Peow's Passions: C-3PO

Showing posts with label C-3PO. Show all posts

16 August 2010

Lego Star Wars SDCC 2010 exclusive Cube Dudes

This is the third year in a row that Lego has released an exclusive product under its Star Wars line at the San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC). Participants at SDCC 2010 had to enter a raffle and picked for the right to purchase this Clone Wars edition of Cube Dudes for US$75 each. My own set is numbered #0302 out of approximately 2000 sets available and was purchased off a seller on eBay.

The set of 5 Star Wars Cube Dudes came packaged in a cube cardstock box and were designed by Angus Maclane. The set consists of 5 figures from the Star Wars franchise, namely C-3PO, R2-D2, Yoda, Captain Rex and Obi-wan Kenobi. They are characterised by relatively large boxy heads stuck on top of tiny bodies for a cartoony feel.

Angus Maclane has been creating hundreds of Cube Dude characters from a range of popular culture, TV, movie and toy franchises. You can check out his other designs on his Flickr stream. Lego took notice of his efforts and began collaborating with him. By day, he is an animator at Pixar, whose movie credits include the award-winning "Wall-E".

On the whole, these are cute little darlings that are easy to put together and would be a good addition to any collection. I spent barely an hour putting the five figures together. They also display well if you have more than a few of them. I certainly look forward to further Cube Dude releases in future.

Box (front)

Box (back)

Box (top)

Box (underside)

Serial numbered #0302

Contains 416 pieces. Unfortunately, I was missing a 1x2 white plate brick.

2 of 5 bags containing C-3PO (l) and R2-D2 (r)

2 of 5 bags containing Obi-wan Kenobi (l) and Yoda (r)

1 of 5 bags containing Captain Rex. There was also a supplemental bag with 2x 1x1 smooth square plates which they must have included after realising an error in the number of pieces required.

Instruction booklet (front and rear covers). Note the glossy figure silhouettes.

Instruction booklet (interior)

Obi-wan Kenobi

Captain Rex (my favourite figure from this set)

Yoda

C-3PO

R2-D2 (I had to steal one non-essential piece from him to build Obi-wan's hand)

The Laurel and Hardy duo from Star Wars

Full line-up

Mini-figure included for scale comparison (As you can see, they're really quite tiny...except for the head)

11 April 2010

Lego 4504 - Millennium Falcon

I've been watching online auctions for this set for at least the past two years with many sets going for at least US$160 or more. I had a few near misses too with auction snipers snatching it from under my nose. Patience pays off one day when an email alert from ebay notified me of a "Buy It Now" auction at a fairly reasonable price. So it made its way across half the world and I built it this weekend.

It took me all of 5 hours or so to put together the 985 pieces. There was some monotony after a bit but it was a huge satisfaction to see it come to shape.

The ship is nicely detailed. The exterior is a good representation of the Millennium Falcon, and for play it can swoosh but care must be taken as its components do not have fantastic support. The interior is well detailed and very playable. There is the chess game area and the engine room. There is massive interior room and one could fit more figures inside. The top opens up like an onion and provides good access to the inside. It has a turret seat, an escape pod and a working ramp (although moving passengers along this ramp is impossible).

The cockpit is probably the only drawback as it only fits 2 figures snugly. The figures are great, but I was expecting to see Obi Wan AND Luke as they left Tatooine (even though it has Leia as in Episode 6). Also strange to have C-3PO and not R2-D2. The inclusion of an Imperial Snow Trooper and cannon is also odd and would have been a better fit with the AT-AT set. (EDIT 18 APR 2010 - I was informed by my brother-in-law that it's meant to commemorate Ep V... where Luke and R2 had departed for the Dagobah system to meet Yoda. Also, a snow trooper was seen hooking up a laser cannon to shoot at the Millennium Falcon as it makes its escape from Bespin).

This is also the first time I've seen printing a printing error in the instruction manual, which came with an additional B&W page with the correct pieces and instruction steps. The Han Solo figure in the manual had a tan body instead of navy blue.