Luke Skywalker - Bacta Tank Outfit (7879) Lego Star Wars Minifigure

“Master Luke it’s so good to see you fully functional again” C-3PO Episode VI The Empire Strikes Back

I guess after heroically dispatching the Death Star at the end of Episode IV A New Hope, our wannabe Jedi needed taking down a peg or two.  Throughout Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, Luke Skywalker has a pretty torrid time:  mauled by a Hoth Wampa; he crashes his X-Wing on Dagobah; finds out his father is Darth Vader; loses a hand, not to mention being kissed on the lips by his sister.

In the 7879 Hoth Echo Base Lego set released in 2011 we get a completely different Luke Skywalker Lego Minifigure, a unique variant that is not available in any other sets.  I have seen this described as the Bacta Tank Outfit, although the word outfit is probably a bit misleading.  The minifigure links in with the scene in which Luke is seen in recovery immersed and suspended in a Bacta Tank.

The minifigure is made up of four pieces.

The hair is tan coloured and tousled and layered in appearance and is also seen on the Luke Skywalker (Tatooine) minfigure variant from 7965 Millennium Falcon which was also released in 2011.  In 2011 this was a unique piece created especially for Luke, but has since been seen in 10233 Horizon Express (2013) and 10243 Parisian Restaurant (2014).   Prior to this many Luke minifgures had worn tan (blonde) long female hair.

The head piece is light flesh coloured and dual sided.  On one side we have a bacta tank mask instead of a mouth –this is black in colour with a central silver valve and nose clip.  If the head piece is aligned correctly continues into a black breathing tube which is displayed on the front of the Torso.  There are two red circles on the mask at approximately 2 o clock and 9 o clock positions.  The remainder of the face is interesting with a scar and ‘black’ eye on the right side of the face which are defined by orange brown markings.  The eyebrows are described by dark brown thin lines.  The second face print on the rear has a wry (sloping) smile to it and arched eyebrows which seems made for the “I guess you don’t know everything about women yet” moment from the film.  Moving swiftly on.  One of the slight issues with this head piece is that the black eye and scar would have been great on the Luke Skywalker (Hoth) variant from the 8089 Hoth Wampa Cave from 2010, but because Lego have printed the breathing apparatus on the head instead of going for a Cad Bane-like attachment it means we can’t effectively swap it.

Torso-wise we have a double printed torso which is predominantly light flesh in colour with orange-brown markings to pick skin folds/details on the front.  The print is simple displaying the harness (in white) that suspended him in the bacta tank to the front and rear.  In addition the tube from the breathing apparatus is described in dark silver/grey with black line detailing starting at the centre top and curving round to the right side of Luke’s torso.  The torso is completed by light flesh hands and arms.

The Legs have another simple print to the front, being primarily light flesh in colour with white hips.  A light grey harness is seen across the upper legs which is light grey in colour with a silver buckle off-centre on the upper left leg.  The harness also has additional square white buckle?? features.

All in all this is a simple, accurate representation of Luke scantily clad in white briefs and bacta harness.  Within the context of the Bacta Tank and accompanying 2-1B medical droid that are supplied in set 7879 it is difficult to fault this minifigure aside from my previous comment about the breathing apparatus.

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TC-4 (5002122) Lego Star Wars Minifigure Review

Since 2010 Lego has released special giveaways/promotional minifgures to coincide with May the Fourth, the proposed international Star Wars day each year.  This has often been tied in with purchases from the Lego.com shop: spend x and receive a special promotion polybag.  They have also been provided to Toy Retailers such as Toys R Us and Smyths Toys as free giveaways with purchases above a certain amount and have been also been made available at toy fairs.

TC-4 was given away free at Toys R Us stores in the UK with Lego Star Wars purchases of £10 or more between 9^th February and 9^th March 2014.  In some stores it was sold on the open shelf at £4.99 with a limit of 3 purchases per customer.  TC-4 was first seen as a promotional giveaway for the first 150 customers at the Toys R Us Hong Kong store in January 2014.  At the time of writing this article there is continued speculation as to whether TC-4 will be the Lego May The Fourth Promotion for 2014.

Protocol droids have been a common theme in these promotional giveaways.  In 2007, 10,000 gold chrome plated C-3PO minifgures (4521221) were randomly included in Star Wars sets in a Wonka-esque move  to coincide with the 30^th anniversary of Star Wars.  In 2012, in polybag 5000063 we got TC-14 (the protocol droid which played host to Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan at the start of Episode I:  The Phantom Menace).  The chrome plating on TC-14 was the highlight of this nicely detailed minifgure based on the 2012 redesign of C-3PO from 9490 Droid Escape.

And now we have TC-4.  TC-Who?  Those eagle-eyed Star Wars fans will have spotted a red protocol droid in The Empire Strikes Back in Echo Base, but alas – no this is R-3PO and he popped up in 2011 in 7879 Hoth Echo Base.  Whilst TC-4 has a good resemblance to this droid, "it is not the droid we are looking for".  Like a Mos Eisley Sandtrooper you can keep watching the films, trying to spot TC-4, but rest assured there are no Jedi playing mind tricks on you, he is not in Episodes I-VI.  And no this is not the point I drop the bombshell that he is going to appear in Episode VII, although neither am I in a position to categorically deny say that he won’t be in the new film.  Consulting the oracle that is Wookieepedia, we have a reference to TC-4 in the Star Wars Chronicles:  The Prequels reference book.  TC-4 was apparently a red protocol droid who assisted Senator Palpatine and featured  in a deleted scene that never made it into Episode I:  The Phantom Menace. 

Wow.  I hope you were sat down for that one.

So we have an obscure, never seen before protocol droid, that is not golden, silver or even chrome.  Are Lego scraping the barrel here??  Let’s take a look at the minifigure.

TC-4 is a nicely detailed minifgure and I believe is the first time we see leg printing on a protocol droid.

The overall minifgure is dark red in colour and composed of three pieces.  If you have picked up the new 2014 Imperial Guard in set 75034 Death Star Troopers it is the same dark red as the arms. 

The head piece is the standard protocol head mould which we have seen since the year 2000.  The piece has yellow photoreceptors (eyes) with a black spot which is just off-centre.  Opening to the mouth is silver on the upper side. 

The Torso is printed on both sides and largely follows the C-3PO theme that was first seen in 9490 Droid Escape.  With a dark red base colour the droids plating is defined by dark grey lines, but is further accentuated through use of silver lines and black line details.  This combination of black and silver line detail is also seen around the neckline.  There is an exposed section on the lower torso to front and rear showing a collection of silver, gold, blue and dark red wires.  The number of wires, layout and colour of the wires differs from the C-3PO 2012 torso print.

The rear torso print is very similar to the C-3PO 2012, but has dark grey and silver detail instead of the black and dark red lines on C-3PO.

The hips and legs are dark red, both have printing to the front.  The hips have a single curved grey line which continues the torso print.   Longitudinal marks in a dark grey colour define the plating on the upper leg with dual silver lines on the right leg.  Silver and black lines on both legs define the detail around and below the knee joint.  Close inspection of the library of images of protocol droids from the Star Wars universe suggest that Lego have done a good job with the leg printing.

Without a doubt it is a nicely detailed minifigure.  Given its exclusivity it is no doubt going to be collectable and for those that can get their hands on them great:  put one in the display cabinet, any surplus keep them safe, forget about them and pass onto your great grandchildren so they can sell/exchange one for a return ticket to the Sea Of Tranquillity in years to come.

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General Rieekan (75014) Lego Star Wars Minifigure Review

“You’re a good fighter Solo, I hate to lose you”

Carlist Rieekan was an Alderaanian General and veteran of the Clone Wars, but is best known to Star Wars fans for leading the Republic Forces during the Battle Of Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back.

  

Whilst Hoth was a crushing defeat to the Rebels, Rieekan’s careful security and evacuation measures led to many survivors of the overwhelming Imperial invasion.  Rieekan survives Hoth and his story continues far into the future in the Expanded Universe series of novels and is even called out of retirement in the Yuuzhan Vong War 27 years after the Battle Of Yavin. 

General Rieekan first appears in Lego Minfigure form in 2013 and at the time of writing remains unique to set 75014 Battle of Hoth.

In the film Rieekan is mostly seen directing operations from the command centre in Echo Base and so would naturally seem to be more at home in the 7879 Hoth Echo Base set from 2011, rather than in a set which is suggestive of him leading troops in the trenches on the front line.   Not a moan, just an observation.

The minifigure is composed of 4 pieces, with blaster pistol and a two piece cold-weather helmet and goggles.

The figure has the same head as the 2010 version of Professor Snape (4842 Hogwarts Castle) with a   single print to the front with a serious determined expression:  “Princess, we have a visitor”.  The print has heavy black eyebrows above black rounded eyes with white pupils and light brown facial lines to the sides of the mouth and crease between the eyebrows.

The dark bluish grey hair piece has short smooth combed hair from a parting on the left side.  This piece is the same shaped piece that we have seen on a number of Obi-Wan Kenobi variants in a dark orange colour.  The hair piece can be replaced by a cold-weather helmet and snow goggles combination in a similar style to the Hoth Rebel Troopers in the set.  The snow goggles can clip into a choice of two sets of holes, so that they can be worn over the eyes or over the helmet.

The torso is dark tan in colour representing the snow jacket we frequently see him wearing in the film.  The snow jacket has two pockets highlighted by black and crimson red lines as well as an insignia on his right chest.   On the lower part of the torso a simple belt (dark brown) and buckle (silver) print can be seen.   The arms are dark tan in colour with white gloves.  The torso has printing on the rear which continues the themes we see on the front: criss-crossed upper part of the snow jacket; brown belt and brown crease lines to the lower part of the snow jacket.

The Legs and hips are both dark tan colour with no printing.

Overall this is a good minifigure.  I find it difficult to pick fault: the lack of leg printing (despite being commonplace in 2013) does not really bother me.  If I was being extremely picky, then perhaps a new head piece instead of the re-use of Professor Snape’s head would be a consideration:   Rieekan has grey hair – grey eyebrows perhaps?  They certainly weren’t black in the film.  As an additional point: the hood is the same as that worn by the Hoth Rebel Troopers.  Being tan in colour it is not exactly consistent with the dark tan colour of General Rieekan’s torso or legs.  A dark tan coloured hood would have been a nice option.

We have seen a couple of variants of General Veers over the years (and maybe another one very soon?) so it’s good to see Rieekan in Lego Minifigure form.  I can’t imagine we will see too much more of him in future minifigure variants.

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Han Solo - Hoth Parka Outfit (7879) Lego Star Wars Minifigure Review

“There isn't enough life on this ice cube to fill a space cruiser”  

Han Solo was conspicuous in the Hoth scenes in Empire Strikes Back in his dark-blue heavy weather parka.  While other rebel personnel and soldiers wore cream/tan uniforms Solo’s attire set him apart.  I remember having the Kenner figure of this back in the 1980’s, and have now developed a soft spot for the Lego minifigure.

It is no surprise that there have been a number of variants of Han Solo in his Hoth attire over the years.  Today we will look at the unique minifigure variant from the 7879 Hoth Echo Base set.  Whilst opinion can be divided over the quality of the set: playabiity vs film likeness etc there were some great minifigures in the box. Han Solo in his cold weather Hoth gear has also appeared in:

• 4504 Millennium Falcon (2004);
• 6212 X Wing Fighter (2006) – without parka hood;
• 7749 Echo Base (2009);

The Han Solo Hoth – Heavy-Weather Gear/Parka Outfit (whatever you want to call it) has also been captured in Lego Minifigure form in a promotional polybag (5001621) released as part of Lego’s annual “May The Fourth” promotion in 2013.  The head piece was double-sided, one side showing Han with goggles with the lower part of the face covered up, and the other depicting Han with a grimace.  Whilst this version had a touch of exclusivity to it and was superbly detailed, it was predominantly dark brown in colour which departs significantly from what we see in the film.

Our subject for today is composed of 5 pieces and is equipped with a blaster pistol.

There is a simple print to the front of the face with a slight curl to the mouth on the right side of the face.  Simple, but it has an element of ‘scoundrel’ to it: “You should have seen us alone in the South Passage. She expressed her true feeling's for me”.  There is quite heavy reddish-brown eyebrows above simple rounded black eyes with white pupils and finally a brown line to accentuate the chin.

On the head we have a choice of standard reddish-brown hair or a detailed parka hood.  The parka hood is done very well and is on my minifigure the majority of the time.

The torso is printed to the front only, with details on the torso including: white Macrobinoculars/Electrobinoculars with black line detailing hanging from a brown strap slung over his right shoulder;  Insignia on his left chest; and printing continuing the parka hood theme tied around a v-neck coat opening showing a dark brown undergarment.  The overall torso has a dark blue base colour and arms and flesh coloured hands. 

The legs and torso are identical to the 2009 variant, with the principal difference being the parka hood (and head piece).

The legs are tan coloured with dark blue hips showing brown belt and silver buckle detail.  A holster print is present on his right upper leg, with orange-brown and silver buckling detail consistent with the belt.  Overall the legs have evolved little from the reddish-brown legs and hips seen in the 2006 variant.

Whilst the small blaster pistol that Han is equipped seems commonplace in Lego sets of recent years, this set and figure from 2011 was the first time it was seen.  Probably a bit of useful trivia, but QI.

Based on the current standard of minifigures in 2014, it is easy to look back at this minfigure and expect double printing to the torso and a second facial expression on the rear of the head piece.  I’m sure given the significance of the Battle Of Hoth that Lego will no doubt release another variant at some point in the future.  But this is a perfectly satisfying minifigure that looks great astride a Taun-Taun.   An enjoyable little minifgure!

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