Review: 7749 Echo Base

[jansued]

Ok, I was crazy enough to drive 100 Miles to a special TRU where they didn't pay attention to the release date. So I bought the Hoth Set and the Droid Tank. Sorry, no review of the droid tank - the kids couldn't wait. (Yes, yu are right, I couldn't wait...)

Here comes my review - please take it with some humor...

Set Name: Echo Base

Set Number: 7749

Theme: Star Wars

Year: 2009

Price: EUR 26.95

Pieces: 155

Minifigures: 5

There are enough pictures of the outside, so here some from the inside and the building instructions

There is a little poster named 2009 Mini-figure Gallery. Who finds all the mistakes? I count three...

Oh, and there is a picture of the Home One Box - for those who didn't see it yet:

The thing that really irritates me and makes me some kind of angry (remember, I drove 200 Miles to get these sets), is the emptiness of the box:

Beeing an engineer, I tried to find out how much of the box is really needed -with some help from an old Rebel Trooper:

Amazing, isn't it? Ok, I guess TLC would have problems to sell this little box for 26,95.-€ ....

Allright, this is the contents:

Let start with the minifigs:

2 Imperial Snow troopers

2 Rebel Snow troopers

Han Solo

A big grey squirrel with a saddle:

After staying for some weeks on Hoth and beeing rejected bei Leia, Han Solo showed a strange interest in the big grey squirrel...

but he still got the problem with getting on it....

The Imperials got a new E-WEB (who ever named this weapon E-WEB? I suggest Kill-o-Zap - D.Adams ;-) - ). The rebels show their respect to this new system.

Ok, guys, its a nice weapon - but the name is really sh**.

Their must be a strange sympathy for the Imperium at TLC - they sabotaged the defense post with some kind of Ejection Device...:

Looks like they expected a really good stuntshow..

I hope this link works:

Movie

The only good thing TLC done for the Rebels is the little hideout in the turret:

Ok, lets wait until those At-AT are gone...

The rocket system inside the turret:

Here the new set on its first mission:

Where the hell are we? Its f***** cold, totally dark for the most times and there is strange smell all around.

Get the squirrel out of the butter!

Too late....

Overall

Design: 8/10 The turret is a little bit too small. The E-Web could be more detailed.

Build: 6/10 There's nothing new or unique in the way the set is built.

Playability: 9/10 The rockets are cool and the ejection also.

Minifigures: 10/10 Couldn't be better ...

Price: 5/10 155 Pieces for 26,95.-€ No way.

Total: 38/50

Conclusion

A nice set - but far too expensive. The Minifigs and the Taun-Taun are very good, but a bigger tower and some more details would made it better, if not perfect.

Comments and constructive criticism are welcome!

Oh, I nearly forgot the leftovers:

Thank you for reading my review!

Edited May 25, 2009 by KimT

[AwesomeStar]

A good review of a good set. I have a Hasbro mini-version of this, and its just as good. Thanks for this

Though perhaps tone down a wee bit on the language, I know you censored it, but, well, I'll leave it to the rest

Good job

~A.S.

Edited May 21, 2009 by AwesomeStar

[baby]

Cool set! Like it very much especially the minifigs.

[General Armendariz]

DoubleT has also done a review see it Here.

[Danthebrick]

Definate must have set though I agree the price is a little high. Thought the review was great! - no harm in chucking in a bit of humour with a review... now how many years before the set reaches the distant shores of the UK?

[iotacode]

One word: Awesome!

Love your different approach, it totally brings out the fun in Lego. And thanks for sharing this

[commdr_neyo]

are you going to review the Snail tank too?

[Skipper 24]

Thanks for the review. What's wrong with the E-WEB turret name? Do I feel an attack of the giant grey squirrel MOC? . Nice work .

[Bobskink]

Minifigures: 10/10 Couldn't be better ...

Another Endor Han, no Luke. But don't get me wrong, this looks like a cool set. Very funny revieuw

[Ratshot]

Good Review. This is a set that I intend to pick up this summer. Mostly for the Rebel Troopers.

[DarthPineapple]

Sweet set! I really love it.

They should really check their fig name spelling before printing the poster. 'Jet Tropper'.

[Zepher]

Nice vreview, but why cut the box

Actually, the box cutting was really cool! I enjoyed seeing what it really took. Doesn't look like a great set, but those figures are awesome, so I may still get it... if it ever goes on sale.

[DutchRebel]

Hey Jan, thanx for driving 100 miles and share your hilarious review with us. Thanx again for all the effort and I had a good laugh!

[daxflame680]

Great review! I'm sure KimT would be willing to add this to the index when he gets back if you resize your images.

This set doesn't include enough, IMO. 155 pieces for $25, that's too much, even if the minifigs are amazing.

[ILikePi]

Thanks for the review!

Even though this set is pretty overpriced, I want it even more now after reading your review.

The only thing you might want to do is resize the pictures. They're way too huge.

And why did you have to kill the box of a new, not-yet-released set?

[RileyC]

wow it looks awesome!

I cant wait to get this set.

I liek all the features in this set like the flick fire system and the rebel flippy thing. The Taun Taun looks really well done with the eyes

Great review too!

[jansued]

Hmm. I resized the pictures at Brickshelf and renewed the picture links - why they don't resize in here?

Ah, just fixed it....

Greetings, Jan

Edited May 22, 2009 by jansued

[The Penguin]

A lovely review of a nice set. )

I must admitt, first I found the set pretty useless and boring. But after this review I've somehow changed my mind a bit. I may even get a couple of those. )

Thanks for the review, Jan. )

Good day, gentlemen! )

[Joebot]

Fun review, thanks! The tauntaun looks great. Too bad it doesn't come with a slice-open belly feature.

I found your box-cutting experiment to be very interesting. Looks like about 10-20% of the box is really all Lego needs, meaning they're generating 80-90% waste. And weren't they just bragging up the fact in the past year or two that they've reduced their box sizes??? Seems like they could stand to do that again.

[thinkdoodle]

This looks like a good set to build up the Hoth Base. The rebels' goggles look different from the goggles in Hoth Base (#7666).

[CloneCommanderDelta7]

You got an extra Hoth goggle! You're so LUCKY! Great review! I love that taun taun. And the Hoth Troopers. And the Snowtroopers.

You said that you also bought the Tank Droid, please review it soon.

[Commander_Rob]

Great review. And a good set too, too bad my local TRU doesn`t pre-release any sets, they just reduce prices one week after I buy a big set.

PS: E-WEB stands for Emplacement WEapon, heavy Blaster if I remember that correctly.

[UserNameInvalid]

No way... 27 euros?

Special Starwars price?

Compensating for failed PAB repricing?

Nice rodent, nice review, so-so set, extremely overpriced.

For me: it's a 'no' mainly because of the price.

BTW good oversized box demo. TLC pls take note!

[Zarkan]

Thanks for the nice review.

I don't know if anyone else feels this way, but I'm seriously disapointed with the Tauntaun. Mainly because... well, there's a huge line running down the middle! Seriously, that just looks bad from the front, and you know it's a problem when it looks even WORSE on the box. I'm sorry, but for 30 dollars I'd at least hope that the exclusive figure would be high quality.

Ah well, at least I don't have to worry about it that much, since I've sworn off buying starwars kits altogether.

[Future74]

Great review and a great set!

I love the tauntaun. And to anyone who thinks this set is too expensive, try getting 2 snowtroopers, 2 rebeltroopers and a tauntaun via Bricklink

Ah well, at least I don't have to worry about it that much, since I've sworn off buying starwars kits altogether.

Wonder how long you're gonna keep that promise