Wednesday, 23 July 2014

75000 Clone Troopers VS. Droidekas Review!

Hi All! I’m back with my first Set Review post! If you have seen my earlier post, you would know that I will be writing a lot of these in the coming weeks/months, so expect to see more of these!

So, to start us off, the set I’m reviewing today is the LEGO Star Wars 75000 Clone Troopers VS Droidekas! I will be evaluating this set in 3 segments, based on the Minifigures, Playability and Investment Potential.

©The Lego Group, Photo Credits to Brickset.com

This set retails in Singapore for SGD $27.90 and in the USA for USD $12.99. That means this set literally costs double the price in Singapore than in the USA! The set comes with 2 Minifigures, and 2 more Brick-Built figures, and totals 124 Pieces. I bought this set at a 15% discount at Toy Station here in Singapore a year ago, slightly decreasing the hole in my student wallet. 





You can check out the LEGO Sets they have for sale at a 15% discount here:



This set is extremely cool, coming with 4 new minifigures, and a really cool looking command pod/hovercraft thingy. I really liked this set and its minifigures, being the first in the 2013 January lineup a year back.

So, onto the first section, the minifigures.



The 4 minifigures in this set are all really cool, and among them are some new editions or variants of existing figures. 3 out of 4 Minifigures are exclusive to this set, and they are the Clone Trooper Sergeant and the Droidekas! The set also comes with 1 regular clone trooper, but with minor redesigns and improvements to his armor printing.



These Minifigures are perfect for army building! And with this set alone, you could really build up a pretty even battle scene (albeit repetitive) with Minifigures from both Sides of the Clone Wars. 

I really like the Clone Trooper Sergeant especially, with his really cool light green markings on his armor and his helmet distinguishing his rank. I would say that for this minifigure alone, the $20+ price tag is worth it, especially since that is the price that I’ve seen this mini figure going for in shops and online.

The regular Clone Trooper is an improvement, but isn't that special, or a big reason to get the set. He is a redesign, being a “Movie Version” instead of a “Clone Wars” version, and is already obtainable from 4 other sets, though this set is 2nd cheapest and comes with more mini figures for just SGD $6 more.

The Droidekas however, are truly a marvel of brick-engineering on a Minifigure scale. LEGO really managed to capture its likeness in this remake, being far better than the previous one and the most realistic so far, just short of being able to roll in a ball. These mini figures though exclusive, don’t fetch much for the secondary market, but are great additions to your army.

So for this segment, I would rank this set as a 8.5/10 for its exclusive and awesome mini figures!

Now for its Playability!



 Apart from the obviously playable Minifigures, with which you can easily set up a Skirmish scene between the Republic and the Separatists, it also comes with the Command Pod as pictured above. This is feature complements the mini figures really well, helping to even up the odds. In terms of display quality, this really adds substance as a display piece for this set!



It even comes with hidden features, such as a flick-fire missile hidden inside, as well as seats and storage for the 2 Clone Troopers and their equipment!

So, thats about it for playability, but apart from that, this set would be great for Army Building. Given its abundance of Minifigures, its really easy to just buy multiples of this set on sale, and build yourself both a Clone Division, and a Separatist Force! I can just imagine how great this set would be in a MOC, with lines of Clone Troopers backed up by Command Pods with Clone Trooper Sergeants, facing a horde of Droidekas.

However, I feel that the vehicle doesn't add much playability, only being there to make up the piece count to justify the price, as well as to make the set look good.

I would rank this set as a 5.5/10, far from being a must-have, but good to have if you just want the minifigures.

Last but not least, Investment Potential.

This set is definitely in the Battle Pack category, with its relatively low Price and high Minifigure count, and simply through this, it would be guaranteed to give investors some returns but not a lot after it is retired.

Minifigures are the main draw and factor for investment, and although this set comes with 4, 3 being exclusives, 2 of the exclusives are Brick-Built Droidekas. This means that they are built out of regular LEGO components, and many people would rather save money and spend $1-$2 to build it rather than fork over $30 for this set.

The vehicle itself is lackluster, and doesn't add much value to it in terms of investment, because typically, Original Trilogy Vehicles are the only ones that see increases in value, and when they do, they are tremendous.

Its steep SGD $27.90 doesn't help matters much, so I would suggest holding off until clearance sales, or buying it overseas at half of local prices, if you are looking for returns.

As such, I rank this set as a 6/10 for Investment Potential, meaning it will probably increase in value after retirement, mostly because of the minifigures, but not by much.

©The Lego Group, Photo Credits to Brickset.com

In conclusion, this set is great for a person on a tight budget like me for its low price, but I strongly discourage buying it at regular prices. The main draw is the Minifigures for this set, and I feel that LEGO did a great job with them, but the Vehicle has much to improve upon.

My Evaluation: 6.5 Overall. I recommend holding off until a significant sale to get this, but it makes a great small set as a gift or Army Building.

So that concludes my first ever review! Do leave me a comment below regarding my writing, as well as what you thought of this set. Expect to see more reviews in the future!


P.S. I apologize for the poor photographs, they were taken by me after I finished building them and I was using my phone’s camera because I’m still a Secondary Student after all, and I don’t have $1000 to buy a camera. Sorry!

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