creature in LEGO form. That includes me. However, after I got my hands on this set, I seem to start liking it a little. Let me bring you to a journey from the inside of the LEGO Porg. (That sounds scary but it is not, 'technically'..:grin:)

Overview

Name: 75230 Porg
Year: 2018
Pieces: 811
Minifigures: one little porg
Price£69.99 

The Box

2

The front of the box features the Porg with its mouth opened, standing on the mossy rock on Ahch-To island. 

3

The back of the box showcased its back and the only play feature in this set. Press on the tail and the mouth will open as well as the wings. This set includes a UCS styled display stand and a minifigure scaled porg.

5

The side of the box has the same box art in a very nice panel. 

6

This is at the top of the box, 1:1 picture of the minifigure porg. This porg is exactly the same as in 75200 Ahch-To Island Training with a white half circled tile. There is another variant of porg with grey half circled tile in the infamous 75192 Millennium Falcon - UCS (2nd edition)

The Content

8

There are six bags in total with one instruction booklet and one sticker sheet. 

9

The booklet is considerably thick with 142 pages in it.

10

The first page gives you the whole idea of what you will get after building each bag. I personally likes to build it bag by bag instead of mixing it all. Searching for parts in a pool of 811 pieces is no fun at all. Haha.

11

The UCS styled sticker. Anyone collects these UCS display stands? You are most welcomed to share a group picture of the stands at the comments area. 

12

Found one in my garden! 

The Build

13

The first bag we will build a rack like this as the skeleton of the Porg. They are interconnected with technic pins and axles. They are designed like this to make the inside as hollow as possible.

15

This fire ladder looking crane is the connector that makes the whole mouth opening mechanism work. It will be at the centre hollow part to ensure the movement is smooth and not obstructed by other bricks.

16

This is how you connect all three parts into a rectangular vertical box. 

18

The views of the partially completed build of bag one. Here only the tail will be on the outside of the porg and the upper red round tile is actually the tongue of the Porg. 

19

This is when the mouth is open in which you have to push the tail downward to achieve it.

20

When nobody is touching the Porg, it will only show you its kind of cocky face with the mouth closed.

21

After building the mandible and webbed toes, I've finished building bag one. 

22

This is the back of the Porg which is the completed build of bag two. Back to bricks and plates instead of pins and axles. I like the use of these modified plates with three claws/rock fingers. It added a lot of details at the back as feathers. 

23

Attach it at the back of the Porg.

25

Bag three added some visceral fat and white feathers at the abdomen of the Porg. Very nice use of the curved bricks to create a rounded body in the model of the Porg here.

26

Bag four added more rounded fats and dense feathers at the side of the Porg.

28

Then we move on to bag five which is the wings and bag six, the orange coloured head with its two big round eyes. The combination of orange, white and grey is really movie accurate and looks aesthetically pleasing. You can see in this autopsy of the Porg, the outer details are built separately and attached to the centre skeleton box at five surfaces of the rectangular cube and the feet attached to the bottom. So this is a very useful technique to learn from this set if you want to build any kinds of animal or even a human being with LEGO. 

29

Porg: WE ARE NOT FOOD!

30

Final build of the model. It stood up at around 20cm tall and I really don't like the fact that its resting position is mouth closing. You need to do some modification to the build inside the box to keep the mouth open if you feel that it is cuter in that way. At least I do. haha.

31

Looks like someone agitated it. :laugh:

32

Size comparison with the mini Porg. The model looks so huge!

33

 

This is a simple UCS style display stand with a jumper for you to put the small porg.

35

Front, rear and side views of the porg. The design is seamless where you hardly see any technic parts buried inside the outer builds.

36

A very nice companion while I work on this review, now that it is here with me, I like it more now as it can be quite a cute desktop display model.

38

A closer look into its teeth. The build is actually quite movie accurate as it can capture the yelling expression amazingly close to the real porgs in the movie.

39

The scale, hmm. Hulkbuster should be larger. Haha

50

Stop moving, you little porg!

51

Just wanted to show how far the wings can stretch but it wouldn't stay.

52

Chewie: GGWWWRGHH... (I'm hungry)...

53

Yummy.

Summary review
Playability: 3/10 Not really playable but the mechanism is a good building technique to be learnt if you want to build something similar.
Design: 8/10 Great design of a rounded fat penguin model with LEGO bricks' square nature. 
Price: 5/10 Quite pricey considered that only a mini porg is included as minifigure in the set.
Overall: 6/10 This is good as a display set and I suppose it looks good if it is placed among the UCS with its display stand especially the BB-8 model. 

I hope you enjoy reading my simple review and do express your comments below. :wink:

*Disclaimer: This review is my own opinion as a reviewer and does not represent LEGO official views. 

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Your pictures in the grass make it look good, however I think the other pictures confirm my fear from the box-art, the head looks like it is angled up, which unless I'm displaying it on a low shelf feels like it is going to look awkward.

Does the head just attach with a technic pin and rest there (which it kind of looks like)?  If so maybe it could be modified without too much work to be looking up a little less with a slightly open mouth.

I'm not as familiar with how lego does pricing for the European market, but from what I recall that price seems in-line with the BB-8 and cheaper per piece than smaller licensed content so I don't know why this is considered pricey?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
44 minutes ago, Exile Phoenix said:

Your pictures in the grass make it look good, however I think the other pictures confirm my fear from the box-art, the head looks like it is angled up, which unless I'm displaying it on a low shelf feels like it is going to look awkward.

Does the head just attach with a technic pin and rest there (which it kind of looks like)?  If so maybe it could be modified without too much work to be looking up a little less with a slightly open mouth.

I'm not as familiar with how lego does pricing for the European market, but from what I recall that price seems in-line with the BB-8 and cheaper per piece than smaller licensed content so I don't know why this is considered pricey?

55

Thanks @Exile Phoenix!

Yes the head is angled up. The head is attached with the brown axle as shown in the picture above. I'm afraid it is quite hard to be modified due to the fact that the axle will punch through five technic holes to firmly connect the head to the body and the head cannot be turned too.

As for the price, I'm personally looking as price per minifigure instead of pieces, for example at the same price tag, I can have four minifigures and a Thanos in 76107. So I feel that this is quite pricey as only one minifigure is included in this set.

Thanks for the comment! Any other questions about the set? I'm happy to answer them here for you. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Very nice review! The pics with Chewie made me laugh.

I really like this set and I will definitely pick one up!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
50 minutes ago, Jim said:

Very nice review! The pics with Chewie made me laugh.

I really like this set and I will definitely pick one up!

Thanks for the kind words! This set is great as a display set. :grin:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks kaelthas for the review. Very well taken, especially the outdoor photos. It add some great vibes to the set itself. I think this is quite a decent cute model. Well, it may not be entirely articulated especially for the Porg front. I agreed with your rating and I think it is still a nice set to consider if you are a fan of brick built animals. Otherwise, it can be an easy miss to give up this set. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I think it is a cute model.

The build is not that simple, and the final products captures the faces of the real porg pretty well. In fact, I do not see any improvement that could be made on that set.

I will get one some day.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
7 minutes ago, Anio said:

The build is not that simple...

Agreed. I was kinda impressed with the Technic interior.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

That connection kinda looks like you could remove some of the front bricks and add some back bricks and just pivot the head entirely (would need to shorten the bottom mouth probably).  I'm not concerned with mini-figures so the lack of them for the price isn't a concern to me.

Looking at the pieces again, I bet you could do a color swap with black/dark red/browns so it looks like a cooked porg.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
11 hours ago, WhiteFang said:

Thanks kaelthas for the review. Very well taken, especially the outdoor photos. It add some great vibes to the set itself. I think this is quite a decent cute model. Well, it may not be entirely articulated especially for the Porg front. I agreed with your rating and I think it is still a nice set to consider if you are a fan of brick built animals. Otherwise, it can be an easy miss to give up this set. 

Thanks @WhiteFang. I took the outdoor shot just after a rain, so the ambience is quite moist and gave a good effect on the photo. Yeah only two poses(open mouth and close mouth) can be done, head is fixed. It is a great brick built animal actually and good set for a MOCer to modify and share at the comments here.

10 hours ago, Anio said:

I think it is a cute model.

The build is not that simple, and the final products captures the faces of the real porg pretty well. In fact, I do not see any improvement that could be made on that set.

I will get one some day.

Yes @Anio, I gave 8/10 for the design of the model. The build is average after you understand the interior build of the Porg. I think I'll leave the improvement part to master builders out there. haha.

10 hours ago, Exile Phoenix said:

That connection kinda looks like you could remove some of the front bricks and add some back bricks and just pivot the head entirely (would need to shorten the bottom mouth probably).  I'm not concerned with mini-figures so the lack of them for the price isn't a concern to me.

Looking at the pieces again, I bet you could do a color swap with black/dark red/browns so it looks like a cooked porg.

Hi @Exile Phoenix, the mouth is movable. So it might not need any modification. I agree that maybe the weighing scale of the set value is different for everyone as i am more concern of minifigures. A cooked Porg is a great idea! and I think the Chewie from the buildable figures series is large enough to 'cook' the Porg. :grin:

6 hours ago, Renny The Spaceman said:

Giant porg, well I did skip lunch! :moar:

@Renny The Spaceman, roasted or steamed Porg sir?

1 hour ago, jamesn said:

My goodness it's adorable - the eyes are appropriately bulbous and shiny. Love it!

@jamesn, some say it looks creepy but the eyes are beautifully built and designed here. I love it's teeth! 

Feel free to ask questions, I am here to answer them happily! 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Great review, love the Chewie parts!

Hm, they really made a life-size(?) porg set... I thought they were rather annoying and totally unnecessary, though obviously delicious, when watching the movie. Clearly I‘m not part of the target group :)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Gotta say, even though I really despise Porgs, they did a real quality job with the Technic insides and functionality. I won't buy it but it's definitely cool.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Other than a cooked porg-recoloring of it, the techniques used here would make for a pretty good base for a penguin since the shape of a porg isn't that different.

Did any of the pieces strike as new to the color they were in, or are all the pieces (minus the sticker) from existing sets?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Well done review, enjoyed the read. Not sure why I have so much dislike for this set though, I guess because it looks like some kind of creepy beakless penguin escapee from a Stephen King horror movie. Not cute to me at all. The mechanism is cool though. I fear if I had this on display it would haunt my dreams. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Nice review.   I wonder if the mechanism can be modified so that it eats and poops like the Creator Rainforest Animats' parrot. 

Canadian Thanksgiving is coming up in a couple weeks.  It might be fun to put on on the dining table. 

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Nicely done review. For me the shaping of the Porg is pretty impressively done... except for the mouth. Dear God the mouth :oh: When it's closed it looks like the porg has a boarding ramp sticking out of its face, and when it's open I can't help but see the arch as a massive moustache :roflmao:

To be fair to TLG, this is probably the best they could get while retaining the mouth opening mechanism. Having said that, that choice puts me firmly in the "haunt my nightmares" camp :grin:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I don't get all the hate towards this set - and the porgs in general (let's face it, we've seen worse in a SW movie.)

I like this new line they started with BB-8, I bought that, and I'll probably buy this one too, good for display.

As for the source material: I think they're half as annoying as either the ewoks, or the gungans. At least they didn't have a crucial role in defeating a technologically infinitely more advanced army...small comic relief, and an ingenious way to monetize a production challenge.

@kaelthas - way off, but my OCD just can't take those huge bubbles under the sticker, you gotta fix that, man *huh*:laugh_hard:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 9/16/2018 at 12:26 PM, Kepheus said:

Great review, love the Chewie parts!

Hm, they really made a life-size(?) porg set... I thought they were rather annoying and totally unnecessary, though obviously delicious, when watching the movie. Clearly I‘m not part of the target group :)

Thanks @Kepheus. They are still cute 'penguins' in the movie. :grin: 

On 9/16/2018 at 3:44 PM, Renny The Spaceman said:

I'll take roasted with a glass of blue milk!

Great! Bantha milk is up!

On 9/16/2018 at 6:30 PM, Bartybum said:

Gotta say, even though I really despise Porgs, they did a real quality job with the Technic insides and functionality. I won't buy it but it's definitely cool.

Yes. This model is of great design. Although there is only one function. :grin:

On 9/17/2018 at 12:55 AM, Exile Phoenix said:

Other than a cooked porg-recoloring of it, the techniques used here would make for a pretty good base for a penguin since the shape of a porg isn't that different.

Did any of the pieces strike as new to the color they were in, or are all the pieces (minus the sticker) from existing sets?

Yes. Penguins! As of parts, I don't see anything special or new. I think they are all existed before this set. Please comment if you find any. Thanks!

Untitled-2

 

On 9/17/2018 at 5:21 AM, Johnny1360 said:

Well done review, enjoyed the read. Not sure why I have so much dislike for this set though, I guess because it looks like some kind of creepy beakless penguin escapee from a Stephen King horror movie. Not cute to me at all. The mechanism is cool though. I fear if I had this on display it would haunt my dreams. 

Thanks @Johnny1360. Maybe you need to get your hands on it to love it. Now my daughter is playing with it by 'feeding' it through the mouth. She unlocked a new play feature for this set.

On 9/17/2018 at 6:31 AM, dr_spock said:

Nice review.   I wonder if the mechanism can be modified so that it eats and poops like the Creator Rainforest Animats' parrot. 

Canadian Thanksgiving is coming up in a couple weeks.  It might be fun to put on on the dining table. 

 

Thanks @dr_spock. Now it can eat but it needs to poop by removing the bag 2 assembly. Haha. Multiple Porg on the table should be spectacular, do post a picture here!

On 9/17/2018 at 7:40 AM, Garmetrowolf said:

Nice review. This is a pass for me though. Too little bang for my buck. 

Thanks @Garmetrowolf. I have to admit that the play feature and the minifigure count are too little. 

On 9/17/2018 at 10:15 AM, ikba said:

Nicely done review. For me the shaping of the Porg is pretty impressively done... except for the mouth. Dear God the mouth :oh: When it's closed it looks like the porg has a boarding ramp sticking out of its face, and when it's open I can't help but see the arch as a massive moustache :roflmao:

To be fair to TLG, this is probably the best they could get while retaining the mouth opening mechanism. Having said that, that choice puts me firmly in the "haunt my nightmares" camp :grin:

Thanks @ikba. Now that you've mentioned, I couldn't unsee that arch as a moustache! 

On 9/18/2018 at 1:20 AM, MontyPython said:

A great review of a set that seems to look better every time I see it :classic:

Thanks @MontyPython for the kind words!

On 9/18/2018 at 2:29 PM, roadstermatt said:

great review again like others say the more I see it the more I like this set, I suspect one of these will waddle into my collection over time

Thanks @roadstermatt. I suppose it will. All you have to do is just bookmark this link. :classic:

On 9/18/2018 at 7:48 PM, brobert said:

I don't get all the hate towards this set - and the porgs in general (let's face it, we've seen worse in a SW movie.)

I like this new line they started with BB-8, I bought that, and I'll probably buy this one too, good for display.

As for the source material: I think they're half as annoying as either the ewoks, or the gungans. At least they didn't have a crucial role in defeating a technologically infinitely more advanced army...small comic relief, and an ingenious way to monetize a production challenge.

@kaelthas - way off, but my OCD just can't take those huge bubbles under the sticker, you gotta fix that, man *huh*:laugh_hard:

@brobert, thanks for noticing! I have OCD too but I suppose mine are not serious, I didn't notice that until you mentioned. Here you go.

IMG_5765

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.