Review - 75036 - Utapau Troopers

[xowainx]

Pre-Amble

So today I found myself back in Cardiff after the Xmas break, and what better way to celebrate that fact than browsing the sales with my Girlfriend, especially if it involved a quick visit to the Lego store? As it is still the School holidays, the store was full of children and that, combined with not wanting to test said girlfriend's patience, meant that I only had time for a cursory glance around the store. I could see new DC Superheroes, Lego Movie and Ninjago sets, but I was really there for the SW battlepacks. The Kashykk Troopers set was nowhere to be seen, but I did manage to grab both Death Star Troopers and Utapau Troopers, with the intention of reviewing the second one. And so, let's get on with that.

Name - Utapau Troopers

Number - 75036

Year of Release - 2014

Parts - 83

Figures - 4

Prices - £11.99 (Not on US Store at time of review)

Defeat the Tri-Droid with the Utapau Troopers™ battle pack!

Help the 212th Battalion Clone Troopers take on the Octuptarra Tri-Droid with the LEGO® Star Wars™ Utapau Troopers™ battle pack. But watch out! With a rotating head, poseable legs and 3 flick missiles, the dangerous Tri-Droid is more than a match for the Clone Troopers! Includes 4 minifigures with weapons: 2 212th Battalion Clone Troopers™ and 2 Airborne Clone Troopers™.

•Includes 4 minifigures with weapons: 2 212th Battalion Clone Troopers™ and 2 Airborne Clone Troopers™

•Features a Tri-Droid with a rotating head, poseable legs and 3 flick missiles

•Includes 4 new blasters that really fire

•Features new Airborne Clone Trooper™ helmet design and body detailing

•Tri-Droid (with legs folded) measures over 5” (14cm) high, 3” (8cm) long and 2” (7cm) wide

Review

Ever since the box art was first revealed (and i'm not talking about the prelimary image with the Crow's nest making up part of the droid..), I thought it seemed to be lacking. While I don't think the spindly Tri-Droid lends itself particularly to this kind of display (and apparently the terrain of Utapau doesn't either), it does seem to have a lot of space and a lack of excitement. Maybe i'm being too harsh though, it's at least got some interesting colours on display, more than the standard grey space ship on black background that makes up a considerable portion of the SW range.

The top of the box has the same picture, and one of the new blasters. It helpfully points out that you get ten (actually eleven with the spare) studs to lose behind the sofa/in the garden/in your office.

The main picture on the back is a bit confusing, as the Utapau troopers run in all directions, with the Airbourne Clone in the bottom left seeming to have also managed to expend most of his ammunition. I like the picture in the top right, where the Clone behind the Tri-Droid (it doesn't have a behind, but you know what I mean) appears to be dodging the flick-fire Matrix style. Watch out for your eye trooper!

As is standard for this size, two bags and an instruction book. I was amused by the clone parts (including the face staring out) inside the the dish in the larger bag, I hope you are too.

The interior of the booklet is pretty bland, no corner photo or watermarked images to be seen.

The last page of instructions has a helpful photo guide to all the parts in this set that could cause you to lose an eye. I've helpfully taken a blurry photo so you can imagine what that would be like.

Parts call-out. I couldn't spot anything exciting, can you?

The win kid is still with us for at least another six months.

The new blaster comes in two parts. As others have noted, it is surprisingly powerful, and rattles if it is "unloaded". I'm not sure how I feel about these, or they will integrate into existing collections. Part of me likes how they are a bit of a call back to the days of the megaphone blaster though.

Four figures, two 212th Troopers on the left, and Two Airbourne Troopers on the right. I forgot to take a photo of the head, but it's the same for all them, a one sided standard Clone (although not Clone Wars interestingly) head (6021888 as used in all the recent sets with Clones). I can only guess it's not a CW head as that cartoon is over, and this battlepack is going to outlive that. All the troopers have body and leg printing, with lots of detail and even dirt/wear marks. The Airbourne troopers have what I believe is an unique helmet design and a kama each.

Both designs also have back prints.

The troopers blend quite well with the bomb squad troopers and Commander Fox.

Half way through the build. Really so.

The finished body. Sorry the bottom is slightly cut off.

Three identical legs.

Legs attached with a trooper for scale. It has a large footprint and height, but is very skinny and lacking in bulk or detail.

The completed set.

Spares. Not much variation here!

Positives

- The Figures are really nice and detailed models. Two of each with no individual characters will be a welcome sight for army builders.

- The Tri-Droid is a large model, which will look at home in any Trade Federation Army

- Plenty of trans light blue studs for anyone looking to build their own version of promotional Yoda Chronicles set.

Negatives

- Low piece count

- Tri-Droid is fairly undetailed and uninteresting build, although that is what it looks like in the source material.

- Four identical heads for the different figures. I know they are clones, but a few different expressions wouldn't go amiss.

Conclusion

There's not really a lot to say here to be honest. This set isn't a bad set, but really lacks a wow factor to me. The figures are nice, but I think the same can be said for all the Battlepacks in this wave, but the parts are unremarkable, and there's not much you can do with them other than build the Tri-Droid. Even though I don't own the Kashykk set, I wouldn't recommend that pack over this. That said, this set isn't terrible either. Both forces contained within will reinforce any army, and the set in itself provides enough to have a good little battle. A kid with their pocket money could do worse!

Ratings

Minifigures 8/10 - Some great troopers here. Highly detailed, with the Airbourne troopers having unique helmets and Kamas. The highlight of the set, for better for worse.

Build - 6/10 - I would love to give a higher score here, but it's like building an engine for a fighter (such as the Z95), and is over before you know it).

Design - 7/10 - It looks right (if smaller than it actually should be), but lacks detail. Some stickers or printing on the dome could have rectified this.

Parts - 6/10 - Not many, and nothing particularly exciting sadly. Would be hard to come up with a good alternate build, maybe someone fancies the challenge?

Playability - 8/10 - You can have a great little skirmish with these figures, especially now the minifigures can shoot back. Just make sure you have safety goggles on.

Overall - 35/50 - It is what it is. There are better sets at this price range, but it's far from meritless. Given that it's only £11.99 before discount, I imagine most people here will pick it up, and I can't see many being too disappointed with their purchase.

Bonus

The Senate Commando Captain was dejected to find himself wearing the wrong colours for this particular photoshoot.

Thanks for reading, feel free to ask questions and I will do my best to oblige! If you enjoyed this review and are bored, check out my three other reviews on EB:

9525 - Pre Vizsla's Mandalorian Starfighter

76002 - Superman: Metropolis Showdown

30167 - Iron Man Vs. Fighting Drone

[Darth Nader]

^{Thanks for the review xowainx. If you ask me I think this set is only good to get for the minifigures. To be honest with you I'm a big Star Wars fan and I have trouble with recognizing that as a tri-droid, but in my defense it looks like lego just decided to throw something together with some spare parts and then this set was made. I really want those airbourne troopers though.}

Edited December 31, 2013 by Darth Nader

[Sir Brickalot]

Great review, thanks! love this set, can't wait to pick it up. I really can't relate to the tri-droid though

[Ephseb]

Thanks fo the review!

I'm going to get multiple of these, though on sale only. The cloth kamas look odd to me and the octuparra droid could've been better.

Could you tell me if it's possible to outfit the Airborne troopers with jetpacks? or are their helmets too large?

[UberlegoTV]

Great review! i cant wait for these to come out in canada !

[Admiral-Ackbar]

Good review and basic if not decent set. By the way, it's Commander Cody, not Fox.

[Clone OPatra]

I'm not sure how I feel about dirt on Clone Troopers. It's great for detail and 'realism,' but that means all your 212th troopers are going to have identical dirty prints, and always be dirty. Pristine white clones just make more sense for building armies. That Phase II helmet is still looking a bit wonky, though better with the EpIII printing here than with the Clone Wars printing.

The reason these have the non-CW heads is because they're based on EpIII and not Clone Wars. The base torso print (below the specified 212th printing) is different between CW and EpIII as well. The Coruscant Police Gunship and Cannon sets in this wave are based on CW, so they have CW torso prints and CW clone heads. The battlepacks are EpIII.

[Im a brickmaster.]

Wow, I really like this set for obvious reasons, (minifigs!) but the rest I just so bland. I really think this is THE simplest set ever devised!

[Mr Man]

My god, that droid is pathetic, the 1999 Droid Fighter was better built than that. I'm still unsure about the huge amount of detail on the new clones starting with the TCW ARCs, it's really hard for them to fit in with the old ones without buying new legs and things.

[xowainx]

Thanks for all the replies!

Thanks fo the review!

I'm going to get multiple of these, though on sale only. The cloth kamas look odd to me and the octuparra droid could've been better.

Could you tell me if it's possible to outfit the Airborne troopers with jetpacks? or are their helmets too large?

I can tell, and even better, show you:

As you can see, if you have the helmet facing forward, the top of the jetpack fits into the groove that runs down the back of the helmet. It didn't appear to be stressing either element, and it didn't feel like it was going to pop off (like Vader's helmet for example). It would be stressing slightly if you were off and it was on the ridge of the vertical groove.

If you want to turn the head, the jetpack top then fits into this horizontal groove on the side of the helmet, and the helmet can turn to just shy of 90 degrees right or left. Should be sufficient for most purposes.

Good review and basic if not decent set. By the way, it's Commander Cody, not Fox.

D'oh! I had intended to fact check this, as I always get Fox/Cody/Rex mixed up, but was in a hurry as I was about to go out for New Year's Eve.

The reason these have the non-CW heads is because they're based on EpIII and not Clone Wars. The base torso print (below the specified 212th printing) is different between CW and EpIII as well. The Coruscant Police Gunship and Cannon sets in this wave are based on CW, so they have CW torso prints and CW clone heads. The battlepacks are EpIII.

I genuinely had no idea that this was the case, and it isn't that long since I last watched Episode III .. I will pay more attention next time, and sit in the corner until then.

[michaelozzie]

I'm not sure how I feel about dirt on Clone Troopers. It's great for detail and 'realism,' but that means all your 212th troopers are going to have identical dirty prints, and always be dirty. Pristine white clones just make more sense for building armies. That Phase II helmet is still looking a bit wonky, though better with the EpIII printing here than with the Clone Wars printing.

The reason these have the non-CW heads is because they're based on EpIII and not Clone Wars. The base torso print (below the specified 212th printing) is different between CW and EpIII as well. The Coruscant Police Gunship and Cannon sets in this wave are based on CW, so they have CW torso prints and CW clone heads. The battlepacks are EpIII.

I have picked up a few of these BP's now and found the damage markings on the helmets for each pack were printed in a slightly different position, particularly on the Airbourne troopers.

Thanks for the review. One point about the Kamas is that you need to pull the side flaps around more to the front of the minifigures, so they don't stick out awkwardly at the back.

[korpen4444]

Nice review! I am definitely army building the heck out of this pack. Though my troops will always look like they just lost a fight. .

Still, nice to see these guys in a cheap set, they just needed to have better blasters. Rifles for the Airbournes, Pistols for the Regulars.

[Commander Colt]

Very nice review, I am sure to get one of these to complement my pile of bomb squad troopers

Not sure how i feel on the guns, i like the idea but the excecution seems a bit bulky and disproportionate.

[Ephseb]

Thank you for the heads up on the jetpacks! (I need to get some of those somewhere)

As for the blasters, I use the DC-15A rifles made by brickarms, which are real quality customs.

On hothbricks, they show one possibility to use the new blaster - a grappling hook:

http://www.hothbricks.com/2014/01/transformer-un-blaster-en-grappin-padawan-waax-vous-explique-comment/

[Speedboat]

Thanks for the review, xowainx! The minifigs look really nice, I think I'll buy some sets to reinforce my small clone army. While the droid build doesn't excite me overmuch, at least the parts seem to be useful for other builds. Sadly, I haven't seen the new spring wave sets popping up around here, though I saw some in the LEGO stores I visited around christmas. Star Wars wasn't really my priority at that point, so I didn't pay too much attention.

[h22chen]

Wow! Thank you! I will definitely get quite a few of this Battle pack to fill up my LAATs.

[SinWolf89]

Got one of those this morning! I completely agree with you review about clone's faces. Interesting clone but I wish I'd found two different type of heads instead of one, maybe to better distinguish the badassery of the airborne troopers!

[h22chen]

I agree with the heads, maybe will have to go to bricklink for the alternate heads, good thing is, the 'fleshy' heads can be an "option". The Galaxy Patrol head might be interesting:

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=3626bpb698

I want to get 18 of this set to fill up the 4 LAATs (one squad each LAAT) I have and to put the 36 of the 181st troopers into the AT-TE.

[arc]

The clone troopers look nice, although I preferred the old EP.3 helmets. but those air troopers...

I'm curious about those new blasters, I might grab one of these and try them out.

[Sir_Basil_Ashton]

Those new blasters shoot pretty far. I aimed it at my son and fired and almost got his eye. His comment was, that the new blasters were "neat, too bad they don't look like a real Star Wars blaster".

[h22chen]

Just got this set, the troopers are excellent. Even though I don't like the new flick fire guns compared to the original guns, these new flick fires are excellent bazookas. I have made 2 of those into flick fire bazookas with the parts within the set, and the flick-fire bazooka missles can shoot reasonably well.

[Steel Tiger]

Nice review. The clones look VERY good, but he droid will be scrapped immediately.

[Only Sinner]

This set easily wins for "Worst build in a SW battlepack ever". The minifigs are wonderful, however and I almost always sort the BP parts immediately, so it's OK. The parts themselves are actually not too bad.

Nice review, by the way, are you in the RA?

[baron]

agree with the above, the droid looks nothing like the few seconds we see it in the movie, and basically no effort was put into it....not even worth building when first opening it, the piece went straight in the pile!

[h22chen]

I agree with the parts of the droid, some are pretty interesting, I like the tri-angle pieces, going to be useful in a Tie Defender build.