Review:75000 Clone Troopers vs. Droidekas
| Clone Troopers vs. Droidekas (2 Reviews) | |||||||||||||||
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$12.99
€16.99
£11.99
$22.99
€14.99
€15.99
$26.99
Reviews
Jeyo
Great pieces, mediocre set. When I first saw this set, I knew I had to get it. Those new Clone Troopers just rocked. They were amazing. At the same time, however, I was aware of the price. 13 USD is a lot to pay for two minifigures, a pair of badly designed Droidekas and a small command centre. I'd watched some video reviews and pondered extensively. Finally I found myself at Target and had to decide between this and the 75001 Republic Troopers vs. Sith Troopers battle pack. I really liked the Sith troopers, as well as those of the Republic. Needless to say, I chose this. Simply because of the clones and because it looked like it had more - and better - pieces. I made the right choice.
The box and instructions
- The Box
My first thought when I saw the box on the shelf was how small it was. It was only about 9 centimeters tall and 10 long! I guess I'd forgotten what these things were like in the long time that I haven't gotten a set. Anyways, the box art was fine, as usual. The words were printed in English, Spanish and French, which seems to be standard procedure these days. One thing I like is how it opened: the back of the box could be opened like a hatch, providing a space in which to build. A lot of sets these days open from the side or some annoying thing like that.
- The Instructions
The instructions, as usual, came folded in half. That's always annoying when I'm trying to look at them. The black pieces actually looks black, which is nice. I know there were a lot of complaints about the black looking like dark grey a couple years back.
The Command Centre
This is the central part of the set. It's shaped roughly in a semi-circle and has room for two minifigures to fit inside. I didn't know it was even based on something from the movie until I watched a video review on the set. And the reason for that is this command centre is about four times smaller than it should be. I know LEGO isn't known for making things properly to scale in comparison to the minifigures, but this thing is ridiculously tiny. If I had no thumb or fingers, it would still fit perfectly in the palm of my hand. And I'm rather small for my age, so that's saying something. The main thing I like about it is the pieces: it uses very nice and a little rare pieces such as 1x1 tiles, 3x1 pieces and tiles and a variety of new SNoT bricks. The centre also has a control console brick, which are always cool. And, of course, what would a modern set be without flick-fire missiles? Yup. Flip down the back section of the command centre and reveal a hidden such missile. Ah, well. It fires well, if a trifle inaccurately. When you flip down the piece, though, it's set at an angle that makes it a little difficult to fire.
The Minifigures
For me, the minifigures are the star of the set. (And I'm not talking about the droidekas, because they don't even qualify as minifigures. They'll come under a different heading.) These clones are astounding. The shape and angle of the visor is perfect. The torso printing is spot-on and incredibly detailed down to the last line on the ammo cartridges and the amount of buttons on the thermal detonator. The helmets are the same as the last ones - the ones used for the Clone Wars theme - with two differences: printing, obviously, but also something else. The helmets actually stay on the minifigures' heads. The previous ones fell off so easily. But these actually stay on very well, which is fantastic; I was dreading the worst when I got them.
One thing I find interesting is the visor of the Sergeant. It's silver instead of black. It's a nice touch, as the effect is actually quite cool, but a little odd. And while I'm on the Sergeant, I might mention that he comes with macrobinoculars (Star Wars binoculars). They fit him very nicely...when his helmet is off. With it on it's a little more difficult to get it up there - and it still doesn't reach his visor totally.
The Droidekas
LEGO has made four versions of these, I think. And I have to say, this last one is terrible. Utterly. It looks practically nothing like a droideka. It doesn't roll into a ball well, the head is too close to the body, the arms are shaped all weird and it's just too big. Really, this thing looks nothing like a droideka.
However, there is one big plus: the pieces that make them up. Oh, very nice indeed. I've got some metallic dark grey pieces that didn't come in that colour before (see the picture to the right) and some other pieces that are somewhat rare, such as the red eye, the core of the droid's head and the brown sloping piece on top. So the pieces are nice, if not the way they're put together.
The extra pieces
Not much to say here other than the extra pieces were all nice ones; pieces that are sure to come in handy in the future. See the picture to the left.
Overview
Overall, I'm glad I got this set. I love the clone troopers and all the lovely pieces included. I'll probably dismantle this thing rather more quickly than most sets I get because of the poor design. But just because of the parts and clones, I highly recommend this set. Just don't get it at Toys R Us. It was much more expensive there than at Target.
| Overall Rating: |   4 / 5 |
| Play Experience: |  3½ / 5 |
| Minifigures: | 5 / 5 |
| Value for Money: | 3 / 5 |
| Pieces: | 5 / 5 |
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Joined: December 29, 2006 
№ of Reviews: 17 
№ of Featured reviews: 1
Well, another new year of Star Wars, another two battle packs. I'll start with the first one, from Episode II: Attack of the Clones, and might do The Old Republic one some other time.
The Command Center
The set depicts a Forward Command Center, based on the structure in Episode II where Yoda spends the battle chatting to a clone commander. You mainly see the inside of the building in the film, the exterior (which is what the set is based on), is seen in the film for a lengthy 4-5 seconds as Yoda lands nearby.
So, to the set. As stated, there is an interior to this in the Star Wars universe, and it is much larger (about half the length of a Republic Gunship). However, being a battle pack, things have to be shrunk down, and I'd say they've done a very good job of making a small playable model that still looks like a Forward Command Center and appears like it could function as one (albeit in a reduced capacity).
The build is short and straightfoward, and there aren't a lot of repetitive tasks to make it boring (unless you're like me and buy a few of them and build them all in a row- it can get a bit tiresome in the end). There is one main function of the set, which I really enjoyed- the set contains one hidden flick-fire missile, which you can deploy by folding the "post" at the back down. You can also fold the "pole" at the very top of the post back up, so it looks like the bottom of the post and just moved. And is now armed with a missile. The missile you do have to actually flick with your finger, there isn't any mechanism to do it for you, but I can't see it being able to be done any other way. I know that Foward Command Centers in the Star Wars universe are unarmed, and that it's only a missile, but it does for some reason add a lot to the set's playability to me.
The Droidekas
The Droidekas... are weird. They looks like an AT-TE's stomped on them, which not only flattened them, but it also somehow made their "shoulders" fall down to around their legs. Instead of looking almost like a "C" side-on, they look more like a "⊏". To me, the original Droideka made in 2002 looks better. However, I must say the base area of the Droideka with the legs is the best I've seen, it's the top area and the positioning and posability of the arms leaves a bit to be desired. Personally, I'm just going to be thinking of them as some sort a "mini-Droideka" or a precursor to the main Droideka line.
The Clones
Finally, the movies clones have faces! Obviously this was eventually going to happen after The Clone Wars introduced enclosed helmets, but it's so nice to actually have them, and know that I'll never (or hopefully never) buy a set, take off a clone's helmet only to be met by a plain black head. I never got why they didn't have the visors printed in the first place and gave troopers faces (even just plain dot eyes with a smiley mouth would have been good), but I'm definitely glad that the change has been made for movie clones. The face used for both troopers suits the clones well, sure, maybe a more neutral expression might have been nice, but I'm not complaining.
Not a whole lot has changed with the standard Clone Trooper's movie torso- a bit more shadow in some places, some more detailing on the belt. A nice refinement of an already well designed print. The trooper's helmet looks great. It's the same mould as the TCW helmet, but the printing is different and is a huge improvement. Having watched The Clone Wars lately and not having seen Episode II for some time, I almost forgot how nice the Phase I Clone Trooper helmet actually looked- The Clone Wars made the visors larger (which LEGO understandably mimicked in its helmet design) and the bottom of the helmet seems much wider. After comparing images of clones from Episode II and The Clone Wars, the TCW helmets just look off. The same can be said for the LEGO helmets as well.
The Sergeant is basically like the Trooper, but with olive-green printing for indicating rank. Like the standard trooper, the Sergeant is an excellent figure. The green flashes break up the black and white, and just aids in make it looking even more visually appealing than a standard trooper, and it's good to see the details like the four green dots are present. The only thing I'm not a huge fan of is the grey printing inside the visor, which I'm guessing is meant to be a reflection. I think a plain black would be better, and would have made the figure perfect (if you wanted reflection, you could shine a torch on the helmet). But, it's really nice to see an unnamed officer in a set, hopefully we'll see a Lieutenant, Captain and Commander in sets to come.
Overall
Nicely constructed set, great clones, not so great Droidekas. I'd recommend getting the set for anyone with any interest in Clone Troopers, or just if you wanted to get a small set to have a battle with. Getting rid of the weird Droidekas and putting in two more Clones and having a small speeder would have made it so much better, but even as it is, it would have to be right up there with my favourite battle packs to date.
| The Build | 4 / 5 |
| Playability | 4½ / 5 |
| Clone Troopers | 4½ / 5 |
| Droidekas | 2 / 5 |
| Set overall | 4 / 5 |
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