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This has been reviewed, but I wanted to give it an 'Academy' review, so here it is ... On this topic, opinions I have Let's face it, Attack of the Clones was a terrible, terrible film, IMO the worst of the 'hectology'. The unromantic romance, the laughable melodrama, and humorless puns coming out of C3PO's mouth. And Mace Windu says the embarrassing "This party's over!" in the film. So, so regrettable. Has he managed to lived this down yet? I apologized to my girlfriend for taking her to see it. But, and that's a big but, the design was really amazing all over the place. Jango Fett's colors, the Jedi Starfighter with hyperspace ring, and I like the setting on Genosis. So the images of the movie were good... No, great. And with that, I really wanted this set. I saw prices over $100 for MISB, which was just too much for the number of pieces, and put it off. Last week I found a used copy selling for about $45, and decided to pick it up. The owner really cared for this, and all the pieces looked new, as did the box and instructions, so I was very very lucky. How does it hold up, seven years on? Set#: 7133 Name: Bounty Hunter Pursuit Theme: Star Wars Year: 2002 Pieces: 259 Minifigs: Obi-Wan Kenobi (young with Dark Orange Hair, no Headset), Zam Wesell, Anakin Skywalker (Grown Up) without Cape Price: 4,100 yen, used MSP: U.S.$30, £27.99 Peeron Brickset Bricklink The box A 2002, Attack of the Clones set. Looks exciting enough. The back shows the one speeder in action, crashing and losing its wings, as well as some movie photos to put it in perspective, an alternate model, and some other clones sets, the Starfighter, the SlaveI, the battle of Genosis sets, and that one on the lower left that I think was called the Natman8000 special. The side is a little peculiar, in that it only shows one proper figure, and that figure is labeled "Clawdite". <edit> On taking a second look, on another side, the three figures are together with the names labeled. It's 1:1, but it's not a full body shot. The Pieces Beyond the bright colors (I imagine these colors were really rare when they came out), this set had pieces either I didn't have, or had never seen before. Metalic cups for lights, dark transparent slopes, printed slopes and a cockpit, and these yellow vents that make the speeder look faster. Three figures with no print on their backs. Very late model, yellow skin SW figures. Love the detailing on Zam Wesell. Lego Jesus... er, Obi Wan is the same as in his Starfighter set, but the face lacks the microphone and headgear. The print on Zam is very in line with her character profile. Very good attention to detail. Hey, you're not Lego! Anyway, this is Zam when she let's her guard down. And so the figure has a two sided head print, when you want to get really clawdite. The Finished Product Anakin's Airspeeder This was far from the best ship in the movie, it basically looks like a space taxi, very Earth-y. It wouldn't look out of place in the current Space Police line. As a Lego ship, it's got a nice aerodynamic shape. [rant] the prequels were really concerned with portraying 'Earth in space'... the death sticks, Dexter's Diner, and the airspeeders that looked like cars... the design and production is fantastic, but the underlying idea is really dull.[/rant] A sleek bubble like contour. Why is the engine exposed? It looks cool I guess. The thruster on the back stands out really well against the yellow and green. It's very successful. The overhead. The underside. The engine is really cool. Black printed R2D2 parts, with vents (that don't show up in the picture, sorry) at the front. The metallic lights jump out. The cockpit's not great, but it has seat-like spots, and a steering device. It could be better, but it looks fine with the figures inside. Zam Wesell's Airspeeder This is a cool, striking ship. Fast looking, even the coloring is fast looking Now this is most definitely not a space taxi. The contour kind of reminds me of how Superman flies, horizontally, with his hands in front. It seems like a really natural design. The back has two little fins of sorts. Sharp, and gives the ship some visual balance. Overhead, you can really see the great design on this ship. It looks fast. If those two fins weren't there, the vibe of the ship would completely change. Try covering the tail with your hand, and see how the feeling changes. Lastly, the wings are held in place, fairly firmly, with elastics. By sliding back the dark slopes on the back, either one or both of the wings can fall off. I rewatched that scene from the movie again before writing this review, and no, the wings don't come off there. Rather, the ship hits a wall, and crumples up. As far as I know though, Lego has yet to perfect the art of the crumple. Bonus review! As a part of the Reviewer's Academy, I was CHALLENGED to make the alternate build. I've never quite loved these, since I can never make it quite as neatly at the pros seem to effortlessly do, but I think I managed to get it about 80% right. At this angle, I pretty much nailed the one on the box. (join the Academy today, to get in on the shenanigans!) From a side view, it's a little more iffy. Other than being a little off balance, this seems to work. If I were to work on it more (and I'm not ) I'd weigh down the front a little bit. And so, Zam Wesell bids you adieu from his new helicopterish vehicle. Adieu! Adieu! The Final Verdict This set was awesome. Two ships, striking design, rare pieces, a one time only mini-fig, printed pieces, etc etc. It's not as sleek as the sets tend to be now, but it's quite good for that year, and far better than, say, Jango's Slave which is a little clunky, looking back on it now. Design: 9/10 So much of the design was taken from Lucasfilm, but TLG did a very good job with it. It loses one point for one ship looking like a space taxi. Build:7/10 Nothing too unusual. Special note taken for the space taxi's clever engine and SNOT technique. The Zam airspeeder isn't really that complicated, it didn't need to be. The detachable wings are interesting. Also, the set came in two bags, so that was nice of TLG to do Playability: 9/10 As my reviews have shown, I love paired ships. They come with play possibilities built in. Having good guys and bad guys in one set is also good for play opportunities. The functionality of Zam's speeder is interesting, though it's not really useful, except as a crashing thing. But it's interesting. Minifigures: 9/10 This is a hard call. I used to be a super Star Wars fan, until I saw Attack of the Clones to be honest. (I still dig that universe though, and can enjoy it). Anyway, Star Wars fans tend to love bounty hunters; Boba Fett, Boushh, even the new guy, Cad Bane who's been on TV for 15 minutes and is already a fan favorite (look for his Clone Wars set in 2010, I bet the house on it). So this set, with the reptilian Zam Wesell, was bound to be a desired one. And so it is, it usually sells for twice as much as a set like 7143, despite having a similar price point originally. I do believe the lovely purple bounty hunter makes a huge difference. I'm glad to have it, if only for its uniqueness. And like other Lego bounty hunters, like Boba Fett, and, er, Dengar, the figure is lovingly designed. And there's another Anakin figure and a Lego Jesus figure. Price: 10/10 It's 259 parts, but for the size and all, I'm perfectly satisfied. At the 2002 price, I'd have been thrilled (where was my head back then ) Overall: 9/10 A unique set, striking, one of a kind mini-fig, chrome light sabers. Amazing. The only reason it's not 10 is because it doesn't blow my mind. Can a 200-something piece set blow a person's mind? Regardless, this set is very, very good, and a worthwhile addition to any Lego collection. In fact, I saw a cheap used one on e-Bay. Don't you think it's time you filled in the cracks of your collection? Master Kenobi, are you alright? You're looking a little pale.... vvvvyeewwwww! ppshhhhhhhoooooo! Cheers all!

I'm pretty mixed about this set, and might not pick it up as planned. For whatever reason, a Millennium Falcon without minifigs seems pretty barren.

This is quite beautiful. TLG needs to put you on the payroll for this design pronto. Awesome.

The world hobby fair in Tokyo was last weekend, and the new Millennium Falcon set debuted with a chrome hilt Vader attached. I don't know if it's a good price at 7,350 yen (about $75 U.S.) but with the figure, maybe it's a so so price.

Great architectural details here. I love the tavern, and I love the brown roofs. I don't have the grey pieces to even think about trying something like this, so you're an inspiration!

I went to Toys R Us today, and looked around a little harder for Mega Blocks and DiaBlocks, and did see some. They only had pre-school style Mega Blocks, and only 3-4 different sets. There were about 7-8 Diablocks sets, but they were a little weird looking, like, two came with a finished vehicle. They don't even let you build it Also strange was that there was a Thomas the Tank Diablocks set, but around the corner was a Duplo Thomas the Tank set. I don't quite understand, but I suppose the brand was in a transitional period, and one of them is a leftover. Anyway, I saw Agents on the shelf today. Didn't buy any, but they were reasonably priced. But, they aren't listed on Toys R Us website, nor on Lego's Japan website. This whole Lego Japan is in shambles right now! Let's give them some time to get things in order.

I love this, I keep coming back to it It got a vote from me.

Great review. I'll be buying this for sure

I enjoyed this battle pack much more than the old droid battle pack. These droids at least had moving legs The ship isn't so interesting, but it's well modifiable with a nice color scheme. A solid set... but I liked the clone pack a smidgen better.

Really nice article, I enjoyed it a lot. At least 20 of those 30 years I wasn't looking at Castle Lego, and one thing that might make an article a bit more interesting would be to go a bit more in depth on sets, such as fan favorites, and why they got that way. As a non-Lego historian, I'd like to read that. Maybe the DX Castle book this fall will cover it though. But, great all the same. Thanks for putting this together Legucational?

They exist, but they aren't strong. It turns out that they are the makers of Nano Block, mentioned in my first post (and looks quite interesting, a less toy-looking Lego copy) But, the whole of the company only has a single page on the Toys R Us site rakuten . On Amazon, they have a lot more, but lots are a few years old amazon. There's a fair amount on Yahoo Auction Auction but it's a small percentage of Lego, which needs to be broken up into categories. I live in a small city (400,000 people) so there's no massive stores, but Toys R Us has a Lego aisle and few Diablocks. I've seen them in department stores too, but the toy selection is really low and there's 2-3 times as much Lego. I do most of my shopping on the internet (amazon or Yahoo auction), but I'll take a deeper look next time I'm in Tokyo

No idea. I rely on this site http://legojapan.seesaa.net/ for Lego Japan news. But, Amazon Japan regularly sells at 30-50% of Lego's MSP, with free shipping, so under that business model, it could only sell exclusives there. But, I'll post when the site expands. It's pretty slender right now.

Well, I've never seen Mega Blocks here. I've only been looking a lot in the last year or so though. Toys R Us doesn't have any on the shelves in my area, but a quick check of their Rakuten site shows a total of 12 for sale http://item.rakuten.co.jp/toysrus/c/0000002325/ compared to Lego's 100+. Not much competition here I guess. Toys R Us has K'nex displayed prominently though.

This won't be important to many, but it is for me. I can finally see what sets are available domestically, and not have to flip between the Japanese Amazon and Toys R Us website to try and figure it out. And maybe they'll eventually have a shop at home or a Lego store in Tokyo. Every new country TLG invades is a good thing. And considering Japan is the second biggest market in the world, with loads of adult collectors, and no Mega Blocks for sale, the market seems relatively untapped (though recently there's been a toy called NanoBlocks released, kind of 1/4 scale Lego). Anyway, it's another notch in Lego's belt. http://market.lego.com/ja-jp/Default.aspx <edit> RRR Already noticed that the Pirates 6253 available at Toys R Us in Japan isn't shown on the website, nor the Count Dooku thing. Damned exclusivity offers! Shop @ home can't come fast enough!

As the enemy of the elves, I visualize humans. Elves are rooted in nature, and encroaching civilization would be an interesting enemy. Even something as banal as medieval lumberjacks would be interesting. It doesn't always have to be catapults

I want this set. Thanks for the solid review!

I thought I'd throw this out there. I've read some predictions about elves appearing in LEGO form, possibly on this site. Normally, I'm a Star Wars guy, but that's becoming less and less since the last few sets I've gotten are Castle. I've got a bunch of dwarves, I've got a bunch of orcs, as well as some skeletons, humans and a troll. I love these sets, and since I had a castle 20 years ago, these sets make me feel young. I also loved Lord of the Rings and Dungeons & Dragons 20 years ago, so the fantasy elements feel like a natural progression to me. So, I'd love to see some elves. And you?

Since I started the topic, I thought I'd get into more depth on my situation... I had a baby last year, and one of the ways I dealt with it was, I bought Lego. At times $300 a month. I couldn't be going to bars and so on. My wife was reasonably distressed at some point, and I've pulled it back now, since there are more important places to use my money. We have near zero debt, but the family (er, my) paycheck is well spent every month. But, that little free money I have each month, I'd like to get sale sets. I live in Japan, where sets are expensive, so I've been importing some sets to sell on Yahoo Auction (the Japanese E-bay) and my wife cooperates so I can have some more free play money-sell 5 sets, get one free I show her lots of my sets, and she says they're amazing, but she's never shown a lick of interest in putting one together. We'll see what happens when the little lady gets older. For whatever reason, I'm quite sure she'll have some interest in Lego, since I won't be buying her Easy Bake Ovens and that sort of thing (unless she really really really wants it)

This set looks pretty nice, and I like the mini-figs (except Obi-Wan)... If you've seen the episodes of Clone Wars this appeared in, it was just pirates + Obi, Anakin, and Count Dooku (if I remember correctly). So, Dooku would've been my mini-figure choice. I'll be picking up one of these though.

I had this on pre-order on Amazon, but I just canceled it. I figure it's just too disappointing to get more clones and battle droids. After buying the Separatist Spider Droid and Hailfire & Spider Droid, I can't bring myself to put the cash out for another little set with little special figures. I'll put the cash toward the Separatist Shuttle instead. Thanks for the clear review though, to help make that final decision.

Just as it came up elsewhere, I thought this would be an interesting topic. My wife is pretty accepting of my LEGO habit. I don't care for cars or sports or a lot of other traditional "man" things, so my money isn't being over-extended, but the storage is getting to be an issue. My storage space is over flowing, which she doesn't like, but it seems crazy to make a LEGO closet. As long as it's about $50 a month, she's alright with it (though it's probably closer to $100). Do you have to discuss it? Explain it? I would hate to go back on the dating scene again with the LEGO I have now, as it might be a turn off for some ladies (though of course, who would want a lady like that )

I've only got 195. My wife will be happy to know I have less LEGO than everyone here

This set looks great. I'd really like to pick it up, but it depends on the price. In Japan, it'll be about $80 U.S., which I just can't do. But if it hits $50, I'll definitely pick it up. Thanks for the great review

Fair call on the tauntaun . I've reshot those pics to match the instruction book. The visor though, that's TLG's fault. They should fit into place.

Thanks! The faces are plain ol' fleshy smilies. Also, I should add, the snowtroopers are black heads, with eyes cut out of the helmets. I miss the old goggled faces for troopers, I think they looked better.