pedro

Ah, have to disagree on both counts there! Jabba's Palace wasn't the best designed set, but it was the first set to come with Jabba the Hutt and provided a nice little platform for display and play. LEGO also released the modular battlepack-like additions to flesh out the scene and add minifigs. As far as minifigs go, Jabba's Palace gave us: Jabba, Leia slave, Jedi Luke, EV-9D9, Gonk Droid and B'ommar Monk; and the 2 modular add-ons (and let's face it with the base set you had to get 'em) gave us: Bib Fortuna, C-3P0, R2-D2, Boba Fett, Gamorrean guard and Han frozen in carbonite. That's an awesome line-up for each and all! I think Clone Wars Yoda has loads of character; I like the new design of his head and face and the fact that he has printed colouring on his head really helps bring him to life. His head is perfectly scaled with his body now too. I daresay I prefer him to the original Yoda! I understand completely, though my feelings about sets generally relate directly to when I bought them rather than comparison between old and new. A good example for me is 7657 Scout Walker. I was quite disappointed upon seeing the initial images of this set. It is better than the original, which at the time I thought was great, but could almost have been a first generation set with it's particularly blocky build - albiet with the inclusion of some new parts. It just didn't do it for me at all, but the minifig, parts and a discounted price swayed my purchase. In a sense feeling a wee bit disappointed with LEGO's treatment of the AT-ST prompted me to build my own version - and that can't be a bad thing

I don't know if everuone hates it as such. I own the original and they are very, very similar with the new one being slightly larger. It doesn't much justify investment on my part, but I'll see when more images are released. I understand how you feel. I do like the designs and the minifig selections look good (who is the mystery Jedi?!) but I also own the originals of these too and again they are very, very similar. Yet, in the instance of the ARC-170 it is difficult to see exactly how it's been improved so I may be in for a surprise

Indeed! But it's slightly cheaper to get your hands on this one

He almost looks like that already to me, with his splindly white legs. You are right though - he could've been worse (shudders to think)! I think the whole creator-esque feel to it was a good idea, it just needed to be backed up with better and more relevant minifigs. I'm sure if we ever see a LEGO Watto again he'd be somewhat improved... and have little legs! Funny Anio, seeing your work so far I actually believe that!

Just a wee note about this promotion (I posted under Matt Dawson's 30004 review)... So, I also be self-quoting now! But not quite on same level as the plural-sheep-king ADHO!

Thanks for the review Matt. I nipped down today and got mine so I'm chuffed! These Clone Wars style STAPs are a great alternative to the movie version and the parts - although I'm more inclined to keep these - are really useful too. Incidentally you don't need to 'nab' anything, just take in more than one token. As I've come to read it it's one set per reader and the places I've visited interpret this as one reader = one newspaper purchase. If you should need some kind of explanation, say that you're picking them up for multiple people (as I actually am). You might want to think about putting a sheet of paper or some kind of blank surface in the background to make the LEGO in your photos stand out a bit more?

Awesome image smokebelch! Your photography has got such a clean, crisp look to it that I really like. The strong ligting technique really works to that advantage. Nice one! Your humour isn't too bad either

I have to agree with you there, he just doesn't look nearly as imposing as he should do! I hope they change him when they release the new 8095 - that'd be sweet. In the meantime I have my own brick-built version That made me chuckle... it's so true

Hey Rayman, superb gunship nose art. You've captured that whole cheeky, sexy, 'liberty belle' feel excellently. It'd be great to see examples where they've been used. Good work to you too, green dewback, the Wampa looks fierce on a gunship!

Oh dear, didn't mean for this to be a ranting topic; just a clean, tongue in cheek discussion about people's dislikes! People are often harsh on newly released photos (even blurry ones), I thought it'd be fun discussing sets they didn't particularly like from past releases. I edited my opening post to reflect this. I didn't mind the Sith Infiltrator at all... I just missed the prequel sets' line-up buying the OT sets! Saying that I'd probably look on it with disdain now, nestled amongst my newer, sleeker, greeblier starships That's so funny: I'm the exact opposite! There was always something about his merged eye/eyebrow arrangement that I didn't like; so as soon as I could I replaced every old Luke head with the new young Obi-wan one. Now I have a long multi-Luke totem pole-like structure in one of my boxes

Ladies, gentlemen... After commenting on the recent batch of slightly blurry new release pictures - that had me ranting on about the LEGO buzz-droid minifig again - I thought it'd be great fun to have a light and friendly discussion about what everyone's most hated Star Wars set and minifig is! Maybe hated is a strong word, but I more mean general dislikedness whether it be about design, build, content, etc. and any constructive criticism that you might have. As opposed to one of our many favourites or most wanted polls, lets turn things upside down and see... Which set do you feel was a Lego FAIL? Which minifig irks you the most? My most 'hated' set - 7103 Jedi Duel They really should have just put Yoda and Dooku in a box together... Dooku's speeder looks like the flying hot-tub of speeders, clunky and with very little detail (asides from printed slopes). A sticker saying 'My Other Speeder is a 74-Z!' wouldn't look out of place here! And the strange technic built 'speeder-holder' is just dreadfully redundant. Would've been just as well provided some long tiles to mark out a parking space complete with 'P' signage. I've never owned a set that's spent so little time built! Off to room 101! Yoda, Dooku - stay here My most 'hated' minifig - buzz droid Originally included in 2005's release of the Tri-fighter and undeservedly resurrected in Ahsoka's Starfighter, the gait-ambiguous buzz droid is a pretty dreadful representation of it's quirky screen counterpart and almost comedic with his giant pair of mismatched legs! Wrong number of legs, wrong bodyshape, wrong number of eyes - okay, I'll accept three eyes is a bit more of a challenge to realise on something this small, but the designers could have tried harder with the rest of it. Maybe they were just fed-up that day... It does have one redeeming quality: those printed domes are great... but not enough to save this guy in my eyes... back to the house of pain with you! Anyone else got a most hated? Comments on mine? Keep it light and friendly

Aye. Given choice I would've put a clonetrooper in there - make it even more viable as a multiple purchse. But hey! Anakin with Hoth Han's hood and a Talz will do just fine

Ah... new pictures, new heated discussion! Here's my thoughts... Freeco bike - Looks great to me. I like the design of this speeder and LEGO have done it justice (is that pixel a...? Wait - nevermind) Minifig selection at this price is what you'd expect - basic. Be glad we're getting a Talz, I'd have just expected just Obi or Anakin. Tri-fighter - Seems a bit pointless to me. The original resides on my shelf to this day and looks just as good as this 'new' version. Saying that the Tri-fighter set does have more, better minifigs (the buzz droid in its current incarnation is top of the list of my most hated minifgs) but thats not enough to swing a purchase from me at full price. TIE defender - Looks pretty cool. Looks pretty pricey. Looks like we might be seeing even more TIE fighter variants in proper colours... now that's a good thing! I do like this, it looks spot-on, but it won't be top of my list... Hoth battlepacks - These are HORRIBLE... ...just kidding, they're great! Alliance - 3 troopers and a rebel pilot; Empire - 2 snowtroopers, AT-AT pilot and Imperial Officer (Veers stylee). What a great line-up! And finally a 'proper' speeder bike in a battlepack too, excellent! The other models/parts are so-so but the minifigs are the main thrust of the set anyway. Wow he'd definately be eligible for the Most Random Background Character Award Let's just hope they give 'em some different heads à la Battle of Endor. Almost spat my drink out when I read that. Bit harsh maybe?

Thanks for the review Matt, though you're missing some shots of the completed model! As for the set, it's a nice little version of the TIE fighter and a steal at 45p! However I'm going to give this one a miss today; I prefer the minifigs and parts available with the other sets so will stick to collecting those. STAP tomorrow - yey!

Exactly! Using 2 copies of this set (if you're lucky enough to get 2) gives you a chance to get that bit more creative; a swoop bike is one of the most obvious and fun creations that comes of this.

Great review 'dodger! I picked my few up today. It's a great wee set, like 30005 some excellent parts, and of course a shiny new clonetrooper! Can't go wrong... even if the paper is a slightly higher price on a Sunday! I might do a review of this after; I'm currently finishing building my entry for the Battlepack Contest

Cheers for the great comments guys... I do like my fonts Bet you win, you were pretty fast off the mark today! Tomorrow the clone walker, mini TIE fighter then STAP - check my link under resources above. Good stuff!

Hey, Following in the footsteps of ADHO15 (and now Skipper24 in the time it's taken me to write this ) I've decided to do a review after taking quite a few pictures of the new LEGO promotional set, 30005. Currently, it comes as part of a LEGO promotion being run by The Mirror newspaper in the UK; future availability in other countries is unknown at this time. Set name: Imperial Speeder Bike Set number: 30005 Theme: Star Wars Release date: 2009 Price: NA - promotional Pieces: 31 Minifigs: 1 Resources: Brickset Bricklink UK Mirror Promotion Bag We've have a nice shot of this somewhat diminished but no less sleek version of the Imperial Speeder Bike. Contents The instruction leaflet is tiny... ...the instructions are brief and easy to follow. 30005 boasts a great selection fsome really useful parts such as the hose-nozzle, neck bracket and several others including dark bley Castle axes! Model & Minifig A couple of minutes is all it takes to assemble... however I don't think Stormies are trained for this kind of task... The Imperial Speeder Bike with rider. For a small promotional set this isn't bad at all! The bike has some pretty clever parts use and looks very sleek with high swooosh-factor. I'm not sure if I prefer it over the speeder bikes included in some of the sets recently, but with a recolour and some slight modding could make a cool outlaw or bounty hunter's chopper - as I go into later. View from the rear. Side view. Swooosh! Set Potential The first and most obvious MOD you can make... put a scout trooper on it! It would've made much more sense to include a scout trooper with the bike, especially in light of the release of Battle of Endor. Can't complain too much though, an extra stormtrooper is still an awesome addition to my collection! After thinking about the chopper-like quality of the bike I used several pieces from a 2nd 30005 and came up with this, a swoop bike for my Trandoshan bounty hunter Karn. Rear view of this really easy to build alternate. (His hair is an implant by the way!) Overview 30005 is a great little promo set: you get a shiny new stormtrooper, a nice little speeder bike with lots of alternate potential and some great pieces for your MOCs! For the cost of a newspaper (or 2) you really can't go wrong. Despite this seeming to me at first the weaker of the minifig sets, it certainly has grown on me. It's not necessarily a keeper in the long run, but the parts are superb and you can make a pretty cool swoop out of 2 sets in less than 5 mins! Hope you liked this little review despite it being the 3rd (and aren't too fed up with seeing this already)! Together with ADHO15 and Skipper24's you should have a very comprehensive picture of this set! t.t.f.n.

I nipped down to my local retail park early this morning and managed to grab a few. The token specifically says one per reader, therefore however many tokens you redeem you get a set for each - great! By the time I made it down to WH Smith at about 9.30am, the shop assistant said they'd already distributed half a 60 unit box! I took a few photos of it for everyone; almost a mini-review... Bag Instructions Parts Construction Front Back

Great experiment cole, it worked a treat! Using the transparent tubing is inspired! I'm all about capturing minifigs and models in dynamic poses and your technique here is really cool; it'll be great to see how you develop and integrate it into your future projects. I wouldn't be surprised to see this inspiring several creations from our fellow MOCers

Nice entry cole, this would make a great battlepack! I like the way you've focued on lots of accessories such as the boarding ladder and transport, those would be excellent for fleshing out a hangar scene. I noticed you've used the sullustan head for one of your pilots too; such a nice, versatile head - I've got one as one of my A-wing pilots Good luck in the contest!

No worries mate I wasn't asking you to secure any for me - I live in the UK! I've agreed to help out someone if I can but can't make any promises due to the potential clause problem; I won't have the opportunity to travel a few places like you might.

You OK to do that ADHO15? The last LEGO promotion like this there was a clause on the tokens that said one set per customer. I've agreed to check it out, but getting these in quantity may be pretty difficult... unless you have other ways or means?

Ah wicked! I was lucky to take advantage of The Mirror's last LEGO promotion based on City theme; it's great to see they're running a Star Wars themed promo - and so soon too. That's me buying The Mirror for the next week! Sorry for you guys in the US... but I reckon you've still got some making up to do for chrome C-3PO

Great find! And what nice, well rounded little sets these are, especially the fireman's car and police boat. I love the steamroller too; in fact upon seeing it, it reminded me of my old Star Wars mini-rig MTV-7, which could assume a similar form by pushing down on the cockpit. Star Wars MOD anyone?