Destroydacre

That's interesting. I purchased mine in February of 2003, which I believe was roughly 2 years after the initial release and mine came with the black and white box.

Count me in the minority that actually liked the original Sith Infiltrator. I agree that it looks terrible by today's standards, but I probably played with that set as a kid more than any other of my star wars sets. My least favorite set would have to be Watto's Junkyard. It seems to be a popular set, but I just never saw the point to it, about the only redeeming quality at the time was that it came with quite a few green pieces. You can't build both podracers at the same time and Mawhonic is nowhere to be found. I'd love to have an official Lego Gran. I'm not a fan of the Watto fig either, the small legs, that I usually don't like, would have been great with him. I'll pile onto the CW hate. The figs are just ugly imo. My least favorite would have to be Obi-Wan, but Anakin, Palpatine and Asajj Ventress aren't far behind.

The top 3 for me are definitely Battle of Endor, Tantive IV and Home One in that order. None of the CW sets would ever get my vote, the figs are just too ugly.

I guess it would depend on your definition of classic. I know I'm in the minority here, but I consider space sets through the mid 90's to be classic sets. No they're not originals, if you want to argue that the original space sets ended in the mid 80's, I'll agree with you there. Sure they were different, but to me, Blacktron II, SP II, Ice Planet are classic with the final classic lines being Spyrius, Unitron and Exploriens. I do not consider the UFO or Insectoids sets (or anything afterwards) to be classics because that was when the figures and set styles really started to change. But for what I consider classics, despite the fact that colors and faces changed in the later years, each faction followed similar patters. Now these don't hold for every single group, but they do for the majority. Each group had some kind of base, with a big flagship, some smaller ships and some kind of land vehicle. The figures featured the same space helmets and visors with air tanks and that never changed during this time period. The sets may have degraded in quality, but I still consider them classics. When the UFO and Insectoid sets started coming around these things changed (different helmets/non human etc) and then the life on mars theme introduced aliens. Now space sets don't feature factions anymore. You get regular figs (good guys) and some kind of alien (bad guys) instead of say space police being good and blacktron being the bad guys. To me, when this shift occurred is when classic space ended.

Sticker Across Multiple Pieces

Thanks for the review Rufus! This is my favorite UCS set. It took me a long time to save up for this one. I almost wish I had 2! IIRC this set had more pieces than any other set in Lego history when it was first released.

This is a fantastic review. Thanks for the pics! I've never been a fan of the CW cartoon. Couple that with the horrible figs and the fact I think this is an ugly ship and I think I'll stay away.

Great review searrius! This was always one of my favorites, I'm glad I got one when they came out so I never had to pay the outrageous prices it goes for now. My only complaint is that it came with seating for 4 snow troopers, it should have come with 4 snow troopers. I don't think 6 figures in a $100 dollar set is too much to ask for. I love the AT-AT driver fig.

My battle pack and AT-AP shock troopers have the same helmets as well. I'll look through my other clones later, but it looks like you have a neat little variation there Stauder!

I'm just curious, can anyone tell me where the name Admiral Woodhouse comes from? I'm definitely not an expert when it comes to these things, but I've never seen anything released by Lego that calls him that. In addition, I was going through some old catalogs and one from 1995 listed the leader of the Imperial Flagship (6271) as Governor Broadside. Now I know that Lego does screw up names etc, quite a bit in different publications, but I thought that was pretty interesting. If anyone can shed some light on this I'd greatly appreciate it!

Thanks for the heads up! I hadn't heard that this was a common error. I've added a picture below just in case someone wanted to see a comparison. The good stickers were used, but there is still enough color left behind that you can make a comparison. The brown stickers really do look bad.

I was just watching EP III right before the new sets' names were revealed and when Palpatine's ship landed on Mustafar to search for Darth Vader after he deuled with Obi-wan, I thought, "I can't believe Lego hasn't made a set of that ship yet!" I'm kind of hoping that one will be a PT set, but as you mentioned, we really won't have any clue until we get pictures. I'd be pretty shocked if the Clone Turbo Tank, ARC-170 and Grievous Fighter sets aren't CW though, just because they've already made PT versions of those. If they do make a third falcon, I think it would be pretty neat to have it be based on the DS II assault in ROTJ. It could have Lando and Nien Numb with a few other rebel pilots. I think it would fit in with the trend. The first falcon was base on A New Hope and the second on Empire Strikes Back. Just a thought anyway.

Good review, but I wouldn't mind seeing a few more pictures. The cockpit interiors, the turning mechanism and the bomb dropping mechanism in particular. I wonder how similar in structure the clone wars ARC-170 is going to be...

It looks like mini figs aren't the only things with printing issues. I purchased 2 Soldier's Forts and the brick stickers on the DSS are different colors on each. The first one I purchased has red looking bricks, but the second one looks almost brown/orange, like the printer started running out of ink, it actually looks pretty bad. Anyone else experience different sticker colors? I'll try to get a picture posted tomorrow.

I only keep a set sealed if I have multiple copies. Otherwise, I open and build it, or use it for pieces, depending on what I purchased the set for.

Judging from the responses in this thread, this appears to be what's happening everywhere. The local Wal-Marts and Target had the impulses and cannon battles through June. Now they are gone and there's no spot for them on the shelves. The cheapest set in either store is Loot Island and they all still have the BB and Soldier's Fort as well. I last made it to a TRU in early July and they still had the impulses however expensive they may be. I haven't been back since though, so who knows if they are still carrying those.

These are all excellent ideas, however I think the Executor is too close to the ISD already released. Not that I wouldn't like to see it. As for the people talking about getting another Grievous, my guess would be they'd just use the same mold as the one they used for the Ep III sets. Who knows for sure though, that's just the feeling I have about it.

I'd put my money on one soldier and one pirate. This was one of the best sets from the original Soldiers line, imo. This set seemed to be the 'prototype' for the dock tower in the Imperial Trading Post.

I have: 27 solid cannons 8 disabled cannons 8 new shooters 11 old shooters I am in the process of replacing all the solid plastic cannons with the old grey shooters. I'm not sure what I'll do with all the solids when I'm done though...

This was my first set as well. When I was little I remember watching a Lego ad on tv that featured the BSB. After seeing it, I asked my mom for the lego set with 'the treasure chest in it.' When she said sure, I was overjoyed thinking I would be getting the BSB. Instead I got Buried Treasure. I still have it though, it's a nice set, although I've managed to broaden my pirates collection over the years.

Thanks for the very nice review. It's good to see a lot of the details in this set. I do agree that it looks very cramped. I forget which thread it was in, but someone put up a comparison picture between the Venator and the ISD, and the Venator was a good 3 inches shorter. Couple that with the $20 higher price tag and 200 fewer pieces and I just can't bring myself to buy this set. I think it would look pretty decent on a shelf though.

Hmm, this is an interesting topic. I've always displayed my battle droids and my earliest onces (Naboo Swamp, Original MTT, AAT, etc) got a decent amount of use out of them, but I've never had any problems with the droids themselves or with any of the joints breaking. I'll definitely make sure to treat them more carefully now though after reading this thread.

If they do release a Jango Fett figure again, I'd like to see him have printing on his arms and legs similar to the Cloud City Boba Fett.

Thanks for the pics Apache. It's good to know what you're getting before hand. I'm sorry you had to find out the hard way, but I suppose someone had to be the first.

Yup, that's the one. The prices on the figs from the Cloud City set sure are outrageous aren't they?