[Review] 7929 Battle of Naboo

[KingDom]

This is my last review from wave 1 of the Star Wars 2011 sets. I would like to start by saying it really is a great set to have and one of the best sets this year in terms of value for money (not just price per piece). Now onto the stats of this set from TLG.

Item #: 7929

Ages: 7-12

Pieces: 241

•Includes 12 minifigures: Jar Jar Binks, Gungan soldier, 2 droid pilots and 8 battle droids

•Arm the Gungan soldier with an all-new transparent energy shield!

•Deploy 2 racks of realistic, detachable battle droids!

•Move the controls of the Trade Federation troop carrier!

•Trade Federation troop carrier measures 10” (25cm) long, 3” (7cm) wide and 4” (10cm) tall

A nice box, that is, as far as boxes go. It certainly showcases the main draws to the set. That is, of coarse, the figures.

Normally, don't point out the back of the box but I'll make an exception for two reasons; one good and one bad. First of all, I really like how this box harkens back to allmost a decade ago when lego would show the figures themselves 'building' the set. It's not exactly the same but I still like it. The bad point isn't really that bad but worth noting. You can see on the box that the 'domes' on the side of the transport are held in by grey pins, in reality there are less realistic blue pins to hold them in. It doesn't really matter because when the holding bay is in, they are obscured but I don't know why TLG would change their minds on something like that.

This is what you get inside the box, 3 unmarked bags and an instruction manual.

Opening up the first bag, you see that it's dominated by droid arms and heads.

The second bag is mainly plates and droid bodies.

The last bag consists of mainly larger plates and the few bricks that this set has.

There aren't too many interesting pieces in this set outside of the great new Gungans (it should be noted that the bagged heads were found within the large bag). I don't think there are any new pieces outside of the Gungans but a few rare ones.

Here we have the 10 (count 'em) droids. The pilot droid has new printing, it isn't perfect but it's the best one we've had so far.

Here's a referance pic. Pretty accurate, isn't it?

Here we have the great revisions on the gungans. Since there haven't been any for an entire decade, this will be the first chance for many to get their hands on them.

Lego really were generous giving us back printing on the heads and bodies. They really do stand out as some of the best figures this year (outside of the beautiful Shaak Ti, naturally).

Comparing them to the old versions, the new versions surpass the old ones in allmost every way. The mold is allmost the same except the new ones have smoother eyes (the old ones had them to give the effect of pupils) and are made of a different plastic. I assume this is the cheap chinese plastic that people are talking about. I don't mind it on a head but I certainly wouldn't want it for my bricks. For those who don't know what it feels like, it's basically half way between Lego and Megablocks, but probably closer to Lego.

Here's a random picture of the manual. The manual is the same size as the Clone Battle pack but has about twice the pages (48). The set is completed in 26 steps but the entire carrier section is counted as a substep so including substeps, it's about 40 steps.

Here is a picture corresponding to the step. A bit past half way through the build.

Here is the set just before the carrier section is added. To me it doesn't look right without the carrier.

Before the figures are added, this set looks fine. It doesn't stand out as an impressive model but looks great as a part (or severaly parts with multiple buys) of a droid army or battlefield diorama.

With the figures, it's still not too impressive. It's more of a large battlepack than a standalone model. With this in mind it is a very good battlepack.

With that in mind, it does look quite impressive at some angles.

This 'control panel' is my least favourite part of the set. It just doesn't work with a battle droid but it'll have to do.

With the completed set, it's time for my ratings:

Design 7/10

The set fits its purpose but won't stand out in most collections. Pretty accurate, if a little small but most people won't care.

Figure 10/10

A great figure line up. Though we missed out on our last chance for a new Kaadu for a while now, this certainly is a great army builder.

Value 8/10

I docked some points for the fact that UK actually pay one pound more than US which is pretty ridiculous. Still fair value, especially how prices are these days.

25/30

A good set to buy multiples of and a great starting points for people looking to make a decent army. Probably the best set at its price point but not a standout model.

Please comment on the review and set and come back soon when I find out how to add a poll to this.

[commanderneyo]

Great Review Kingdom and I just got 2 of this Set for my Birthday Today

Though I am going to trade one for the Battle For Geonosis Later

[lightningtiger]

Thanks for the review 'KingDom', at least Jar Jar looks like himself....eyes and all !

I can't wait to get my Myer lay-by off so I can build this with my son, the droid carrier is excellent even though I agree a bit short.

Great review again and my the brick be with you !

[Brickdoctor]

Nice review, KingDom. I agree this set is a pretty good value, but think it needs some serious modding. Or better yet, scrapping and rebuild from the ground up.

[prateek]

Great review. I would've liked that orange animal, but whatever.

[Masked Builder]

Another very nice review KingDom! Maybe a few more shots of the completed model would be goo though.

[Fives]

Great review. I just got this set recently. It is truly fantastic.

[Stardusty]

Great review KingDom!

I really like this set and I'll buy at least 2.

[bockers]

Starting to get a bit bored of these battle droids

[chris_austin]

Starting to get a bit bored of these battle droids

Not I!

I haven't read this review yet as I will be buying this set soon and don't want to see any 'spoilers' about parts/functions!

I agree that while this Battle Droid carrier is more detailed than the 7126 version, it can be much improved. It doesn't carry many droids for a start! I had modified 7126 by simply making it longer and twice the height (closer to the movie) but the parts/sets were cheaply available for that. New build from scratch this time round.

[BearHeart]

This is a great set! I picked up two of these.

Its a great army builder with 10 battle droids and two Gungans. LEGO was realy generous here, they could have given us a set with one gungan and six droids, priced it the same and people still would have bought it.

The quality of the Gungan heads is really good too. I was expecting them to be made of the same softer material as the HP Dobby head but it looks like they used different, more sturdy plastic. In regards to the 'cheep chinese plastic'remark, even thoughthese heads were made in China, this is not the issue that everyone is talking about. That issue has more to do with the actual minifig parts (torsos, legs heads etc) that are in the collectible minifig packs and in some of the battlepacks. The quality of the Gungan heads is actually pretty good, much better than the soft Dobby heads from the HP sets.

[autobrick]

When I first saw this preliminary pictures of this set, I really liked it (it was one of the few sets of this wave I considered getting).

However, now that it is out, I am no longer interested. Maybe because of the price, $35 CAD (!), which is high for a set with such an insubstantial build.

Thanks for the review.