Wednesday 11 July 2012

LEGO Star Wars - Buildable Galaxy

Ahoy!

A break from fiction! Now then, this post may be better suited to a LEGO and/or Star Wars forum (or maybe most things Amy Ratcliffe or Bonnie Burton works on/writes about), but I'm not 'hired to scribe' just yet, so this will have to do! ^^

Oh and if you happen to be a reader not that familiar with Star Wars, then I'd keep a tab open for Wookieepedia just in case...! Haha

Recently a little series of LEGO Star Wars sets came out which immediately caught my interest. I've always loved the mini vehicle sets that started years ago, but they have since evolved into exclusive bagged sets that are only available through promotional means (included with newspaper tokens or how much one spends at a shop, etc).

http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Wars_Mini

However, 2012 has seen the start of retail-available mini-kits once again...But with added bonuses; they each come with a relative Minifigure and an appropriate celestial body that you can hang from a ceiling (and such)! They're generally referred to as 'planets' but they also include moons and a particular Space Station, which so far is the only one to feature two different hemispheres due to the superlaser. The other planets' two hemisphere halves are exact copies, which is a nice money-saver, but can be flawed when trying to make the patterns match with each other (in my opinion the patterning seems to be the only design flaw...But it's not too big of a deal). As for the display options, you can either stand them up or hang them with the provided ring-piece. I'd definitely recommend the latter (since when do planets land? Hehe), especially since you'll have a Death Star hovering in the room!

This main selling point of these sets are quite clever in that you get three types of LEGO set in one (something for everyone, really). The planets can be decorative, the mini-kits for the collectability and display value and the Minifigures are ideal for those who are looking for particular characters *without* forking out lots of money for a large set (Sebulba is the best example...The only other set he comes with is around £80) and they're also ideal for exclusive characters too. Lando Calrissian's aide Lobot will be available for the first time in ten years (back then LEGO Star Wars Minifigures still had yellow 'skin'...Comparison beneath...A decade between them! O.o), so will be a perfect addition to any LEGO Star Wars collection.





But for future releases, the potential is even greater! Especially with the planets, as you'll be able to create your own LEGO galaxy! (A nice Star Wars alternative to so many Solar System models we keep seeing hanging from ceilings!)


At the moment we have:

Death Star - TIE Pilot - TIE Interceptor


Naboo - Bravo Pilot - N-1 Starfighter


Tatooine - Sebulba - Sebulba's Podracer




And the next wave is about to be unleashed:

Bespin - Lobot - Twin-Pod Cloud Car


(Forest Moon of) Endor - AT-ST Pilot - AT-ST


Yavin 4 - Rebel Pilot - X-Wing Starfighter



So far so good! But hopefully they'll continue. Only the boffins at LEGO know what the future holds, but personally I'd like to see:

Kamino - Jango Fett (since they redesigned the helmet and jetpack for Boba, Jango should be the next logical step) - Slave I (we've had mini Slave Is before, but Jango's can do with an 'upgrade'!)

Geonosis - Count Dooku (we haven't had an updated 'live action' Dooku for a while) - Solar Sailer

Utapau - General Grievous (same reason for Dooku) - Either Grievous' Starfighter 'Soulless One' or his Wheel Bike

Kashyyyk - Chewbacca or Tarfful (of course Chewie's more popular, but he's had so many releases that I'd be happy with either) - Wookiee Catamaran

Mustafar - A pre-suited Darth Vader would be cool, but you could have Darth Sidious or one of his personal Shock Troopers - Emperor's Shuttle

Alderaan - Bail Organa (or Princess Leia...Same popular-but-common reason as Chewie) - Tantive IV (Obviously...!)

Hoth - General Rieekan or General Veers (they can go either Rebel or Imperial with this) - Snowspeeder or AT-AT (They too need upgrading, so...Naturally)

I've purposefully missed out Dagobah, because I think they've missed a trick; they should've included the Y-Wing with Yavin 4 rather than the X-Wing, because the only vehicle associated with Dagobah is Luke's X-Wing (they *could* have Yoda's escape pod...But I don't think they'd do that, to be honest. Not even as a regular set)

Anyway, there are so many planets from the Clone Wars (Felucia, Mygeeto, Cato Neimoidia, Saleucami, Christophsis, Raxus Prime, etc) with so many potential characters (Aayla Secura and Cad Bane definitely being some of my favourites) and so many Republic, Seperatist and Bounty Hunter vehicles to choose from...Who/what would you like to see?


AM

(All images courtesy of Brickipedia and, of course, LEGO Group).

No comments:

Post a Comment