Review: 7666 Hoth Rebel Base

Set ID: 7666 Hoth Rebel Base

Number of Pieces: 548

Year of Release: 2007

Minifigs: 7

Purchased Price: About SGD120

Recently I am in the mood to dig out old sets to build. Perhaps I have made up my mind that I will never sell any of these sets any time in my life time, and I might as well derive more satisfaction building them than to leave them to "appreciate in value" in my store. Knowing that LEGO is going to launch a new Battle of Hoth (75014) later this year, I thought it would be a good time to build and review this 2007 set. I was hardly disappointed, but not without any complaints.

There have been quite a number of sets released before on the theme of Hoth, most recently being the Hoth Echo Base (7879) and Hoth Wampa Cave (8089). Should you have a couple of the AT-ATs and Snow trooper or Rebel Battle Packs, you can easily re-create the epic battle scene in the movie. I have to say taking photographs of scene sets is usually more interesting than a vehicle set because of the many ways to pose the various elements and minifigs. With the number of photos I have posted here, I hope to do justice to that cause.

There are so many elements in this set that I think are worth spending some time to introduce and review them. Not all are of my liking but some have been improved in the later versions released. It is not fair to judge some of the design flaws harshly, considering that this was release some 6-7 years ago. Since then LEGO has taken on board many of the feedback from fans and made the necessary changes. LEt's do a head count first ... For SGD120, I get a Echo Base with big sliding door and small command centre, a turret gun, a e-web blaster, a probot, a maintenance crane, a snowspeeder and 7 minifigs! Quantity wise, definitely a worthy set!

The Base

Gaps ... 

Let's start from the Base. There are 3 segments in the Base, the middle and biggest segment is the main entrance with huge sliding doors. Instead of the boring vertical line, the base doors has a jagged closing profile. They open up easily with 2 turning knobs situation at the top of the entrance and the doors slide open / close effortlessly. My excitement of the door design was slightly dampened when I noticed the small gaps when the doors are shut, arising from the protruding studs. This can actually be overcome easily with some additional grey 2X1 SNOT (Studs Not On Top) bricks and the closing profile will be much tidier.

I have to say I LOVE the two customised bricks that are used to represent the snow capped entrance on both sides of the door. I am pretty sure the brick is not unique to this set but the paint work is exclusive! On the white base colour, the designer "splashed" a tinge of light blue paint on it randomly to create different patterns of snow and ice on both bricks. The randomness gives the finished product a very natural look especially if you look at it from a distance. Nice job LEGO!

Crane at work

Hinged on both sides of the base are the command centre and maintenance bay. The command centre is simply designed with 2 large panels with "radar" stickers. Upon closer examination, the 2 stickers actually make up one large radar screen design if you put them side by side. Nice touch! The maintenance bay is used to elevate the snowspeeder when it comes in for repair. The dock is designed in such a way that it will hold the protruding 4X2 bricks at the bottom of the snowspeeder snugly when it rest on the dock. The snowspeeder does balance very well on the dock, with the centre of gravity accurately located in the middle, preventing the snowspeeder from tipping over. A simple crane is included as part of the maintenance team. It comes with a 2X1 brick that is designed to lift the engine compartment of the snowspeeder up. There is no exclusive minifig included to operate this crane so you will have to convince one of your rebel trooper to do it, sans his backpack as it will be in the way of the seat on the crane.

The Snowspeeder

Back to back pilots

The snowspeeder in this set is very sturdy and playable. The size is also ideal to be held in one hand. Both pilots are able to access the cockpit via the transparent canopy, hinged at the rear of the snowspeeder. Only the front facing pilot (Luke) has a control panel and there is an obvious absence of steering mechanism for both pilots! Wonder what the rear-facing pilot does then, other than being a dead weight. Both pilots will also have to lean back slightly in order to close the canopy tightly. The engine compartments on the wings can be removed for maintenance, revealing the details of the engine mechanism, represented by a well-printed sticker. Personally I will like to see a tinge of orange on the external design (as seen in 8089 Hoth Wampa Cave) as this snowspeeder looks a little hmmm... unadventurous, on the outside.

The peripherals

Evolution of the turret gun, the one on the right is found in this set. 

The probot (probe robot) is mounted on a transparent strut and I must say, very well designed. Very simple but able to bring across the key characteristics of one. Can't say the same for the turret gun though. In this design, the long main gun looks a little out of proportion. The laser firing mechanism located at the sides also broke the round silhouette of the rotating canopy. Talking about the lasers, they are only loosely slotted into the rotating canopy and are ejected with a push of the firing mechanisms (innovative design!). However, as there is nothing to hold the lasers in place, they tend to slip out easily when you tilt the turret gun. Do keep a lookout for them as the blue laser strut brick can go missing after a session of Hoth Battle play time. I do like the e-web guns. But similar to the turret gun, the red laser struts here are also not secured on the side of the gun and slipped out almost every time I carry the gun around. Will certainly be better if the lasers are clipped on rather slip in. 

Building Experience

No number packs. No problem. My way of dealing with this is to pour all the bricks out and sort by brick colours first. At 548 bricks, this is not a challenge for this set. The parts of the minifigs are found scattered in a few packs so I have to open up every one of them in order to locate all the parts of the minifigs in the beginning. As I was building this set in the evening, my warm light at home did not help in distinguishing the dark grey and black bricks in the instruction manual. This has been (and still is) a major complaint amongst LEGO fans. Wonder what can LEGO do to rectify it in the future?

I always hate the threading of strings so the construction of the winch took me some time. With large hands and failing eyesight, I may need to depend on my kids' assistance in the future sets. Stickers are used in a few places and I have to confess that I did not do a good job for this set. Part of the sticker sheet has already "yellowed" due to the long storage. This led me to believe that the situation will be worse if I open any pre-2005 sets in my collection. Fingers crossed.

There was a page in the instruction manual that brought a smile on my face (Pg. 58). As shown in the photo here, the instruction reminds the builder repeatedly NOT to tilt the brick the wrong way and it is quite interesting how the instruction tried to bring that point across ... "not this, not this, not this, BUT this" way ... LOL. There is a good reason to get this step right though, as a wrong tilt will make the firing mechanism non functional. Thanks for the reminder.

An hour and 45 minutes is all it took for me to finish the building. Can be shorter if I spend less them appreciating the various elements whenever I finished building one.

Minifigs

The box art design here emphasises that this is a "Limited Edition". I guess part of the reason is due to the exclusive K-3PO minifig in this set. Well, he is the white cousin of C-3PO and blends in very well with the surrounding snow and ice. Having said that, his torso design (both sides, nice!) is a little different from that of C-3PO.

Luke has quite a funny looking nonchalant expression on his face while his co-pilot, Dack Ralter, has the more traditional LEGO smiley face. Although it lacks some details of the newer minifig head pieces, somehow these trademark smiley faces do subtlely remind me that this is still a LEGO toy, and not to forget the fun part of it. Both pilots share the same torso design, with the printing only limited to the front.

2 very friendly looking Rebel Troopers are included here. I placed one beside the 7749 (released in 2009) Rebel Trooper and noticed only the goggles have been changed. The helmets of the Snowtrooper are integrated with the backpack so do not expect to pose them with their heads turned.

That reminds me, I have ran out of display space on my shelf to accommodate this set. Will now need to make a painful decision on which one to dismantle ...

Review: 6210 Jabba's Sail Barge

Set ID: 6210 Jabba's Sail Barge

Number of Pieces: 781

Year of Release: 2006

Minifigs: 8 

Purchased Price: About SGD190

I hesitated whether to build this set or not for a long time. 6 years to be exact. My hesitant lies on the fact that LEGO never produce another Sail Barge since 2006, and therefore this is the ONLY one that has been released and possibly, ever released. All it took was a look on my son's face for me to make up my mind and break the seal on the box. He wanted to build it so badly that I relented without hesitation. This review is based on my re-construction after my son's first attempt to construct it himself, and it is only during my own effort that I realised this is not an easy job. At 11, my son can be proud to pull this off. I might now seriously consider to let him build the Sandcrawler too... (Just saw the information that the Sail Barge will be re-relaeased in mid 2013!! Start saving now!!)

This set consists of three parts - The Sail Barge, the Sand Skiff and the Sarlacc Pit. My main focus will be to review the unique and very exclusive Sail Barge. The Sand Skiff and Sarlacc Pit have been semi-reviewed (as a comparison to the 2012 versions) in my last entry (9496 Desert Skiff) so I will just briefly include them in this review, just to make a point that they do exist. The star of this set is still undoubtedly, the Sail Barge.

Sailing ... Sailing ...

The Sail Barge is Jabba's personal pleasure craft that hovers around the desert area of Mos Eisley. He brings along his entourage of fellow bad guys as well as prisoners awaiting execution by feeding them to Sarlacc, the monster camouflaged under the desert sand. For all the above purposes, the Sail Barge comes with a prison cell, plenty of food supplies, creepy looking creatures and an awesome looking cannon on the deck.

Jabba's kitchen in the barge

A pair of large sails share the deck with the swiveling cannon and the primitive looking catapult (used to launch Boba Fett into the air) and provide the additional thrust for the vehicle. But seriously, why would Jabba need the catapult when he has his jet pack? Duh... In any case, I tried to use the catapult to spring Boba into the air but guess what? He couldn't even take off! The catapult was a little too tight to accommodate Boba's feet and despite my repeated effort, Boba jwas stuck to the catapult.

I frankly cannot remember if the two large sails are found in any other LEGO sets before but they certainly look very customised and match well with the body of the Barge. Both masts supporting the sails are identical and consist of a combination of technic struts and joints. The swivel ball design in the heart of the mast allows the sail to be posed in various positions, very useful should you wish to photograph the Barge from different angles. A couple of points that irk me regarding these sails are (1) The 2X2 round stud used to secure the masts to the deck is never really too, well, secured. I have lost count on the number of times the masts came off when I tried to contort them in various poses. (2) They do obstruct your view of the deck and made it a huge challenge to move the minifigs around on the deck. 

Nice rear ...

The completed Sail Barge bears a very close resemblance to the actual barge in the movie. At almost 50 cm in length, I can even say the size is proportionate to the minifigs too. Two panels on each side of the Barge open up to access the interior. On each panel are multiple windows that I will encourage to flip open at varying degree. This will give a more "natural" look to the Barge, rather than keeping the windows flushed to the panels. Located just behind the sloping nose of the Barge is the prison cell. This cell has its own additional lock up doors to keep the prisoners inside. Luke is supposed to be the interim occupant but he will not find it difficult to break out of the cell, given that it is not totally enclosed and has a direct access to Jabba's compartment! What an oversight! Jabba's elongated body will take up the rest of the space in the Barge, with limited allowance for a kitchen where some cooking and pleasure apparatus and be found. A couple of drumsticks hang on the beam above the kitchen and a snake and a spider complete the list of creepy food for Jabba's massive diet. 

And then, there are the Skiff and the Sarlacc Pitt.

(Re)Building Experience

I dismantled my son's masterpiece and re-construct by myself again. Armed with a brick separator, it took little effort to sort out the 781 bricks into colours first, and that's when I realise that some of the stickers have be applied across 2 bricks!!! That is so annoying! These are the studless window bricks for the Barge consisting of a piece of a 2X2 and a 2X1. In the end, I pretty much left them as it was as I did not want to risk ripping up the stickers in any way, bearing in mind that these stickers have been around for some time already and experience tells me they don't really stand the test of time.

Concealed weapons in the hull

Numbered packs were not invented in 2006 so this set very much requires some brick sorting before building can commence. As I was re-building it, I had to be even more disciplined in sorting the bricks out, classifying them by colours rather than shape or sizes. The only exceptions are the smaller single studders or technics connecting pieces. Putting them in a pool will certainly aid the finding of the correct ones when warranted.

The rare mistake

How did LEGO get this wrong?

A rare find in this set (probably only the 2nd time I have seen this), is the issue of an amendment sheet to the instruction. LEGO normally gets it right but for reason unknown, they have backtracked from their original instructions and issued an amendment. The brick(s) in question here are the 8X8 beige ones used for the construction of the deck. They were printed as the "grilled" version in the instruction booklet but what were found in the box as the conventional opaque ones instead. I am not sure if this amendment was issued for all the sets released around the world but considering how high a quality LEGO always boost about their product, this amendment sheet is indeed a rare one.

Basically, the Barge was put together in the following sequence:

1. The middle hull (prison, kitchen etc) constructed from base up to the deck;
2. The four hinging side panels for the hull;
3. The nose of the hull;
4. The two masts on deck.

Ok. This was followed by the Skiff and the Sarlacc Pit.

Sail Barge with side panels fully opened

The sloping profile of the hull was created by a series of assorted hinging panels and the very uniquely designed nose. The hinging mechanisms for the rear hull are a little different from those on the sides of the hull, allowing little degree of movement as they are not meant to be accesses in to the Barge. Whereas for the side panels, they are able to open fully, showcasing the luxurious interior of the Barge. Whilst the front of these side panels are primarily brown and black bricks (which are the main theme colours of the Barge), once you opened the panel, you will be greeted with quite a number of beige and grey bricks, used to hold the panels up from the back. Not a very sightly design though. My immediate answer to that will be to change all these supporting bricks to brown ones but that could also make it look monotonous. Well, I can't make up my mind on this.

Struts can be longer

There were a number of struts used in this set, the 64mm, 120mm and 144mm ones to be exact. As these dimensions will make no sense to a builder without the ruler, the 1:1 illustrations in the instruction booklet will come in very handy in these situations. The struts were used as railings on the deck (to prevent sailors overboard) and to hold the multitude of hinging windows on the side panels of the hull. As railing, the struts were put in place by the single stud clip bricks. The challenge here was to bend the struts for the front and rear deck in order to create a round profile to fit the shape of the Barge. A bigger challenge confronted me when I administer the struts on the side panel. The 144mm strut was deployed to hold 10 hinging window panels here. With two clips on each window panel, the strut should be long enough to accommodate 20 hinges. Lo and behold, at 144mm, the strut has only space for 18 clips! That essentially left 2 clips on both end "dangling". However, there is no danger of the last 2 window panels coming off as they are subsequently secured to the main panel. Still, it felt "inadequately" designed.

The Barge took me close to 2 hours of building effort, i.e. excluding the sorting of the bricks before I began. And I have to admit a fair share of time was spent on me fumbling over the application of the struts, and trying to figure out that the struts were actually shorter than what they look like in the instruction booklet.

Then there was the Skiff. Worth mentioning are the use of transparent brick at the bottom of the Skiff to create the hovering experience beside the Barge. Minimal effort to build. Oh, then there was the Sarlacc Pitt. Period.

Minifigs

If I remember correctly, 2006 was probably close to the period when the skin colours of the minifigs started to take on a more natural look rather than the traditional "yellow" LEGO minifig colour. That was also when more details were starting to surface on the head and torso pieces of the minifgs, and frankly, LEGO never look back since then. There are 8 minifigs in all in this this set and should this set be re-released today with the same number of minifigs, it will NEVER be even close to the price quoted above (Just look at the recently released Jabba Palace).

Drinks, anyone?

The bad guys

Jabba is uni-coloured in this set, with a 3-segment tail that allows some posing if you desire. Hands are also poseable but with all the slaves around him, those hands are rather redundant. Boba Fett looks very simply designed relative to today's standard and he still holds the "old school" LEGO laser blaster with the orange stud. As much as it doesn't resemble anything close to the blasters in the movie, this is what made LEGO... LEGO. Collectors will be able to relate to me on this. A Gamorrean Guard is also included to provide the menacing presence on the Skiff. The guard shares the same green colour tone with Jabba and only its arms are brown. The headpiece extends downwards to the torso to create the fat profile of the guard.

Jabba with his snack

The good guys

Luke and Han Solo offer little surprises (What do you expect when Leia is around?). Luke is rather emotionless here while Han has a smirky expression on him.

Princess Leia made her 2nd appearance in bikini after first appearing in the first Jabba's Palace set. She is now in skin colour (rather than yellow in her predecessor) and even come printed with a little cleavage! A chain on her neck keeps her in custody and within the reach of Jabba. Lando Calrissian played a big part in the whole rescue mission and his inclusion in this set is a foregone conclusion.

The not-really-a-guy

Compliment to LEGO for designing this R2-D2! In order to make R2 serves drinks to Jabba's guests, all it took was to include a 4X2 brick between his head and torso piece, and VOILA! R2 can now hold a couple of glasses of drinks while maneuvering between the guests.

I will not rate this set highly for playability as it is rather difficult to access the deck and the interior of the hull. However, this set (especially the Barge) is certainly a looker! Once I placed it beside the other sets on the shelf, the spotlight seems to inevitably gravitate towards it. Its commanding size and unique shape do catches the right attention regardless of how you pose it. Collectability? Are you kidding me? Hell yes! Especially when it comes with a skiff and a Sarlacc pit ...