Review: 7754 Home One Mon Calamari Star

Set ID: 7754 Home One Mon Calamari Star Cruiser

Number of Pieces: 789

Year of Release: 2009

Minifigs: 6

Purchased Price: About SGD 200

The recent release of the various themes have been a huge distractions to my loyalty to the Star Wars range. It does not really help that some of these new sets are really a collector's dream (e.g. Hellicarrier, Simpson's mart and the Detective's Offce) These distractions also came at a time when I was on an 8-week business travels and could not afford the time to build and review. Now that the trips have tapered off as well as the cash, I am back to my first love and there is nothing more appropriate than to dig up a rare scene set to restart my review momentum again.

On first glance of the set name, it really reminded me of some exotic menu item which name I cannot articulate in a 3-star Michelin restaurant. I have to do a little bit of research in order to ascertain where this unique name originates and see how this set affiliate to that in the movie. In fact, the set name is kind of misleading as it suggests that this is a vehicle set instead of a scene set. I could imagine the UCS version of this (although is may be quite boring looking) with Admiral Ackbar as an accompanying minifig. Anyway, I digress. 

Separated for easier storage 

Home One is basically one of the Star Cruisers that is owned by the, well, calamari (not those in ring forms, but more human looking), specifically commanded by Admiral Ackbar. According to DK's Star Wars Complete Vehicle Guide, this organic looking vessel houses a crew of 5000 and plenty of hangars to service and prepare the fighter vehicles for battles. This explains what this set is all about, just one of the hangars, and not the entire torpedo shaped Star Cruiser (potential UCS alert)

It is quite rare that LEGO invests in a scene set that was hardly featured in the movie. As far as my memory can brings me back, I can only recall a few very brief moments in ROTJ that this scene was featured. Given the brief cameo, I am impressed by the details that went into the design and the playable features that accompanied them. The rare minifigs are also a hit with collectors but more on that later.

The set mainly consists of two parts: the hangar and servicing bay for the A-wings and the bridge / command post. The hangar is large enough to accommodate a full size A-wing, with an overhead servicing beam and hoist. The A-wing can be nestled on a rotating dock to allow the vehicle to be admired in 360 view. This was achieved by a very simple design consisting of a long Technic shaft and a pair of rotating gears. The half dozen of SNOT plates also allow the A-wing to slide effortlessly along the floor of the hangar.

Of the few A-wings released to date, this is the only one that comes with a removable rear engine and in green colour theme. I am not sure if I have seen a green one in the movie before but my preference (and all my researches) points towards a red one. There are not much playable features on this A-wing except for the opening rear engine compartment, hinged cockpit canopy and retractable undercarriage. A couple of wing mounted flick missiles complete the armoury but I would strongly suggest against playing with that feature as it is rather flimsy IMHO. The same flimsiness can also be said of the rear engine compartment as I lost count of the number of times I have to rebuild its rear fins when I messed with the engine compartment.

The projection room is a scaled down version of that in the movie but did a decent job to depict the projection equipment and atrium seatings. The bluish radar dish and orange projection ball are really eye-catching in a room of primarily white colour. The opposite side is the bridge, perched a little higher for better visibility of the situations outside the cruiser. Two seats and Admiral Ackbar's command post can be found here, with the latter designed with some flexibility to slide and rotate. Ackbar's preferential treatment goes beyond the comfort of his command post, with an exclusive cup for him within his reach.

The rotating command post has the exact same rotating mechanism found in the hangar so while I was pretty impressed by its deployment when building the hangar, the repeated appearance in the command post became more of boring than exciting. Just a thought, I would prefer the rotating mechanism to be used on the projection ball rather than the command post. It's worth mentioning that most of the stickers are used as the control panels (plural, plenty of them) in this room.

Building Experience

The box seems a little too big for the content. It could even pass off as a UCS box and comparative to the smaller UCS sets released to date. If you do not intend to keep the box, the perforated design of it will not irk you, otherwise you will have to find another way to access the bricks without spoiling the box.

10th Anniversary logo on box

The phrase "Limited Edition" is clearly printed on the front to make this a "must have" for the collectors. The entire gang of minifigs can also be seen with special mention of "Admiral Ackbar". The 10-year LEGO Star Wars anniversary logo on the box further raises the value of the content. The back of the box features the various playable features of the set as well as different ways of displaying it.


Cautiously peeling off the stickers on the box, I managed to dig out the bricks that are separated into three batches for the ease of construction, two instruction booklets, a sticker sheet and a long Technic shaft that will be used to manoeuvre the docking station in the hangar. It's worth mentioning that the stickers are mainly applied on the A-wings and the display panels found in the auditorium. Not a major issue for me as they do enhance the necessary details in the set.

Sticker sheet - half for A-Wing and half for control panels

The bricks are divided into three groups of packets. First for the A-wing and most of the minifigs, second for the hangar and third the projection room / command post. It was quite surprising to find the use of plenty of Technic parts in the construction of the hangar and some parts in the command post. This is rare especially for the pre-2010 sets. The Technic parts also came in useful to form the base of the semi-circular projection room, and stacked by various fan shaped panels of different sizes.  The design resembles closely to the panel flaps found in the 2011 Millennium Falcon.

Minifigs

In the beginning of the review, I mentioned about the exclusivity of the minifigs in this set and their collection-worthiness. 5 out of the 6 minifigs here are exclusive in this set, although a number of them are variants from earlier versions or later ones. 2006 is also a time when the human minifigs still don the traditional "happy" expression and dual faces head piece are non existent.

A-wing pilot - The green flight suit of this character stays loyal to the movie version but comparing it to the later variant in set 75003 A-Wing Fighter in 2013, there is an obvious lack of details to the suit.  His torso is only printed on the front with a simple chest plate design. The grey helmet is one accessory that deviates furthest from the movie as it was adopted from the motorcycle helmet commonly found in City sets. The complete re-design in 2013 eventually rectified this to a large degree.

Admiral Ackbar - He first made an appearance in this set in 2009, with a completely customised head mould to reflect the lizard-like features of the Calamari tribe. What impressed me was not just the shape of the head, but also the level of details of the scales and skin tone. His white uniform contrasts starkly with his tan head piece but as white always resemble some form of authority, Ackbar does stand out when placed beside the Calamari officer. His torso is printed on both sides with the beige vest over his uniform. One point to note is that the brown hands do not really match up to the lighter brown skin colour of the head piece

Mon Calamari Officer - Sharing the same same head piece with Admiral Ackbar, the officer can be differentiated by his beige overall. Being lower ranked than the Admiral, the officer's torso is only printed on one side, with creased lines and utility pockets as designs.

Mon Mothma - This was a highly "controversial" minifig in my household as the debate of her gender rages on, no thanks to the very misleading hair piece that makes it difficult to determine the gender of the minifig. The small lip-sticked print on the head piece is similar to that of the earlier version of  Princess Leia. This also mean that she looked pretty nonchalant or expressionless. Her white cape and torso prints do exude that sense of authority as a Supreme Commander, although she wears a robe most of the time in the movie instead of a top and pants combination. I did try to swap her hair piece with Lando (also found in this set) but the effect was even more disastrous. Until a more appropriate hair piece is found, I still find it hard to rate this rare minifig appropriately.

General Crix Madine - Strictly speaking, this minifig is not exactly EXCLUSIVE to this set as it was also included in the Collectible Display Set back in 2009. However, minifigs collectors all over the world has been trying to hunt down this very limited and forgotten minifig for some time, pushing the price to a dizzying USD 200 in some instances! Rarity is indeed king. General Madine's happy expression is half concealed by his tan coloured bearded print, which blends nicely with his matching hair piece. Front torso print includes collar pins, badge and belt, with creases to show for the organic feel of the fabric.

Lando Calrissian - Another highly coveted minifig that is unique to this set. His closest variant is the one found in 2003 Cloud City set. Both are rare and in high demand amongst collectors. I am impressed by the level of details printed on his front torso, including the cape chain, gun holster sling and belt. 

Conclusions

+ Hangar design and its playability
+ Unique and rare minifigs
+ The projection ball. Yes, for some reason, I do like its inclusion in this set.

- Flimsy A-Wing design
- Repeated use of the slide and rotate mechanism in the same set

Review: 6209 Slave I

Set ID: 6209 Slave I

Number of Pieces: 537

Year of Release: 2006

Minifigs: 4

Purchased Price: About SGD 100

No. This is not the UCS. That will come soon.

3+ years ago, I reviewed the 8097 Slave I and gave it a thumbs up for its playability and design. This version, 4 years the junior of the 8097, will equally earned those accolades, and more. Considering the limitation of brick assortment back in 2006, this Slave I has indeed outdone most of the other Star Wars sets in conquering the curved profile of the uniquely-shaped vehicle. Just check out the blocky 7144 and you will know what I meant.

I was even contemplating doing a shoot-out between this and the UCS version, which I am so tempted to build. But considering that (1) there is a 9-year age gap between the 2 versions and (2) the UCS has a larger body and thus, better brick assortment and versatility in design, I decided against a straight shootout. Honestly, I am not sure if this Slave I will eventually lose the comparison, unless size only matters. Let the idea of a shoot-out brew a little longer then ...

Building Experience 

Raised profile on box design!

At first sight, the box design looks conventional. But upon closer examination, I soon realised that there is more than meets the eye. This box was placed in my storage for a number of years now so there has been a thin layer of dust accumulated on it (although I have kept it in a separate cardboard box, along with 4-5 other sets) As I attempted to wipe away the dust, my fingers picked out the slightly raised profile of the featured Slave I on the front of the box. When I tilted the box to examine it closely, that was when I noticed the pop-up profile of not just the Slave I, but of the minifigs as well! I am not sure if the other sets released in 2006 were also with this feature, but this certainly make the box much more collectible as compared to a regular one.

Alternative builds

The back of the box illustrates the various playable features, together with a couple of alternative designs that you can build with the bricks in this set.

8 packs of bricks can be found in the box, and all are unnumbered! I can't remember when was the last time I build an unnumbered set (I think it was the Death Star...) but the masochistic nature in me welcome this variation from the newer sets, which are numbered for easy sorting and construction. The other residents in the box include a few loose plates, the cockpit canopy and the instruction booklet.

From the outside, the design seems to have not evolved a lot since 2006. But the building process soon reveals the subtle evidence that this is indeed a much older cousin of the other Slave I. Unlike the frequent use of Technics parts and well, techniques, commonly found in recent years, this Slave I is fundamentally built in the System way. Surprisingly, this does not compromise the integrity and sturdiness of the vehicle at all (with exception of the cockpit canopy, that is) The absence of stickers is also a welcome sight, although I wouldn't mind some sporadic inclusion of nicely designed ones to enhance the details. I know, I know ... this is the paradoxical life of many Star Wars AFOLs.

This is not a difficult set to build and I took a 2.5 hour session to complete it.

The Swiss Army Slave I

Just like a Swiss Army knife, this Slave I is full of nice surprises. I frankly do not think that the movie version is THAT versatile and comes with so many stowed away weapons and compartments. One thing for certain, Boba will be very happy to own and fly this awesome vehicle. Movie-accurcy aside, let me do a quick checklist on the playable features:

- A spring loaded big-a@@ cannon (love the design of the trigger, but hate the difficulty to open the hatch)
- A pair of concealed missiles just below the spring loaded cannon
- A pair of cabinet doors with hinged erm ... lights / bombs?
- A pair of rotatable blaster cannons at the tip of the fuselage
- A hinged ramp to load the carbonated Hans Solo
- A bomb chamber with a couple of white head-piece bombs that tend to slip out easily during play time. And I am very sure the Slave I was never designed with the intent of making it a bomber ship (based on the DK Star Wars Complete Vehicle Guide)

Hidden spring loaded cannon

More hidden armoury

- The coolest feature is still the rotatable cockpit and wings. The designer cleverly used gravity to weigh down the pilot seat such that it will stay upright regardless whether the ship hovers vertically or land on its back. Whoever is the designer of this feature deserves a huge pat on the back! One flaw though, is the design of the wings. A strut that is supposed to connect with the wing flap was in fact, just resting on it. This lack of connection makes the strut feels quite flimsy.

Loading Hans in carbonite

Bomb chamber 

The choice of coloured bricks in this Slave I stays true to its movie counterpart. While I can always gripe on the lack of curvature in the design, that criticism is quickly dispelled once I remind myself to relook at it from a 2006 point of view. The same can also be said of the cockpit canopy, although a hinged design will make me a happier collector.

Flimsy wings

Before I forget, the bottom of this Slave I should also be commended for the level of details. The orange coloured thrusters do break the monotony of a dull grey base, and lend some weight to the authenticity of flight action during play time. I do have to say that this feature might not be appreciated often given that the Slave I will most certainly be lying on its belly most of the time.

Back view of the Slave I

Minifigs

If we exclude the carbonated Han Solo, there are four other minifigs included in this set. One thing that brought smile onto my face when I examined these minifigs is that they are from the era of the traditional LEGO faced minifigs, i.e. two dotted eyes + a smile, regardless they are heroes or villains. That innocence has since been lost some years back when more details were put into making the minifigs more movie accurate. It's hard to make a choice though.

Boba Fett - There are too many variants of this minifig that I have lost count, and this is one of the earlier one. How can one tell? Less details on the chest plate, attached jetpack to the helmet, no sign of battle damage, clean legs (not in the shaven sense, but print-less), and a totally black head piece. The entire minifig gives me a very nostalgic feeling - simple and not too movie-accurate. Yes, it is not perfect, but in imperfection, there is always a sense of warmth in it.

IG-88 - I love this minifig! For a simple reason - the metallic silver colour. There ain't too many minifigs that I know of that wears metallic silver, and this bounty hunter is TOTALLY covered in this really cool colour. In the movie, the IG-88 is much more human-like than droid-like but I am not complaining. His "old-school" blaster also brought back many memories of the early years of LEGO collection. I suspect this minifig will really fetch a high price in the future, if not already.

Dengar - This bounty hunter is too cute to be a villain! His ninja head gear hides his smiley expressions and made him look more like a desert traveler on a camel than a lethal bounty hunter. In any case, Dengar in the movie only has his head wrapped, leaving his face exposed, but this version resembles too close to a ninja, probably because he shares the same head gear design as a LEGO ninja minifig (check out the integrated clip at the back of the head gear where a ninja sword is usually attached) This Dengar, too, is unique to this set.

Bespin guard - Also unique to this set is a Bespin security guard. There is no name given to this minifig so I suppose he is a generic figure rather than an actual character. His happy face on brown complexion betrays his role as security officer in Cloud City (you can't be sooo nice to be doing a security job, can you?) Printing can be found only on the front of the torso as well as on his sleeves. The latter is especially rare even by today's standard. The fact that he can only be found in this set makes him another target for the minifig investors.

Conclusion

There are many reasons why this Slave I is worth a space in your collection, from its design and playability to its minifigs. Building this almost 10 years after its launch felt as if I have been teleported through the time machine, to an era when LEGO was much simpler, innocent and of course, cheaper.

+ Engineering marvel. Ok I am exaggerating but the cockpit design amazes me
+ Many playable features but not all are easy to play with
+ No stickers
+ Cool, unique (old school) minifigs

- Cockpit canopy tends to fall off during play