41st Elite Corps Clone Trooper (75035) Lego Star Wars Minifgure Review

"The droids have started up their main power generators."
"Then now, the time, is Commander"

Yoda and Commander Gree.  Episode III:  Revenge Of The Sith

The Battle of Kashyyyk sequence in Episode III:  Revenge Of The Sith lasts a little over two minutes, but what a great sequence it is.  Wookiees in full combat (proving it wasn't just Chewbacca who watched Tarzan as a cub/pup or whatever young Wookiees are called) taking on the Separatist Droid armies as they cross the lagoon in the Wawaat archipelago to attack the Wookiee city of Kachirho.   The Wookiees are supported by camouflaged clone troopers and the Scout Troopers of the 41st Elite Corps.

The Battle of Kashyyyk has not received much by way of attention from Lego in previous years so the Winter 2014 wave of Lego sets have been welcomed.

The 41st Elite Corps Troopers were led by Jedi General Luminara Unduli and Clone Commander Gree who have both been the subject of previous minifgure versions, but the Troopers themselves have not been seen in minifigure form with the exception of the Clone Scout Trooper who was released in 2005 in the 7261 Clone Turbo Tank set.  The 75035 Kashyyyk Troopers battle pack in the winter wave of 2014 seeks to address this.  The 41st Elite Corps Trooper (Clone Scout Trooper/Swamp Trooper) can be found in this battle pack and also the 75042 Droid Gunship set from the same wave.

Ever since I saw the first picture of these back in 2013 I have been looking forward to getting my hands on these, and they don't disappoint.

Just like the Kashyyyk Clone Troopers that we see in the same battle pack, the eye is immediately drawn to the yellowish/olive green camouflage printing on helmet and torso of the minifigure.

Very distinctive, something I have never seen before and accurate with what we see in the film.

The helmet piece has evolved somewhat in comparison to the Endor Scout Trooper.  I show the plain form of the Scout Trooper from 9489 Endor Rebel Trooper and Imperial Trooper Battle Pack from 2012.  How things have moved on in just 2 years.

The marbling of the camouflage colours is focused on the front and sides of the helmet with the yellowish/olive-green base more clearly seen on the top and rear of the helmet.  The visor is printed in a slightly bluish green colour.

The head piece is identical to the head seen in the 2013 Phase 1 Clone Trooper.  This is single printed to the front.  Given this is a battle pack and a number of these will commonly be bought to "army build" I find it a little disappointing that we don't get an alternative facial expression on the rear, or as we see in 75034 Death Star Trooper Battle Pack - have two differing heads in a set where we get two otherwise identical troopers.  Constructive criticism Lego, I'm not moaning...

The Torso certainly has it where it counts.  A double sided print incorporates a camouflaged mottled vest over a dark brown base layer.  A number of pouches are seen around the belt line with dark grey on the tan coloured belt.  It certainly gives the impression of Troopers travelling light (with everything strapped to the waistline), yet able to survive during extended reconnaissance missions in difficult terrain.

The Torso is a good contrast to the plated Phase 2 armour camouflaged torso on the  Kashyyyk Clone Troopers.

The printing to the front of the Torso continues onto the yellowish/olive green hips.  I'm not a great fan of the disjointing you get in printing between Torso and Leg pieces, this being the only flaw in an otherwise fantastic minifigure.

The legs are dark brown in colour and include printing to the front depicting strapping around the hips and a touch more camouflage mottling on the knee pads.

The rear of the Torso includes a combination of grey and black detailed lines outlining a small backpack, more belt pouches.  The arms are plain yellowish green in colour and hands/gloves are black.  

The figures are of course equipped with the new 2014 blaster:  not accurate to the film, but great for playability and to keep long suffering fathers like myself busy retrieving ammo from underneath furniture.

What can I say:  a very satisfying minifigure in an accessible and affordable set, steering clear of the 2014 blaster debate what is there not to like.  Good job Lego, keep it coming....

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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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R-3PO (7879) Lego Star Wars Minifigure Review

Now I thought I had seen The Empire Strikes Back a few times.  If not measured in the thousands, certainly in the high hundreds.  But for the life of me I could not recall a red protocol droid in Echo Base on Hoth.  A white protocol droid – yes, clear as day in the command centre.

I thought my powers of observation were pretty good, although the last few times I watched the film with an inquisitive child sat next to me – it has not been quite the same:  “What do Taun-Tans eat daddy?” Does snow really burn daddy? (Probe Droid Crater at the start of the film) and boy do I rue the day when I first mentioned force ghosts!

So having sat down in peace to watch the film with the sole intention of spotting a red protocol droid I succeeded.  He appears in two scenes in the hangar bay of Echo Base.  When Solo returns to the base on Taun-Taun at the start of the film having placed his sensors, R-3PO walks round the front of an X-Wing.   You see him again loitering in the hangar just prior to Princess Leia briefing the pilots before the battle.

As a relatively recent collector, personally I would have much preferred the white protocol droid K-3PO, but he appeared in the 2007 set 7666 Hoth Rebel Base, unfortunately prior to my Lego and Star Wars re-awakening/resurrection.

Read a little deeper and you find that R-3PO has a backstory courtesy of the Star Wars Customizable Card Game released in 1996.  Well I’m overwhelmed (Please feel free to replace with the more emotive quote from Al Pacino’s character in the film Heat from 1995).  So he is a protocol droid that has been re-programmed in a counter espionage role and sports a tattoo on his left posterior that reads “Thank The Maker”.

Enough flannelling around, onto the minifigure.  R-3PO is a unique minifigure that can only be found in the 7879 Hoth Echo Base set released in 2011.  And it’s probably fair to say that Lego fans are not going to be crying out for a second variant any time soon.

The minifigure is composed of 3 pieces and is not equipped with any accessories or weapons.

In appearance the head, torso and legs resemble the C-3PO minifigure variant that we have seen from 2008 up to the 2012 redesign, with the exception that the pieces are a crimson red.  So we have the same black detailing breastplates and concentric zone detailing on the front of the Torso and black detailing on the rear.  Crimson red legs.  And no Tattoo on the posterior.  Boo.

Interestingly, reading some of the set reviews from 2011 I see a lot of excitement around this minifigure – how cool he is etc.  Personally I don’t see it and get far more excited about the Luke, Han and Leia minifigures in this set.

Perhaps part of the problem is that my first protocol droid minifigure was the 2012 C-3PO redesign found in 9490 Droid Escape.  This variant shows you how minifigure protocol droids have evolved.  As a bare minimum it would have been nice to see yellow photoreceptors (eyes) on R-3PO against the crimson red background.

In short if you don’t have access to a chemistry graduate who knows the formula for changing a gold C-3PO variant into a crimson shade then you are probably going to get some enjoyment out of this minifigure.  It left me a little non-plussed, but tell us what you think…

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Super Battle Droid Variant 3 (2009-2011) Lego Star Wars Minifigure Review

The Super Battle Droids are first seen in the Star Wars Universe in Episode II:  Attack Of The Clones during the Battle of Geonosis and are thereafter a common sight amongst the ranks of the Separatist droid armies on battlefields during the Clone Wars.

Super Battle Droids were manufactured after the Battle of Naboo when the case for stronger droids was clearly demonstrated.  Specialized battle droids encased in thick shells of armour they were equipped with heavy weapons: typically wrist mounted repeating blasters or missile launchers.  Whilst the droids rarely if ever spoke, they are seen in battles marching on the front lines acting as a shield to less robust units.

At the time of writing, Lego have made 3 variants of the Super Battle Droid.  There has been little by way of variation between the variants.  The first variant was seen in 2002 in set 7163 Republic Gunship and was made of unique parts following a unique design that could not have been crafted with standard Lego components.  

The first variant had a metal pearl-blue colour, the second variant was identical, but for a change in colour being pearl-dark grey in colour.  The second variant has become the standard having first appeared in 2007 it has persisted through to the present day.  

A third variant appeared in two sets between 2009 and 2011, which differed only in the left forearm being replaced by a blaster/rocket launcher.

The Third variant appeared in two Lego sets:

• 8018 Armoured Assault Tank (AAT) (2009);
• 7869 Battle For Geonosis (2011).

In the same manner as previous variants, the minifigure stands 3 or 4 mm taller than a regular Lego minifigure.  The minifigure is composed of 4 pieces, three of which are exclusive to the Super Battle Droid Minifigures, the mechanical leg piece being the exception which is also found on the MagnaGuard and TX-20 Tactical Droid.

The specially moulded head-and-torso piece is large and wedge-shaped.  The head is set at shoulder level, with no neck.

The arms have two grips with a circular immobile hinge near the middle.  The hinge is closer to one end than the other, defining a shorter upper than forearm.  On the right arm, the forearm is narrow near the front grip and gets wider closer to the hinge.

The left arm is the major and only point of differentiation to the previous variant.  At the elbow joint the arm becomes cylindrical and extends farther forward in a representation of a blaster/rocket launcher.  Previous variants included a mechanical forearm with a small tube representing the arm-mounted repeating blaster.

Having invested in creating unique parts to recreate what we see on screen, it seems unlikely that Lego will depart significantly from the variants that have already been seen.  At the time of writing it appears that the second variant can be found in a number of the Lego sets due to be released in 2014.  

Whilst the individuality of the clone trooper is brought out through troopers dying their hair, use of tattoos, unit insignia and colouration during the Clone Wars TV series it seems unlikely the basic mould of the Super Battle Droid will change.  Given how common the second variant is and the fact that the third variant is only found in two sets revel in a little bit of exclusivity if you own the third variant. 

We are always interested in your thoughts on the Lego Minifigures we review, please add your comments below and give the minifigure a rating on a scale of 1-10: