Today's post comes on behalf of my wife. A few years back, she missed out on the Lego 75136 Droid Escape Pod set and has been searching for it ever since. After a little hunting, I managed to track one down and surprise her on Christmas Day. She just completed the build, so I thought I'd take the chance to grab a few photos and share our thoughts.
All up, this is one of the nicest Star Wars builds I've seen in a long time. Lego does all it can to keep the prices of these mid-size sets down, but often this means they come out feeling a little light on parts - lacking density and seeming a little fragile as a result. Not so here, however. The construction is tightly packed and sturdy as hell. It feels like this pod really could survive a crash landing.
The main sculpt is based around four large curved panels that carry most of the graphic detailing. Sadly these pieces are stickered, not printed - but again, this is about Lego doing its best to maximise the affordability of its sets. The necessity of the stickers also becomes apparent once you realise that several of the panels are decorated both inside and out - with the internal walls featuring a display screen and an adorable window with a view of the underside of the Devastator. Utilising these four large panels to fill out most of the build also allows for the remaining piece count to be used in providing an insane level of detail elsewhere. The exterior of the pod features eight separately gimbaled thrusters, a printed cockpit window, and even two tiny manoeuvring jets on the nose. The fantastic detailing continues on the interior, where a novel building technique changes the orientation of the studs. C-3PO and R2-D2 each receive their own mount, with handlebars for the pilot. A (stickered) control panel can also be removed to reveal the (printed) stolen Death Star plans.
This set should make a great companion to the just-released Luke Skywalker's Landspeeder and Obi-Wan's Hut sets - both of which my wife and I already have our eyes on!
The main sculpt is based around four large curved panels that carry most of the graphic detailing. Sadly these pieces are stickered, not printed - but again, this is about Lego doing its best to maximise the affordability of its sets. The necessity of the stickers also becomes apparent once you realise that several of the panels are decorated both inside and out - with the internal walls featuring a display screen and an adorable window with a view of the underside of the Devastator. Utilising these four large panels to fill out most of the build also allows for the remaining piece count to be used in providing an insane level of detail elsewhere. The exterior of the pod features eight separately gimbaled thrusters, a printed cockpit window, and even two tiny manoeuvring jets on the nose. The fantastic detailing continues on the interior, where a novel building technique changes the orientation of the studs. C-3PO and R2-D2 each receive their own mount, with handlebars for the pilot. A (stickered) control panel can also be removed to reveal the (printed) stolen Death Star plans.
This set should make a great companion to the just-released Luke Skywalker's Landspeeder and Obi-Wan's Hut sets - both of which my wife and I already have our eyes on!
