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Following on the heels of the LEGO 30001 City Fire Chief review and the LEGO 30002 City Police Boat review, comes this review of the 30050 Star Wars Republic Attack Shuttle in MINI-scale. These are related – these three sets plus the 30051 Star Wars X-Wing are all exclusively available through Target stores in the US, as part of an Easter promotion. You’ll find them in the Easter section rather than the toys/LEGO aisle. There are a few key differences – the City sets are minifig-scale and $2.99 while the two Star Wars sets are MINI-scale and are slightly more expensive, at $3.49. The extra $0.50 gets you a few dozen pieces more, although it’s a trade-off since the two City sets each comes with a minifig.

In my view, the 30050 and the 30051 are both really cool sets that are meant to be displayed on a shelf or on a desk – there should have been a small stand included (the one you see below was quickly improvised).

By the Numbers:
Set: 30050 Republic Attack Shuttle (Star Wars)
Year of Release: 2010
Type: Mini-scale or polybag (Target Easter promotion)
# of Pieces: 60 (6 extra)
# of Extra pieces: 6 (see photo below)
# of Minifigs and what kind: No
Stickers? No
Price: $3.49 at Target (USA)
Ages: 6-12
Time to Complete:

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Wired Magazine is running a story on new Star Wars toys, including a couple of LEGO sets.

They’ve got two large photos, one of 8089 Hoth Wampa Cave which has around 300 pieces, and is set in the classic Star Wars universe, and the other is the 8098 Clone Turbo Tank with over 1,100 pieces (pictured above), set during the Clone Wars (the Cartoon Network series). The Hoth Wampa Cave features Luke Skywalker, Zev Sensca, and Wampa minifigs, and the Clone Turbo Tank features Anakin Skywalker (everybody could use another one of those, right?), Cad Bane, Ayla Secura, Ahsoka Tano, and some clone troopers and a droid.

Wired is claiming that the 8098 will cost $120 (US) and will be available in stores in August and the Wampa set will be around $40. They mention a lot more information should come out due to the Toy Industry Association Toy Fair that runs February 14 – 17 in New York

Link: Wired.com

LucasArts and TT Games (Traveller’s Tales) announced LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars yesterday. It’s the same group that was behind the LEGO Star Wars and Indiana Jones games. It’ll be available later this year (Fall 2010) on the Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, Playstation 3, Playstation Portable (PSP), Microsoft Xbox 360, and Microsoft Windows. There are going to be new battle and head-to-head modes, an “upgraded level building” that allows for making customized bases (out of LEGO pieces). There are new movements and roles as well.

The press release mentions they’ve sold over 20 million units in the LEGO Star Wars series.

Link: LucasArts.com (Press Release) (via Brothers Brick

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Update: February 14, 2010: Photos of the 2010 LEGO Harry Potter sets are available.

Huw over at Brickset attended the London Toy Fair today to look at LEGO’s upcoming offerings. No photography was allowed unfortunately. Huw made plenty of observations on the displayed sets.

A few notes on Huw’s observations:
* The Harry Potter launches towards the end of this year will be well-received, and The Burrows sounds like it’s what a lot of us were hoping for. I’m surprised at the number of new minifigs – two dozen or so.
* City Trains sounds very promising
* The Prince of Persia theme sounds awesome as well
* Hero Factory will probably be a suitable replacement for Bionicle
* Technic’s launches in August sound solid
* Also the collectible minifigs sound as good as they look. I’m not too happy that some will be rarer than others.

What I’m most excited about is this:

The three summer Atlantis sets look interesting: there’s another creature, a lobster I think, an underwater base and the ‘portal of Atlantis’. The pictures shown elsewhere of these are only a small part of them.

Full article Brickset

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Here’s the review – better late than never. I never bought the original release of the LEGO Landspeeder years ago, but I can say (based on the pics of the old one) that this Landspeeder is sleeker, and doesn’t look like a huge brick with jet engines (like the old version). The build itself is solid. There’s not one issue I had with the completed model such as jiggly engine pods, or easily knocked off parts. I also find it pretty cool that all the pieces are existing LEGO parts, so if you want to hunt down all the parts to build another one, you would be able to make a landspeeder in any color you want.

Note: One of the engines is deliberately without a cowling – check the box art.

By the Numbers:
Set: LEGO Star Wars 8092 Luke’s Landspeeder
Type: Vehicle in Star Wars Classic Line
# of Pieces: 163
# of Extra pieces: a couple of axle pins and a few stubs
# of Minifigs and what kind: 6 -> 2 human – Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker, 2 droids – R2-D2, C3-P0, 1 Sandtrooper, 1 security droid (you assemble)
Stickers? None
Price: $24.99 at the official online LEGO Shop plus various retailers.

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Jason found the LEGO Star Wars 8092 Luke’s Landspeeder from the 2010 Star Wars LEGO sets in the Houston area at a Wal-Mart. The price was $24.95 although it may vary – it wasn’t easily found in the system.

It comes with 163 pieces and 6 minifigs:
- R2-D2
- C-3P0
- Sentry Droid
- Sandtrooper
- Obi-Wan Kenobi
- Luke Skywalker

Both Luke and Obi-Wan had molded hair, and all of the minifigs’ details are printed.

Jason will be posting a full review Thursday.

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This is a review of the new “2010″ (2009) LEGO Star Wars 8084 Snowtrooper Battle Pack. This is a set from the original trilogy, specifically Empire Strikes Back. There’s not that much to review – you’re basically getting 4 minifigs along with a small missile launcher and radar, and a snow speederbike (which is actually well done).

The parts are excellent if you are after whites and grays. No decals/stickers – everything you see is printed. The radar scope looks great. If you are just after minifigs, you’ll have no problem using the parts for MOCs. There is nothing that is too exotic. Personally I think the snow speederbike is well done.

The minifigs are outstanding. The Snowtrooper helmet is clever – it has two actual holes for eyes, which when combined with the blank black heads, gives it kind of a 3D look. The printing of the minifigures is perfect, especially the AT-AT driver, whose helmet is incredibly detailed for something this small. The backpack for the snowtroopers is molded to the back of the helmet.

The only shortcoming is that you only get two Snowtroopers. If you want to build up an actual decent number of Snowtroopers, you are going to end up with quite a few AT-AT drivers and Imperial Officers unless you hit up BrickLink or eBay and only buy Snowtroopers, or alternatively buy several 8084 sets and then sell off the extra officers and AT-AT drivers.

By the Numbers:
Set: 8084 Star Wars / 8084 Snowtrooper Battle Pack
Year of Release: 2010 (Technically 2009)
Type: Army Builder/Battle Pack
# of Pieces: 74
# of Extra pieces: 3
# of Minifigs and what kind: 4 – Imperial Officer, AT-AT Driver, 2 Snowtroopers
Stickers? No
Price: $10.99 at Official Online LEGO Shop, also at Amazon.com (price may vary)
Ages: 6-12
Time to Complete: Less than 20 minutes

(Click for larger images at flickr – full 8084 gallery)

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Having heard that quite a few new 2010 LEGO sets are popping up at Toys R Us and LEGOlands, I paid a visit to the Toys R Us in South Austin earlier today to have a look, and it was surprising.

We bought and are going to review in the next few days:
7592 Construct-a-Buzz (Toy Story)
7594 Woody’s Roundup (Toy Story)
8057 Wreck Raider (Atlantis)
8072 Sea Jet (Atlantis)
8073 Manta Warrior (Atlantis)
8083 Rebel Trooper Battle Pack (Star Wars)
8084 Snowtrooper Battle Pack (Star Wars)

First impressions: The Star Wars battle packs seem a bit high for the price, but the minifigs are awesome. The 8072 and 8073 were impulse kits priced at under $4. The Sea Jet in particular is great. The Wreck Raider is very neat for being under $12 – it comes with a Sharkman minifig and is the cheapest way to get one at this point. The Toy Story sets are also pretty nice, we were not after sets to review, but sets we wanted to keep around.

We also saw:
3187 Seaplane (City)
5891 Apple Tree House (Creator)
5898 Cars Building Set (Bricks and More)
5899 House Building Set (Bricks and More)
7206 Fire Helicopter (City)
7567 Traveler (City)
7595 Army Men on Patrol (Toy Story)
8059 Seabed Scavenger
8061 Gateway of the Squid (Atlantis)
8075 Neptune Carrier (Atlantis)
8085 Freeco Speeder (Star Wars)
8086 Droid Tri-Fighter (Star Wars)
8087 Tie Defender (Star Wars)
8088 Arc 170 Starfighter (Star Wars)
8519 Big Chill (Ben 10 from Cartoon Network)

There were probably Racers and some other sets we missed, but it was an impressive amount of new sets coming out all at once. It makes a lot more sense about Toys R Us trying to clear the shelves with a lot of good sales recently (Buy 1/Get 1 50% off, etc.).