Neimoidian Warrior (75041) Lego Star Wars Minifigure Review

The Neimoidian Warriors or members of the Neimoidian Gunnery Battalion were appointed as guards to provide important officials with protection.  And it’s in this capacity that we see them in Episode III:  Revenge Of The Sith.  No, not piloting vulture droids!  We see two Neimoidian Warriors in a couple of scenes towards the end of the film on Mustafar posing with their rather elaborate sniper rifles.  Unfortunately we do not see them in actual combat:  they didn't look particularly nimble and the choice of sniper rifle for close combat in a confined space with a young Sith Lord is an interesting one.

Neimoidians are humanoids who are distant genetic relatives of Duros and are better known for their greed and cowardice than combat prowess.   The only other Neimoidian that we see in Lego Minifgure form is Nute Gunray who has appeared in two variants: a clone wars (2009) and Episode III version (2012).   Neimoidians are described as having an obsession with status which they often display through elaborate clothing.  This is seen in Episodes I-III in the various headdresses that Nute Gunray and Rune Haako wear that Lego neatly captured in the minifigure versions.  The Neimoidian Warriors are not too shabby either being clad in bronze armour and helmet.

This is the first Lego minifigure that we see of the Neimoidian Warrior (and probably the last for a good number of years) and is exclusive to the Winter 2014 set:  75041 Vulture Droid.  And a fantastic minifgure it is, Lego have done a cracking job providing a figure which is very detailed and accurate to what we see in the film.

Taking a closer look at the minifigure: the eye is immediately drawn to the beautifully printed torso.  Being predominantly dark brown in appearance it has an almost reptilian-like scale armour plating with larger more elaborate armour plating across the upper torso and shoulders.  The use of lighter brown colours and highlights to bring out the shine on the bronze armour plating is beautifully done.    There are a few pouches on the lower torso whose print continues onto the hip part of the leg piece (at the front).  The torso print is continued on the rear with similar dark brown, light brown and armour plating highlights.  The arms are plain dark brown with olive green hands which complements the olive green head piece.

The scaley pattern of dark brown and black line detail complemented by larger highlighted armour plates continues on the predominantly dark brown legs.  The leg printing continues below the knees and ends in a ‘top of boot’ print.

The helmet catches the eye next and resembles a Roundhead ‘lobster pot’ helmet from the English Civil War.  It is segmented in a design that offers a protection to the neck as well as the brow ridge.  There is a hole on the top of the helmet to the rear which has clearly been designed to wear a crest on a previous minifigure (A white crest on a black variation of this piece in a 2001 set:  6291 Armada Flagship).  This piece has been seen in a silver grey colour in a number of the Indiana Jones sets from 2008 and 2009, but I believe this is the first time we have seen it in brown.  The helmet is a slightly lighter brown colour when compared to the Torso.   I initially found this a little odd, but is in line with the colour of the breast and shoulder armour plates on the Torso and accurate to the film.  A little bit of highlighting on the helmet to bring off the shine of the bronze would have been the icing on the cake, but alas it is plain brown.  Helmet printing on the Kashyyyk Troopers in the winter 2014 wave has clearly raised my expectations!

I had expected the same head piece as that found on the 2012 variant of Nute Gunray, but this is a new head piece.  With a single print to the front, being predominantly olive green in colour it has a darker green facial markings and lines in a different arrangement to the Nute Gunray Head Piece.  The shadows around the eyes are a slightly lighter shade of orange and less pronounced than the Nute Gunray 2012 version.

The figure is armed with a brown musket, a piece I remeber playing with in the Lego Pirate range back in the 1980's.  This felt a little odd and out of place, although drew a pang of nostalgi initially.  Are Lego going to create a new piece specifically for the elaborate sniper rifle we see the Neimoidians carrying in the film:  considering how obscure the character is: no.  Would a standard sniper rifle look right?  On its own no, but possibly a Rako Hardeen approach of dark brown sniper rifle and dark brown lightsaber hilt would have worked better?  The end result is not ideal, but not too upsetting in the context of the overall minifigure.

All in all a great little minifigure, certainly my reason for buying 75041:  Vulture Droid.  There were two Nemoidian Warriors in the film so if I am going to recreate a Mustafar scene it looks like I am going to need to buy another one of this set.  Getting a second vulture droid, along with another buzz droid is no bad thing, and whilst initially I was unsure why it was included in this set, it has a slight logic from a:  "I'm going to buy multiple copies of this set" mentality.  Let's not overthink this: enjoy....

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