Review: 8008 Stormtrooper

[Dfenz]

Name: 8008 Stormtrooper

Theme: Technic/Star Wars

Episode 4/5/6

Year Released: 2001

Parts: 361

Minifigs: 0

Price: n/a (Bricklink average price guide as at July 2010 €28)

Age: 9+

This the fourth of my technic star wars sets to be dismantled. [see my review of 8001 for the full family pic]. To be honest this was the review I was least looking forward to as my initial impressions were that this was the weakest of the series. Did my view change? We shall see.

This set is very similar in size to most of the other droids and characters. It stands 33cm tall and is reasonably stable despite relatively skinny legs and thanks no doubt to the lack of movement thereof. The left arm has a lot more flexibility due to a ball joint whereas the right arm movement is up and down by use of a gear wheel at the back similar to some of these other sets. The 'functionality' consists of raising the firing arm and pointing a technic rubber missile launcher at the target [C3PO - set 8007 - is the intended victim per the instructions). The weapon is fired by means of a technic ball pin near the shoulder which is connected by a cable. While I can understand the desire to try to increase the playability of these sets in my view the technic missile firing system is unsuitable for this set, being disproportionately large. Perhaps I'm simply sick of seeing this part cropping up in all sorts of sets. The head is fully posable - it can rotate and tilt.

Front

Rear

This set contains primarily white technic pieces with a sprinkling of black and light grey parts, give or take a dark grey pin or two and a single orange technic liftarm (which appears in only two sets per Bricklink) The latter part is removable and is not shown in the picture. There is one unusual large part (at least for me) namely a black bionicle body trunk gear box. Its not that rare, appearing in three other sets. The white 'throwbot visors' used for boots appear to be unique to this set.

There is one small sticker sheet which is applied to the rear of the stormtrooper on two 1x4 white plates and mercifully not over multiple parts. Thankfully no rubber bands this time either.

The parts for this set come in 4 bags. The first contains the parts for the legs, the second is for the torso, the third for the head/helmet and the fourth contains the parts for the arms.

Bricklnk inventory for 8008

Perhaps its the lack of availability of parts around the turn of the last century but the designers to me didn't do a great job with this set. The body looks quite short, the weapon oversized and the head nothing like a stormtrooper. The head looks more like a visually impaired centurion from battlestar galactica. Take a look at the 'eyes'. All that's missing is the white stick.

The instructions follow the usual format for the series with reasonably clear steps and part call outs. There are no 'human hands' demonstrating the firing function this time round. The watermark in the paper is of a scene from one of the movies, lots of stormtroopers in a hall which is a neat touch.

random instruction pic

There is an alternate model to the storm trooper. Again like some of the other sets, with all those technic panels the designers chose a fighter craft with the firing mechanism presumably to improve 'swooshability'. Its not my cup of tea but others may like it. At 26 pages of instructions at least some effort went into it.

All in all, I'd rate this set as below average as I don't think it design is good enough when compared to other sets in the series.

Build 6/10 (Easy build for the number of pieces)

Functionality 6/10 (It is designed to sit on a shelf - has an overused technic weapon)

Design 5/10 (Not the best effort on the design front especially the helmet and the technic firing mechanism is a cheap overused 'playability' feature)

Parts 5/10 (Nothing too fantastic here. Lots of white technic and little else of interest)

Price 7/10 (The current Bricklink average price is quite low - perhaps reflecting the low interest in this set so it is possible for star wars completionists to pick this up fairly cheaply)

[prateek]

This model is too skinny, but I do like the helmet.

[mutley777]

I got back into lego back in 1999 when the star wars line started and in all that time i have never been tempted or interested in the Technic sets. Your great detailed reviews over the last few days have proved to me that i was not mistaken to give these sets a very wide birth!

[Brickdoctor]

This was the one Technic SW set that never seemed to resemble it's movie counterpart to me. Thanks for these great reviews, though!

[XimenaPaulina]

Hmmm... Unlike the other technic SW sets that you reviewed, this one seems to be the weakest IMO, I have a problem with the trooper's helmet. It's too flat, just looks weird and not easily recognizable. Still, a good review as usual.

[brickfoot]

Great review. The storm trooper looks like he's on a diet.

[BrickClick]

Hmm...

I can't say I'm a fan of this one at all, Hes way too skinny and doesn't really look like his movie counterpart.

Thanks for the review anyway Dfenz!

[lightningtiger]

Thanks for the review 'Dfenz' - sadly this is my least favorite of the Technic SW series - it just don't look right !

Aw well, I'm a conformist! !