Set ID: 75005 Rancor Pit
Number of Pieces: 380
Year of Release: 2013
Minifigs: 4 (including the skelton)
Superfig: 1 (Rancor himself)
Purchased Price: About SGD115
Superfig: 1 (Rancor himself)
Purchased Price: About SGD115
I have been rather distracted lately by the collection and building of the LOTR series sets and popping into multiple LEGO fan websites to checkout the upcoming launches in summer. I must say it is certainly a much more exciting (and pocket hurting) season if you are into collecting the Star Wars or the LOTR range. (I might now start another series on reviewing LOTR set ... wait, first thing first)
Back to this set, the Rancor Pit. In a nutshell, this is a humongous cage custome-made for Rancor, the monster beast. In the movie, he lies waiting in the pit for his daily snack, which comes in the form of prisoners of Jabba the Hutt. As he is not very selective about his diet, Rancor does occasionally munch on the unlucky Gamorrean Guard on duty. Regardless, Rancor has a few candidates included in this set for his selection, depending on how you want to write your plot.
It will make absolutely no sense (at least to me) to purchase this set without first procuring the latest Jabba's Palace (9516). Those who did probably bought this set for the Rancor "minifig". On a side note, I just saw a Rancor on sale in a LEGO shop in Singapore, at a whopping price of SGD 70! Considering that this set cost around SGD115, you can certainly see where most of the price goes to. That's quite a good reason to invest in this set then. I will leave Rancor to the later part of this review as it definitely deserves a chapter by itself.
Anyway, this scene set does look like a boring cell with a huge gate to house Rancor. There are a few playable features such as the secret compartment that can be opened with an attached skeleton head (very clever indeed), revealing a bone and a key inside. One of the pillars does open up with enough space for Luke to hide while contemplating his escape strategy. A side gate allows Malakili, the Rancor's keeper, to access the pit. The pitchfork and pail probably helps him to upkeep the cleanliness and comfort of Rancor (if there is a need at all). Just a thought.
A much larger gate keeps Rancor in its place and it slides effortlessly through two columns of bricks with groove. To break the monotony of a "square structure with four columns", the panel with the huge gate is allowed to swing open 90 degrees for a more pose-friendly set up (as can be seen on the front of the box art).
When two becomes, well, two
Not so much a looker by itself, I have to say combining this set with Jabba's Palace is certainly a wise move. Provisions have already been made in Jabba's Palace to accommodate the Rancor's pit below it. Four shallow "holes" were created at the bottom of the Palace to lock onto the four pillars of the pit. There are no attachment of studs between the two sets so separation will never be a messy affair. It should also be reminded that the tower side of the Palace set will need to be detached first before the Palace can be placed onto the pit. Once combined, the main structure does look majestic and intimidating. The trapdoor now makes more sense as Luke will be able to free fall for a split second more into the arms of Rancor.
Then its downhill from here. There are a number of design flaws that I thought are unforgivable, given LEGO's meticulous nature. First, the orientation of the pit. I will expect that the main gate of the pit should be in line with the front / back of the palace. Instead it is facing the side (or right if you are looking into the palace. This leads to the 2nd design flaw. Once the palace sits on the pit, there is no way to draw up the gate anymore.
One more complaint. Price. I recently read an article (re-posted by brickset.com) written by some financial expert analysing the price trend of LEGO over the years, and rightly debunk the myth that LEGO is getting more expensive in recent times. Taking into consideration the inflation and other variables, LEGO is not way more expensive than the time when I was a kid. I agree with the report and believe that it is indeed the case. But price-per-piece for this set, well, brought me down to earth once more. Collectors seldom complain about price and in this set, the premium is well forgiven once the Rancor comes into the picture.
Building Experience
At only 380 brick count, building this set will never be close to the effort of scaling Everest. The first packet of bricks made up the gate panel, followed by the base, the pillars and finished by the 4-sided ceiling beams. My initial fear that this will be a boring repetitive build was quickly dismissed once I embarked on the construction. All the four pillars are unique in design with some common bricks and colour between them. There are hardly any difficult moments except for the rare occasion when the columns disintegrated when I accidentally lift the set by its ceiling beam when the construction was done. An hour of effort is more than enough to see the finished product.
Minifig (Rancor)
It is really an insult to Rancor of this set by calling it a "minifig". To begin with, its size itself would have put him in a different league totally. Standing at more than3 times the height of a minifig (not Hobitty-type), it commands your attention when you place it anywhere in sight. Just when I thought Jabba is big, Rancor essentially dwarfed Jabba into submission!
A lot of credit must go to the LEGO designer for putting in so much details for Rancor. From the scales on its back to the menacing facial expression, it bears close resemblance to the actual movie character. There are many articulated parts in Rancor, including the huge detachable jaw that can open the mouth to fit a minifig inside. Both Rancor's claws are made up by moving digits, enabling it to hold his victim in various positions. The only downside is the legs which are fixed in a front-back position, creating a tendency for Rancor to tip over easily on its side.
Minifigs (The others)
The hero in the Rancor Pit scene is Luke who, for obvious reason, was missing from the Palace set (otherwise there will be 2 Luke's) In this set, Luke comes with a 2 sided head piece of different expressions. I did notice that the hair piece is not able to cover the other face totally when seen from the back, exposing a little of the chin. Not a big deal but it's all about details here. Luke possess a huge bone for him to battle Rancor and judging from the size of the bone, its probably from Rancor's close relative.
Malakili is exclusive to this set as he is the keeper of Rancor. The painted chest hair and belly line on the torso do brought a smile to my face every time I see him. He also comes with 2 faces, one of seriousness and the other of despair. Probably a result of seeing the demise of his pet towards the end of the scene.
The Gamorrean Guard is the same as that in Jabba's Palace, sans the weapon. He wouldn't need one though, as his role in this set is purely, gastronomic. The skeleton minifig did not get a credit on the box art but I like to recognise it for giving the set a sense of comic relief.
Conclusion
Get this set for 2 reasons. (1) You need something to elevate the Jabba Palace to provide more vertical presence in your display and (2) Rancor.
P.S. This is the first review that I am using my brand new iPhone 5 as I noticed my zooming function in the its predecessor was failing, resulting in blurred images of the minifigs when I close up too much. Am happy with how it turns out!
Back to this set, the Rancor Pit. In a nutshell, this is a humongous cage custome-made for Rancor, the monster beast. In the movie, he lies waiting in the pit for his daily snack, which comes in the form of prisoners of Jabba the Hutt. As he is not very selective about his diet, Rancor does occasionally munch on the unlucky Gamorrean Guard on duty. Regardless, Rancor has a few candidates included in this set for his selection, depending on how you want to write your plot.It will make absolutely no sense (at least to me) to purchase this set without first procuring the latest Jabba's Palace (9516). Those who did probably bought this set for the Rancor "minifig". On a side note, I just saw a Rancor on sale in a LEGO shop in Singapore, at a whopping price of SGD 70! Considering that this set cost around SGD115, you can certainly see where most of the price goes to. That's quite a good reason to invest in this set then. I will leave Rancor to the later part of this review as it definitely deserves a chapter by itself.
Anyway, this scene set does look like a boring cell with a huge gate to house Rancor. There are a few playable features such as the secret compartment that can be opened with an attached skeleton head (very clever indeed), revealing a bone and a key inside. One of the pillars does open up with enough space for Luke to hide while contemplating his escape strategy. A side gate allows Malakili, the Rancor's keeper, to access the pit. The pitchfork and pail probably helps him to upkeep the cleanliness and comfort of Rancor (if there is a need at all). Just a thought.
A much larger gate keeps Rancor in its place and it slides effortlessly through two columns of bricks with groove. To break the monotony of a "square structure with four columns", the panel with the huge gate is allowed to swing open 90 degrees for a more pose-friendly set up (as can be seen on the front of the box art).When two becomes, well, two
Not so much a looker by itself, I have to say combining this set with Jabba's Palace is certainly a wise move. Provisions have already been made in Jabba's Palace to accommodate the Rancor's pit below it. Four shallow "holes" were created at the bottom of the Palace to lock onto the four pillars of the pit. There are no attachment of studs between the two sets so separation will never be a messy affair. It should also be reminded that the tower side of the Palace set will need to be detached first before the Palace can be placed onto the pit. Once combined, the main structure does look majestic and intimidating. The trapdoor now makes more sense as Luke will be able to free fall for a split second more into the arms of Rancor. |
| The combined set |
Then its downhill from here. There are a number of design flaws that I thought are unforgivable, given LEGO's meticulous nature. First, the orientation of the pit. I will expect that the main gate of the pit should be in line with the front / back of the palace. Instead it is facing the side (or right if you are looking into the palace. This leads to the 2nd design flaw. Once the palace sits on the pit, there is no way to draw up the gate anymore.One more complaint. Price. I recently read an article (re-posted by brickset.com) written by some financial expert analysing the price trend of LEGO over the years, and rightly debunk the myth that LEGO is getting more expensive in recent times. Taking into consideration the inflation and other variables, LEGO is not way more expensive than the time when I was a kid. I agree with the report and believe that it is indeed the case. But price-per-piece for this set, well, brought me down to earth once more. Collectors seldom complain about price and in this set, the premium is well forgiven once the Rancor comes into the picture.
Building Experience
 |
| Opening Ceremony |
Minifig (Rancor)
It is really an insult to Rancor of this set by calling it a "minifig". To begin with, its size itself would have put him in a different league totally. Standing at more than3 times the height of a minifig (not Hobitty-type), it commands your attention when you place it anywhere in sight. Just when I thought Jabba is big, Rancor essentially dwarfed Jabba into submission! |
| Lunch! |
A lot of credit must go to the LEGO designer for putting in so much details for Rancor. From the scales on its back to the menacing facial expression, it bears close resemblance to the actual movie character. There are many articulated parts in Rancor, including the huge detachable jaw that can open the mouth to fit a minifig inside. Both Rancor's claws are made up by moving digits, enabling it to hold his victim in various positions. The only downside is the legs which are fixed in a front-back position, creating a tendency for Rancor to tip over easily on its side.
Minifigs (The others)
The hero in the Rancor Pit scene is Luke who, for obvious reason, was missing from the Palace set (otherwise there will be 2 Luke's) In this set, Luke comes with a 2 sided head piece of different expressions. I did notice that the hair piece is not able to cover the other face totally when seen from the back, exposing a little of the chin. Not a big deal but it's all about details here. Luke possess a huge bone for him to battle Rancor and judging from the size of the bone, its probably from Rancor's close relative.Malakili is exclusive to this set as he is the keeper of Rancor. The painted chest hair and belly line on the torso do brought a smile to my face every time I see him. He also comes with 2 faces, one of seriousness and the other of despair. Probably a result of seeing the demise of his pet towards the end of the scene.
The Gamorrean Guard is the same as that in Jabba's Palace, sans the weapon. He wouldn't need one though, as his role in this set is purely, gastronomic. The skeleton minifig did not get a credit on the box art but I like to recognise it for giving the set a sense of comic relief.
Conclusion
Get this set for 2 reasons. (1) You need something to elevate the Jabba Palace to provide more vertical presence in your display and (2) Rancor.
P.S. This is the first review that I am using my brand new iPhone 5 as I noticed my zooming function in the its predecessor was failing, resulting in blurred images of the minifigs when I close up too much. Am happy with how it turns out!
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