Review: 9489 Endor Rebel & Imperial Trooper BP

[Masked Builder]

This is a pretty good looking set overall. The new layout on the back of the box is perfect for Star Wars. Those new printed heads are great too.

[CaptainBermuda]

The set is great, but I can't get over those peculiar new stormtrooper bodies

[Blondie-Wan]

The Rebel Troopers ar both new figs as they both have a different head part to the Battle of Endor set ones. Also they have no back packs and a change of hand colour.

Hmm. The one on the right (with the previously existing torso, that debuted with 8038 - The Battle of Endor) uses the open-mouth-grin variation head for Indiana Jones (that debuted with a couple sets in the summer '09 Indiana Jones wave). A good thing Han Solo apparently shaves regularly - otherwise the rest of the Rebel strike team would be mixing him up with this guy.

Also, I'm a bit taken aback there's nothing in the review about the new blaster pistol! Granted, there's not much to it other than being a "Star Wars-y" gun smaller than the previous ones, but it's great to finally have something that'll look right in Han's hands (among others).

Back to the trooper images shown, I'm relieved to see at least the Imperial Scout trooper didn't get a new torso (unless there's some back; it'll make it easier to use with my existing troops. I'm also having some thoughts about getting new sets now and keeping my uniformed troops consistent while still maximizing parts usage...

The set is great, but I can't get over those peculiar new stormtrooper bodies

Same here, but I'm thinking I can work around it to an extent. I think I might buy copies of this and other sets featuring the new torso, with the intention of mixing and matching elements from my current parts inventory to get as many stormtroopers as I can while still having them be uniform in appearance (also standardizing on the current blasters for all of them, freeing the old "megaphone blaster" elements for other uses).

[Hollander]

Thanks for the review.

However, I doubt if this set is worth the money. The tree is plain, the speeder bike is nothing new, and isn't accurate at all, and the new faces for the Imperial troopers look awkward - and somehow remind me of faces in a comic book. The Endor troopers look good though, but as already mentioned, will need some modifications before fitting in with the Endor troopers we've seen earlier. At the other hand; it's not like folks have tons of the first version of the Endor troopers, right?

[Blondie-Wan]

The Endor troopers look good though, but as already mentioned, will need some modifications before fitting in with the Endor troopers we've seen earlier. At the other hand; it's not like folks have tons of the first version of the Endor troopers, right?

Er, wait - do you mean the rebel troopers? One of them is already just like the first one (well, the torso print, anyway). What modifications do these need to fit with the others? If you mean the hands, I thought I'd just treat them as having gloves...

[Hollander]

Er, wait - do you mean the rebel troopers? One of them is already just like the first one (well, the torso print, anyway). What modifications do these need to fit with the others? If you mean the hands, I thought I'd just treat them as having gloves...

Well, it isn't such big of a deal to eventually change the hands, but still...

[swils]

This looks great. I can see myself buying quite a few of these battle packs. I love those rebels.

Want to make a trade? I'll swap you some excess rebels for your excess troopers (Seriously though... heh)

Thanks for the review, mutley! Jealous that you got your hands on the sets already. I've got a sizable clone/droid collection going, so I'm likely going to pick up one or two of the Clone BPs, as everything in it will add some nice flavor to what I have now. But what I've really been lacking in, and what I sort of regret lacking in, is OT troopers. I've got the boost of x-mas funds now, so I'm going to try to grab a few Hoth BPs before they're all gone, but I really can't wait for this Endor pack. More Scout troopers that won't stand out from my '99 Scouts (aside from the '99s being a bit yellowed), plus Stormies--I don't have a single Stormy to my name, sadly. But that will soon change. The Rebels look great, but not-so-deep down, I just love me some Imperials, and have never really appreciated any of the Rebel figs. Maybe that'll change, who knows.

[legolandia]

I just picked this and the other battle pack today from Argos. The battle packs main aim has always been what it says on the tin: to get minifigures for creating armies. As such I have never been bothered about the vehicles/trees they come with. My main disappointment is that in the UK the price of the battlepacks seems to have increased by 20%. It's safe to say that that is greedy on Lego's part. But at least the fact that I added 7 new minifigures (from both sets) to my collection makes me feel a bit better.

Edited December 28, 2011 by legolandia

[Sir_Basil_Ashton]

Thanks for the review on this new BP. I will pick this BP up but I won't be in a rush to. I'm still disappointed in the fact that the Biker Scout minifig hasn't received the update treatment from LEGO. I'd really like to see backprinting on that torso since it's pretty standard on most of the SW minifigs.

[Zzz]

Will get this only for the new rebel, since I have enough Stormies, Scouties, Speeder Bikes and Endor Rebels. For €16,99 I'm in no hurry, honestly.

The 2010 Rebel BP was far better, with an interesting vehicle and three new figs! And I don't even want to start comparing this to the Indy Cairo BP.

Thanks for the review and the crystal clear pics, that's what I wanted!

[Huntleyfx]

Will get this only for the new rebel, since I have enough Stormies, Scouties

Is there such a thing?

[Zzz]

Is there such a thing?

Space - the final issue

[Piranha]

thank you for this nice review, the new trooper faces are great.

[mortesv]

I'm particularly disappointed by the imperial troopers.

I do not like that the Stormtrooper's torso differs from the new Sandtrooper's torso. I do not know why the circle in the middle of the belt was added. And I'm not happy that the "shadow" effect was removed. I would have like to see leg printing to make its appearance consistent with the new sandtrooper.

I must say that I agree, I like the old Stormtrooper torso much better with shadow instead of hard lines.

[Huntleyfx]

Just out of curiosity, does anyone have a side by side comparison of the old and new stormtroopers?

[legoviking]

I am definately getting multiples of this set. I missed out on the Battle of Endor set so It's really exciting to get rebel commandos.

[Cpt. Dan]

Besides the speeder bike which we all have a thousand of, this is by far the best battle pack yet in my opinion.

I love the versatility of the figures, especially the Rebel commandos which can go towards an awesome army that we all have been waiting for.

Other than the Phase I clone battle pack, this has to be my favorite at least by a mile.

[Rogue Angel]

Thanks for the review Mutley! I've been waiting for the BP ever since the Rebel Trooper battlepacks came out. This is a godsend for us OT army builders. I agree that you can never have enough Stormies or Scouties. Bring em on!

[Duke of wellington]

Bought 7 of these!

[ramjarjamjar]

I'm particularly disappointed by the imperial troopers.

Compared to the clone wars figures, no major changes of the Scout Trooper were made:

I do not like that the Scout Trooper's helmet still has an open visor. I don't like that some parts of the helmet (mouth) are still not printed. I do not like that he has no printed legs (which are more black than white).

I agree

if any of those figures needed a redesign it was the scout trooper, not the stormtrooper. I mean look at what lego was able to do with the ARF trooper from the clone wars. At the very least they could have put some printing on the legs, black for the the parts of the scout troopers legs that aren't armoured. That would make it a little more screen accurate.

[Duck]

Managed to pick up two of this set for £15 on offer from Tesco. I got two to boost my numbers of imperial troops (plus it was only the podracer planet set which was the only other thing in the offer!), and also rebels for a future project. I think if I had paid the full £12 I'd be quite disappointed as aside from the fig's there is not a lot to offer with the tree and bike, really. As I paid £7.50 for each set though I cant complain!

Also agree that I prefer the old stormtrooper torso!

Edited December 6, 2012 by Duck

[Blondie-Wan]

I, too, prefer the older one, though I admit that's largely because I already have dozens of older stormtroopers, and now that they're no longer in new sets I can't expand much further upon the army I've been expanding for a while (the only sets still available that have them are the UCS Imperial Shuttle and the Death Star, and as much as I'd love to get multiples of both it's not terribly likely). I'm therefore faced with a choice of either a) forever contenting myself with the 70 or so stormtroopers I have now, plus whatever I might get from the Shuttle and Death Star; b) building a mixed force of both old and new stormtrooper torsos, and trying to overlook the non-uniformity of my uniformed troops; or c) starting over from scratch, and hoping I'll be able to get more of these new stormtroopers than I already have of the old ones.

I think I'm ultimately going to go with a), though I'll at least use some of the parts from these to update certain aspects of the older troops (like using the later helmet print in place of all those earlier, simpler helmets from the early 2000s, with the "split lip" / "moustache" look).