Review: 75034 Death Star Troopers
Posted by CapnRex101,
The 2014 Star Wars sets have been out for a couple of months in Europe, but have only recently started appearing in North America, so I thought I would bring you some brief reviews of the more eagerly anticipated of the sets. As these reviews are abridged, I will be skipping over the box, instructions and build for the most part, unless I think that there is something particularly worthy of saying about them. To begin with, I am going to take a look at 75034 Death Star Troopers, one of the four ever-popular battle packs released in this wave.
Feel free to comment on what sets you are most interested in below, as I am only intending to review the most popular ones. I will read through your suggestions, and base which sets I review (briefly) on that.
75034 is notable as the only set of this wave which is based on the original trilogy. It is also arguably the least interesting of the battle packs this year as the Minifigures are perhaps not particularly appealing for army building.
All I am going to write about the box is that the size has increased since last year, which is a little strange although not very important.
Minifigures
The Minifigures are naturally going to be the biggest draw to these sets, and this model is no exception. Four are included, two Death Star Gunners, and two Royal Guards, and all are great, although perhaps not as interesting as the figures in other battle packs. Firstly, the Royal Guards are not completely new, but updated versions of the Minifigures which have previously appeared in 10188 Death Star, amongst others. They are quite attractive, with a new mixture of red and dark red robes, including a two-tone cape. Beneath the helmet, which is the same as earlier versions, is a plain black head and there is some nice creased printing on the torsos, and the dark red arms and hands create a nice contrast. Each guard is armed with a force pike, constructed using a black telescope piece and a 4L bar in light bluish grey. I am not very impressed with this weapon as it is not particularly accurate to its appearance in the films, but it is an improvement over the simply black spear that has appeared in the past.
The most exciting part of this set is of course the inclusion of Death Star Troopers, which are as excellent as I had hoped for. The helmets are brand new, and are perfectly accurate to the film with the large silver symbol of the Empire printed on the forehead, and what I believe to be a small comlink with blue and red displays as seen in the film. Beneath the helmets are actually two different faces, which was a surprise to me; one with a worried expression and the other with a serious one. Both are printed with a headset and black eyebrows, which could make these heads very useful for any kind of military Minifigures.
The torso and legs are predominantly black as one would expect, with some grey printing showing the padding on the gunner's jumpsuit. There is also a shiny silver belt buckle and back printing, all of which adds up to create a suitably menacing Minifigure. The new guns have not been entirely popular, and personally, I am not a fan of them as they are ridiculously out of scale with the figures and I prefer a more accurate shape. These weapons are however quite fun as they can fire 1x1 round plates (of which there are ten included), and this functions very effectively, with a range of roughly two feet. All four of these Minifigures are great, and I particularly like the Death Star Gunners who are exceedingly accurate to the film as far as I can see.
The Completed Model
The models in these kinds of sets are never very exciting, and this model is no different. Here we have a cannon for the gunners to man, which is a lot like the one which appeared in 10188 Death Star in 2008. The cannon makes use of a 6x6 round plate as a base, and there is a swiveling seat for the operator, albeit without any controls. A flick-fire missile and a scope are found on the top and there are twin barrels, just like the SB-920 Laser Cannon which appears in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.
This gun emplacement will plug right into your Death Star model if you wish, although personally, I very slightly prefer the version in 10188. This one can raise and lower to a greater extent than that slightly older model of this particular laser cannon, although there if an exposed area of the flick-fire missile mechanism which takes away from the aesthetics a little in my opinion.
Overall
This is, in my opinion, the weakest of the four battle packs produced this year. The Minifigures are excellent, particularly the Death Star Gunners which will no doubt be popular, although I think that each of the other three sets at this price point would be more appealing from the point of view of army building. Ideally this set would have contained two Stormtroopers, one Death Star Gunner and one Royal Guard in my opinion, although the actual set is not bad at all.
Parts: 4 - Nothing particularly exciting, although there are some uncommon pieces including the 6x6 round plate in light bluish grey and three 1x2 curved slopes.
Playability: 3.5 - The new firing blasters are fun, but you will need other sets to create battles.
Building Experience: 3 - There is not a lot of interest here, but a nice mix of Technic and system construction for those new to LEGO Star Wars.
Value for Money: 4.5 - The model is a bit small, even for a battle pack, although four great Minifigures more than make up for this in my opinion.
Overall: 3.5 - Not a bad battle pack, but probably the weakest of the four of the Winter 2014 wave, unless you prefer to stick to OT sets in which case this will be a great purchase.
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27 comments on this article
Nice review, I like the new helmets on the death star troopers also, but I for one will most likely not get this set, though it has so nice minifigures.
this set fits perfectly with my death star,nice addition
I love the new gun design, but I can't really say with authority whether they are appropriate for LEGO Star Wars, because I have not collected LEGO Star Wars since 2005. Back then, having movie-accurate guns was unheard of — the best you could hope for was a minifigure megaphone (http://brickset.com/parts/design-4349) with a transparent 1x1 round plate on the end. I can definitely understand why people might prefer the more movie-accurate weapons we've gotten since then, especially since the lightsabers have always been reasonably detailed and movie-accurate.
For non-licensed themes like Hero Factory, Ultra Agents, and the LEGO Movie, these new guns are unquestionably fantastic. From what I hear, they fire well, they don't require any complex and expensive pre-assembled components, and they don't even have to use any specialized ammo piece — rather, they use the basic 1x1 round plate, a common and inexpensive part I'm sure most LEGO fans have a surplus of anyway. I can't wait to get my first of these new guns (which will probably be from the Hero Factory sets for this summer) and try them out for myself.
Nice little set, but I don't see getting more than one. Don't like the new guns (or any of the guns Lego uses for star wars) and will replace with guns from the aftermarket.
The fact that this battle pack is the only set in the new wave based on the the Original Trilogy makes it the most interesting one to me personally. The appeal of the Prequel Trilogy/Clone Wars sets has been waning for some time, to the point that it seems extremely unlikely that I'll ever buy another one. The upcoming sets based on the new Rebels series look even less attractive.
As for the new projectile-firing guns, I could do without them, but I'm sure that younger FOLs will feel differently. I'll be switching these out with stormtrooper blasters (58247).
Nice to finally have Imperial Engineers from Battlefront 2.
I'd like to see a review of the droid gunship. Definitely interested in seeing how the new chewie turned out. Thanks for the review!
As someone who is a huge fan of the original trilogy this set was absolutely my favorite of the new packs. I agree that it's playability and building experience is kinda ehhh but just to get my hands on the royal guards makes this an amazing set. These pack is really just awesome for the figurines. I would have been fine without the gun. I just love me some imperial royal guards.
Weakest? You're crazy. The minifigures are great (and being from OT they're not just Random Clone Trooper Variation 252193) and the laser cannon does a good job replicating its cinematic counterpart. Yes, if you're only in the market for a battle pack it's not going to satisfy as much as the Random Clone Trooper Variation ones, but this is so much better.
Personally, this was the pack I was most excited about. Mostly just for the gunners, but I don't have any royal guards so getting a few of them will be nice. I hope these new guns aren't the standard, not a huge fan of how they look.
I'm looking forward to receiving mine. I think the new guns are cool and fun although nowhere close to being accurate to the movies. I would have liked to have seen them in the Galaxy Squad or Alien Conquest sets.
This must have been popular. TRU US had them briefly on their website during the BOGO50% Off Sale but they, 75035, and 75036 just as quickly were gone. shop.lego.com is also sold out. I ordered mine through Amazon.
This is probably, sadly, going to be the only 2014 Star Wars set I get. Thanks for the review, Rex!
I second LEGOManiac1's request for a review of set 75045, but I'm also curious about the Droid Tri-fighter (75044) and General Grievous' Wheel Bike (75040). For those worried about how hard this wave is being to find, it seems they'll be available again at LEGO.com on March 1, thank goodness!
Judging from all the comments I've heard, there are going to be a lot of the new blaster-guns available on Bricklink soon (all the better for me to get some!). I notice they aren't being included in any sets other than battlepacks, at least in this wave of releases.
Eh. Not really into the Star Wars battle pack front (did I just make a cheesy reference?). I lost interest in the theme long ago. While the sets and minifigs are great, the theme lacks innovation. All we keep getting are rehashes of classic starfighters and vehicles.
I'd like to see more variety. More expanded universe! Delve deeper into the Star Wars universe! I know we got Old Republic and will soon receive Rebels sets, but unfortunately I don't love what I am seeing now. The Planets and Micro Fighters are cool, I can agree, but... yeah. Unless a miracle occurs, I don't see myself buying another Star Wars set for another few years. It's not that I dislike the theme. It's shown us what can be done when it comes to licenses that LEGO has, and the builds are fantastic. It sells well, but for how much longer?
I know this doesn't really belong here, but just my two cents. Yell at me or agree with me if you wish.
I'm really happy to get a chance to get Royal Guards in a cheap set and the new Death Star Troopers are great! Definitely next on my to-buy list :) The new guns look pretty cool but I think they should include realistic guns with the special ones because you can't really have too many. I certainly prefer them over flick-fires.
I'd love to see a new Storm Trooper Battle Pack, but I'd rather wait a year to get the new design than a battle pack now with the 2012 design that'll be replaced in a few months anyway.
Great set from my point of view. This was the only set which went out of stock so quickly in several shops in Finland. Colours are nice. I never managed to get any guards the first time round, so happy.
Got this set yesterday along with the Microfighter Falcon - Brilliant additions to the Death Star!
There's always two Guards either side of a doorway in the movie so I can see why there's two in this set and the two two gunners are superb - the detail is better than my vintage Kenner gunner from 1984!
If I could have asked for more from this set, perhaps a Death Star Trooper, the personnel with the big silly wide helmets... We only have one of those from the last Tie Fighter but I think we get another in the new Star Destroyer in the Summer.
Oddly enough, this is the only one of the battle packs I'm really interested in. :P I guess I just love the Death Star Gunners...
As an OT-fan, this was the only set I bought from the current wave of Star Wars sets (although I'm leaning towards the micro-sets as well, which I haven't yet found in the wild). In fact I bought two. Highlight of the set is definitely the figures: it's always nice to have a few more Imperial Guards, even if they do differ from the previous versions, but it's the Death Star Gunners which are the real stars. They are absolutely incredible: spot on to what they should look like, and the different faces were unexpected bonuses. I'm not too fussed about the cannon: it looks OK and the Death Star set is large enough to accommodate another one or two of these.
The only major problem with this set is that, ironically, it doesn't actually contain any Death Star Troopers! As mr_skinny mentioned earlier, only one set has featured an actual Death Star Trooper, and that was the most recent TIE-fighter set (and the Ewok Village contained a Death Star Trooper helmet as a bongo).
This set certainly looks good for its price. I'm all ears.
Kashyyyk Troopers next, followed by Utapau Troopers and the Republic Cannon. Also, the gunners have different back printing.
Not particularly fond of the guards' staffs but, that can be remedied. I'll most likely get this since I'm lacking Crimson guards in my collx. Looking fwd to the droid army builder too - Capn Neo is awesome in any form.
I've never been a fan of the blank faces, I swapped them out with some spare lone ranger heads so it's still black but with eyes and a face. really there's no excuse with blank faces when you've got the new balaclava heads. I also swapped out the death star troopers heads with some of my imperial officers, since you can't see them anyway. fun set, I've got the missile mounted on my Endor Base.
I love the look of this set, to me it looks the best of all the Battle Packs this year but then I'm a big OT fan. The Death Star Gunners look brilliant! I'm not in a mad rush to get them though so will wait till they go down in price then buy a few sets I think. Same with the other battle packs for this year, although they do all look so very tempting.
I've wanted the death star engineers for so long am so glad that they are as amazing and accurate as I hoped, LEGO you've done it again
Not sure I'll be getting this one but the figs are a vast improvement and essential for any imperial army. The cannon also has to be one of the few battle pack builds that actually looks movie accurate or any good at all for that matter. That tri droid in the utapau battle pack makes me want to cry :(
I like the kashyyyk battle pack better. I love the new camo clones, but I hate the new blasters in all of the new battle packs. I like the blaster by itself but the look horrid with star wars.