Showing posts with label Star Wars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Star Wars. Show all posts
Friday, October 30, 2020
Monday, October 19, 2020
Wednesday, January 8, 2020
LEGO Star Wars: Battle of Endor (Gift with Purchase)
2019 saw the 20th anniversary of LEGO's Star Wars line. To celebrate, TLG created a special "20th Anniversary" Star Warts line (reviewed Here, Here and Here). In addition to the standard retail sets, a handful of the sets in this line were created as polybags or as Gifts with Purchase (GWP) sets. I was fortunate enough to grab the Battle for Endor GWP back in October alongside the new Resistance A-Wing and old BB-8 kits.
Link to Speed Build:
Part 1: Main Build
Let's start with the good items:
The entire model is constructed using studs-on-side techniques. Many of the bricks used to make up the forest floor have exposed studs to allow for the small AT-AT, 'Stud'-troopers and Han and Chewie builds to attach. The shield generator is a very nice build and is readily identifiable.
Link to Speed Build:
Part 1: Main Build
Let's start with the good items:
The entire model is constructed using studs-on-side techniques. Many of the bricks used to make up the forest floor have exposed studs to allow for the small AT-AT, 'Stud'-troopers and Han and Chewie builds to attach. The shield generator is a very nice build and is readily identifiable.
Monday, November 25, 2019
LEGO Star Wars Jedi™ and Clone Troopers™ Battle Pack
This is a retired Star Wars Battle Pack from 2018 for MSRP $9.99. I picked this up because I am particularly fond of the Phase 1 clone troopers. I also experimented with MS Paint's sticker & edit features to make the thumbnail for the video. I think I was able to pull off the effect I was going for.
Link to Speed Build:
Part 1: Main Build
The main build consists of mini-LAAT. It's not not quite right but what can you expect from such a small scale? At least with the maroon and lime green, the colors are correct here. The ship includes some very nice trans-clear royal blue pieces for the stud blasters and greebling. There's two represented blasters one the wings in addition to two stud shooters mounted on either side of the pilot's seat. The stud shooters are a bit hard to use when flying the ship around and also make a "face" to me. Pretty disappointing.
Link to Speed Build:
Part 1: Main Build
The main build consists of mini-LAAT. It's not not quite right but what can you expect from such a small scale? At least with the maroon and lime green, the colors are correct here. The ship includes some very nice trans-clear royal blue pieces for the stud blasters and greebling. There's two represented blasters one the wings in addition to two stud shooters mounted on either side of the pilot's seat. The stud shooters are a bit hard to use when flying the ship around and also make a "face" to me. Pretty disappointing.
Thursday, November 21, 2019
LEGO Star Wars Sith Infiltrator™ Microfighter
Another large break between posts. I'll make another long-form write up of my thoughts on this kit.
Link to Speed Build:
Part 1: Main Build
Well the main build is the only build, so this'll be short. The Infiltrator was quick to assemble. The ship consists of three major sections, the main body and two wings. The wings attach to the body via a clip-and-bar connection. The trapezoidal pieces that provide the shaping for the vertical wings have a gap between them that sandwich the main body's horizontal wings.
Link to Speed Build:
Part 1: Main Build
Well the main build is the only build, so this'll be short. The Infiltrator was quick to assemble. The ship consists of three major sections, the main body and two wings. The wings attach to the body via a clip-and-bar connection. The trapezoidal pieces that provide the shaping for the vertical wings have a gap between them that sandwich the main body's horizontal wings.
Thursday, October 31, 2019
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.
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.
Thursday, September 12, 2019
LEGO Star Wars Battle Pack: Inferno Sqaud
Another day another battle pack!
Side note: When I was younger I actually hated these type of mini-fig vehicle products. Mini-figs were lovely but I wanted bricks more! I definitely appreciate the quality of mini-fig packs now though, especially considering the tremendous increase in quality of them over 15 years. (I should go rescue some of my old kits that survived and see if I can't so a comparison...)
Overall I like this set more than the Praetorian Guards Battle Pack. There's a large amount of bias coloring that opinion since I played Battle Front 2 and really liked the campaign there and I am...not all that fond of the Sequel Trilogy.
Anyway, down to specifics. Two of the Troopers stud guns are actually 'brick built' and I found that really nice. (Really only the sniper rifle is but the shotgun/rocket launcher is different enough to count!) Three of the troopers body prints are similar to the Shadow Troopers print but have some more straps and belts layered on top. The feet are different and look more appropriately 'soft' to match Inferno Squads Spec-Ops status. Iden Versio has some more color pops on her armor and is rocking an awesome bun! Dio (her probe droid) is missing from this set so I might might make something to represent the droid.
I actually don't care too much for the helmets. They capture the likeness of Inferno Squad's odd helmet pretty well and the decals are really good. I think the majority of my distaste comes from the back of the helmet. You can see the back/bottom of the head of the troopers peeking out underneath!
The included vehicle is a LEGO invention but is really fun to play with. Very swoosh-able!
Side note: When I was younger I actually hated these type of mini-fig vehicle products. Mini-figs were lovely but I wanted bricks more! I definitely appreciate the quality of mini-fig packs now though, especially considering the tremendous increase in quality of them over 15 years. (I should go rescue some of my old kits that survived and see if I can't so a comparison...)
Overall I like this set more than the Praetorian Guards Battle Pack. There's a large amount of bias coloring that opinion since I played Battle Front 2 and really liked the campaign there and I am...not all that fond of the Sequel Trilogy.
Anyway, down to specifics. Two of the Troopers stud guns are actually 'brick built' and I found that really nice. (Really only the sniper rifle is but the shotgun/rocket launcher is different enough to count!) Three of the troopers body prints are similar to the Shadow Troopers print but have some more straps and belts layered on top. The feet are different and look more appropriately 'soft' to match Inferno Squads Spec-Ops status. Iden Versio has some more color pops on her armor and is rocking an awesome bun! Dio (her probe droid) is missing from this set so I might might make something to represent the droid.
I actually don't care too much for the helmets. They capture the likeness of Inferno Squad's odd helmet pretty well and the decals are really good. I think the majority of my distaste comes from the back of the helmet. You can see the back/bottom of the head of the troopers peeking out underneath!
The included vehicle is a LEGO invention but is really fun to play with. Very swoosh-able!
Link to video:
Mini-figs:
Generic Trooper
(Kinda looks like me actually...)
Iden Versio
Shotgunner/Rocketeer
Sniper
Team Shot!
Vehicle:
Tuesday, September 10, 2019
LEGO Star Wars Battle Pack: Praetorian Guard
Took a break from posting. Again nobody but me and Google's Spider's read this so ya know "Tree falls in a forest" and what not. But I come back with a vengeance. The next kit in my cross hairs really riled me up!
I bought the Last Jedi Battle pack of three of Snoke's Guards and one First Order (FO) Trooper. Battle Packs seem to be basically vehicles to put min-figs in consumers hand at a *cheap* price, I really don't like this kit. It has a high price-per-piece for the volume of stuff and the I find the chosen mini-figs disappointing.
I've never had a FO Trooper I was very excited to get this set just for him. I was very shocked to find that the helmet quality for the FO trooper was much lower than that on the Imperial Storm troopers I had in the Imperial Dropship.You can see the troopers fleshy skin peeking out from underneath his helmet! The new troopers made me pine for my old troopers who had solid black heads but at least you can't see their heads peeking out from a head-on view...
The biggest disappoint for me are the guards. They just seem very red and the helmet sculpting disappear into that bright crimson. At least their heads are solid red! Very nostalgic for me! The included scenery build is pretty much just there. The spinning platters are okay and the training droid is very cool to me. But there's a lack of places to display figures on outside of the spinning platters meant for training duels.Doing a quick spot check looks like most battle packs come with some kinda of vehicle and not mini-fig mountable scenery... So I'll let that issue slide I guess, since a Praetorian-cycle would have been a...more interesting (wrong) decision.
In contrast, I do like some aspects of this battle pack. The printing on the figures, the included melee weapons are interesting, the red and gunmetal grey light saber hilts are *very* cool and again that training droid.
That's all I got to say about that. If you have a different thoughts let me know!
Link to video:
I bought the Last Jedi Battle pack of three of Snoke's Guards and one First Order (FO) Trooper. Battle Packs seem to be basically vehicles to put min-figs in consumers hand at a *cheap* price, I really don't like this kit. It has a high price-per-piece for the volume of stuff and the I find the chosen mini-figs disappointing.
I've never had a FO Trooper I was very excited to get this set just for him. I was very shocked to find that the helmet quality for the FO trooper was much lower than that on the Imperial Storm troopers I had in the Imperial Dropship.You can see the troopers fleshy skin peeking out from underneath his helmet! The new troopers made me pine for my old troopers who had solid black heads but at least you can't see their heads peeking out from a head-on view...
The biggest disappoint for me are the guards. They just seem very red and the helmet sculpting disappear into that bright crimson. At least their heads are solid red! Very nostalgic for me! The included scenery build is pretty much just there. The spinning platters are okay and the training droid is very cool to me. But there's a lack of places to display figures on outside of the spinning platters meant for training duels.Doing a quick spot check looks like most battle packs come with some kinda of vehicle and not mini-fig mountable scenery... So I'll let that issue slide I guess, since a Praetorian-cycle would have been a...more interesting (wrong) decision.
In contrast, I do like some aspects of this battle pack. The printing on the figures, the included melee weapons are interesting, the red and gunmetal grey light saber hilts are *very* cool and again that training droid.
That's all I got to say about that. If you have a different thoughts let me know!
Link to video:
Mini-Figs:
First Order Trooper
Praetorian Guards
Training Droid
Scenery Build
Tuesday, August 27, 2019
LEGO Star Wars Clone Scout Walker
I've started to upgrade the filming space. Have a new birch table, new turntable, two new soft boxes and a new tripod solution. These changes were all driven by the fact that I was unable to fit the Walker into frame comfortably. I also had to abort a video on a gundam plastic model kit (gunpla) do to this issue as well. I've also been unhappy with the noise level on these videos (lots of film grain), so maybe these upgrades will also go some way to resolving that issue. Doubtful but we'll see.
On the kit; I feel pretty nostalgic when building this. I had the original 2005 version growing up and absolutely loved it. I'm a little sad the walker can't really even pretend to pose anymore and that the clone trooper molds have changed in my 11 years away. However the new kits quality is astounding. The overall mini-fig and build technique quality of every kit I've built so far is leaps and bounds ahead of what I was used to back in the mid-thousands. The new stud guns are also interesting...
Link to video:
On the kit; I feel pretty nostalgic when building this. I had the original 2005 version growing up and absolutely loved it. I'm a little sad the walker can't really even pretend to pose anymore and that the clone trooper molds have changed in my 11 years away. However the new kits quality is astounding. The overall mini-fig and build technique quality of every kit I've built so far is leaps and bounds ahead of what I was used to back in the mid-thousands. The new stud guns are also interesting...
Link to video:
Scout Walker
Kashyyyk Trench
Spider Droid
Mini-Figs
Tuesday, August 20, 2019
LEGO Star Wars Imperial Dropship
My first "new" LEGO Star Wars kit. I remember when the original version of this kit came out and I have to say I'm so much more impressed with the quality of mini-figs today! I especially love the Shadow Trooper. The drop-ship is pretty boring but it is essentially a vehicle (HA-HA!) for the four mini-fig battle pack so who really cares?
On the video: I sat down with my girlfriend found some more music so I won't have to just repeat the same audio clips. The bag spin-around has also been removed from the intro in a bid to shorten the length of my videos. However it feels as though the video is now *too* fast... If you agree let me know!
The pictures below are also now using my camera's flash!
Link to Video:
On the video: I sat down with my girlfriend found some more music so I won't have to just repeat the same audio clips. The bag spin-around has also been removed from the intro in a bid to shorten the length of my videos. However it feels as though the video is now *too* fast... If you agree let me know!
The pictures below are also now using my camera's flash!
Link to Video:
Isometric View
Shadow & Storm Trooper
20th Anniversary Han Solo
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