xowainx

I wouldn't expect any larger sets as the AT-AP was the largest of the January 2013 wave, a trend that was followed with the Rancor Pit in 2012 (same price point, comic con reveal etc). Probably not a bad thing after the last wave of large sets though!

I'm guessing Maggie has a drill, from Lisa's Sax. On the set itself, it looks cool, but the figures.. Simpsons Series 2-8 is my all time favourite show and I've watched each episode from that period many times over.. But.. I don't know if I'm into this..

Thanks for all the replies! I can tell, and even better, show you: As you can see, if you have the helmet facing forward, the top of the jetpack fits into the groove that runs down the back of the helmet. It didn't appear to be stressing either element, and it didn't feel like it was going to pop off (like Vader's helmet for example). It would be stressing slightly if you were off and it was on the ridge of the vertical groove. If you want to turn the head, the jetpack top then fits into this horizontal groove on the side of the helmet, and the helmet can turn to just shy of 90 degrees right or left. Should be sufficient for most purposes. D'oh! I had intended to fact check this, as I always get Fox/Cody/Rex mixed up, but was in a hurry as I was about to go out for New Year's Eve. I genuinely had no idea that this was the case, and it isn't that long since I last watched Episode III .. I will pay more attention next time, and sit in the corner until then.

Pre-Amble So today I found myself back in Cardiff after the Xmas break, and what better way to celebrate that fact than browsing the sales with my Girlfriend, especially if it involved a quick visit to the Lego store? As it is still the School holidays, the store was full of children and that, combined with not wanting to test said girlfriend's patience, meant that I only had time for a cursory glance around the store. I could see new DC Superheroes, Lego Movie and Ninjago sets, but I was really there for the SW battlepacks. The Kashykk Troopers set was nowhere to be seen, but I did manage to grab both Death Star Troopers and Utapau Troopers, with the intention of reviewing the second one. And so, let's get on with that. Name - Utapau Troopers Number - 75036 Year of Release - 2014 Parts - 83 Figures - 4 Prices - £11.99 (Not on US Store at time of review) Review Ever since the box art was first revealed (and i'm not talking about the prelimary image with the Crow's nest making up part of the droid..), I thought it seemed to be lacking. While I don't think the spindly Tri-Droid lends itself particularly to this kind of display (and apparently the terrain of Utapau doesn't either), it does seem to have a lot of space and a lack of excitement. Maybe i'm being too harsh though, it's at least got some interesting colours on display, more than the standard grey space ship on black background that makes up a considerable portion of the SW range. The top of the box has the same picture, and one of the new blasters. It helpfully points out that you get ten (actually eleven with the spare) studs to lose behind the sofa/in the garden/in your office. The main picture on the back is a bit confusing, as the Utapau troopers run in all directions, with the Airbourne Clone in the bottom left seeming to have also managed to expend most of his ammunition. I like the picture in the top right, where the Clone behind the Tri-Droid (it doesn't have a behind, but you know what I mean) appears to be dodging the flick-fire Matrix style. Watch out for your eye trooper! As is standard for this size, two bags and an instruction book. I was amused by the clone parts (including the face staring out) inside the the dish in the larger bag, I hope you are too. The interior of the booklet is pretty bland, no corner photo or watermarked images to be seen. The last page of instructions has a helpful photo guide to all the parts in this set that could cause you to lose an eye. I've helpfully taken a blurry photo so you can imagine what that would be like. Parts call-out. I couldn't spot anything exciting, can you? The win kid is still with us for at least another six months. The new blaster comes in two parts. As others have noted, it is surprisingly powerful, and rattles if it is "unloaded". I'm not sure how I feel about these, or they will integrate into existing collections. Part of me likes how they are a bit of a call back to the days of the megaphone blaster though. Four figures, two 212th Troopers on the left, and Two Airbourne Troopers on the right. I forgot to take a photo of the head, but it's the same for all them, a one sided standard Clone (although not Clone Wars interestingly) head (6021888 as used in all the recent sets with Clones). I can only guess it's not a CW head as that cartoon is over, and this battlepack is going to outlive that. All the troopers have body and leg printing, with lots of detail and even dirt/wear marks. The Airbourne troopers have what I believe is an unique helmet design and a kama each. Both designs also have back prints. The troopers blend quite well with the bomb squad troopers and Commander Fox. Half way through the build. Really so. The finished body. Sorry the bottom is slightly cut off. Three identical legs. Legs attached with a trooper for scale. It has a large footprint and height, but is very skinny and lacking in bulk or detail. The completed set. Spares. Not much variation here! Positives - The Figures are really nice and detailed models. Two of each with no individual characters will be a welcome sight for army builders. - The Tri-Droid is a large model, which will look at home in any Trade Federation Army - Plenty of trans light blue studs for anyone looking to build their own version of promotional Yoda Chronicles set. Negatives - Low piece count - Tri-Droid is fairly undetailed and uninteresting build, although that is what it looks like in the source material. - Four identical heads for the different figures. I know they are clones, but a few different expressions wouldn't go amiss. Conclusion There's not really a lot to say here to be honest. This set isn't a bad set, but really lacks a wow factor to me. The figures are nice, but I think the same can be said for all the Battlepacks in this wave, but the parts are unremarkable, and there's not much you can do with them other than build the Tri-Droid. Even though I don't own the Kashykk set, I wouldn't recommend that pack over this. That said, this set isn't terrible either. Both forces contained within will reinforce any army, and the set in itself provides enough to have a good little battle. A kid with their pocket money could do worse! Ratings Minifigures 8/10 - Some great troopers here. Highly detailed, with the Airbourne troopers having unique helmets and Kamas. The highlight of the set, for better for worse. Build - 6/10 - I would love to give a higher score here, but it's like building an engine for a fighter (such as the Z95), and is over before you know it). Design - 7/10 - It looks right (if smaller than it actually should be), but lacks detail. Some stickers or printing on the dome could have rectified this. Parts - 6/10 - Not many, and nothing particularly exciting sadly. Would be hard to come up with a good alternate build, maybe someone fancies the challenge? Playability - 8/10 - You can have a great little skirmish with these figures, especially now the minifigures can shoot back. Just make sure you have safety goggles on. Overall - 35/50 - It is what it is. There are better sets at this price range, but it's far from meritless. Given that it's only £11.99 before discount, I imagine most people here will pick it up, and I can't see many being too disappointed with their purchase. Bonus The Senate Commando Captain was dejected to find himself wearing the wrong colours for this particular photoshoot. Thanks for reading, feel free to ask questions and I will do my best to oblige! If you enjoyed this review and are bored, check out my three other reviews on EB: 9525 - Pre Vizsla's Mandalorian Starfighter 76002 - Superman: Metropolis Showdown 30167 - Iron Man Vs. Fighting Drone

I'm guessing the firing mechanism rattles?

I bought this set a few weeks ago, and while overall it's a great kit, there are a few weird things, like the two sections of "roof" that are clearly designed to be removed (one is completely loose, with no studs to attach it to!) and the "ramp" under the nose, where it looks like extra features were to be incorporated, but weren't, maybe due to part number restrictions. Compared to the "complete" feel of the Sith Fury Interceptor (apart from the walls of the rear crew compartment), it's a bit strange.

The art for the Utapau set makes it look even worse, it's so sparse compared to the other sets and really exposes its spindliness. The other packs are cool, but apart from those and the AT-AP though, a lot of underwhelming rehashes. I think I even prefer the cut down AV7 from the battlepack to the full size one.

7800 pieces for £400 is wishful thinking!

Read my review! http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=82206 I think it's a really good ship, with decent play features and an excellent Pre Vizsla figure.

We shouldn't forget that we've already had two "trilogy preview" sets which include scenes from the second film already, with Mirkwood Spiders and Barrel Escape.

Pre-Amble This is my third review (after 76002 and 9525, and the size of set i'm reviewing gets smaller again. This is a fairly short review as there's only so much to say here, but I hope you enjoy it anyway. Please leave any feedback or questions and the end and i'll do my best to answer to them! Review - 30167 - Iron Man vs. Fighting Drone Name - Iron Man vs. Fighting Drone Number - 30167 Year of Release - 2013 Parts - 23 (I hope) Figures - 1 Prices - Free with purchases from Shop at Home/Lego Brand Stores with purchases of £25/$50 between May 16 and 31st 2013. No official Lego Description i'm afraid. Everyone loves polybags, and i'm no different. It was a tough call whether to open this polybag to review it for Eurobricks, or whether to hide it away in a shoe box with many other promotional sets, but luckily for you reader, my sense of duty won out. Here it is in happier times though before I violated that seal at the top. The cover depicts Iron Man flying through the city while the fighting drone shoots its flick-fire missle at him. For those wondering, it's the larger size of polybag. The contents of the bag was pretty underwhelming. I thought the drone looked a decent size in the picture so was expecting a little bit more than this. The instruction sheet is folded up to a tiny size, and Iron Man's helmet comes in a seperate bag. One side of the instruction sheet shows the small amount of steps requrired to construct our man Tony and the drone. While the back is a poster showing cartoon versions of all (or at least most) of the main characters featured in the Lego Marvel Super Heroes range. A nice touch compared to the usual advertising for more sets (although, this is form of indirect advertising I guess..) Triangle Heart Iron Man was previously exclusive to 6867 (and indeed, the only exclusive figure in that set). Whether the Iron Man armour lego created is a good design or not has been discussed umpteen times, and i'm of the "happy with it, it looks better in person camp", and this hasn't changed for me. Tony Stark's head, available in three other sets. Backprint and Tony's alternate angry face. Given that the entirety of the build instructions are shown a few pictures up, i've skipped to the completed set. As I said before, I found the size of the drone somewhat underwhelming, but to be fair I think it's a good looking design, with quite a lot of moving parts for a small build. Underneath view, with the flick fire missile. As this runs down the middle of the drone, you need to use the saw blades to prop it up when it's standing by itself, but they do this more than adequately as there is no weight pushing on them. Spares, including Iron Man's thruster emissions. So, we're already nearing the end of the review.. I told you it would be quick! Positives - Iron Man figure was only in one set before this. - Set was free. - Drone looks good and has quite a few features. Negatives - A shame it's not an exclusive Iron Man suit variant, like the Iron Patriot polybag. - The Fighting Drone is small. Conclusion - Minifigures 7/10 - I like the Iron Man design, and this suit marque is no exception. It's a shame it's not an exclusive variant though, as that would make this polybag so much more essential. Build - 8/10 - Hard to knock down such a small set really, the build is over before you know it. Design - 9/10 - I actually really like the drone, even if it is a bit small, but that's not the designer's fault. Parts - 7/10 There aren't that many, and not much to say about them. Playability - 8/10 - For a small set, it has a few features, and that's all you can expect really. Better than Hawkeye's weapons stand in that regard. Overall 41/50 This was a free polybag, so it's unnecessary to critique it too hard. The only thing i'd say is, this felt more like one of the mass produced polybags from The Sun/Mirror promotions, than one of the limited promotional figure sets, so while it's a perfectly nice extra if you get it added to something you were already purchasing, I wouldn't spend hours searching the Lego Store for £25/$50 worth of sets you don't necessarily need in order to add it to your collection. But if you are like me, you will do that anyway, right? Enjoy!

Preamble So, welcome to my second Eurobricks review, my first being 9525 - Pre Vizsla's Mandalorian Starfighter. The subject set is a bit smaller this time, but I hope you find this as useful. I'm pretty happy with the photo quality (one or two minor issues aside) and I hope you enjoy this. If you have any comments/queries/requests, please let me know in the thread and i'll do my best to accomodate them. Review - 76002 - Superman: Metropolis Showdown Name - Superman: Metropolis Showdown Number - 76002 Year of Release - 2013 Parts - 119 Figures - 2 Prices - UKP 11.99, USD $12.99, CAD $15.99 I picked this set up as an impulse buy on my way home from work, along with 79100 and, err, 41017, to get the free 30167 polybag. The cashier in the Cardiff Lego Store was kind enough to let me have the polybag even though I was about 30p short of the qualifying price, so kudos to him. As it hadn't been reviewed on Eurobricks (or at least my searching skills couldn't turn it up), I decided to do a review of it for the masses. I haven't read much about the film yet, let alone seen it, so I can't tell you how "movie accurate" any of this is.. Hopefully a little more than the calamity of a set that 76008 was. Starting with the box as ever.. We have an action packed photo of the set contents! A car flies through the air! Superman shoots lasers out of his eyes! General Zod carries a stanchion while flying! The movie version of Superman's logo is in the bottom right and in the top right a Lego Superman acts as the set's line identity. And on the back we have more photos demonstrating the play features of the set, which as we'll see later involve flipping things around. On the top the box we have a 1:1 photo of Superman. It's slightly cut off, but the set is just listed as 76002 - Superman on the left, rather than the full name. Inside we have the standard for this size two plastic bags, some loose components and one instrct.. Wait a minute.. what's this?! TWO MANUALS!? Have I got a spare? There's no way they could possibly need two manuals for a set this small.. No wait, they do apparently. ..Luckily though, we only get one photo of that kid.. Part call-out spread over two pages in the second booklet. I don't think there's anything of note in here, and no printed parts (apart from the figures), so I can't do an "interesting parts" shot unfortunately. I'll note this a few times though, that at 119 parts for this set, that's considerably more than most others in this price bracket, and there is quite a selection of plates, slopes and bricks for alternate builds. A shot of the first page of building instructions. They are pretty simple steps, progressing usually 2-4 components at a time, and there aren't any complex or confusing instructions along the way. You can also see the watermarked Superman in the top right, a classy touch. Onto the figures.. Only two, Superman and his nemesis General Zod. While Superman appears in all three of this wave of sets, this General Zod is "exclusive" to set. Hold your horses though, as his head, torso, legs and hair all appear in the other two sets.. The only thing that is not exclusive about him, is the fact that he's not wearing his armour, helmet and cape.. Come on! Despite their non-exclusivity, they are nice figures though, and you could probably swap Zod's head and hair for another figure's to make him a non-descript Kryptonian accomplice if you wanted. Both have back printing, with the same pattern in different colours, a nice touch. They also have alternate evil/possesed/laser eyes faces which just about tuck under their hair pieces, minus chin dimples.. Onto the build and instruction book one! The only really interesting part of the build I thought it was necessary to call out was this, so you can see how the play features work, which is two of these simple paddle/toggle constructions. ..and so, here we have the City of Metropolis! Alas, as this set is not a £350, 4000 piece set of modular buildings, we only get a stanchion tower, with a few bits of communications equipment stuck to it. And what might be a see-saw or part of an assault course. And so, we are already onto the second booklet, which has the instructions on how to build the car. If you've ever built a Lego car, using a Lego Car chassis piece (which I imagine anyone reading this has), then this isn't going to surprise you. A few steps later. And a few more. Nearly there.. Done! The car is complete. It's a sporty little number, and aside from rolling wheels doesn't have any other play features. It's a nice size though, generally bigger than the vehicles in the City Polybag sets for instance. It's also pretty solid, which is well planned for the play features as we'll see in a bit. First though, some alternate views of the car, starting with the side profile. Head on. And the rear, featuring brake lights and a double exhaust. A view of the passenger "seat" now. Not particularly spacious or comfy looking, but at least whoever drives the car can reach the wheel. Obligatory spare parts photo. Nothing out of this world here. So, onto the play features now. Thanks to Lego, I'll remember to watch out for my eyeball when taking the next set of photos. Using the see-saw, you can flick the car over. As you can see this does work, but requires whoever is driving to park their car over a see-saw. If you are that much of a jerk, you probably deserve to have your car flipped.. Maybe without you inside it though, especially if it's roof and rollbar less like this one. The other play feature allows you to press down on the plate to flick the stanchion tower off. Again it works I guess. So, already onto the summary.. Positives - The best thing I have to say about this set is that you get a very decent amount of parts for the price point. Compared to say 6858 (89 parts), 6865 (72, but one more figure) and 76008 (91), you are getting an extra third of parts. I also think that part selection here is much better for a young kid to try and make some MOCs/alternate builds with, and I applaud lego for that. It would be a great "bored in the holiday caravan" set for instance. - The two structures are both of a decent size, neither feels too cheap or pointless, especially compared to the contructions in the other sets i've listed above. - The figures, especially Superman, are iconic and important characters and are well represented here with quality and detailed prints. Negatives - The characters aren't exclusive to this set, and General Zod doesn't come with any of his excellent accessories. - Neither character really needs a car given they can fly. I'm not sure they need a communication tower or see-saw either. - The car has no play features itself. - The stanchion tower and see-saw is a bit of a weird structure the more you think about it. In Conclusion then.. Minifigures 7/10 - Great figures, but this set could have done with something exclusive, perhaps someone who actually needed to drive a car around. A point knocked off for General Zod missing his armour etc. Build - 7/10 - The build is quick and easy, but also very standard. There aren't any inspiring/interesting techniques used. Design - 7/10 - The car looks good apart from the driver's "area". The stanchion tower is a bit weird though, although a good size. Parts - 9/10 - While there aren't any stand outs here, this set deserves a high score for giving a high volume of pieces for a licensed set this size, many of which would be great for building alternate creations out of. Playability - 7/10 - The car is a car and as playable as any other small Lego car. The flick features on the stanchion tower work well though, although i'm not sure how long a kid would keep playing with them. Overall - 37/50 This might seem harsh, but with these smaller sets there isn't often a lot there and it's hard to get too enthusiastic about them. As i've mentioned throughout though, the one thing this set can't be knocked for is value, and I think that's where the true strength of it lies. While i've rated this set on the whole from a "what is the official build like" point of view, it's important to remember that the joy of Lego is such that with a bit of creativity there is a lot more play value than just that, and as a result, i'd still really recommend this set. Finally.. Superman tries to use non-violent means to solve the latest (infinite ) crisis threatening the City of Metropolis.

P.S. If a mod could add a poll, that would be much appreciated!

Ok, so before we begin, a few caveats. This is my first review, so don't go too hard on me. I also don't have any professional photography equipment or mini-studios, so alas, i've had to make do with my iPhone 4S and the laminate flooring of my living room (at least the pieces couldn't get lost in the carpet ). Anyway, hope you enjoy this, and as i'll reiterate at the end, please feel free to ask me and questions or queries you have about this set. Review - 9525 - Pre Vizsla's Mandalorian Fighter Name - Pre Vizsla's Mandalorian Starfigher Number - 9525 Year of Release - 2012 Parts - 403 Figures - 3 Prices - UKP 49.99, USD 49.99, CAN 59.99 Ok, so a quick intro. When I first saw the photos of this set I was intrigued by it, and hoped to pick it up at some point. I eagerly awaited a review appearing on Eurobricks so I could take a good look at it first, but one never came . Roll forwards to May 3rd 2013, and I need to spend £50 to achieve "Owning Hoth Han Solo" goal. This was already one of the sets I had in mind to meet that threshold, and in the UK, TLG kindly discounted it by 10%, meaning that all I needed to do was add an Endor/AT-ST planet set to my proverbial basket in the Cardiff Lego store and I had passed the threshold. I then decided to my duty for the community, so here we go.. As tradition dictates, let's start with the box: The box is large and squareish, possibly the same as the new Tie Fighter, although I don't keep my boxes and thus couldn't compare them together. This also means that it's of the design where the "lid" opens upwards, causing some damage to the corners, which may concern you if you keep your packaging The front depicts the Mandalorian Fighter, The Gauntlet, flying in one of its flight configurations, with some mysterious red laser beams flying alongside. There is also a red glow around the engines, which, as you'll see later, doesn't match the colours Lego used for them. The back depicts the craft landed, with Obi Wan and Pre Vizsla doing battle in the foreground. There are also various pictures of the set's play features, such as it's rotating wings, storage compartments, landing gear and opening cockpit. You get some idea of the landed height of the craft in this photo too. Minifigure panel on the top displays all the minifigures and their accessories. More on them later. Inside, you are presented with four numbered bags, two different sized instruction manuals and the obligatory sticker sheet. Can't wait to see where these go.. Here you can see how the bags divide the construction, with one and two containing the minifigs and the cockpit/hull and three and four containing the wings. Parts call out at the end of the second instruction book. Completed set photo, also towards the rear of the second book. This is the same picture as featured on the back of the box. A handy picture of all the minifigs from this wave. Ok, now onto the actual build of the set, starting with the minifigs.. The set contains three figures, the brand new and exclusive Pre Vizsla, plus a Mandalorian and Clone Wars Obi Wan. The Mandalorian is the same as the one you get four of in the Mandalorian battle pack, and the Obi Wan is the same as the one that has previously been released in three sets (four if you include a Comic Con exclusive), so they are pretty uninspired inclusions. I imagine most people will already own both these figures, and are unlikely to need more of them, unless building a Mandalorian army.. Or Jedi army composed soley of Obi Wan.. Pre Vizsla comes with his "darksabre" (more to follow), the Mandaolorian comes with a small blaster and Ben comes with his lightsabre. Pre Vizsla is much more exciting however and nearly single handedly makes up for the other two. He has sand blue arms and legs (with printing) which are lighter than the generic Mandalorian, and his (printed) helmet and jetpack are in Pearl Dark Grey instead of Dark Bluish Grey. He also comes with this lovely printed side cape. Although it looks wonky, I believe the darker print is meant to look like that. The figures from the rear, which allows a good view of his cape. No figure has back printing. Unfortunately I just realised whilst looking through the inventory on Brickset that i'd used the wrong head on Pre Vizsla. His and the generic Mandalorian's are ever so slightly different, whilst still being very unattractive. His eyes are slightly more narrowed, which I guess makes it a little better. Here's a composite so you can spot the minute differences that I failed to. Pre Vizsla also comes with a hair piece, indeed he comes with Chancellor Palpatine's hair piece. I can't say i'm a huge fan of this, and I doubt even the correct head would have improved it to much. You can also see his darksabre here, which is a solid black rod placed in a standard lightsabre handle. Having a read of the background for this on Wookiepedia, I feel this could have been realised slightly better. In TCW, the hilt is black and the blade glows black around a white core. Perhaps a black lightsabre handle and a trans-black rod would have been a better approximation of this? Still it looks good, if not 100% accurate. On to the rest of bag one now, and the creation of the cockpit. The most interesting parts in this bag to me were these snot plates, of which there are ten. I can imagine these are infinitely handy to anyone creating MOCs, and to get so many of them in a set is great too. A few stages along, we have the start of the hull. To me, this kind of build always reminds me of building Castle boats in the late 80s. You can also see the technique used for the seats here, which is quite interesting. It reminds me of the Snowspeeder interior, but the 2x1 yellow foot plates are added to hold the minifigs in place, which works really well. The arch at the back of the cockpit means that whoever rides in the back doesn't have to remove their jet pack. The control panel is a sticker. A bit further along, and we have extended the front, added to the back (both with the SNOT plates), and added the cockpit. At this stage there is quite a gap at the sides of the cockpit, let's hope that this gets covered up later or it's going to be a chilly ride in The Gauntlet. No dice TLG! I am normally quite happy to apply stickers to sets, but this seems way too fraught with danger, especially with the added pressure of a review! Next we add the landing gear for "wings up" mode, which is pretty sturdy, especially as it extends at a right angle to the hull when the set is completed. Next, you construct two of these beams to attach to the side of the cockpit. They are mirror images of each other, but don't rush them like I did, as the second time I was left with a 1x8 white plate looking forlornly at me. And here they are on the sides of the hull. You can also see the "foot" of the retracted landing gear between them, which I found to be pretty unobtrusive. Next are the front laser cannons, fairly standard. They can move from side to side if you really wish, although this isn't an official play feature.. Bag two next and what's this? A printed part! This 2x2 plate is less blurry than my iPhone would have you believe, but is also the same printed plate that's included in 7930 Bounty Hunter Assault Gunship. Nice to have though. It goes on top of a Dark Bluish Grey crate later on. Bag two is for the back of the hull, and is built in a few sub assemblies, of which this is the first. And this is the second. You can see the ball socket joint here that will connect it nice and tightly to the front part of the hull next. A bit further along, the sub assemblies combine and the back and front of the hull connect together. The sides and rear are built up a bit more now. This is where the storage compartment will be later. I've been collecting Lego on and off since I was a child. I got back into purchasing Star Wars lego regularly in 2008 and have purchased A LOT of sets of various sizes and themes since. In all the sets I have built, this is the first time I have encountered a build technique that simply does not work. At all. It's not that is flimsy, or easy to catch, the cones simply cannot get more that a miniscule amount of grip on the pistol pieces they've used, and not nearly enough to hold them on. They will fall off without being touched or knocked and I can't understand how this was approved. While it is a minor and relatively insignificant detail (as opposed to the wings not attaching for instance), I still find it weird that it made it to production. Have a go if you have the parts handy and see what I mean. I ended up attaching the cones the other way, which looks fine, I guess they are thrusters instead of guns now. This whole section, minus the cones not attaching, is a little unsatisfactory to me. The round brick attaches on by a single technic pin, allowing it to easily rotate. The blasters are just held on by clips too, so trying to keep it straight and lined up with the hull can be a bit frustrating, especially as the rear of this ship is a natural area to pick it up by. Would be pretty easy to design an alternate solution though, and it's a minor part of the ship, so no big deal. A bit further along and we add the storage compartment roof and slot the crate in. More photos of this to come later. There are some stickers to apply here, but I didn't at this stage. On to book two now. The reason for it being larger than the first book becomes apparent in side, as the wings are built from lots of large plates attaching, so need lots of space on the page to make the instructions clear. Why the first book couldn't be this size, or even why it couldn't be one book at this size only TLG knows.. I hadn't seen these sockets before, they are used for rotating the wings up and down. They click round at equal intervals meaning that the wings fix into postion solidly on that axis. I took an editorial decision to not show the stages of the wing construction as stacking plates onto plates onto plates isn't that exciting, and i'm sure everyone reading this has plenty of experience of that. Here we are with the two completed wings, which are a mirror image of eachother. I have turned one of them over here to show something that impressed me, which was how much care had been taken with the underside of the wing. Given that a common moan about set design these days (see the UCS Super Star Destroyer) is the underside of ships, it's nice to see that the designer has almost exactly replicated the pattern on the top on the bottom of the wing (minus the blue stripe near the front, and the round support plate). As one of the primary play functions makes the lower side of the wing displayable, it's good to see. Spares at the end of the build, including Pre Vizsla's hair. The wings clip on like so. There is a tiny, tiny bit of sag, but I think this is pretty much unavoidable. You can also see that I knocked the rear cones upwards before taking this, as mentioned earlier. And here the set is, finished and in landing mode. It's very tall in this configuration and I routinely managed to chop the top of the wings off when photographing it. Still, it looks very imposing, and is sturdy like this too. There are two downsides to this configuration though. The first is that the craft lands on it's engine thrusters, which depending on what you take the Trans-fluorescent Green dishes to represent might be problematic. The other downside is that, like so many lego vehicles, getting in and out can be an issue for the minifigs. Do the Mandalorians really have to use their jet packs every single time they want to get in and out? The Mandalorians can both fit into the cockpit, although needless to say, not without creasing Pre Vizsla's cape. It's a tightish squeeze, but i've seen much worse, and it's good to have a ship which can carry more than one person. And here they are, tucked in, cockpit closed. The gap at the sides has been reduced, but it's a good job Pre Vizsla has gloves.. Again though, not the worst cockpit gap i've seen by any stretch. The storage compartment at the back. The darksabre storage is a step up from the "clip it under the wing" of Plo Koon's starfighter, or the "dismantle it and place one blade in one clip and rest in another" of the Old Republic Striker starfighter. There is space on top of the crate for a few extra items, such as the Mandalorian's blaster, and the hatch stays shut in flight. There are actually two hatches, with a second added below that the crate can drop out of. I quite like this, as it makes loading/unloading the craft when landed quite convenient. And here's the rear with the hatches closed. You can also see the stickers i'd added by this stage. None of them are essential, but the extra detail is cool. With the wings back down in one of the flight modes, this head on view is quite impressive. I like the shape and colour scheme, the blue and white, combined with the overall shape, give it a very classic space theme to my eyes. It looks good from this view too. As a comparison to it's original design, I think TLG have done a great job. The scale is somewhat off (as the Lego model definitely can't transport 25 Mandalorians into battle..), but the shape is ok and they capture a lot of the detail from it. I don't have a suitable stand to display in it it's second flight mode, with the rings rotated 90 degrees, so this will have to do (along with the image on the front of the box. As with the T6 Jedi shuttle, i'm not really a huge fan of these modes. The rotation works fine, but it's not as clever as the gear method used on the T6, meaning that it's harder to line up and keep lined up, if that kind of thing bothers you. It's not loose like on the TIE Defender, but it's not perfect either. So, in summary.. Pre Visla - The Pre Vizsla figure is excellent, with lots of detail and printed accessories (including the cape). That hair piece is not my favourite though, but as he'll be wearing his helmet most of the time, it's not an issue for me. - Sensible storage compartments for accessories, something I feel is missing on too many ships. - Cockpit holds more than one figure, again something i'd love to see more of. - Wing construction, especially the underside appears to have been designed with much more care than on some past ships. - No tacked on flick fire missiles/associated risk of eye damage. Pre Posterous - The build technique for the rear guns (I presume that's what they are?) that doesn't work, at all. - The rotation of the hull being too free. - Multiple stickers on the cockpit. - You probably have multiples of two of the three figures already. Scores Minifigures 7/10 - As excellent as Pre Vizsla is, the other two figures are uninspired due to their previous set inclusions. Build - 7/10 - Hard to score much above average, especially when it uses a build technique that simply doesn't connect two elements with any degree of acceptability. The symmetry of the wing building might be frustrating for some, but ensures a strong final look so I have no problem there. Design - 8/10 - An interesting craft, well realised in lego, with some fairly unique features and a strong aesthetic and no random colours on display. The wings have a lot of studs on show, but that comes with the territory. Parts - 8/10 - Some interesting/useful parts including plenty of new SNOT plates, a printed plate and a printed cape. Few random colours and lots of useful plates would mean that I'd imagine this to be a good parts pack for those interested. Playability - 9/10 - The storage compartment is well designed and concealed when closed. The cockpit holding two figures is also a huge bonus. The rotating wings could be stronger and lock into place somehow, but I don't feel this impacts too much for most people. Overall 39/50 To be honest i'm not sure where I stand on this craft. It is a nice set, on the whole well made, with well designed play features and a strong aesthetic, but for some reason I haven't quite fallen in love with it. The T6 had loads of flaws (like the inside of the cockpit..), but for a similar ish craft, I definitely prefered that. It is growing on me though and it's good sized set for it's price, so i'd recommend it if you have an interest in picking it up. Finally.. Pre Vizsla's henchman had used up all his jet pack fuel. Only one way to get aboard now..

The worst thing about the Twilight was the fact that they didn't include the 13 or so plates it takes to add a floor to the "hold".. instead you can open either of the doors to it to be greeted by either a winch or R2-D2 and some tools. I also found it's build much more time consuming than a regular set, probably due to the fact it's all grey and has a lot of technic beams. I have to say I quite like it though, in it's own way. The Clone Wars Y-Wing is an excellent set, the way they create the yellow and white stripes around the cockpit with a combination of SNOT techniques is really impressive. The back "turret" is abysmal though, as you'd expect it to either A) Look Good. B) Rotate/move C) Open and close yet it doesn't manage any of these. I think that aside though, it's still a good set. It seems a bit unfair picking on some of the early sets, but the tree in the more recent Ewok attack is a bit of a mess and has some pretty bizarre features, like having a flick fire missile and that sliding plank thing. The Logray figure was great though.