Speedboat

Great job on this MOC! I especially like the walls, very cool use of different textures to break up this huge surface area. And using those dice from the board games as storage crates is a pretty cool idea.

TRU Germany had 20% off LEGO products and some other toy brands for the past week.

Ordered the 66411 Super Pack from Toys'r'us, with 20% off finally a good opportunity to get some of the sets from the first wave this year I'm still missing.

Wow, this is pretty nice! The UCS R2D2 will be released in May, right? I hope it will be in the online store by the 4th/5th, so I can get the TC-14 with this purchase.

I ordered the new 9492 Tie Fighter yesterday. The price was already lowered to 39,99€ and I saved another 6€ with a coupon! Also, I'm thinking of buying the 66411 super pack at my local TRU next week, as long as their 20% off LEGO products is running. 56€ for the new Y-wing + both new battle packs seems like a great deal.

Very impressive! This looks just like a great horror movie setting LEGO-fied. I think what I like most about your MOCs is the different textures you use, kinda makes these dilapidated buildings all the more realistic and fun to explore.

Very creative MOC and instantly recognisable! Before the start of my dark ages, Star Wars wasn't really an interest of mine and the LEGO license for the theme was years in the future. But your no-licensed-parts-MOCS always remind me of attempts as a kid to recreate scenes from other movies with the help of my LEGO collection and it's great to see that even without all the detailed pieces and minifigs we have nowadays, you can achieve fantastic and very inspiring results. I can't wait to see your next project! I know that there are already plans for at least a few more community builds, but wouldn't it be great to do one in this vein and only allow non-licensed parts? I think it would be very interesting to see what ideas different people come up with to build their favourite SW characters and scenes with these restrictions.

This could well be the first UCS I purchase. I like the third leg feature and the little buzz saw! It's hard to find display space for new models in my room, but I guess I have to make room on my working desk for my favourite R2 unit.

Truly stunning! I'd love to see this in person. Episode 1 isn't really on my list of favourite movies, but you captured one of the more iconic scenes, I think. I think this has been said in another thread already, but you have some very inspiring uses of parts in this MOC, the tan halfpipe pieces for example. Kudos for another great and beautifully executed MOC!

Thanks for the review and your excellent pictures! I'm still missing this set, but the Y-wing (in all its variants) is one of my favourite starships in the SW universe, so I'll definitely get this set sooner or later. The minifigs look gorgeous, too. I don't have celebration Luke and Han yet, but I think I'll try to collect the "celebration trio" now, they just look so beautifully designed and who doesn't love the corresponding scene at the end of A New Hope?

This is definitely one of the few memorable scenes from TPM and your MOC is great! I like the detailing on the walls, the vents, the crates on the floor. The Theed hangar is instantly recognisable. Very cool! Will you show pictures of the complete hangar or do you had to dismantle the other displays to build this one?

I voted Death Star Trooper for the available sets and Sith Trooper for the summer wave. Both minifigs are spectacular in my opinion and I'll try to get as many of those as possible. It's not like I have a special project planned for them, but they'd look gooooood in great numbers!

Seems like we both hail from the same city! I don't live there anymore, though. Nice decals and minifigs, looks like you put a lot of work into those!

I nearly fell from my chair laughing when I saw this thread this morning. Well done! But if this was a real set, I bet LEGO would put a bunch of small flickfire missiles on top of it.

I didn't even notice that! But strictly speaking, C3PO gets the restraining bolt after being captured by the Jawas, so he should not be wearing one in the escape pod. Apart from that, the bolt seems to be on the wrong side of the torso, while we're nitpicking.

That's wonderful news! I hope LEGO will release more Expanded Universe sets, when the Clone Wars series ends. I'm not sure they would produce sets apart from those based upon video games or another TV-series, but it would be great getting sets based on The New Jedi Order, Legacy of the Force and Fate of the Jedi novels. With Star Wars, their possibilities are nearly unlimited, I hope they won't just rehash old sets.

Fantastic MOC! This is beautifully designed, from the floor and wall mosaics to the wing contraptions of Icarus and Daedalus. I wish there were more MOCs depicting mythologic scenes.

This looks very cool! I think the Darth Maul scenes from Ep.I are an excellent choice for this community build, nice to see that you executed it so well. The detailling of the shaft walls look especially nice. I hope you'll continue your build, but even in this state it is a great MOC.

Very cool display! I especially like your treetop village, ecaxtly how I imagine elven architecture. Congrats on winning the award, it's really a beautiful display! And the Captain Sparrow "easter egg" is a nice idea, too. I always enjoy finding surprises snuck in by the builder like these.

Amazing build! I just started playing Skyrim yesterday, so I don't know much about all the factions yet, but this looks pretty cool. The landscaping in particular looks great, I like the use of white feathers as snow.

Incredible! The sheer size of it is astonishing and I really like all those little details and the fact that you mixed old and new factions/minifigs. I'd love to step into this MOC and party with those outlaws.

Great review! The new TIE fighter is on my list for february purchases, the new iteration looks fantastic. Also, I really love the new Death Star trooper minifig. If only it was part of a battle pack instead of a larger set.

Nice review! I wish i was lucky enough to win things like that! I don't know what to make of sets like this, though. Even if I had enough space to display a huge LEGO SSD, I probably wouldn't go out of my way to purchase one. The build seems pretty monotonous, even with all the greebling. Seems like a good opportunity to amass grey wedgeplates, though...

Thanks for all your kind words! My photo setup was quite simple. I just used my small Canon Ixus 100 and took the pictures on a well lit kitchen table (I just had to take the opportunity of the first sunny day in weeks ). They came out better than I expected. Sadly, the trooper faces really do look washed out. They seem to have a white-greenish tinge, I hope the printing on those faces will be corrected in the future. On a minifig with fleshy hands they'd look pretty strange. Though with the closed stormtrooper helmets I don't really mind. Thanks so much!

Set Name: Droid Escape Set Number: 9490 Pieces: 137 Figures: 4 Price: 26,99 € / $19.99 (USD) / £19.99 Theme: Star Wars / OT Yesterday I stumbled upon a few of the new 2012 sets and bought 9490 and the new battle packs. I don't think there is a review for Droid Escape yet, so here is mine! This is my first review, so bear with me. If you have requests for more and specific pictures, please ask. I don't seem to be able to add polls yet, so it would be nice if a mod could add one, if one is needed. The Box, complete with the new Darth Maul artwork. The back of the box shows the functions of the set (not much to see here apart from the escape pod opening) and artwork of the pod approaching Tatooine and landing in the dunes. The contents of the box (the 2 big grey cone-shaped pieces were loose inside the box): The sticker sheet. I do not apply stickers on my sets, so this one wandered straight into the sticker box. Instruction booklet. Random page from the booklet. Now to the (in my opinion) most interesting part: the new minifigs! First, all of them lined up: The new sandtroopers, with printed dirty armor. Aren't the pretty? The backpacks are identical to the one from 8092, both troopers have printed heads like the regular stormtrooper from the new Endor battle pack. Printed cloth pauldrons in orange and white: Here is a comparison with the slightly older sandtrooper from 8092, look at the difference in detail. Added leg printing, dirty armor and detailed pauldrons. Those new troopers are indeed stunning! C-3PO got an update as well: Printed eyes and more details on the torso. R2-D2 seems to be the same as the version from 8092, the printing is slightly crisper (new version on the right). Now to the other contents of the box. There aren't that many pieces included, but here are all of them sorted by color: Pieces of interest (to me, at least): 1x2 plates with integrated cheese slope and a printed 1x2 tile. Apart from that, nothing really special, as far as I can tell. But see for yourselves: First I built the little speeder bike. I think the set could have done without it, I already have a ton of those little bikes from various polybags, battle packs and other sets... Building the escape pod. The steering thruster array. The finished pod with its cover plate. Escape pod with droid passengers. The closed pod. The complete set with escape pod, speeder bike and minifigs: Extra pieces. Conclusion: This is a great set, no doubt. I would have bought it for the new sandtroopers alone. I don't know if the escape pod will stay assembled or if I will dismantle it in the near future, displaying space is pretty scarce in my room and I'd rather display some nice starships. I already bought the two new battle packs from this wave and after building all three sets, I cannot wait to get my hands on the rest! Especially the OT-sets look amazing and the minifigs get better and better. "These aren't the droids you're looking for. Look behind you!" Design: 8/10, a nice little set, the pod looks pretty well designed with its opening cover plate. The bike is of a pretty standard design. Parts: 7/10, nothing really special or new here. Build: 8/10, a simple and fast build, sadly with big stickers (as was to expected, I guess...) Minifigs: 10/10, gorgeous new minifigs! I love the new sandtroopers and the new 3PO, the printing is very crisp and detailed. Playability:7/10, there's definitely some swoopability to be found here, but when the pod hits the desert, there's nothing much going on anymore. Price: 6/10, Star Wars LEGO is pricy, we all know that. But I have to pay 26,99 € for this set here in Germany. To me, this is a slighty bigger battle pack, but costs 10 € more than the new battle packs... Overall: 46/60, I would have bought the set for the new troopers alone, I cannot wait to open the other OT-sets from this wave! The price is pretty high though, depending on where you live...