7130 - Snowspeeder

Rating:
Pros: Good piece count/variety; great model; three mini-figs
Cons: None of significance
Contents: 212 including 3 mini-figs
Price: $19.99
Reviewed: 15-Aug-2000
Reviewed by: Gareth Bowler

The Empirial Commander laughed a cruel laugh as his gunner turned the AT-AT's head at exactly the right moment and picked off yet another Rebel Snowspeeder. He laughed as it spiraled out of the air and erupted in a plume of flame as it collided with the unforgiving Hoth ice. Victory would be his. He would finally get that long overdue promotion, and maybe a transfer to a nice cushy post in Bespin.
Suddenly he was roused from his daydreaming by a crackling communication picked up over the Rebel radio frequency they had tapped. He asked his communications officer, "Did I hear that rightly? Did they say, 'go for the legs?'"

---

The snowspeeder is, in my not-even-remotely humble opinion, the single best non-Ultimate Collector Series Star Wars Lego set. Sure, there are bigger sets, and more detailed sets, even sets with more function, but this little beauty combines wide piece selection with a great primary model.

There is an opening cockpit, a rear gunner's position with turret, and a cargo box which falls out when the Snowspeeder is upside-down. This is annoying, but if a Snowspeeder turns upside-down, the cargo falling out is probably the last of the crew's concerns.

Included are a small radar-esque assembly, Luke in flight gear (alas, no Hoth gear for Luke), Dack in flight gear (Dack was Luke's short-lived gunner) and a third mini-fig in Hoth gear. This third figure is Han according to some, and a female rebel trooper according to others, but really it's the only mini-fig that comes in Hoth gear, making it pretty cool regardless of its true gender or identity.
The radar thingy I can only assume, is supposed to be one of the large laser turrets we see being blown up by AT-ATs on Hoth. It's not particularly useful, but unlike other accessory models (like the pile of crap that comes with the B-Wing) this doesn't detract from the set by adding a lot of weird or off-color pieces that will be useless in rebuilds or jack up the price.

The main model itself is nice and sturdy, without sacrificing detail or being infested with over-size specialty pieces. In fact, the only big pieces are the central tan plate, the canopy and the two large, gray wing plates, giving this little set a spectacular piece count for its price. The color scheme is good, grays with orange highlights. Lego seems to think the gray is boring and started throwing random colors into the Star Wars sets (*cough* B-Wing) to spice them up. This set, however, is totally free from what Dave likes to call, "Colorblind Monkey Syndrome". There's a few rare-ish pieces in this set, but most of them show up elsewhere in the theme. Unique to this set are the two computer screens showing advancing AT-ATs.

One of the only negative aspects is that the rear turret and gunner's position are a little cramped, but this is a fault with the ship design, not the Lego. It does seem a little small, but this is probably just because the Hasbro toy is very large to accommodate lights and sound.

All in all I can't really think of anything bad to say about the Snowspeeder, so I'll say a few more good things and then wrap this up. Out of all the Star Wars sets it most closely resembles its movie counterpart. It's not too small (like the B-Wing), off-color (like Slave 1), incomplete (like the Falcon), pudgy (like the X-Wing), flat (like the Y-Wing), or burdened with useless accessories (like the B-Wing. Yeah, I used it twice. So what?)
Star Wars fan or not, pick this up. As of this writing it is getting somewhat hard to find this in store, but some online retailers still have it in stock. Frankly, if you aren't buying this great set, especially if it's on sale, you need your head examined.