The twin suns of Tatooine beat down on the sandtrooper squad mercilessly. Normally, trooper TK-1138 would have been happy to follow Standard Imperial Search and Rescue Procedure section 38b paragraph 4, which details how exactly to leave stranded spacefarers to rot in their escape pods in the desert. This time, Lord Vader himself had mandated that all escape pods would be recovered and survivors (yeah, right) would be interrogated.
TK-1138 was awakened from his ponderings on Standard Imperial Code by one of his squadmates, who lifted up a single metal retaining ring. "Look sir, Droids."
Can O' Droids. Need I say more?
I guess I probably do. If you are like my friends, you are probably wondering about the new pieces in this set, how they got the "lid" to stay on, and so forth. The main body of this set basically consists of four quarter-cylinder pieces which form an 8x8 cylinder. These pieces are new, as far as I know, and could be very useful for constructing things such as storage tanks and so forth. The set comes with two light gray ones and two white ones with nice Star-Warsy designs printed on them.
The bottom of the can is pretty simply constructed, though I will explain the "lid" since I have already been asked. The lid is an 8x8 radar dish, which is attached (by a column constructed of two 2x2 plates) to a 6x6 square plate. As far as I can tell, this 6x6 plate is not shown in any of the photos of the model on the box, though it is used in the secondary model. This plate then attaches to studs on the top of the cylinder walls. In order to get the droids in or out, you need to pull the lid off, which is difficult since it is much easier to separate the dish from the plate than it is to separate the plate from the can. For anyone who has constructed the model, this is not a problem, but it is confusing for the casual passerby who wants to see what is inside. Furthermore, it seems to be very difficult for these passers-by to then reattach the dish to the plate after they have removed it in a fruitless attempt to un-can the droids.
The thing that disappointed me the most about this set was its lack of doors or logical places for the models to stand. You can stand the figures up in the bottom of the can, but then if you "land" it on the side (as pictured on the box art) they are standing up sideways. And in order for them to get out, you have to pull the model apart, pretty much. It doesn't require major deconstruction, but usually Lego is better than this about being able to get the figures into and out of the model without disassembling it.
One thing I like about the model is the little maneuvering thrusters. There is nothing fancy about them, but they look good and add a nice amount of detail to the model.
A few quick words about C3PO for those of you who don't own the Falcon. (I will assume we are all familiar with R2 by now.) He is molded in metal-flake gold plastic (as opposed to being plated like the silver lightsaber handles). His torso has a hypnotic eye pattern printed on it, which is kind of disturbing in an amusing way. His head will fit on any mini-fig, but cannot wear mini-fig headgear since it is not quite the right shape (and has no stud on top). His best feature is his legs, though. You can take them off and put them on any other mini-fig, and voila! Gold lame' pants! Even Chewie looks good in them.
All in all, I would say if you are only going to get one under-$11 dollar Star Wars Lego set this year, get the AT-ST. However, the new cylinder walls are neat and this is a pretty cheap way to get them. If you want R2 and 3PO, this set is definitely a cheaper way to get them than the Falcon.
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