LEGO Star Wars Snowspeeder™ – 20th Anniversary Edition

Cross Posted to Brick Set
 
This is my third 20th anniversary Star Wars kit. I'm hoping to get the rest before they leave production. I'm also going to try a different format for this post, as well as the next ones.

Link to Speed Build:

Part 1: Main Build
Let's start with main attraction, Luke's Snowspeeder! I've never owned a LEGO Snowspeeder before (although I came real close with the Sandspeeder) but I am really impressed with the details here. The kit feels adequately dense and stable in the hand. The built in play features are easily accessible but aren't easily triggered during handling. Highly swoosh-able! The greebling is decently built up and a plethora of stickers round out the fine details throughout (and through-in!) the craft.

The main body came together surprisingly quickly. There's some smart geometry included to ratchet the wings at the right angle that also prevents them flopping around. There's room to fit two mini-figs and consoles for both seats.

The back of the craft features the famous tow cable! The tow cable line is made using a grappling hook, some string and a technic assembly. It works...adequately. Dax's harpoon gun is simulated by a stud gun mounted above the cable line.

The two wings are mostly symmetrical, so the building process got a bit boring on the second one. As stated previously there's a neat mechanism that holds the wings in the proper angle without allowing them to ratchet up or down during play. Some 1 X 8 pieces with door rails are used to bring the wings flush with the main body. The effect is very pleasing on the finished model.

Part 2: Side Build
The side build here is of Hoth rebel trench-line turret. The turret is mounted on a white triangular plate to simulate Hoth's terrain. There's 360-degree rotation at the turret's base and a roughly 90-degree hinge point where the dish meets the turret base. A stud gun is integrated into the turret's main gun and the entire assembly is mounted to the dish via a rod-hole connection. The turret is a nice little play feature that's an addition to the main feature of this kit!

Mine did not last long and is already broken into constituent pieces awaiting sorting...

Part 3: Mini-figs
The four included mini-figs are fairly nice. There's Luke Skywalker, Dak Ralter, a Hoth Rebel Trooper and Lando Calrissian. 

I do have an issue with my two pilots printings. Their chest armor are supposed to be white, but the Rebel orange shows through just too strongly. I think this is a noted (to death) issue so I'll gloss over it here. Otherwise the Pilot's printings are crazy detailed and awesome! Last time I had a Rebel Pilot the printing looked fairly similar to Dak's helmet, so the printings on the Luke's helmet blows my mind! Luke has his blue light saber and a pilots pistol. Dak only has a pilot pistol.

The Hoth trooper is fantastically generic! He has some nice silver details on the chest and for the buckle. He also sports a backpack, and warm(?) hat and some snow googles that cover the whole face. THe troopers accessories include a pair of binoculars and old school large rifle. 

Lando is freaking awesome. His cape is awesome, his old school blaster is awesome, his printings are awesome. The entire 20th Anniversary min-fig line is awesome. I hope LEGO does more of these collectable lines in the future. I don't particularly mind the biog honking print on back of these figures. Some of the personalities I watch have voiced concerns over them, but I think it's a necessary compromise. I'm also including shot of the collection I've gathered up to this point.

Part 4: Conclusions
I think this set was well worth the price. The building techniques used were intriguing and the finished model is quite feature dense. The included mini-figs are pretty good and none of them come with stud guns as their primary weapon! (Although I'm sure you make some by scrounging the harpoon gun and turret laser.) All-in-all I was was quite pleased with the set when I wrapped up filming and shooting. 


Conclusions on the format: 
I liked this style. Forced me to try to get my thoughts in order and generate a logical flow. Hell, it even just got me to think about the kit in a critical manner. The structure also led  to the post not being just a photo dump. I had to pick and choose which photos I used and where I wanted to place them. I think this is a good exercise, at least for the time being.