Review: 75058 MTT

Set ID: 75058 MTT

Number of Pieces: 953

Year of Release: 2014

Minifigs: 12

Purchased Price: About SGD 180

This set is released as a TRU Exclusive here in Singapore (am not sure if it is the same anywhere else in the world). Regardless, I chanced upon it as I was walking past a TRU near my office after a heavy lunch. With a $20 discount thrown in, there is no reason I am not getting this set. In a swift move lasting less than 10 minutes, I was happily lugging the MTT in my hand, with a new City polybag thrown in as part of the promotion, which I gave away to a colleague's kid. It has been some years since the MTT made an appearance in the Star Wars collection. Well spaced out over the last 14 years, the first MTT was released in 2000 (set 7184) and the second was the fantastic 7662 released in 2007. Of the three versions, this latest interpretation of the MTT would probably earn a silver medal, pipped by its immediate predecessor. This should not take away the credit that this latest set is joy to build and play, for it does have its merits too.

The under-designed droid rack

MTT stands for Multi-Troop Transport. By the word "multi", I believe there should be a sizeable amount of battle droids to fill the void within the massive interior. Unlike the 2007 version (which comes with 21 battle droids and very movie accurate), this MTT has compromised its scaling by adding playable features in place of droid carrying capacity. As a result, it can only deploy a miserly six droid every time it opens its front hatch. Imagine this, the MTT arrives at the Battle of Naboo in its usual majestic movement, and when its hatch opens, ermmm .... six droids came rushing out. Now, if I am with Jar Jar Binks and Co. confronting the enemy, I would probably died laughing than fighting...

That's probably all I can complain about. The rest of this MTT have brought more pleasant surprises - in a very swiss army knife way ...

The MTT Swiss Army knife

MTT on wheels! Fake levitation but who cares?

The MTT now comes with wheels! As with some of the latest vehicle sets, this MTT comes equipped with six transparent wheels well concealed at its bottom. The MTT was initially designed like a battering ram, which explains the rounded design of its front, and although the LEGO version does not fully exude the appropriate rounded profile (its made of bricks after all), the wheels do help with any battering movement it was intended to.

Playable features are aplenty in this compact MTT. What's "aplenty"? Starting from the front ...

Opened missile chamber

1) The MTT is protected by its thick brown armour and a pair of front facing cannons, mounted on ball sockets. These are more posable than playable. However, how can LEGO miss an opportunity to throw in a pair of spring loaded missiles too? They are loaded on the side of the cockpit and can be deployed by flipping the missile hatch open, that is, if you can get them opened. The hatch doors are (too) flushed to the contour of the MTT that you will find it hard to find a grip for the hatch door.

2) The pilot droid is able to control the MTT via the elevated cockpit. It is a single seater with a sliding cockpit platform. Pilot can access the cockpit from any of the left of right hatch doors. Cockpit design is a simple affair with a joystick and stickered control panel.

3) The main playable feature of the MTT is always the droid deployment rack. This version has a rather underwhelming rack, only capable of accommodating a single storey of 6 droids. If I have to be specific, the droids are also placed in the wrong direction as compared to the movie version. Deployment of the rack is cool though. Using a elongated row of Technic gears, the rack can be pushed out from the front by a simple turn of a knob. The droids are arranged on a sliding deck that should be removed first before "peeling" the droids off it.

Knob for droid rack deployment

4) Towards the rear of the MTT, there are two more opening hatches on the sides, one for the gun rack and the other for the PK-4 droid.

5) Amongst the half dozen or so hatches in this MTT, the most spectacular one is probably the flipping hatch at the rear. Flipping it open reveals the compartment where a Droid scout scooter is hidden! The innovative sliding design allows the scooter to be secured effortlessly. Talking about the scooter, there are quite a fair bit of bricks committed to its design, therefore creating a rather detailed and good looking vehicle.

Building Process

It was a sea of brown when I opened this box. What do you expect?

The bricks are distributed over six numbered packs, sharing the box with a cardboard backed pack of instruction manual and sticker sheet. All the above fill the box nicely with little void remaining. Good use of space! The same principle was applied to use almost the entire space on the back of the box to showcase all the playable features of the MTT.

The playability map on the back of the box

Following the recent trend of construction technique, the MTT is also built around a primarily Technic frame. This probably explains the inflation of the brick count despite the seemingly smaller body as compared to the other 1000+ piece vehicle sets.

The completed model is really sturdy, even when you hold it in your hand for some swooshing action (not meant to be though). This is most likely attributed to its heavy use of Technic parts that made up the main frame of the vehicle. One thing that LEGO has constantly been improving and innovating is the design of the hinges. The new generation hinges have somehow moved away from the old-school clicking mechanism but still retained the stiffness to allow doors and hatches to be opened to various degree.

Put aside 2 uninterrupted hours to indulge yourself on this set.

Minifigs

Despite the large number of minifigs included in this set, this section should not get too long as most of the head counts have been attributed to the generic Battle Droids, eight to be exact. This is not to say that they are homogeneous. Of the eight, the pilot droid comes with a blue torso and the scooter rider has a pair of similar arms (the others have different left and right arms for the purpose of holding their gun in the right way). The inclusion of the PK-4 worker droid in this set still baffles me as I am almost certain that it did not reside in the MTT in the movie (or at least I did not see its existence in the movie) The designer has done a good job with the droid from waist up but the heavy leg section makes it look more like on a roller than on its feet.

Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn did not excite me too much. The zero marginal utility law has applied to these two minifigs some years back when the headcount reached ten or so. For the sake of differentiating them from their predecessors, let me see what sets them apart?

The young Obi-Wan has a double face and just enough details on these faces, i.e. no over elaborated lines and wrinkles / dimples. His torso is printed with braided hair and a very detailed belt. his tunic design also extends beyond his torso onto his leg piece. Qui-Gon Jinn also comes with two faces, which honestly look like replicant of each other. If there is a chance to print two faces, why would anyone design both to look so similar to each other??? His dual tone leg piece looks unique to me as I suspect it is the first Qui-Gon minifig to have such a design.

The Naboo Security Guard is brand new, and a nice one too. If I can choose to ignore the inaccurate yellow colour used for his arms and legs, the other details are pretty spot on and movie accurate, down to the intense expression on his face and logo on his peak cap. Thanks to LEGO for keeping his face 'simple' too.

Conclusion

I am a self-confessed Episode 1 "hater", and that sentiment does overspill onto the sets that were released with the Ep 1 label. It didn't help with the primitive looking sets released in the early years of LEGO Star Wars (think Sith Infiltrator). But this MTT, is a nice game changer, a pivotal moment in my biased opinion of all the Episode 1 sets.

+ Colour accurate
+ Multiple playable features
+ Sturdy and swooshable (although not recommended)
+ Fake levitation using smooth concealed wheels

- Should have more droids (MTT is their bus to work, isn' it?)

Review: 75020 Jabba's Sail Barge

Set ID: 75020 Jabba's Sail Barge

Number of Pieces: 850

Year of Release: 2013

Minifigs: 6

Purchased Price: About SGD 200

Personally I prefer to build and review a vehicle set, for a good scene set is few and far between and a vehicle is more spectacular and eye catching as a showpiece on the display shelf. With two preceding scene sets built earlier this month, it was only logical that the next review will be a vehicle. Once again, I toyed with the idea of opening the UCS Sandcrawler but with increasing challenges for display places, I opted for the more manageable Sail Barge instead. I know it won't be long before I give in to the Sandcrawler temptation...

Setting Sail!

Only one other Sail Barge has ever been released by LEGO, back in 2006. Although both are comparable in terms of piece counts, the older sibling does come with an additional Desert Skiff and a Sarlacc pit. Whereas for this version, all the 800+ pieces are dedicated to the Sail Barge itself, creating a model that feels solid and dense. Visibly the new version is also slightly shorter in terms of overall length and has a more pointed nose. Despite my dislike for the design of this new nose, I have to admit that it is more movie accurate than its predecessor.

Cruise Control

The smooth operators

This is a Sail Barge, so logically it should ... sail. To simulate the sailing motion, this Sail Barge is now equipped with well concealed wheels at the bottom. These wheels (actually just the wheel hubs without the tyres) do allow the Sail Barge to move smoothly with a slight nudge and gives more credits to the "Sail" part of its name.

Play Ahoy!

There are plenty of playable features in this new variant and on most account I would say, are improvements over the 2006 variant:

Fully opened up for play time!

The Barge can be opened fully to expose its playable features within. The Upper deck can also be removed completely to allow easy access to the play area in the hull of the Barge. There is a new design for the hinges for the side panels - a combination of Technic peg and the rather new 2X4 plate with asymmetrical peg hole (OR LEGO part inventory 4646512/3). Although it was not easy to push the peg into the hinge, the resulting hinge works really well and allow each of the panel to open to any degree. There are only three panels now at the rear of the Barge as compared to five in the previous version. However, the space created within is now better utilised to set up a performance stage for Max Rebo to entertain Jabba the Hutt.

The one man (or elephant) band ...

Neater interior design

There are still the prison, a kitchen and Jabba's throne / seat that took up the other chambers in the Barge. The prison has been shrink considerably but I have no complain as there should only be one occupant. It now has a decent door that opens up directly to the kitchen. The brown prison door and the black grills are a little mismatched though ... The kitchen is a less messy affair here without the dodgy-looking food as seen in the previous Barge. All the food pieces (fish, drumstick and ermmm ... blue popcorn?) have their respective storage so that they don't get lost easily during play time. Jabba's throne is multi-coloured, which reminded me of a tic-tac-toe board.

The nose .. the nose ... the nose. I do prefer the smoother profile of the previous nose, but yes, it was a little too steep. This sharper nose is now housing a cannon that slides outwards when the lid opens. Not too sure if this cannon actually exist in the movie but it does resembles a lot to the old school cannon commonly found in the pirate / warships. Unlike the typical LEGO-ques flick or spring loaded missiles, this cannon fires by tugging the rear and releasing the spring mechanism within, firing off a pre-loaded 1X1 cylindrical cannon ball. Now before you get to excited over this pretty decent play feature, I must pre-empt you that the cannon is NOT designed to be fired from where it resides in the nose, i.e. you have to remove the cannon from the Barge before you can play with it. Go figure.

Old school cannon in the futuristic Barge. Nice design but impractical positioning ...

The removable upper deck is shorter now but serves its purpose well. There is a noticeable lack of safety railings this time round but I guess the minifigs are well secured on the studs of the deck to avoid any play time mishap. The double barrel gun on deck is now shootable with a pair of rather neat flick missiles. The down side is, with the large sail shielding over the cannon, it is not easy at all to play with it. Gone are the useless hatch and catapult from the earlier variant. They are certainly not missed.

The two sail masts are mounted on 2X2 square bricks instead of the previous round bricks, which were not at all well secured onto the deck. I have little complaint over the new plastic sails as they are still very movie accurate. However, the fabric variant in 2006 does go down better with me. One point to highlight of this new upper deck though, that it does warp upwards a little upon construction and this does make securing the deck onto the main body quite challenging. It may be down to my construction but it certainly wasn't well designed enough.

Building Process

This set was released as part of the "green box" series in 2013, with Yoda on the box art. The box was rightly sized for this set too and there was no over supply of voids within the box. The bricks are separated into 6 numbered packs (actually 7 because there are two number 2 packs), with the two instruction booklets, sticker sheets and poster neatly tucked in a cardboard backed packet. As a result, no more creased stickers! That certainly took some pain away from application of creased stickers.

Pre-assembled Jabba

There were two things that took my attention when I first opened the box - (1) the blue Max Rebo and (2) the poster. More of the former in the later section of this review, but I really want to compliment LEGO for including the high quality poster in this set. The quality I refer here is not the paper of the poster itself, but the artwork of the "drawing" that was printed on the poster. Instead of taking the easier way out to use CG and print a picture of the product, the Sail Barge featured in the poster was actually hard painted. Yes, you heard me right, it was painted. I did not realise this until I was examining the picture and realise that they are not as sharp as we would normally expect from a CG designed poster. Kudos to whoever is the artist for making this poster a must-have for collector like myself. In case you are wondering, the other side of the poster features the minifigs that can be found in the same wave of release that year.

Check out this artwork! Impressive!

The Barge was built bottom up, without too much fancy techniques or pieces. The only challenging moments were when I was trying to hinge up the side panels. The aligning of the pegs to the peg holes were not easy and even when I got the alignment right, I somehow couldn't push the pegs in. It eventually took some brute force shafting to make the hinges click together.

One of my biggest complaint of the last set was the application of stickers over adjacent pieces. Such design does not go down well with me as I tend to dismantle some of the sets for easy storage. This time round, there was no such issue and all the stickers were applied on individual bricks, mostly found on the windows of the side panels.

Minifigs

Minifigs collectors will love this set for the exclusive and unique ones - namely Max Rebo, Ree Yees and the Weequay Skiff Guard. The other three minifigs are not new to the LEGO range so will leave some space to summarise them towards the end of the review.


Ree Yees - Besides the Sail Barge, Ree Yees also appeared briefly in Jabba's Palace and was certainly not a fan of Jabba. I am not too sure how he ended up on the Barge but he met with his fiery end when the Sail Barge went up in flame. His three-eyed head piece is rubberised and highly detailed, fitted onto the brown torso piece. This minifig features a dark brown outfit, which is slightly too dark as compared to its movie counterpart. Another unique feature of Ree Yees was his oversized hands, which unfortunately were not replicated in the minifig.


Max Rebo is the musician who entertained Jabba & Co. on board the Sail Barge. In this set, he has his own music room and drum set so he should be rather happy with that. This Max is cute. Period. It does help that he comes in a bright cheerful blue and has a shorter pair of legs. His elephant shaped head piece is also rubberised to allow more details in the design. But for the same reason that it is made of rubber, I do suspect that it will recolour unevenly over time as compared to his torso. If there is a wish list, I hope he can be fatter though. Regardless, he is THE minifig to have in this set.

The Weequay Skiff Guard is another all new minifig in the ever expending minifig range in the Star Wars series. The fact that he was consumed by Sarlacc despite his really ugly look shows how indiscreet the pit monster is about his cuisine selection. His wrinkled facial expression (and I am talking about VERY wrinkled) was printed on one side of the head piece while his braided hair was printed on the rear side. The hair print continues on at the back of the torso, although I would have preferred a real hair piece instead. Given the recent trend that the minifig designers are trying to cover every inch of the minifig with prints, I was surprised that there was no print or design on his leg piece. A pair of high boots will be nice though.

With every evolution of the Leia (bikini) minifig, more and more details are printed on her, including more life like (in LEGO terms) and more rem ... skimpy. In this iteration, LEGO finally gets the hair piece spot on, with golden hair accessories bringing out the opulence of Jabba's taste. Talking about Jabba, this is the same Jabba found in the 2012 Jabba's Palace, more wrinkled, more textured and more colour than its earlier versions. Check out the tattoo on his right arm too. Cool. This Jabba can also be rotated at his waist (where's his waist by the way?) and has a pair of movable arms. The last minifig is the waiter R2. This version has more drinks to carry around on the tan 2X4 plate. Other than that, it's just another R2.

Conclusion

In short, this is a good set to have, especially if you have not managed to lay your hands on the 2006's version. Although this is not a visibly pleasing set, the many playable features should keep the younger fans happy for some time. If that does not appeal to the AFOLs, the minifigs should provide the necessary incentive to own one.

For a quick reference to my review of the 6210 Jabba's Sail Barge, please see my earlier review in 2013 via this link: http://legoiamyourfather.blogspot.sg/2013/01/review-6210-jabbas-sail-barge.html

+ Better and more secured mast bases
+ Better hinge design for side panels (though difficult to build)
+ Simplified interior design, but practical enough
+ Smooth wheels on undercarriage to allow sailing movement
+ Super artwork on poster

- Nose profile not as sleek
- Frontal cannon not practical for play (can't access firing mechanism)