Poe's X-Wing fighter -- in Lego Want to see the future of car technology? Brian Cooley found it for you at CES 2017 in Las Vegas and the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. The connected home experience you didn't know you wanted Everything you need in a phone, except the headphone jackIt wouldn’t be a proper Force Friday—otherwise known as the day that Disney unleashes an unprecedented wave of Star Wars-related merchandise on the world—without new Lego sets.Sure enough, Lego is in on the action with seven new playsets. As with the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie, hitting theatres on Dec. 19, the sets are specifically crafted to appeal to core fans who loved the hallowed original trilogy. But each also features a new twist, with varying degrees of modern sensibilities included.Here’s a round-up of the new line. Be warned: Some potential spoilers of the upcoming movie follow. Not much is known about Rey, the female protagonist of the upcoming movie, although director J.J. Abrams has said her surname has purposely not been revealed.
Hmm, could she be a Skywalker?Regardless, Rey and her speeder are the entry-level set of the new Lego line at 193 pieces and $19. The hover bike looks like a mix of the speeders used by scout troopers in Return of the Jedi, if they were crossed with a semi truck trailer, or maybe even a pod racer from that prequel movie with the kid and Jar Jar that we’d all rather forget. The vehicle packs dual stud shooters and an opening storage hatch, as well as two mini-figures: Rey herself and someone called Unkar’s Thug. Who is Unkar and why does he have a thug? Of the handful of details to dribble out about The Force Awakens, we know that the First Order is a military group that sprung up 30 years after the Empire fell in Return of the Jedi. Abrams has described it as what might happen if all the Nazis who fled to Argentina after World War II got together to carry on the fight.The fact that the troopers have a snow speeder indicates there will probably be action on an icy planet. In The Empire Strikes Back, it was the good-guy rebels who used snow speeders to trip up the giant AT-AT walkers.
Will the bad guys turn the tables this time?The $39 Snowspeeder features a forward storage compartment, several stud shooters, and transparent wheels so that it looks like it’s actually hovering. It also comes with two First Order Snowtroopers and one Officer. There doesn’t appear to be any sign of a grappling hook, though. This one looks familiar, not just because it’s obviously a TIE Fighter, but also because Lego has released a number of similar models before. It’s a relatively small set at 517 pieces, a cross between the basic TIE released back in 2001 and the mammoth 1,685-piece Collector’s Edition that launched earlier this year.Lego TIE fighters are tough to make interesting because of their symmetry—those wings just aren’t fun to build. The First Order’s entry, at $69, is a bit different since the cockpit accommodates two pilots. You also get an Officer and Crew member, because additional mini figures are really the only way to make a TIE Fighter set interesting.
Who or what is Poe Dameron? Who knows, except that he’s an X-Wing pilot in the upcoming movie who gets wrapped up with some of the other main characters. And oh yes, he flies a cool-looking black-and-orange X-Wing.This is another set that Lego has already done in one form or another, at least six times. This 717-piece, $79 set does have something new going for it, aside from Resistance ground crew and pilot mini figures. It’s got BB-8, the astromech droid that is already looking like he’ll be as beloved a character in the new trilogy as R2-D2 was in the original. Here, you can have him in tiny Lego form, which is cheaper than getting the Sphero version also announced for Force Friday. If any of the new sets are reminiscent of the forgettable prequel trilogy, it’s the First Order Transporter. Resembling a real-world military amphibious lander, it’s pretty clear Abrams really is drawing inspiration from the Second World War. The only thing missing is Private Ryan. But it also sort of looks like one of those Clone carriers from those movies where George Lucas went nuts with the CGI.
The $89 Transporter comes with a whopping seven mini-figures: two Resistance soldiers, two First Order Flametroopers, two First Order Stormtroopers and Brienne of Tarth… er, rather, Captain Phasma. Kylo Ren’s 1,005-piece shuttle may be the most interesting set in the new lineup, and the second-most expensive at $119. For one thing, it’s all grey, which is pretty old-school Star Wars. Just about all the best vehicles in the original trilogy were grey.It also kind of looks like the Emperor’s shuttle from Return of the Jedi (which was white), but with a little bit of TIE Fighter sensibility thrown in. That’s suitable for the bad-ass dude with the tri-pronged lightsaber that inspired so much controversy. Other than that, the shuttle has a ton of playability with folding wings, front, rear and bottom storage bays, and spring-loaded shooters, not to mention six mini-figures: Kylo and First Order leader General Hux, plus a First Order Officer, two crew and Stormtrooper Officer.
The new Millennium Falcon is very much a reissue of an older product with a few changes. At $149, it’s also cheaper than most previous versions.The new Falcon has a touched-up laser turret and radar dish, plus a secret compartment for—what else?—smuggling. Perhaps the biggest draw, at least for collectors, will be the Han Solo and Chewbacca mini figures. Sure, there are plenty of sets that feature both characters, but none of them when they’re old. The grey-haired Han is almost worth the price of admission alone.Also included are Rey, BB-8, and Finn (the profusely sweating guy in the Stormtrooper outfit from the trailer). Rounding out the mini figures are Tasu Leech, a member of a gang called Kanijiklub, and a non-descript fellow gangster. Uh, Chewie… we’re home?Want more Force Friday action? Check out our interview with legendary Star Wars collector Steve Sansweet below.This weekend the munchkin and I have been heads down in some serious Lego Star Wars. He's been asking me for the X-Wing fighter for a while, so finally I sat down this weekend and worked it out.
First I collected *all* his Legos together from his Mom's house and here, then went through and got rid of all the big "bricks" to get them out of the way. Actually we built a pretty big "castle" with them (otherwise known as a box) which was fun since it was so big. Once we did that - all the flat pieces, angular, rounded and spaceship style pieces were left to build the cool stuff with. Over the past few years of birthdays, Christmas's and general purchases, we've got a pretty good collection of Lego parts. But they are from fire engines and fire houses, rescue helicopters and cars mostly. Many of the parts translate shape-wise to Star Wars nicely, but not all of them, and definitely not the color. Lego seems to like adding in random triangular pieces and specialized connections into their kits - and the "new" Star Wars seems to think brown is the color of the future. But that's fine, Alex doesn't care about the colors, and I've been able to be creative when needed with the parts.
The instructions we're using are from the Legos called "Mini kits" - and are actually included in the Lego Star Wars video game as bonuses as you go through levels. Once you've collected all the parts in each level, a particular kit is displayed floating outside the Cantina in the game... It's pretty amazing how much work they've done to make sure the instructions that come with the real kits match the virtual ones in the game! You can click a button and watch them being built and they're exactly the same. And like I posted before, all the kits are available online. First, here's a link to a list of the Star Wars Mini kits. Once you have that list, then you can look up the kit number on this site and get the PDF of the kit's instructions. I took a picture of the results, all posed on stands. The colors are all wonky, and some of the pieces are definitely a bit of a stretch (the Falcon, for example, has a pretty small top), but they're still not bad. I love the fact that I can just go online and snag the instructions.