Set Name: Droid Escape

Set Number: 9490

Pieces: 137

Figures: 4

Price: 26,99 € / $19.99 (USD) / £19.99

Theme: Star Wars / OT

Yesterday I stumbled upon a few of the new 2012 sets and bought 9490 and the new battle packs. I don't think there is a review for Droid Escape yet, so here is mine! This is my first review, so bear with me. If you have requests for more and specific pictures, please ask. I don't seem to be able to add polls yet, so it would be nice if a mod could add one, if one is needed.

The Box, complete with the new Darth Maul artwork.

The back of the box shows the functions of the set (not much to see here apart from the escape pod opening) and artwork of the pod approaching Tatooine and landing in the dunes.

The contents of the box (the 2 big grey cone-shaped pieces were loose inside the box):

The sticker sheet. I do not apply stickers on my sets, so this one wandered straight into the sticker box.

Instruction booklet.

Random page from the booklet.

Now to the (in my opinion) most interesting part: the new minifigs! First, all of them lined up:

The new sandtroopers, with printed dirty armor. Aren't the pretty?

The backpacks are identical to the one from 8092, both troopers have printed heads like the regular stormtrooper from the new Endor battle pack.

Printed cloth pauldrons in orange and white:

Here is a comparison with the slightly older sandtrooper from 8092, look at the difference in detail. Added leg printing, dirty armor and detailed pauldrons. Those new troopers are indeed stunning!

C-3PO got an update as well: Printed eyes and more details on the torso.

R2-D2 seems to be the same as the version from 8092, the printing is slightly crisper (new version on the right).

Now to the other contents of the box. There aren't that many pieces included, but here are all of them sorted by color:

Pieces of interest (to me, at least): 1x2 plates with integrated cheese slope and a printed 1x2 tile. Apart from that, nothing really special, as far as I can tell. But see for yourselves:

First I built the little speeder bike. I think the set could have done without it, I already have a ton of those little bikes from various polybags, battle packs and other sets...

Building the escape pod.

The steering thruster array.

The finished pod with its cover plate.

Escape pod with droid passengers.

The closed pod.

The complete set with escape pod, speeder bike and minifigs:

Extra pieces.

Conclusion: This is a great set, no doubt. I would have bought it for the new sandtroopers alone. I don't know if the escape pod will stay assembled or if I will dismantle it in the near future, displaying space is pretty scarce in my room and I'd rather display some nice starships. I already bought the two new battle packs from this wave and after building all three sets, I cannot wait to get my hands on the rest! Especially the OT-sets look amazing and the minifigs get better and better.

"These aren't the droids you're looking for. Look behind you!"

Design: 8/10, a nice little set, the pod looks pretty well designed with its opening cover plate. The bike is of a pretty standard design.

Parts: 7/10, nothing really special or new here.

Build: 8/10, a simple and fast build, sadly with big stickers (as was to expected, I guess...)

Minifigs: 10/10, gorgeous new minifigs! I love the new sandtroopers and the new 3PO, the printing is very crisp and detailed.

Playability:7/10, there's definitely some swoopability to be found here, but when the pod hits the desert, there's nothing much going on anymore.

Price: 6/10, Star Wars LEGO is pricy, we all know that. But I have to pay 26,99 € for this set here in Germany. To me, this is a slighty bigger battle pack, but costs 10 € more than the new battle packs...

Overall: 46/60, I would have bought the set for the new troopers alone, I cannot wait to open the other OT-sets from this wave! The price is pretty high though, depending on where you live...

Edited February 5, 201213 yr by KielDaMan
Indexed

Had this set since just before the New year and built it on new years day. A small set that has quality and briliant detail all the way through. My favourite set in the January wave and always good too see other peoples opinions on it. Thanks

Edited January 26, 201213 yr by surrideo

Thanks for sharing this review Speedboat! Even if I'm not much of a fan of the dirtied Stormies I think this is a pretty decent small-sized set and a good opportunity for those who missed the previous similar Droid Escape set back in '01.

Great review. I'm not sure what your photo setup is, but your photos are remarkably high-quality. They give me a much more authentic feel for what the minifigures look like in real life than any of the pics I'd previously seen in this set. In particular C-3PO looks wonderful in this new depiction, as the contours of his detailed face mold seem to fit much better with the newer, subtler torso printing. The new trooper faces look excellent and not as washed-out as some of the photos we've seen of them.

On the other hand, the detail of the Sandtrooper torsos feels a bit excessive, although I'm sure they'll fit in quite well with the new Stormtrooper torso print from the Endor battle pack. I just feel that, like in C-3PO's case, subtler contour printing better matches the style of intricate molds like the helmets. In the pictures other than the comparison pic with the older Sandtrooper, the torsos look fine, so I suppose it's just the stark contrast that makes me yearn for the older style.

The escape pod is extremely stylish, even without the stickers applied, although I'm sure it also looks as good with stickers as without. It's certainly far better than the old Droid Escape set which I have in my collection. The speeder bike does feel a bit unnecessary, but it's still nice-looking and you can never have too many brown parts.

Thanks so much for this review!

Great review, I snagged this set two days ago from my local TRU and loved it, the two Sandtroopers are groovy.

Nice review! Those are some great, crystal clear shots of the set as well. I'm hoping to pick this one up soon. Although it's one of the smaller sets of the wave, it's one of my favorites.

Nice review, thanks for sharing.

I added the poll, as you required.

Very nice review! I don't really like the new C-3PO, though.

Thanks for the review 'Speedboat', the figures look impressive event the stormies that look like they need a bath !

The swoop bike is a neat little build and I guess it was put in there to make up it up to it's price point.

Due to my budgeting for this year, it might be the only SW set I buy this year for myself. (might be selling a lot of SW to make way for city sets to keep the wife happy )

Anyway, great review 'Speedboat'....Review On !

Thanks for the review. This is a great view of the new C-3PO, and after seeing these picks, I like it. I wasn't sure before.

I'll apply the stickers. But they seem to be a disproportionate amount of the detail on the pod. It would have been nice (though probably difficult to do) if some of that could have been greebling.

This set is a NO-BRAINER. I'd be an idiot not to grab one of these, especially since I never did get the "Droid Escape" way way way back in the late 90's when the first rendition was released. I've seen this set in the wild, but only marked up ridiculously at TRU, so I'll hold out until the summer when it's collecting dust. Thanks for a great review!

Thank you for the review and nice quality pictures. The sand troopers are a must get for me but my collection is currently overrun by R2s and C3s.

I am very impressed with this review, and with the set as well. I was wavering on this (possibly just Bricklinking the new Sandtroopers) but I can see a lot of potential in the set now (even if it does mean another R2-D2 )

Great review for a nice set. I agree, it's far overpriced - a new molded Dewback instead of that speeder would've justified it easy.

Thanks for all your kind words!

Great review. I'm not sure what your photo setup is, but your photos are remarkably high-quality. They give me a much more authentic feel for what the minifigures look like in real life than any of the pics I'd previously seen in this set. In particular C-3PO looks wonderful in this new depiction, as the contours of his detailed face mold seem to fit much better with the newer, subtler torso printing. The new trooper faces look excellent and not as washed-out as some of the photos we've seen of them.

My photo setup was quite simple. I just used my small Canon Ixus 100 and took the pictures on a well lit kitchen table (I just had to take the opportunity of the first sunny day in weeks ). They came out better than I expected. Sadly, the trooper faces really do look washed out. They seem to have a white-greenish tinge, I hope the printing on those faces will be corrected in the future. On a minifig with fleshy hands they'd look pretty strange. Though with the closed stormtrooper helmets I don't really mind.

Nice review, thanks for sharing.

I added the poll, as you required.

Thanks so much!

Edited January 26, 201213 yr by Speedboat

Great review! I bought this set for the Sandtroopers as well. They are very cool - however the more I look at them the more I get the feeling that the detailing on the has gone a bit overboard. Suddenly the speeder bike and the pod itself look very "plasticky" and plain compared to the detailing on the troopers. I think Lego should stop up for a moment and see what they are doing - if they want to continue to add detail to their minifigs we will quickly get to a point where they need to add more detail to the bricks as well. This simple set already comes with big ugly stickers and I take this as a sign of things to come.

Sorry for going slightly off topic - but I am scared! :)

Edited January 28, 201213 yr by mortesv

Great review, love the look of the new sand-troopers and I don't have the old droid escape, will definitely get a few of these for the troopers

Thanks for the greta review!

It's also nice that there are nice and 'clean' photos.

Just got mine today. Thanks for review. :thumbup:

This is an awesome. Lot of pictures of this very nice set. The photos are great quality. I really love that new head, and can see some great customization pieces in my future.

Great review

Nice pics in the review!

Got mine over the weekend and I was very excited to build my new Stormies. I like the more detailed C3po now I've held it in my hand, so much more detail.

$38 Aus is a little over priced but I couldn't wait to get this set. I love it!

Thank you for the review!

For me this was one of the most anticipated sets for me.

Not as good as I expected, but still getting it!

Thanks for the review Speedboat

It's a little disappointing to see so few parts in this set but at the same time I'm impressed with what the designer has managed to create with limited pieces. I actually prefer TLG to supply a DSS than to print large pieces as it offers the opportunity to re-use parts in MOCs, it's just a shame that this set relies heavily on the DSS to provide some much needed detailing. Although still not wholly accurate I think this is a vast improvement on the previous Droid Escape release.

The figures are ace, possibly a little too much detailing on the Sandtroopers but I can live with that. As for C-3PO, it's nice to see your comparison shot - I really can't understand why anyone would prefer the blurry, monotone print of the old 3PO over this new one

I'll definitely be buying this at some-point, mostly for the figs, but I'm going to hang on for a good sale price.

Edited January 27, 201213 yr by Praiter Yed

I had no idea the amount of detail, that was going into the figs this time around.

I'll definitely get at least 2 of these)

Wish the set cost a little bit more and replaced the bland bike with a new dewback mold.