LEGO Reviews by Purple Dave
Dave stopped writing reviews after he got interested in Bionicle.

Classic Series

A-Wing

There's a hatch right behind the cockpit that swings open and a little box that goes inside behind the pilot. The guns rotate like the Galoob AF A-Wing. The technician has a face that's different from the X-Wing/B-Wing technicians.

B-Wing

As could have been expected, the cockpit rotates (by gravity, no less) and the wings fold up. The main engines also swing aside so a little tool tray can go in the compartment. The tool tray also fits on the trailer of the maintenance rig that's included. The war-room has hinges so it can fold up into a square room or stretch out in three sections. The hanger doors do slide open and closed.

Desert Skiff

Not much is interesting here. The fins rotate almost 90 degrees. The plank is fixed in place. Han looks pretty spiff though, with brown eyebrows and a smirk. Luke changed a lot. He has a different torso than the Speeder Bike Jedi Luke, but not the same as Darth Maul's either. His face changed as well. The mouth and chin lines are much thinner and he traded the black eyebrows attached to the eyes for brown ones that are higher up and much longer.

Droid Escape

The main feature of this set is it's the only set that comes with C-3PO that's not in the high-end price range. If you can't afford the Falcon, this is the way to fill out a little more of the core character set.

It's also the only set that has R2-D2 for under $20, so if you want to make a lot of custom R2 units, this is definitely the way to go.

Aside from that, it's pretty stripped down. The top of the Escape Pod can be removed so you can seal the droids up inside, but since there are no clear portions, you can't really tell if they are inside. I was a bit disappointed at the way they put it together. It has two detailed white panels and two plain gray panels, though it wouldn't have taken too much more work to make the detail go all the way around and have the sides look like they belong together. Instead of a cluster of four main thrusters it has a single huge thruster, though I know they have pieces that could have been used to make that look correct. It's also missing a booster-rocket on each end, but it's pretty easy to figure out that it's because the LEGO system doesn't really have a good way of doing triangular construction, as demonstrated by the front of Anakin's podracer. Still, I would have preferred it if they had added a fourth pair of boosters instead of dropping to two pairs.

Ewok Attack

This set is chock full of Ewoky goodness. Okay, I'm not terribly fond of the little buggers, but you can't have the Endor battle without hordes of cute little teddy-bears intent on slaying as many Imperial troops as they can. First, the thing on everyone's mind. The Ewoks themselves. Like Chewbacca and Watto before them, they have a wrap-over head-piece. This concept originally came from the Castle ghost. Even as short as the standard minifig looks, these guys manage to come in below eye-level. You do get a little variety with one brown head and one tan head, but it seriously would be nice if their eyes were painted (along with Chewies, Watto's, Sebulba's and yes, even Jar-Jar's) To help these little furballs' in their quest there is a catapult and a glider. The catapult has leafy growths on it (camo?) and two gigantic wooden cogs to pull the launcher down. The glider has painted plastic wings, which are attached with fishing poles and jousting lances. The pilot gets two rocks to drop on unsuspecting Stormies, but he can't hold them without letting go of the glider. (You can mount them to the rear of the handles, though) The coolest part of this is that the whole thing is built around a Throwbot hip which clips to a socket-ball mounted to the top of a STAP stand, allowing you to pose it in a variety of angles.

The Imperial forces have more sophisticated equipment. You've got the basic Stormie with his blaster (I'd still prefer realistic ones, but I just realized that since the SW weapons are all based on weapons of the 20th Century, LEGO policy against producing modern weapons probably got applied to the SW guns as well) and a Scout Trooper with a revamped Speederbike. Between the new and old designs, I prefer the old back end, since it more accurately matches the shape, but the new one allows the minifig to be closer to the aft end. The new front end also matches better, but it's too big compared to the mini-figs. If the whole thing was maybe two bricks shorter (one from the forward shell and one from the guide struts) it would be a much better match.

Final Duel I

You can now bring Vader and Palpy together without having to drop over $100 or use the Shop @ Home service. Nothing new with them, but now you get the big, black Comfy Chair on a swivel base, and a TIE Fighter window to look through. The one drawback is that the baseplate isn't large enough for Vader to stand on, though he can perch over the window like a vulture. Oh, and I got a spare lightsaber piece, so The Evil One gets to hold it on the right control console, just like he did in ROTJ with Luke's.

Final Duel II

This one is going to be a big troop-builder set, even if you do get Farmboy-itis. You've got a chunk of Imperial gantry, with a very spiff doorway chunk, a Stormtrooper and a grey-suited Imperial Officer. Oh, and Farmboy and his lightsaber. First, the Stormie. Combined with the TIE Fighter and the Ewok set, that makes a whopping three for your countless legion of doom. That's not nearly enough. There seriously needs to be a Stormtrooper minifig set one of these days. The Imperial Officer has the same basic tunic design as the Imperial Shuttle pilot officer, but this one has a pleated breast and a 3-red/3-blue rank badge. They both still have that dazed smiley-face thing going, which means they obviously haven't read the script yet... And then there's Farmboy. While he may be the second-most common minifig in the Star Wars line (top spot goes to the unpainted, no-backpack Battle Droid, with a total of 19, 21 if you count the STAP pilots) he's got some of the weirdest variations. This makes a whopping four distinctly different Jedi Luke variants. The first came with the Speederbikes, had black eyebrows and gloved right hand. The second came with the Skiff, had new brown eyebrows and hadn't had his hand shot yet, so it was nice and fleshy. The third was a S@H exclusive, came with a cape and hood, yellow hands, and since I don't own it yet I can't say for sure what eyebrows it has. This one is the original Speederbike Luke, but with brown eyebrows like the Skiff Luke, but these ones are multi-shaded to look more natural. Or at least mine are.

Imperial AT-ST

The design on this is a bit awkward, but it shows more attention to detail than the original Kenner version. The feet are too big and the head is too small, for starters. It does have a rather unique 'walking' feature, where the legs shift forwards and backwards, which allows it to stay standing in a walking pose. The chin guns are actually grey lightsaber hilts, and the side guns on the left are completely different from the side guns on the right, which holds true to the movie props, though I couldn't say how accurate they are. All of the guns are able two swivel up and down.

The back of the head is hinged to open up so you can put Chewie in, and there is a door on the top of this section that sorta functions as a hatch, even though there's a decorative hatch-plate right in front of it.

The real bonus is that now one more main character is easily available to people that can't toss out the cash for the Falcon.

Imperial Shuttle

First off, let me just say that it is possible to put both Han and Chewie in the cockpit, but you have to put Han at least one space further back than Chewie (like in the Falcon) in order for their arms to fit around each other. The cockpit section pivots up and down, though I suspect it's merely a way of getting the right tilt. The cockpit, like that of the Falcon, does not have a hinged canopy, which is a bit annoying. The wings fold up, of course. The rear hatch also opens and there's a tray that slides out to hold the Emperor and his spiffy red goons. Along with those three, you also get a generic Imperial officer to play chauffeur, and he even has a tiny code cylinder painted on his left shoulder.

Landspeeder

Very simple. Luke. Ben. Lightsaber. Landspeeder. There are no moving parts at all on this thing, and I 'borrowed' some of the pads from the underside of the technician's trolley that came with the X-Wing to make it appear to float. When I buy another Technic Battle Droid to make the AT-ST, I intend to switch them back and use the four tan pads that won't be used by the AT-ST.

Millennium Falcon

First of all, it's way too small, but how many of you would have wanted to shuck out the $500-$700 to buy a Falcon that was in scale with LEGOLAND minifigs? That we can forgive, because our pockets demand it. Other problems with it are the lack of the ventral quad-cannon, but with a few extra pieces and a little creativity, that one can be fixed. The landing gear is all too far from the center, and, IMHO, it is missing one landing pad, but again, with a few extra pieces and some creativity, both of those can be corrected. If anyone feels that it should have three landing pads, feel free to send me your fourth! (Speaking of extra pieces, I got a spare ventral quarter-hull piece...) And the cockpit is a bit cramped, and Han ends up looking like he's making a grab at Chewie because his hand has to hang down at his side for Chewie to fit. On the other hand, they did do a much better job of making the pair fit than Hasbro did recently... The hallway from the main hull to the cockpit is nonexistent, but that falls in with that price issue. The interior...well, again, there's no full Canon schematic for the inner parts of the Falcon, so that's not really an issue in my mind, though it would have been nice if they had some bunks somewhere, like in the Galoob Micro Machine playset. Once again, a few extra parts and some creativity.

On to the good stuff. I'm actually glad that they waited to release this ship, because it probably gave them the time to work out a few problems out of the current design, and since this is the icon ship of Star Wars, the less mistakes it has, the better off the entire Star Wars LEGO line is. The minifigs are excellent, and they actually fit with the section of ANH between the Death Star escape and the arrival at Yavin IV.

- Luke & R2-D2

Luke is the exact same as he was in the Landspeeder set, including the original Luke face (as compared to the slightly different and much better Tatooine Skiff Luke face.) and R2 is R2.

- Chewbacca

Chewie is a completely brown body with a special headpiece that is designed like the Castle/Ninja Armor and the Castle ghost. He doesn't have a basic head because it's not needed, unlike with the ghost. The whole thing covers the front and back of his torso (sculpted on both sides, complete with painted bandolier) and he's got a black nose, though I think his eyes should have been painted as well. He does stand taller than Han, which is good. He's not as tall as he should be, but if he was he wouldn't fit in anything, and his arms would look unnaturally low on his body. He's just shy of 1/8" taller than the Han figure.

- Han

Han's pants are a bit too light, but that's the basic LEGO blue, so there's not much that can be done. The gun belt and holster are painted on the front of his legs, but since they don't paint on the sides of the legs, the gun is completely missing. Sadly, the paint used for the shirt on his torso is almost white, and the arms are done in tan, so they don't quite match.

- Leia

Leia's face looks a little off. Voluptuous burgundy lips are completely not Leia, but the most famous hairdo in the entire Star Wars series was very well done. The basic 'pants' legs don't look quite right, but the alternative is the big bulky one-piece skirt with no articulation.

- C-3PO

C-3PO...well, what can I say? *drool* That about sums it up. New head sculpt. Special metallic gold-tone plastic. (I've never actually seen this shade before...) Painted chest and back. (Not the first I've seen on the shelves. That honor goes to the new soccer guys, with the player numbers on their backs.) Oh, and since he's a LEGO minifig, you can rip his head, arms, and legs off to recreate all of the 'C-3PO gets broke' scenes. (Don't pop the legs and arms off too many times, or they WILL loosen up. That's practical childhood experience talking there...) This is the best they could have done with him without using expensive vacuum-painting techniques, like they do with the lightsaber hilts. And if they did that, they would have either done it on certain sections of the torso, legs, and head, or the paint would have been very short-lived in certain areas.) Sadly, this is probably the best overall SW figure they've ever done, and yet he's such a widely reviled character, both in real life and in the movies.

- The Ship

The main ship is divided into a number of distinct areas, about eleven total, with a couple of storage compartments. There's the cockpit, which can be accessed by removing the cockpit canopy, much like the Naboo Fighter. There's the cargo bay, which is located behind a double-door hatch in the rear of the cavity between the mandibles. The other nine sections are laid out in a 3x3 square in the main hull, which can be accessed by popping the dorsal hull off of a peg in the center. The very center section has the hull-mounting peg on top of a computer bank. There's a swiveling chair in front of it, and it is apparently supposed to be the spot where Han sat while Luke got shot up by the trainer droid. The forward center section has the dejarik 'holo-chess' table and what looks to be a couple of benches. The rear center section is a big open room, but the floor has two hinged plates that lift open to allow a single minifig to hide underneath. (No, Chewie doesn't fit, and n either does R2. I checked.) The center starboard section has the familiar boarding ramp, and the center port section has a similar ramp that allows the escape pod to be launched through the underbelly. (TIE cockpit pieces are used for the center window/hatch/escape-pod/whatever sections located above the boarding ramp and escape pod.) The forward port/starboard sections are basic rooms each with three pieces of the six-piece tool-kit (came with the X-Wing and B-Wing) mounted in various places on the walls. The rear starboard section has a rack that holds a brown backpack and the loudspeaker piece that was used as Boba Fett's gun. The rear port section is...an empty room. (Perfect place to add that bunk, if you so choose...) Forward of the tool rooms, just to either side of the cargo hold, and hidden underneath the dorsal hull piece, there are two hinged hatches that hold either the big bazooka (comes with the Snowspeeder's Echo Base Trooper) or the circular buzzsaw (mounted on either side of Sebulba's podracer coc kpit and on the crane arm from the B-Wing tool truck) Located on the insides of the mandibles are two of the guns that have been used on every Rebel fightercraft (concussion missile launch tubes, I believe...) and the forward tips of the mandibles each have three headlights, just like you see in the TESB asteroid scene. Sadly, the pits on the mandibles are actually raised plates, but they look cool anyway. The rear of the hull has the blue section that is always glowing. It is done using a long translucent blue section of the crinkle-tube that was used for the bulk of the Technic Pit Droid head.

The dorsal hull is pretty bland compared to the rest of the ship, but the quad-cannon (which can swivel and elevate) is mounted on a hinged hatch-plate that flips up so you can stick someone inside to control the gun, though the gunnery 'seat' is basically just a pit with some viewports down into the main hull. It also helps for lining the peg up with the mounting hole. (The gun pod is the big castle-tower looking mounting piece for the solar panels on Vader's TIE) The sections between the main dorsal hull sections are all hinged so you can do a tiny bit of stuff inside. You can access the boarding ramp and the escape pod from the two hatches on port and starboard. You can access the cargo hold from the forward hatch, and you can almost open the smuggling compartment from the rear hatch (which, incidentally, has six really cool looking 'vent' pieces)

- Escape Pod

I know a lot of people will wonder what this is all about, but if you remember, in ANH, when the Death Star crew is done looking over the 'empty' Falcon, they report that a number of the escape pods have been launched. We know they exist, but we've never seen them in the movies. I doubt it's what George originally had in mind, but there's no full Canon info on what they should look like, so I chalk it up to creative license. It's about the size of the LEGO spaceships that are shipped in the smallest box and cost about $3.

I have already customized my Falcon, making this the fourth set that I have modified. (I still want to completely rebuild the Snowspeeder...) I removed the forward starboard dorsal quarter-hull (right next to the cockpit) and the forward central hull (right above the cargo hold) so the Dejarik room and the forward starboard tool room are both visible even while the main dorsal hull is locked in place.

All in all, this is the first Star Wars LEGO set that is built solidly enough to be used as a vehicle, and has enough open space to be used as a playset. Having owned a ton of LEGO sets when I was a kid, I can tell you that this is important if you are buying it for your kid. Currently the only other vehicle that can be used as a playset is the E1 MTT, which is fragile at best. Buy it if you can afford it...even if it means having to eat Ramen Noodles for two weeks. (And no, I did not have to. But I would have...)

Slave I

Two words. Boba Fett. Sadly, his helmet is connected to the backpack, so he can't turn his head. Other than that, him and the carbonite slab both look really cool. (Han's picture is done in semi-metallic silver paint) The tail section could have been done better, right where the carbonite storage ramp meets the main housing of the tail. The wings are rotated by gravity, but unfortunately they rotate a full 360 degrees. (To fix this, you can use the type of pieces that are used for the heels on the feet of the Technic Pit Droid set. Slide them onto the connecting rod for the wings so that they allow the correct 90 degrees of rotation. It should be pretty easy to figure out from there.) The guns also look better if you stick the gray rods in the other end of the three-handled black part.

Snowspeeder

I'm not at all happy with the look of this vehicle, but I haven't gotten around to redesigning it yet. You get an Echo Base Trooper with a 'radar' cannon and binocs. Obviously Luke and Dack are the crew. The front cockpit only opens into Luke's section, the whole rear of the cockpit section flips open for Dack's seat, and there is a storage box that gets inserted between the two pilots' seats. Dack's harpoon gun swivels, but there's no harpoon at all. Unlike the X-Wing, this one has no good space for storing the lightsaber blade, though the handle will fit in the storage box.

Speederbikes

Again, pretty simple. Two speederbikes, which look very cool. Two biker scouts (incidentally, LEGO made the first biker scouts with removable helmets. They also did the first RH Boba Fett, but he doesn't have any face...) Luke, and a tree stump for the biker scouts to crash into. The only moving parts on the speederbikes are the belly gun, which flips down to prop the steering vanes up when you aren't holding it.

TIE Fighter

This set fill the two biggest holes in the existing SW line. Three words. Generic. Imperial. Goons. You get the basic TIE Fighter, which is the first non-unique Imperial snubfighter in the basic line. More important, though, is the belated introduction of the Stormtrooper! We finally have a minifig to match everyone in the Classic series logo. I have a feeling that this will be the best selling set in the entire series because of three things. One, it's pure army builder. Two, it's more popular army builder than the other seven sets that don't have any unique characters. Three, people have been drooling over the thought of building armies of LEGO Stormtroopers since word of a SW LEGO line first hit the Internet.

The minifigs are beautifully done, with the same sculpt serving double-duty as the two different helmets (I smell an AT-AT pilot in the near future...) and the Stormtrooper is the second minifig in this series to get a painted back. I just wish they'd started earlier so all the Rebel pilots looked better... Anyways, the pod section of the TIE Fighter is loosely based on the one from Vader's, but it boasts several improvements, including having the forward viewport attached to the dorsal hatch piece, which allows for easier access to the pilot's seat. Also, they used the dorsal viewport piece from the UCS TIE/In, which looks much better than the Imperial logo on the top of Vader's TIE. I'm actually tempted to buy another just to switch the pod in for Vader's, but I very rarely buy duplicate LEGO sets. The wing struts are smaller, so the wings are closer to the pod. I've heard complaints about how flimsy the wings feel, but I couldn't figure out a good way to stabilize them without getting too bulky.

TIE Fighter (Darth Vader's) / Y-Wing

Everyone I've talked to agree that this is the best set of the first batch. The Y-Wing is extremely accurate, considering what it's made out of. There is a true 'socket' for the astromech (which they called R5-D4?!?!?) the Ion Cannons swivel, there is a storage compartment behind the astromech and a removable storage container between the astromech and the cockpit. For recreating movie scenes, the engine pods pop right off. Gold Leader is the pilot of this Y-Wing, and, along with the other three Rebel pilots, has an excellently detailed helmet, mostly true to the movie props. (Well, okay, Dack's helmet doesn't have very much detail on it) The TIE Fighter is very modular. The wings, wing struts, and the rear fuselage are all removable from the center pod. I'm betting that they intend to redesign the wings and release a LEGOLAND TIE Fighter and TIE Interceptor (not counting the Model Team one of 2000) in a year or two. Never, in my life, can I remember owning a Darth Vader toy that would legitimately qualify as 'cute', but this one does. The helmet is removable and his head is cast in gray plastic with sunken eyes and a big scar on his left cheek. He doesn't like to sit inside his TIE pod without having his cape removed first, though. That and the lack of a lightsaber storage space (unless you count the one behind the Y-Wing's astromech...) are the two biggest complaints I have on this one. They also could have extended the rear fuselage by two studs to make it more accurate to the movie.

Twin-Pod Cloud Car

It's nice to finally get another TESB set to go with all, um...both of the previous sets (Snowspeeder and Slave I) and the Cloud Car is an extremely recognizable vehicle, both in its presence and in its absence. The first thing I noticed about this is that it has two seats, and comes with Lobot.

Don't get me wrong, here. I don't mind finally getting Lobot, but logic says that the Cloud Car should have two Cloud Car Pilots to, you know, fly it. Fan demand also suggests that this would have been the best set to release Lando in. This is a three-way street with no good, clear best choice. If they produce Lando with a standard yellow head (Note: yellow is not Caucasian, contrary to what The Simpsons may suggest, and LEGO has stated that their minifigs are not 'white'.) they'll get chided for not doing him in brown. If they produce him with a brown head, they'll get chided for never producing a 'minifig of colored persuasion' before. And if they don't produce him at all, not only do the fans gripe about it all the time, but it looks like they don't want to touch the token black character.

Now, as for the Cloud Car itself, it looks a bit longer than I would have expected. I think if the pods were either two bricks shorter or two bricks wider they would look more proportional. On each pod, the outer side of the cockpit section hinges down and the windshield hinges up, giving you more than adequate room to extricate the mini-figs from their seats. The top of the center section is also hinged on the starboard side to give you access to the engine compartment, though there really isn't anything there. You could use it to store Lobot's walkie-talkie, I suppose.

X-Wing Fighter

This is easily the most recognizable ship from the Star Wars series, and a solid choice for starting the SW LEGO line. It does have some aesthetic problems, however. R2 does not have a 'socket' to sit in, but rather a groove, as there are no sides to his perch. The smaller engine sections fall off the main engine sections with very little persuasion. (I've figured out that a size 4 to size 6 Technic '+' rod can be inserted into each engine to hold them together) The rear landing gear also looks a bit crude. There is a storage compartment right behind R2 (same place as the battery compartment on the POTF2 X-Wing) that holds a black cube or as a deluxe condo for the lightsaber. There's another storage compartment right above the forward landing gear. It can be used for storing the lightsaber or the forward landing gear, if you pop it into two pieces. The little technician’s trolly has a space for storing the black box and his two hand-held guidance lights. The second section will seat two pilots (How handy, since they give you Luke and Biggs!) and the third section has hand tools and a fuel hose.

Episode I Series

Anakin's Podracer

For those who don't have the $ to buy the Mos Eisley Podrace set, this one comes with everything from Anakin's subset except for Qui-Gon. And R2-D2. Oh, yeah, and Jar-Jar. (That part alone almost makes it a better deal as I already have FOUR Jar-Jars and one Gungan soldier without buying a single duplicate set!!!!!)

Battle Droid Carrier

Two words for why you should buy this set. Pilot. Droid. This is the first set sold in stores that includes a non-basic battle droid minifig. The only other source for one is the Shop-At-Home 3-pack which comes with OOM-9. Another reason is that this is the best bang for your buck when it comes to building an unstoppable army of LEGO battle droids. And, if you don't have the cash for the MTT, this is the 'mini-rig' version of it. In fact, there is a removable droid rack that has almost the exact same construction as the rack that goes in the front of the MTT.

Once you get beyond the droid rack, there's not very much in the way of features. There's a small adjustable sensor dish, and that's pretty much it.

On another note, it will be interesting to see how well this set sells, since it's the first one that has an original design. Still, with that spiffy Pilot Droid, I expect it will get quite a boost.

Droid Fighter

From the box picture, it has no features whatsoever. In truth, with a small amount of piece-manipulation, you can transform it into the walking mode.

Flash Speeder

At first glance, it looks pretty nice. The gun pivots and there's a hatch underneath it for storing the binocs, though it could actually fit about 19 of them. The real problem is that it only fits two people because the back seat's purely decorative.

Gungan Patrol

The Kaadus are pretty neat looking, but they are one single piece. Not even a bobbing head like the LEGO horse. The wheeled box opens up to store all of the blue "energy balls" and they have a rather clever way of attaching the sides of the wheels to the connector rods. I must admit, though that I find it somewhat disturbing that Jar-Jar is increasing his lead over Obi-Wan for inclusion in LEGO sets, and that includes the Classic Series stuff.

Gungan Sub

Let's get this one out of the way first. It's entirely screwed up, except for the overhead edge profile. It has three separate cockpits and the center seat is forward of the side seats, as compared to the ones in the movie. Qui-Gon's forward/center section pulls out of the main hull, as does the spinner tail. The central hull flips open and two 'attachment' sections come out. Using these pieces, you can make a small variety of really odd things that have no legitimacy to the movie. On the plus side, this is the only set that includes an E1 Obi-Wan. Or, rather, I guess that would be an additional minus, wouldn't it? Oh yeah, and there's an underwater reef chunk, complete with a starfish, clam, and manta.

Jedi Defense I

This is the smallest retail Star Wars set so far, volume-wise. You get Obi-Wan, with a chump hair-do (use the hair from the 2001 Alpha Team helicopter for a more movie-accurate look) and two Droideka. One significant change that should be pointed out is that this Obi-Wan has the Padawan braid painted on his tunic. Now, for the Droidekas, I was seriously desperate for some of these guys, but I was really hoping that, like the Battle Droids before them, they'd be made out of custom tailored parts and be able to fold up. There isn't a single new piece used on these guys, and they do not fold up. Not in anything resembling a ball, at least. Anyways, given that they were built entirely out of parts that existed as far back as 1999, they are fairly well built and rather imposing, even if they do look like they're holding large pistols. They are also extremely articulated as a result of the pieces used to build them. My guess is that the design team wasn't really planning to do these, but figured out something to keep the fans happy. One thing to note is that there is a clear 2x2 cylinder below the leg section that isn't shown in the image on the box front.

Jedi Defense II

Finally, we have the full range of battle droids at our disposal. This one comes with a red security droid (red torso w/ beige paint on the front, and red paint on the back-of-the-head danglies) and a yellow command droid (yellow on the top and back of the head, and a yellow bar on the chest). Together with the Battle Droid Transport, which has a blue pilot droid and six unpainted grunts, this set fills out the four basic types of Battle Droids.

To fill out the set you also get another Qui-Gon and the door to the bridge of the Trade Federation Droid Control Ship. And yes, the door does open...vertically. If you have your Stormtroopers bang their foreheads on the bottom of the door you can reenact everyone's favorite Star Wars blooper.

Oddly, I got a spare lightsaber hilt in this set as well. I also got a spare battle droid arm and one of those trans-neon orange dots that are used on the battle droid guns. I stuck the extra orange dot on the front of the door to make it look like Qui-Gon had poked his lightsaber through the armor plating.

Lightsaber Duel

Very simple. Darth Maul. Qui-Gon. Two lightsabers. Moisture Vaporator. Sith speeder. There's not much else, but did I mention that it has Darth Maul? Sadly, they went with movie scene accuracy and his lightsaber only comes with one blade.

Mos Espa Podrace

The box for this set contains three separate boxes, one for each Podracer. Sebulba's Podracer comes with a custom-made Sebulba (If they were Hasbro owned, I'd be afraid to find out how many times we'd see this new part repeated in upcoming sets) It has four flip-up weapons, and six panels that open up on the engines. There's also a pit droid and repair station. Gasgano's Podracer has a four-armed, legless Gasgano, two flip-up weapons and some moving stabilizer wings on the pod. He also has a pit droid and repair station. Anakin's Podracer has Anakin, Padme, Qui-Gon, Jar-Jar, R2-D2, a pit droid and a flag. The Podracer has hinged steering vanes in front of the engines. (Those are the big yellow scoops on the front.)

Naboo Fighter

Lessee, another highly inaccurate astromech socket (If I had designed it, I would have just popped R2's head off and stuck it on top of the hull, rather than making a whole socket for him) the cockpit has to be removed completely to open it, and there's this big hokey box under the hull that has what looks to be a proton torpedo sticking out of it. It also comes with a very strange looking cart (that I can't remember ever seeing) and two battle droids. Personally, I ranked it as higher priority than some of the other E1 stuff just so I could get battle droids with guns.

Naboo Swamp

This was my first priority (though I ended up finding the LS Duel first) because I wanted the Battle Droids w/ STAPs. Being extra tricky, they built all of the parts on the clear stem of the stand. Oh yeah, Qui-Gon, Jar-Jar, and a chunk o' Naboo w/ clam round out this set. And yes, in answer to everyone's most urgent question, the clam does open.

Sith Infiltrator

This one wasn't nearly as exciting as you'd think it would be. The rear hatch opens up for Maul and his trusty Sith Speeder to board. There's a storage compartment forward of the pod for storing the lightsaber and the three Sith probes. And the wings flip open for flight mode. That's pretty much all there is. Oh yeah, this time Maul gets a double-bladed lightsaber.

Trade Federation AAT

Okay, there's not a lot of action to this set, but it is pretty solidly built. It comes with two more of those cute little battle droid minifigs, though it would have been really cool if one of them was done like the OOM-9 style minifig from the upcoming 3-pack. And it would also be cool if they included the backpacks with battle droids that aren't riding STAPs, but if you have a few tan bricks lying around, that's an easy fix.

There's a forward cockpit that fits one battle droid, though the canopy isn't hinged, sorta like the one from the Naboo Fighter playset. The turret rotates about 80 degrees and the main gun can elevates about the same amount. The top hatch is hinged and has room for the other battle droid...if you fold him up into a rather uncomfortable position. But nobody cares what Droids think, so who cares? The gunner battle droid also gets a pair of binocs (same ones that come in the Snowspeeder set and the Naboo Speeder set) and there's a little spot behind the battle droid's seat to stow them. The weird thing is that there are clips behind the main hull to store the guns, and the way they mount makes them appear like booster-rockets.

In short, it looks cool, but it doesn't do much.

Trade Federation MTT

This one is, in a lot of ways, the exact opposite of the AAT. It has a ton of features, but it's the least sturdy SW LEGO set ever produced. The color scheme also looks a bit weird, with lots of tan and gray rectangles everywhere on what should be a mostly brown vehicle.

The front half is removable from the back half, splitting right behind the black engine pieces that have been used in roughly 1/3 of the SW LEGO sets so far. The big brown panels on the sides of the front half flip open, revealing the control seat on the second level and the droid rack below. The front bubble (TIE Fighter cockpit) opens and a removable droid rack slides out. It holds six of the seven battle droids (hey, somebody has to drive this thing...) and all of their guns. Again, none of these battle droids have the backpack pieces like the STAP-riders did. The look really cool hanging off of the rack, though. They flip forward at the waist, tuck their heads into their bellies, grab onto the rail behind their waist (Castle lances) and rest their feet on the plate underneath. The odd thing (which I just now noticed) is that they have to pop loose from the rack to stand up.

Remove a little black lock-plate on the top ridge, give a little tug, and the rear section pulls off of the front one. This section has a rear cargo hatch that opens, but not much will fit inside of this thing, short of the Darth Maul's little speeder-thingy. The forward half of the rear section is two pieces that are hinged to swing open, like some of the Castle sets used to do. Each one has a computer screen...and not much else. On the upper walls of the cargo bay there are two flaps that open on each side.

Hidden behind them are two pivot arms (pit droid arms) with the older style Space pistols (as far as I can tell, this is the only instance of these pieces being used in SW LEGO sets, but they are sometimes used as wall-mounted torches in Castle and Ninja sets.)

So, as I said, lots of features, but pretty wobbly. Basically, you can play in it, but you'll find that it falls apart pretty easily if you play with it. Makes a really nice shelf piece, though.

Watto's Junkyard

I was really disappointed by two things with this set. One, on the back of the box they merely hinted at the fact that you can actually make two complete podracers with this set, but they didn't include alternate instructions to show you how. If you want to do so, skip pages 24-27 and repeat pages 6-9, but with the green cockpit instead of the blue one. The other thing was that they didn't include a second pilot, unless you want Watto to take over.

Watto looks a bit gawky and extremely chubby, but it's always nice to see more special pieces being made for aliens. Aldar Beedo, like Sebulba, is completely unpainted, which I don't really understand. They painted Chewie's head piece, but Jar-Jar, Watto, and two podrace pilots have no painted facial features at all.

Anyways, cool as it is to have more podracers to line up next to Anakin's, it would have been even better if they'd added some more of those cool dastardly weapons like Sebulba's and Gasgano's. They've got some flaps that open on the engines, but that's not very exciting. Also, they give no clue at all as to who the green podracer belongs to, especially with the lack of pilot piece for it. After doing a little online research, I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be Mawhonic's podracer, which I suppose would be fitting as it's the first one to crash in the movie.

Ultimate Collector Series Tie Interceptor

Whew. At 703 pieces, it took me 90 minutes to put this thing together, and I've been building with LEGO for at least twenty years, sometimes doing the small sets without even opening the instructions. Anyway, they weren't lying when they said Ultimate Collector Series. According to the instruction book, this set is 34cm long, 26cm wide, and 19cm tall. That comes to about 13 1/4" by 10 1/4" by 7 1/2", for those of us in the States. The cockpit is just big enough to fit a MASK figure. The E1 Anakin figure, for the younger crowd.

Okay, let's start out with the weird things. They've used the LEGOLAND sextant as the control grips, the LEGOLAND shovel on the forward edge of the central wing panel, the LEGOLAND spear-gun in the blaster assemblies at the tips of the wings, and something that looks like the receiver from a '70s phone on the rear edges of the central wing panels.

Based on pictures of the movie props, the wing panels aren't quite the right shape. They seem to be a little long, but that's probably because they're a bit too narrow. The only other big mistake that I can see is the main targeting computer display is upside down, but that's because they computer gets mounted to pegs behind it rather than below it, which flips the display. The nameplate is a bit annoying because it's made with two 4x10 plates behind 10 1x8 flat-top strips...with a sticker to go on the front. I've never been hugely fond of stickers on LEGO, but I really hate the ones that have to be applied across multiple LEGO.

Other than a few problems that aren't going to be noticed by most people, this thing is truly impressive and well worth the three digit price tag. There's not a lot of movement to it, though. The wings have the same hinge-points as Darth Vader's TIE Advanced (the one that comes with the Y-Wing) and there are two flaps (clip-on square flags, usually seen in Castle and Ninja sets) on the back that are there for design, not movement, just like the wing hinges. The front of the cockpit opens up, and the control rig is hinged to swing down out of the way. This allows you to put a smallish figure in the pilot seat, even though the real cockpit hatch isn't designed to open at all.

To give you a better idea of how big this thing is, the wings are over twice as long as the Darth Vader TIE Advanced, and the cockpit ball on his ship is small enough to fit inside this cockpit ball. Well, at least the basic shells would fit.

Ultimate Collector Series X-Wing

Okay, it's been close to four and a half hours since I started working on this beast, but it's finally done. Granted, about ten minutes were spent looking for a non-existent piece. (I found that one of the dark gray mini-dots had been shipped in light gray. Nothing sucks more than sloshing through 1000 LEGO pieces looking for one that isn't there...) If I'd done the X-Wing first, I probably would have left the TIE Interceptor for tomorrow. But I digress.

I believe I mentioned previously how I hate stickers that have to be applied over multiple LEGO. Well, there's about nine in this set. If you buy this set, watch for random sticker appearances in the instruction set, because they will show the piece with no sticker in one diagram and suddenly the sticker is there in the next diagram. They don't include the stickers in the part-batches that show which group of things you need to track down next, either. Still, all of the hassle is worth it when you view the finished behemoth. This 1304 piece set comes in at 44cm long by 34cm wide by 19cm tall, according to the back of the instruction book. (Looking at the numbers, I think they got the dimensions mixed up between the X-Wing and the TIE Interceptor. The X-Wing is longer and wider, but the TIE is taller, so the heights and widths should probably be switched between the two.) Regardless, the X-Wing actually makes the TIE Interceptor look small. And, in fact, it seems to be made in a slightly larger scale than the TIE Interceptor was. That's to be expected since building these things revolves around working within the LEGO part-scheme. Speaking of which, I didn't mention this in the review on the TIE, but the cockpit for the TIE looks to be specifically made for that model. The X-Wing cockpit is definitely made for the X-Wing. Taking that into consideration, it's understandable that the prices are higher than they normally would be.

To continue the list of strange items used to build these, the X-Wing guns (just over a foot long, for those that care) include gray versions of the R2 torso. The aft sections of the engines include gray versions of the barrel seen in many Castle and Western sets. Inside the forward section of the cockpit, covered in pseudo-electronic detail is the same piece that was used as the top half of the LEGOLAND X-Wing's nosecone. Behind R2 (the same one that's used in all of the LEGOLAND SW sets) are a bunch of pieces which include two of the guns from the LEGOLAND X-Wing, two of the handlebars from the LEGOLAND Speederbikes, the ladder pieces from the E1 Lightsaber Duel's moisture vaporator, and a spoke-rimmed wheel. The cargo hatch on the belly of the X-Wing is a gray version of what was previously the largest basic cockpit. And the wings include some of those little fence pieces (four studs long and two bricks high) that come with a lot of Town sets.

This one actually has a couple of cool features. R2 is, obviously, removable. After he has been removed, the cockpit can flip open and reveal an area almost big enough for a scrawny POTF2 adult human figure. There's even a control stick centered between the spaces where a pilot would stuff his legs. The cargo-hatch flips open, though that's no surprise since they made it with a cockpit piece. The truly impressive feature is that when you spin a round disc on the aft section of the main hull, the wings will open and close. (If you're putting this together and the angles that they show for the blue connectors don't make sense, it's because they are arranged to account for the amount of weight that each wing has. If you place them according to the directions, the wings will be very close to level when they are closed.) They built in a really clever gear system that uses the upper wings as counter-weights for the lower wings and vice versa. This allows the gear package to be fairly compact and operate all four wings fairly nicely without being having to stick out of the hull where people can see it.

The one really big complaint that I have about this set is that the color scheme is a touch on the gaudy side. A lot of that is blue and yellow pieces that aren't visible once the whole thing is put together, which actually makes finding certain pieces a lot easier. (1304 pieces is a lot to sort through for one tiny piece...) Even when it's put together, though, it has the same sort of effect as the LEGOLAND Slave I, which means there's lots of blockiness to the color scheme and some pieces almost look like they should be different colors. In fact, the whole thing probably should have all of the white parts switched for light gray parts, not counting R2. Oh, it would have been nice to have landing gear included as well, but such was apparently not to be.

The whole thing is a bit nose-heavy when it's mounted on the stand, so I redesigned the stand to have the front foot stick forward one peg more and the back foot is one peg shorter to compensate. Everything else follows the original design.

One last thing. These are large enough that they have a fairly modular design. As such, they actually included a table of contents in the front of the instruction books, which is the first time I've ever seen that done in a LEGO book.

Anyway, having built both of the current ones, I'm just waiting until they add Slave I, the Falcon, and a Speederbike to the UCS line. Not that I'm saying that they will be adding them. I'm just saying that I would be very happy if they do. Perhaps a Probe Droid as well, though it might work better as a Technic set. Wishes aside, I expect that fans will be asking for the B-Wing, Tyderium, and AT-AT before the ones I want. Hey, perhaps they could release the Target R2-D2 as a UCS set... *hint, hint*

Darth Vader

How exactly do you type the sound of someone drooling? This baby towers over any of the 12" action figures, coming in at a whopping 14-1/4" tall. He's got a custom sculpted dome (complete with two plus-rod mount points) a sweet cloth cape, and an impressive looking lightsaber with a 6-1/4" long blade. A lot of the bulk of the body is left open, but it doesn't really show up much with that cape hanging behind everything. The legs have a completely different design from the Technic Stormtrooper/C-3PO designs and one of them is pivoted back to give him a more posed look, and quite a bit more stability over his Technic counterparts. The top of the chest section features the first release of the Bohrok faceplate from the new Bionicle line, kind of like how the Technic Stormtrooper featured the first use of the Toa torso. The chest box features my most hated LEGO feature, being a sticker placed across five pieces. There are levers on the back of the torso that cause each arm to raise seperately, which has the side-effect of causing the upper chest to swell a bit. A slide-lever on each arm actuates a bit of articulation. On the left arm, it opens the hand, though the thumb is way too huge. On the right arm, it causes the saber to tilt downward, and the thumb is practically nonexistent. The cape is attached with three holes, one where the neck attaches, and two hooked to ball-pins on the shoulders. There is a chain draped across the chest, but it's not attached to the cape at all. The neck has the standard ball-joint arrangement like the two Technic characters. The head itself is fairly impressive, with two red eyes (same as the ten pieces used for the lightsaber blade), a nicely triangular piece where the mouth would be, and a somewhat chiseled shape hiding in the shadow cast by the helmet dome. Again, like the R2-D2, almost entirely made from Technic pieces (not counting the neck-chain, cape, and helmet) but still not part of the Technic line.

R2-D2

At first he's not much to look at. The dome is too symetrical, the torso too narrow, and the whole thing too empty. Certainly the Droid Developer Kit has a much better looking R2-D2 design. However, this one has gadgetry, a new shade of blue and what I believe to be two or three new parts. The dome-head turns freely, though it is a bit wobbly. The right chest-panel swings open and a lever on the back causes the datalink to swing up out of the chest cavity. The real gem of this design, though, is that a small bar near the bottom of the barrel causes the retractable middle leg to snap down and forward, and the two side legs will swing back into position as well. All three feet have tiny wheels, so he rolls quite nicely. The shape of the middle foot doesn't even come close to matching the side feet, but that's a tiny price to pay for that cool feature.

Oddly, I got an opaque red piece in the same shape as the trans-blue eye, but it's not used anywhere in this design. I also got the odd distinction of being the first person to call in with a missing/mispacked piece from one of the 2002 sets, beating the arrival of any of the parts-lists and instruction manuals. Since the mispacked part wasn't one of the brand-new pieces, (I got two #5 and one #6 coupler instead of the other way around) I was able to get a replacement lined up. Another thing of note is that even though he's made entirely from Technic pieces (not counting the eye), he's not part of the Technic line.

Technic Stormtrooper

I still hate getting stickers in LEGO sets, and I really hate it when they straddle pieces, but at least this time there's only one place they wanted to put a sticker, and they split it in two pieces so it doesn't cross a seam.

This guy looks like he might have been one of those Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots for how he's shaped, but the colors are rather well matched. Furthermore, the LEGO designers borrowed the ball-socket piece from the Throwbots line and made a new generic ball that fits on the end of the plusrods, so there's a lot more articulation than the previous SW Technic sets. He's got ball joints in his left wrist and elbow, and his neck. He doesn't have any thumbs, and he's only got three fingers on his left hand (two are articulated) and two on his right hand, which is permanently holding his gun. Both arms raise when you turn a gear on his back, and his gun fires when you pull a trigger on his right shoulder, though I'm not sure why they ran a trigger wire from the gun to the shoulder. Sadly, the only parts of his legs that have articulation are the toes, which open like a mouth.

If you buy this set, you should seriously consider buying the C-3PO set as well.

Technic C-3PO

I'm not sure why anyone would buy this set and not buy the Stormtrooper too, but if you did, GO BUY THE STORMTROOPER!!!!!!! One of the coolest features that the LEGO guys have ever designed is that the Stormtrooper gun, when fired directly at the disc in 3PO's chest, causes the Golden One to explode. And you all know you've wanted to do that at least once in your life... Anyways, now you can reenact that offscreen scene from SW:TESB.

I was less pleased with the coloring on C-3PO than I was with the Stormtrooper. There's so many black pieces that he almost looks like he's from SW:TPM except for the number of shiny chromed silver and gold pieces that hang off his limbs and torso.

One of the really nice things is that they made the effort to give him the silver lower right leg, which certain other toy companies don't always remember to do. Like the Stormtrooper, he benefits from the new ball joint, giving him fully articulated wrists, shoulders, and neck.

Oh, did I mention that I hate putting stickers on my LEGO sets? This one is up there with the UCS X-Wing, and it's not always obvious when/where you're supposed to put them on. You should be putting five stickers on each leg, seven on the torso, three on each arm, and two on the head. He's also got hinged elbows. He's doing better than the Stormtrooper in the finger department in that he has three fingers on each hand (two each are articulated) though again, no thumbs. Again, no articulation of the legs except the toes, which open just like the Stormtroopers.

Technic Destroyer Droid

Firstly, they made two errors in the instruction booklet and had to print a special correction sheet to throw in the box, rather than reprinting the massive instruction books from scratch. This is probably why they are so hard to find right now, even though they were supposed to be released with all of the rest of the Xmas batch. This one is slightly temperamental, but it is by far the most impressive kit in the Star Wars LEGO line. (It's also the first Droideka toy that folds up!) When it is collapsed, you roll it (just like in the movies) and a push button that sticks through the head armor starts the pop-open action halfway through the roll. In order to get the impact-driven catch to actuate when the front feet hit the ground, you must roll it on a hard surface such as a linoleum or wood floor. Carpet will cushion the feet and the Droideka will stay mostly collapsed. I've still been having troubles with the head not flipping up from the chest, but everything else works perfectly. And it looks very impressive sitting atop my roommate's computer monitor as I write this review. The secondary model that can be made with this kit is the white Trade Federation tank. Unlike the other two secondary models, this one does not seat POTF2 action figures.

Technic Pit Droid

It folds up, and when you punch the eye, it pops open. Pretty neat, even if it doesn't fold up as compact as the one in the movie. The hands spring shut when you open them, but the head doesn't turn and the legs are non-articulated due to the pop-open feature. It also can be used to make a speeder bike. Amusingly enough, it's just the right size for the CS12" Pit Droid to ride it. Sadly, they made the same mistake as Kenner did with the POTF Speeder Bike and turned the foot pedals into landing gear.

Technic Battle Droid

This one is going to get expensive. First of all, not only does it also construct an AT-ST, but the Battle Droid can be slightly reworked to form a red-tagged security droid or a yellow-tagged command droid sans backpack. That's $120+tax if you want to display all four different constructions. As for the Battle Droid, like the pit droid, it folds up and springs open when you push a button on the back. There's also a wheel on the backpack that will raise the right arm up so it can magnetically grab the gun, which snaps in to the backpack for storage. Turn it the other way an d it pulls the gun out of the backpack and is ready to do some damage. Unfortunately, due to the mechanics of this feature, the right elbow and hand are seriously mismatched with the left ones. And again, there's not a large amount of articulation due to the built-in features. The AT-ST needs sides on the head, but the side-cannons rotate, the chin-gun pivots up and down, the head turns when you spin a wheel on the back of the 'pelvis' and the legs have some articulation at the hip joints. I would have liked it if there was a control to work the legs like the POTF AT-ST, but we can't have everything. Amusingly, the POTF2 AT-ST driver can be placed inside the head of this thing, but just barely, and there's only room for one person. Maybe you could put the small Jawa and Yoda inside at the same time...

Mindstorms Dark Side Developer Kit

As with all of the Technic/Mindstorms sets that I've reviewed, none of the models in this set are extremely accurate reconstructions of the movie originals, but if you're buying them, that's not what you're looking for. You're looking for the cool features and amazing mechanical designs. (And as I worked my way through the four SW models in this set, I was once again reminded of why I hold to my theory that being a member of the LEGO design team has got to be THE coolest job on the planet...) I originally thought about going straight for the AT-AT and reviewing the other three models based on the instructions, but I figured I should see exactly how each of them works. To that end, I sat up through some bad late-night TV shows to put the first three together, and then finished it up with the AT-AT this morning.

- MicroScout Computer

Same deal as the one with the Droid Developer Kit, but this one is a more sinister looking black/gray base with red trim. All of the programs are the same as the ones that are detailed in my DDK review, so I won't bother listing them all again.

- Droid Fighter (Beginner level)

This one is pretty simple, and only uses about $5 worth of basic parts in combo with the MicroScout. Oddly, it's probably the most realistic looking model of the four. As a walker model, I suspect that it would work best on a dense carpet, such as you usually find in public buildings. My new apartment, however, has shag carpet (where it doesn't walk at all) and a linoleum kitchen (where it does move, but it doesn't get much traction.) so I couldn't really get it to do much. It does look cool though. Also, due to the simplicity of the walker design, it can't walk backwards without reversing the legs.

- Destroyer Droid (Intermediate level)

Well, they learned from their mistake with the Droid Developer Kit and they included hard copy instructions for all four models instead of a CD-ROM (non-Mac, of course) with instructions for the alternate models. This model is easily the worst of the four. It looks far too boxy and stunted for the sleek Droidekas in the movie, and while I normally defend the Technic/Mindstorms sets in that regard, this one is just plain ugly. And I couldn't get mine to work at all. What's supposed to happen is that the rear leg has a wheel on it with a ratcheting assembly, and the whole thing is hooked up to a rather neat crank system that causes the leg to flex in and out. When it does so, the wheel is supposed to be able to turn in one direction (allowing forward movement) but engage the ratcheting system to prevent it from slipping backwards. The ratchet assembly, unfortunately, is supposed to be engaged by gravity, and it's not heavy enough to do so. Mine just kinda sat there looking like it was doing aerobics. This was only compounded by the fact that there is a secondary assembly attached to the leg that makes the arms move back and forth, causing the Droideka to look like it's shadow-boxing. I suspect that it might be possible to use the horde of remaining pieces (this model uses a little less than half of them) to rig up one of the three rubber bands that was provided (and not used in any of the four SW models...) to force the ratcheting system to engage. I, however, was not willing to fuss around with it because I wanted to move on to the AT-AT.

- AAT (Advanced level)

This one was a close second to the Droideka for Ugliest Model in this set. It looks like someone strapped AAT looking stuff on top of a car to make a parade float. Unlike the Droideka, it works quite nicely when you get it all put together. Or perhaps I should say IF you get it put together. You see, they decided to be extra challenging with this one. They show you pictures of about eight different completed sub-assemblies, and the final assembled model. Not only do you have to figure out how to make all of the different sub-assemblies without detailed instructions, but you have to figure out how they all attach to each other. I'm still not sure I got the 'wings' on the lower forward hull attached correctly... Anyways, when completed, it drives forward or backwards, depending on the selected program. A secondary assembly causes the turret to swing side to side while it's driving. Or rather, due to the way it is attached, it causes it to swing to one side, and then slam to the other side. It looks rather odd as it's driving around.

- AT-AT (Advanced level)

Unlike the AAT, this one has full instructions, which is good. I say this because this model is more complicated than the other three combined, and is most likely the primary, if not only, reason people are going to buy this set.

This one reaches the standard level of the Technic/Mindstorms sets when it comes to accuracy. It has lots of open walls in various places, and it's missing a few small items. Most notably, it's missing the two cannons mounted on the sides of the head. (I used spare parts to add a pair that has a limited up/down pivot, and, for the most part, matches the chin guns) Also, there's the lack of knee articulation, but I never expected them to do it anyways.

The head actually does swing from side to side, and if you don't build the neck joint too tightly, it will do so as the AT-AT is walking. The walking mechanism in this is uber-cool, causing the legs to lift up off the ground as they start to take a step, and then plant themselves firmly at the end. This thing can even tackle shag carpet. It was so cool watching it lumber across my living room that I remembered fondly back to that day in college when I got Galoob's Action Fleet Remote Control AT-AT and sent it clomping across Eurasia on my friend's Risk board. In the middle of a game.

(Now, before you judge me too harshly, I should point out that everyone thought it was highly amusing, and all of the countries that I ravaged with my Imperial war machine were controlled by the same player and all had exactly one army each, so no harm was done other than a slight game delay.) Even with how lacking the rest of the models are, this one is highly worth the price of the set and is twice as cool as the R2-D2 model in the DDK. I also used some more spare parts to custom build a chair in the forward section of the main body so my vintage Snowtrooper can ride along. Sadly, there's not quite enough room in the head for an AT-AT pilot, unless you bend his legs or chop off his feet. (Yes, I actually care about this. I've got a Battle Droid piloting the secondary AAT model from the Technic Destroyer Droid, an AT-ST Pilot piloting the secondary AT-ST model from the Technic Battle Droid, and a 12" scale Pit Droid riding the secondary Speederbike from the Technic Pit Droid, and I wanted to continue the tradition.)

Mindstorms Droid Developer Kit

Running almost a C-note before taxes, this set is only for SW LEGO completists (like myself) or people who are really interested in the Mindstorms sets. If it wasn't for the electronic control box, this set would have probably cost $60-70. It includes an instruction book (this thing is 1/4" thick and is bound like a paper-back novel!), a little flyer trying to entice you to get the basic Mindstorms set (the show the basic MS control box mounted on R2's back, which probably allows for fancier features, or more precise control, at the very least.) and a CD-ROM that I haven't had the time to explore yet. I believe the CD-ROM includes partial instructions for the STAP w/ Battle Droid, the Gungan Sub, and maybe a few other things that aren't pictured on the back of the box. The important thing to note is that they do not include full instructions for either of those sets. They do include full instructions in the book for building the trainer droid called L-3GO (and if you can't figure that one out, there's no hope for you...), R2-D2, and this sorta bug-looking car-ish droid with a big grabber-arm on front, which is shown on the back of the box.

For a shelf-piece, the R2-D2 has the strengths and weaknesses of pretty much every Technic set. It has a lot of detail, and the basic shape is dead on, but there's tons of gaps and missing sections. The back half of his head is built similar to the Technic Pit Droid's. It has the same basic pose as the R2-D2 telephone (if you don't have one of those, go find one right now and buy it!) but it's about 3/4 the size. The head, sadly, doesn't turn. In fact, the only parts that move are the three wheels and the middle foot, which turns in one direction. The way the foot works is that when the motor turns in one direction, R2's middle foot straightens itself out and he rolls straightforward. When the motor turns the other direction, the foot pivots to one side and he does circles in reverse. If you buy one and want to change the directions around, in steps 3-4 on page 39, flip the gear and the two bushings around so the little gear is on the same side of the assembly as the big outer g ears. Make sure the little gear is oriented in the opposite direction as well. This will make it so that when he should do reverse circles, he'll do forward circles, and when he should drive straightforward he'll drive straight backwards.

The Micro Scout (that's the little computer device mounted in R2's chest) is pretty basic as Mindstorms control devices go. It has the following programs:

1. One Direction
It does reverse circles. (This is specifically why I changed the gear system around, because there isn't any program that has it just drive forward)

2. Two Directions
Same as Program 1, but after doing a few loops it will drive straightforward.

3. Seek Light
Same as Program 1, but when the light sensor detects a direct beam of light, it will change direction. It will stop if you break the beam of light, and it will go forward again once the light is restored.

4. Light Control
This time it sits still, and as long as the light sensor is activated, it will drive. It starts out in forward, and if you flash the light beam twice, like you double-click a Mouse, it will switch to reverse. Flash twice again and it will switch back to forward, and so on. But again, if the light sensor isn't being triggered, it will just stop where it is.

5. Keep Alive
It starts out sitting still again, and if you rapidly flash a light at it, it will drive forward, accelerating as it goes. Stop flashing the light and it will slow to a stop.

6. Alarm
It starts at rest again, and when it detects a change in the light, it starts rocking back and forth. This looks weirder than it sounds, because every time it goes in reverse, it turns a little bit, so it does a very strange dance. I'm not sure about the L-3GO droid, but R2 comes darn close to falling over with the direction changes. I have to admit that it might be a problem that doesn't exist without my gear changes.

7. Code
The Micro Scout plays a short series of beeps, which sounds like Morse Code. It gives you a cue and you have to repeat the code with flashes from a flashlight. If you get it correct, it will drive a few inches forward. If you smeg up, it will go in reverse for a few inches and let you try again, up to three tries. After that, you've got to push the Run button again.

P. ?
This function isn't actually programmed into the Micro Scout. They left it purposefully blank to allow for a feature to be added to it whenever they figure out a new one. Or something like that.

Cool as this thing looks, it can be improved on. After all, what fun is R2 without all of his wacky gadgets? You end up with a horde of leftover parts after making R2-D2, and I used them to make removable gadgets that can be stored in the hollow part of his back. Specifically, I made his sensor-scope, data-link, and that little cutter blade that he used to chop through the Ewok net. I'm hoping to get my POTF2, MM, and LEGO customs up on the Net soon, so whenever that happens, I'll include pix of my gadgets and that gear change for those of you who couldn't understand my description.