REVIEW: 75022 Mandalorian Speeder

[Artanis I]

All & more photos available in full size on Flickr

75022 Mandalorian Speeder

Star Wars set based on The Clone Wars season 5

Released 2nd half of 2013.

Parts: 211

Mass: 325g

MSRP/RRP: $24.99 USD, £24.99 GBP, €29.99 EUR, $29.99 CAD, $39.99 AUD, $? NZD (currently unavailable)

TLG's blurb:

Attack with Darth Maul in the Mandalorian™ Speeder!

Get to the rendezvous point in the LEGO® Star Wars™ Mandalorian™ Speeder with the treacherous
Sith Lord Darth Maul minifigure with mechanical legs. Plot the Mandalorian takeover and take on anyone
who gets in your way with hidden flick missiles, rear weapon storage and elevating cannon! Then, face off in
minifigure combat with his legendary Darksaber! Includes 3 minifigures with weapons: Clone Wars Darth Maul
and 2 Mandalorian Super Commandos.
• Includes 3 minifigures with weapons: Darth Maul and 2 Mandalorian™ Super Commandos
• Features hidden flick missiles under the hood, rear weapon storage and elevating gun
• Weapons include a Lightsaber, Darksaber and 2 blasters
• Collect Darth Maul with mechanical Clone Wars legs
• Unleash the hidden flick missiles!
• Elevate the gun and aim to fire!
• Battle with the legendary Darksaber
• Relive the excitement of [i]Star Wars™: The Clone Wars[/i] animated TV series
• Measures over 3" (8cm) high, 7" (19cm) long and 4" (12cm) wide

Instructions for download: (7MB)

http://cache.lego.co...ons/6050596.pdf (International version)

http://cache.lego.co...ons/6050597.pdf (NA version - ie in English, Spanish & French)

Bricklink | Lego Shop@Home | Brickset

Reference images:

Unfortunately this is the only image I can find that shows the speeder.

Here's Darth Chicken:

Here are the Death Watch super commandos:

Apologies for some of the photos, it was getting dark when I built & photographed the set. The Mandalorians are very difficult to get photos of without reflection off the helmets, I don't think I eventually succeeded, but I certainly did get frustrated.

This set is one of 2 released in the second half of 2013 based on the now discontinued animated TV show The Clone Wars. A well known villain returns from being thought dead, and attempts to seize power, using potential allies as stepping stones. He becomes the new leader of Mandalore with super commandos part of his forces, this is where this Lego set fits into the story.

Let's have a look at it.

As is typical, we start with The Box. It seemed a big box for the size & price of the set. It's bigger box than for the Tank Droid set, even though the price is the same. It is very possible that that gives an illusion of better value for money. As is normal for Star Wars sets, the cardboard is very glossy and smooth. I found boxes from this wave to be more difficult to open than usual, I had a bit more trouble prying the boxes open without tearing the cardboard this time. Maybe they're using a different glue, the knife wasn't as slick as usual.

Box shows us what we're in for, a car-based speeder with obligatory flick-fire missiles, a couple of super commandos from Mandalore, and a Sith, this one being the Zabrak Darth Maul, with mechanical legs. Setting is in the capital city on Mandalore, and the very nice 2013 SuperYoda green box art border really makes the packaging attractive.

Back shows us the posability of the builds & minifigs and also the flick-fire action.

Along the top of the box are the full sized images of the included minifigs, also shown in smaller scale on the front. We are alerted to the fact that these minifigs were not previously available.

One side of the box also alerts us to this set being new... I'm not quite sure of many occasions when you would release a set that isn't new though.

On the underside we have a lesson in safety, linguistics and economics.

Next, we go Inside The Box

Contents of the box are an instruction booklet, a sticker sheet, & 3 unnumbered bags. The minifig parts are divided through the bags.

Sticker sheet:

Only 5 stickers, and no tiny ones that are impossible. My sheet (as is common) was annoyingly curled up.

Let's see the instruction booklet.

Nothing unusual on the front.

The bags are not numbered for this set, you do the "pour all the bags onto the table and sort by colour" approach this time around. The instructions themselves are exactly as you would expect, no real need to look at them here. If you want a look, check out the link provided above for the pdf, but here we can see how to put the minifigs together.

Towards the back of the booklet is a nice action artwork of a few of this wave's sets.

Parts inventory as per usual.

We don't need to see the back, we know what hideous horrors adorn the back of instruction booklets.

Now for the parts:

Who doesn't like blue cheese? Not much in the unusual category, but here is a close-up of the chicken legs:

Minifigs:

Shirtless Darth Maul from The Clone Wars, he fetches a hefty price on BL. Well, now he's available in a small standard set. Except with chicken legs. He comes with both his red lightsabre and also the late Pre Vizsla's darksabre. (A trophy I suppose.)

The super commando helmet & jetpack are shiny, rather than the flat colours used previously. It isn't mentioned anywhere in the set, nor is it obvious at first glance, but the 2 minifigs have different face printing. The left image shows the head used for the Pre Vizsla minifig, the one on the right the generic Mandalorian minifig. Not sure? Mando mouths point down at the sides. Pre's points slightly upwards, has pointier cheek bones, less defined eyebrows, bigger eyes, inverted chin, and forehead lines. Both are still quite ugly...

The untidy armour appearance is very curious seeing as though these guys weren't really around for very long, they must've just thrown a blotch of red paint at their uniforms and not let it dry or something. Interesting about the black hand on the helmets. Another Saruman/Count Dooku Christopher Lee parallel to think about. Except it's Darth Maul, not his successor.

Here is an intermediate step in the build, showing how the flick-fire contraption works. The front of the speeder is to the left, we see 1 seat in front, 2 seats behind that, between them are 2 clips for holding blasters. Behind them, in the (not yet covered) boot/trunk is storage for the lightsabre & darksabre.

The small construction shown above slides forward on tiles when the outer handle is moved in that direction, thus pushing the missile out.

These bits weren't used.

A look at all angles of the final built set:

(Front is pointing up here)

8 boat studs mean this thing really coasts across the carpet! Zooms even better than a wheeled vehicle.

(and here)

Room on the back for a minifig to stand and fire the cannon/gun thing

Darth Maul / Savage Opress comparison:

Mandalorian armour comparison:

The bounty hunter in the Jek-14 set has the same helmet piece but the printing is completely different.

Model/set evaluation:

It's fairly basic looking, but I like it. This is my only car-based speeder, all the others I have are the bike-based type. It's good to have a Lego vehicle where there is a place to seat all of the minifigs. They all sit snugly, Darth Maul fits fine despite his different (and longer) legs. The cannon/gun thing only tilts up and down. An easy turntable mod can make it swivel too. The build is fairly normal, I wouldn't expect your young fellas to have any more challenges than usual if at all. It isn't a boring build, if you might be thinking that.

I have the Tank Droid set too, I feel that this set is better value-for-money or at least more satisfying, but who doesn't want a Jango Fett minifig? I might grab another of these to add to my super commando numbers, we'll see.

I think the dark blue look great, I don't think you need to know what this set is to like the look of it.

Is it a good parts pack? Well it has a lot of plates and such, and not too many parts that are useless for anything else. It's not quite my scene so I am only guessing.

Minifig selection:

Robotic leg Darth Maul and two Mandalorians. I always really love the colour combination of red, black & grey ... win-win-win as far as this set is concerned! I may have preferred Darth Maul to use dark red rather than red though. Good minifigs to have, we could be happy with a bunch of those super commandos so 2 is good. Unfortunate that with The Clone Wars finished, Bo Katan & Satine minifigs will probably not eventuate. It would've been nice to have 1 of those 2 in this set, but that would need to be not at the expense of any of the 3 we have. If you were to go for multiples of this set, you would only have extra Darth Mauls. That sounds okay, but none of his parts are useful for anything else. Offload onto Bricklink I suppose.

Thanks for reading/skimming, I hope this was useful to you. Any other photo requests let me know. Any questions/comments feel free to share, or suggestions/corrections - including the poll.

Edited December 31, 2013 by Artanis I

[Csacsa234]

Thanks for the review, when I first heard about this set I was excited, but the results were not my taste. The speeder is quite base looking, but sturdy and nice. The big letdown was Darth Maul's legs, they are too long and too thin, they look silly on the wider upper body, also the CW face is lame IMO, but the mandalorian super commandos are outstanding. Now I'm on the border to decide whether I buy this or not, your review got me thinking, I like the speeders build and the commandos, but I want a decent robotic-legged Maul

[wesker]

Thanks for the review. I really enjoyed this set. Nice build, very sturdy and plenty of room to seat the minifigures. Darth Maul is a little tall but still looks great with robotic legs, and the Mandalorian Super Commandos are fantastic.

My only disapointment is the lack of Satine and Bo-Katan. I suppose the latter can always appear in Rebels, but we'll probably never see the Duchess of Mandalore now.

[Tariq j]

Brilliant review, I have this set and I quite like it, Pre visula should have been included.

[GandalfofHoth]

Brilliant review, I have this set and I quite like it, Pre visula should have been included.

It would be nice if he was included, but I doubt lego would ever do it, I would guess they would want to keep him exclusive to 9525 for a little while, and as a owner of that set (9525), I would like them to stay true to the "hard to find" figure aspect of that set.

Edited August 17, 2013 by GandalfofHoth

[Artanis I]

Thanks guys, yes, Darth Maul is too tall, but I like the appearance of the legs if not the size. I prefer the face of this one to the last version, but I don't have the original.

Shame about the Duchess, and although I would like to be able to get Pre Vizsla in a cheaper set, if I'd bought that set he came in I'd be pissed off for him to then appear in this one too!

[wesker]

If they released Vizsla in this set wearing his Season 4-5 costume it wouldn't be so bad, since the minifigure from the Mandalorian Fighter is based on his Season 2 appearance. At least that variant would still be exclusive even though the character would not have been.

[hench]

Excellent review! But I still don't belive I'll buy this set ...

[wilson3a10]

If they released Vizsla in this set wearing his Season 4-5 costume it wouldn't be so bad, since the minifigure from the Mandalorian Fighter is based on his Season 2 appearance. At least that variant would still be exclusive even though the character would not have been.

[snip]

I wonder when the 2nd armor will be in lego form

Edited August 19, 2013 by Brickdoctor
Please don't quote images from recent posts.

[baron]

if i wasn't such a dumb slave to this company i wouldn't have bought this set, following the usual trend of cool figs with a crappy vehicle...

[LegoDrake]

Thank you for the review Artanis!The set itself looks nice, as do the Super Commandos.However,the chicken leg Darth Maul is not to my taste,his face is a bit to cartoony .

[wilson3a10]

Thank you for the review Artanis!The set itself looks nice, as do the Super Commandos.However,the chicken leg Darth Maul is not to my taste,his face is a bit to cartoony .

but the happy thing is that the Waist is detachable and can put back his legs lol

[Brickdoctor]

Thanks for the review! That Maul is ugly! Especially around the hip area, where the connection between hip and legs seems like the wrong proportions for a LEGO minifig with the standard torso.

[Artanis I]

Yep, I agree guys, he's ugly, but that's true to the source! The torso print kinda makes him look fat too.

if i wasn't such a dumb slave to this company i wouldn't have bought this set

but the happy thing is that the Waist is detachable and can put back his legs lol

Good thing they didn't try to make the spider leg version of him, that would've been more awkward a minifig.

[Flieger]

I recently bought this although I still not know exactly why, maybe because I liked the Mandalorian-Maul-story arc. Anyway, this set is seriously odd. I mean, the speeder is the one used to rescue Satine, and she is not included - neither are her companions. The Super Commandos only pursued the speeder but never got close to it until the crew disembarked. Maul got "normal" robotic legs before he set foot on Mandalore, so he is in the wrong place too. He also had robes on Mandalore so you can't really use the minifig or its torso for a Mandalore-story.

Nevertheless, the speeder is accurate (except the gun), as are the minifigs themselves. They just don't go well together. Unfortunately this means my last hope of getting a Duchess Satine minifigure is lost, too.

PS: the helmets are really cool. Really cool. I can see why Lego did them despite the fact that we will never see the Maul Commandos again on screen.