[REVIEW] 75216 - Snoke's Throne Room

[makoy]

This is my 20th review in Eurobricks Review Academy and to mark this milestone, I am reviewing a back-to-back review of this old TLJ set 75216 Snoke’s Throne Room and its little companion set 75225 Elite Praetorian Guard Battle Pack. This is part 1.

Regardless how you feel about The Last Jedi, it has its intense and satisfying moments. To start  this back-to-back review, let’s go through the set that is based on one of the most iconic scene in Star Wars Episode 8. I suppose we don’t need spoiler warnings. So, in a bad Kylo Ren paraphrasing-- don't let this post die, read this review if you have to.

Overview

Name: 75216 - Snoke’s Throne Room
Theme: Star Wars
Year: 2018 (2H)
Pieces: 491
Minifigures: 5
Price: GBP 64.99 / USD 69.99 / EUR 69.99 / SGD 129.99 / MYR 359.40
Resources: Brickset and Bricklink

Quote

Pit Supreme Leader Snoke, Rey, Kylo Ren and the highly trained Elite Praetorian Guards against each other in LEGO® Star Wars 75216 Snoke’s Throne Room! Taken from the exciting scene from Star Wars: The Last Jedi, this LEGO Star Wars set features Snoke's star destroyer throne room with rotating throne, knob-activated turning doorway and moving floor functions, plus hidden compartments to store Snoke's treasures and weapons, and 5 LEGO minifigures.

• Includes 5 LEGO® minifigures: Rey, Kylo Ren, Supreme Leader Snoke and 2 Elite Praetorian Guards.

• Features Snoke’s rotating throne with hidden compartment underneath, 2 weapon compartments, and knob-activated rotating doorway and moving floor functions.

• Weapons include Rey's Lightsaber, Kylo Ren's Lightsaber and the guards' double-handed bladed staff and convertible whip staff.

• Accessory elements include a whip attachment for the guard's rod weapon.

• Pull the knob to make-believe Snoke uses his dark powers to pull Rey closer to him!

• Recreate intense battle action from the Star Wars: The Last Jedi movie.

• Measures over 4” (11cm) high, 9” (24cm) wide and 10” (26cm) deep.

 

Introduction

Thanks to TLG, this scene was not spoiled because any Star Wars fan can tell you how severely inaccurate this front panel cover picture is. To spell it out for your - (1) Snoke did not even survive to watch any battle inside the throne room; (2) Rey and Kylo Ren did not duel at all as they actually fought alongside each other to fight against the Elite Praetorian Guards; (3) The set included only 2 identical Elite Praetorian Guards even if the movie featured 8 with at least 3 different helmet variations. We will  

The back panel even misleads you that Rey only fought the Praetorian Guards. Good job LEGO Marketing team!

The side panel features The Elite Praetorian Guard because the designers are fully aware that fans of the movie will hunt this set just for these red-armoured minifigures.

You can see the other side panels and other photo here in my Flickr album.

 

Build

Below is the content of the box. There are 3 numbered bags, 1 instruction booklet and 1 sticker sheet.

The sticker sheet included is quite big. As usual, in all my reviews, I won’t be applying them not because I detest them but only because I do not find them necessary. Besides, the sticker type included in this set is the kind that will come off easily after some time.

 

Contents of Bag 1

 

Bag 1 Build

The first bag makes the centre of the throne platform. To some extent, the technic bricks and pegs make this set modular and easy to disassembly into smaller parts.

 

Contents of Bag 2

Bag 2 Build

Bag 2 makes up the swivel door that looks more like a lift in the movie.

 

Bag 1 + Bag 2 Builds (No throne) 

Once connected, you’ll see how “cute” and pathetic the short bridge is. 

Also shown In the picture above, the technic shaft can be pulled to simulate Snoke's pull force of Rey.

Bag 2 also supplies the parts to build the throne of Supreme Leader Snoke which can rotate thanks to that big turntable piece underneath. The roller blades attached at the back looks really neat.

Bag 1 + Bag 2 Builds

With bag 1 and 2 completed, we're just one more bag away from completion.

 

Contents of Bag 3

Bag 3 supplies the parts for the left and right pillars that support an invisible roof. Kids and grown ups also need the power of imagination for the red wall that is blatantly absent in this set.

 

Bag 3 Build

In the middle of each pillars, there is a hidden storage for weapons and accessories.

  

 

 

Full Build: Complete!

The completed build has a decent size and heft once fully built. You can see another perspective of the build in my Flickr album.

 

And here is the completed throne room with all the minifigures added.

Speaking of minifigures, this is a good time to transition to the next section of the review

 

Minifigures

As already mentioned earlier, the box art alone suggests that the Elite Praetorian Guards are the main attraction of the set. Until now, this variant is still exclusive in this set. These guards have new shoulder pads, helmets and skirt with robe pattern.

 

Front view with hairpieces and headgears

 

Back view with hairpieces and headgears

Snoke has no second face print since he is bald but it shows his highly scarred features.

 

Front view without hairpieces and headgears

Once the hairpieces are removed, the Elite Praetorian Guards reveal a plain red head piece under the red helmets. Isn’t that better.

 

Back view without hairpieces and headgears

Only Rey and Kylo has second face print among the minifigures.

 

Conclusion

A large majority of reviews mentioned about the price of this set so let’s talk about the pricing first. Not long ago, a similar design formula was used in TFA set 75139 Battle on Takodana - 5 minifigures with a small section of a structure. The Snoke’s Throne Room comes with similar number of figures but the parts count is a bit higher making it $10 more expensive. Surprisingly, the price to parts ratio of the Takodana set is worse but it received generally positive reviews in LEGO Shop and Amazon. Outside these 2 online shops however, the reviews were mixed and, dare I say, not favourable because of the price factor. Having owned several 75139 sets, personally, I can say that set 75216 is a better set overall.

While it is debatable that the retail price is a tad higher than your average LEGO set, the new moulds for the Praetorian Guards were factored in the product pricing as it is the only set that used the new  helmet and shoulder armours at the time of its release. Would I prefer it to be cheaper? Yes, but I guess everyone wants anything cheaper....

Beyond the price, I do think this is a good set; not just too good or great -- just good.

Another common gripe that I read about this set is the inaccuracy of the set because it doesn’t have the red wall. It’s true that it has no walls but it also doesn’t have central pillars behind the throne, roof and floating “chandeliers” -- just look at the reference photo of the throne room. I do believe the designer did their very best to capture the essence of the throne room with the limited parts count allotted for the set. If the red wall was added it would have made the set more expensive.  A simple, cheap and very easy solution for the red background is to just add your own red crimson paper backdrop in your display if you really wish to reproduce the striking wall colour of the throne. You can see what I did in the photo below.

More importantly, if there is something I really want to complain about this set - it has to be the scale. It is just too small to fit four minifigures at each side. The width and breadth of the throne room is not proportional. Just compare how vastly the model was shrunk down compared to the reference set picture . It is definitely smaller than system scale. If you want to recreate the epic fight scene in the movie, modifying this set is necessary. Technically, you can fit 10 minifigures in the middle but the scene would look like Kylo Ren and Rey standing on concert mosh pit with a red army…(not a BTS reference)

 

"You think you can turn him? Pathetic child. I cannot be betrayed; I cannot be beaten. I see his mind, I see his every intent."

 

Review summary

Playability: 7/10 - The playset functions as a stage only and the other play features do not elevate the action elements that this set is suppose to recreate.
Design / Building Experience: 7/10 - The design captured the essence of Snoke’s Throne Room but the scale is just too small. Making it wider would have helped stage a fight scene a lot better.
Minifigures:  8/10 - The Elite Praetorian Guards make this set special and this set is the only way you can get the robed version. Making Snoke a throw-away character in the movie reduced the appeal of this set but that’s not TLG’s fault.
Price / Value for money: 6/10 - This is the same rating that I would have given the Battle of Takodana set in value. The Star Wars tax is real.
Overall: 7/10 - The set is decent but there is nothing special about this set that will make you buy this immediately. That’s also the reason why I only bought this set after finding a generous discount offer.

 

This review is not complete without the next one. Since you patiently read all the way through the end, please go ahead and jump to the next review of set 75225 Elite Praetorian Guards Battle Pack.

[Mister_Bruce]

A fine review. Well done.

[makoy]

13 minutes ago, Mister_Bruce said:

A fine review. Well done.

Thanks for the appreciation and getting the ball rolling. 

[Retro]

Nice review. I like these traditional photo and text ones.

My opinion remains as follows. I like the sequels as films becuase I find them interesting as character driven sci-fi fantasy. I also enjoyed the humour, Poe and Hux scene and all. 

However, I do not think they make for interesting Lego sets as they do not contain much of interest in terms of design.

What could have made this set work was...the red walls. And I really just think it's meanness on TLG's part that they didn't include them. Palpatine's arrest has walls/windows Jabba's Palace has walls. The Return of The Jedi Final Duel has walls. This set doesn't work without red walls and I shouldn't have to cut my own out of paper!

 

[makoy]

1 hour ago, Retro said:

Palpatine's arrest has walls/windows Jabba's Palace has walls. The Return of The Jedi Final Duel has walls. This set doesn't work without red walls and I shouldn't have to cut my own out of paper!

Thanks for your input. I understand completely where you are coming from and I hope you don't mind that I bring up the subject about scale which I also mentioned in my review.

My problem with  the set is the scale of Snoke's Throne Room. In comparison to the other sets that you mentioned, the red walls are massive and the set is not even close to system scale. The proportions are very off.

Say that the designers added the red walls instead of the swiveling door. It will only make the set less playable. I asked my kids to play with this set and one advantage of not having a wall is the easy access to the "stage" at any angle. The set is essentially sold as a fighting stage so I think the designers made the right call to not include the red walls. 

If the set is sold as a "UCS" playset, then I would like to see those walls erected. That's just how I see it. :)

[Cylo]

Nice review! There should've been at least a red curtain cloth piece provided in the set to justify the price but instead we don't get anything. The minifigs are decent but you can just get the guards in the bp.

[makoy]

8 hours ago, Reaper said:

Nice review! There should've been at least a red curtain cloth piece provided in the set to justify the price but instead we don't get anything. The minifigs are decent but you can just get the guards in the bp.

Yep. The ones in BP is more than sufficient.  

I didn't think about a red cloth as an option for the red background --- though I could imagine TLG using a red flexible plastic like the ones used in NINJAGO or City. I think that would be a more cost effective solution which they also did not add because it may just obstruct access to the play area.

[Retro]

On 5/1/2019 at 3:18 PM, makoy said:

Thanks for your input. I understand completely where you are coming from and I hope you don't mind that I bring up the subject about scale which I also mentioned in my review.

My problem with  the set is the scale of Snoke's Throne Room. In comparison to the other sets that you mentioned, the red walls are massive and the set is not even close to system scale. The proportions are very off.

Say that the designers added the red walls instead of the swiveling door. It will only make the set less playable. I asked my kids to play with this set and one advantage of not having a wall is the easy access to the "stage" at any angle. The set is essentially sold as a fighting stage so I think the designers made the right call to not include the red walls. 

If the set is sold as a "UCS" playset, then I would like to see those walls erected. That's just how I see it. :)

I don't agree with this!

Every play set that needs walls has walls. As well as the sets listed above, I will add 76088 (Ragnarok) and more. Having a back wall doesn't stop you playing with a set. And if the wall really gets in the way, you take the figures out and play on the table, then pop them back in when you're finished. I strongly feel had this set needs red walls and is missing them due to some combination of design mistake, wasting bricks on those grey pylons, or Disney/TLG driven increases in price per piece. 

The more I look at sets like this I regret on missing out on things like Palpatine's arrest!

It seems like you get less and less in these regular sized play sets now,  and they are trying to push adults into buying huge sets in the €200+ range.

 

[darththeling]

Never have I seen this playset look this good. Awesome snaps, makoy. 

Another vote here from someone who greatly prefers the traditional text&photo review to video reviews.