Review: 75060 Slave 1
Posted by DrDaveWatford,
Since Set 7191 X-Wing Fighter made its debut back in 1999, LEGO have tempted LEGO Star Wars fans with a slow but steady procession of large, detailed Star Wars-related sets under the Ultimate Collectors Series (UCS) banner. LEGO have covered most of the bases over the past 15 years, releasing UCS versions of the majority of iconic Star Wars vehicles and even recently revisiting the X-wing with Set 10240 Red Five X-wing Starfighter last year. However, a few obvious gaps remain in the UCS line-up, and to the delight of many, LEGO have finally moved to fill one of the most glaring gaps of all, Slave 1. Thanks to the LEGO Community, Engagement and Events team I’m delighted to bring you a review of Set 75060 Slave 1 ahead of its January 1st 2015 release.
Box & Contents
The box feels heavy for its size. It’s smaller than that of the recent Sandcrawler UCS set and similar to that of Set 10225 R2-D2 albeit slightly deeper. The front of the box features a striking image of the Slave 1 model in flight posed against the backdrop of a vivid Bespin sunset with Cloud City in the distance. There’s a smaller image of Slave 1 on its display stand in the bottom right corner, and the box also carries LEGO Star Wars Ultimate Collector Series branding which should help to avoid arguments in future when LEGO fanboys debate which sets are UCS and which aren’t…. The set has a 14+ age recommendation, but in the UK at least, the 1,996-part count isn’t displayed on the front of the box.
The back of the box (below) features the Slave 1 model on a landing pad alongside its minifigures but minus Han Solo who is frozen in carbonite by this point. There are also a number of panels which show off various features of the model, together with an image of a Bespin Guard loading Han Solo in Carbonite into Slave 1 under the watchful eye of Boba Fett; I suspect that I won’t be the only person who acts out this scene once they’ve completed the build….
The set’s four minifigures are shown on the side of the box (below) at 1:1 scale along with Han Solo in Carbonite. The side of the box also reveals that the finished Slave 1 model is 43 cm long and 19 cm high, not including the display stand.
The box is secured by a couple of tape seals at each end. Cutting the seals reveals a generously-filled box packed with 16 sealed bags of elements; each bag is printed with a number from 1 to 13. There’s also a single instruction booklet and sticker sheet, both of which are contained within in a cardboard-backed bag closed with sticky tape. Finally, there are two elements loose in the box - a black 8 x 16 tile and Slave 1’s large windscreen. The sticker sheet (below) is sizeable and contains 23 stickers; the obligatory UCS plaque occupies almost a third of the sheet on its own.
Instructions
The weighty instruction booklet is a massive 300 pages from cover to cover and close to A4 sized. The front cover (below) features the same striking imagery as the front of the box. While the vast majority of the booklet – 284 pages by my reckoning – is taken up by building instructions, there’s some noteworthy additional content which is well worth a read. This includes a brief introduction to the LEGO Star Wars design team penned by LEGO Star Wars Design Director Jens Kronvold Fredericksen, a richly-illustrated 3-page section providing facts and figures about Slave 1 including technical specifications, and a 2-page interview with LEGO designer Hans Burkhard Schlömer who designed the LEGO Slave 1 model. There’s also a 4-page inventory of parts, 2 pages illustrating features of the model, advertising for Set 75059 Sandcrawler, and a request for product feedback on the back cover.
Minifigures
The set contains four minifigures not including Han Solo in carbonite. First up we have a new Bespin Guard (below) who is exclusive to the set. The only previous Bespin Guard minifigure was exclusive to Set 6209 Slave 1 back in 2006; that minifigure had dark skin and less ornate printing on the front of his torso than the new version. The new version also comes with different headgear.
Unlike the 2006 version of the Bespin Guard the torso is back printed as you can see in the picture below. There’s no alternate expression, however.
Next up is anti-hero Boba Fett. There are already a myriad of different versions of the Boba Fett minifigure, and now there’s another as this version is exclusive to the set. That having been said, his torso print looks very similar to the print which adorns at least one of the more recent versions of the minifigure, although I don’t recognise the printed arms from previous versions. I also suspect that his dark tan printed pauldron is new. I’m pretty sure that his printed legs have featured in at least one previous version of the minifigure however, as has his helmet.
You can see Boba Fett without his helmet in the picture below. Unlike some of the older versions which came with a plain, unprinted minifigure head, this version gets a printed flesh head. He doesn’t have an alternate expression however. You can also get a better look at his printed arms in the picture.
From the back you can get a good look at Boba Fett’s sand green jet pack with nozzles. This has appeared in a couple of previous versions of the Boba Fett minifigure.
The next minifigure is a Stormtrooper. Unlike the Bespin Guard and Boba Fett he’s not exclusive to the set, having previously appeared in this form in Set 75055 Imperial Star Destroyer. For me, he’s pretty much perfect, with lots of print detail on the front of his torso and legs and a fantastically detailed helmet; you really have to wonder whether LEGO can reasonably cram any more detail into to their Star Wars minifigures than they do at present.
Unlike some earlier Stormtrooper variants which had a plain black minifigure head under their helmets, this version comes complete with a flesh minifigure head with a detailed head-print as you can see below. There’s no alternate expression.
The Stormtrooper also features a detailed torso back-print as you can see in the picture below.
I’ve not seen any mention by LEGO of this version of Han Solo being exclusive to the set, but the nearest I can find to this incarnation appeared in Set 9516 Jabba’s Palace back in 2012 and that had a different head print. This latest version sports a relatively simple torso print and unprinted legs.
Han has an alternate “I’m frozen in carbonite” expression as you can see in the picture below. There’s no back printing on his torso.
Last up we have Han Solo in Carbonite, or more accurately, a printed and sculpted one-piece pearl dark grey block with a hollowed-out cavity at the back into which the Han Solo minifigure fits; there are even a couple of hand-holds inside for him to grab on to so he doesn’t drop out. This element has previously appeared in Set 9516 Jabba's Palace from 2012 and Set 8097 Slave 1 from 2010.
The Build
The instruction booklet splits the build into 13 numbered stages, each of which uses elements contained within the correspondingly numbered bag or bags. The build begins with construction of the rear-most part of the base of Slave 1 which consists of a Technic frame covered with plates. Few rare or uncommon elements are utilised at this stage, although tan inverted 2 x 2 tiles, which have previously only appeared in 10 sets, make an appearance, as do dark red 2 x 2 corner plates; it quickly becomes evident that the set will be a useful source of dark red elements. You’ll find the Bespin Guard minifigure in bag 1.
During stage 2 of the build some greebling is added to the underside and the process of crafting the curved rear of the ship begins. The curved sections are built with studs facing outwards as you can see in the picture below, and they attach by way of SNOT bricks. Dark red 4 x 1 slopes, which have previously only appeared in 3 sets, make an appearance at this stage, as do dark red 2 x 1 x 2 and 3 x 1 slopes, both of which have appeared in less than 10 sets to date.
The process of building up the sloping rear section of the base of the ship with lots of lovely dark red slopes now begins. The layering of the various different slopes does give this part of the ship a somewhat patchwork-like appearance when viewed close up but it’s hard to see how the desired effect could be better achieved. This stage of the build heralds the first use of stickers; if you look carefully at the picture below you’ll see a dark red sticker on a dark bluish grey 6 x 2 wedge which I assume is supposed to give the ship’s hull a weathered, distressed look. ‘Easter eggs’ in the form of a dark blue 2 x 2 brick and a couple of dark green 1 x 6 plates are provided; these are completely hidden in the finished build. A number of uncommon elements make an appearance at this stage, notably dark red 6 x 6 round corner slopes which haven’t previously featured in any sets at all, dark red 4 x 4 wedge slopes which have previously only appeared in a single 2007 Exo-Force set, dark red 10 x 1 curved slopes which have only previously appeared in 2 sets, and dark red 12 x 3 left and right wedges which have only previously appeared in 5 sets.
Attention shifts to the front of the ship during stage 4 of the build which you can see below. Rare dark red slopes and curved elements are once again a prominent feature, with the dark red 6 x 6 x 2 round corner bricks and 10 x 10 round corner slopes both being unique to this set. We also see the first appearance of sand green elements which will become increasingly prominent as the build proceeds. There are a total of 6 stickers to attach at this stage; application of the stickers is challenging as they all attach to curved surfaces, so handle with care….
Stage 5 involves stitching together the front and rear sections of the ship with a pair of sturdy Technic spars. Once this has been achieved it’s time to add further detail to the underside of the ship, specifically Slave 1’s distinctive engines and large radar dish plus some additional greebling. Finally, twelve clear 1 x 1 round plates are topped off with clear 1 x 1 round tiles which are strategically attached at intervals to the underside to give the impression that the ship is floating when it’s set on its base. The yellow Technic T-shaped liftarms you can see in the pictures below have only previously appeared in Set 70142 Eris' Fire Eagle Flyer, while the light bluish grey 10 x 10 inverted dish utilised on the underside has only previously appeared in 3 sets.
Stage 6 is brief and mainly involves construction of the rear cargo bay door. The Han Solo minifigure and Han Solo in Carbonite are both found in bag 6, and the carbonite block can be attached to a clip on the inside of the cargo bay door which stops it from rattling around inside the ship should you decide to swoosh the completed model. In addition to the cargo bay door and surrounds, the beginnings of the Technic frame to which the upper part of the ship will attach are constructed. Once again we get a couple of entries to the ‘randomly coloured hidden parts’ list with the appearance of an orange 2 x 3 brick and a green 4 x 4 plate.
So on to Stage 7 and the overdue appearance of Boba Fett along with the cardboard packet containing his pauldron and the small sealed baggie containing his rangefinder. Next to be built are Slave 1’s stubby wings, and when they're completed a whole bunch of stickers need to be attached to them. Once again the stickers attach to curved surfaces, and particular care is needed to ensure that they’re stuck on straight and correctly spaced otherwise they look messy as I discovered the first time I stuck them on…. Thanks to the wonders of gravity and similar to some of the System scale Slave 1 sets, the wings rotate simultaneously about their long axis when the ship is tilted from a horizontal to a vertical position.
The cockpit is constructed next. As you can see from the picture below, the outer wall of the cockpit consists predominantly of SNOT bricks; the exposed studs on the sides will provide a means of attaching Slave 1’s distinctive dark green semi-circular cowls which arch over the wing attachments. The interior of the cockpit features a number of printed control panels, clips to secure Boba Fett’s blasters, and a seat for the pilot. The seat can be manually rotated by 90 degrees in preparation for flight mode, although unlike some of the older System versions of Slave 1 the rotation doesn’t occur automatically in the event of the ship being held upright.
We're now up to stage 9 of the build which involves construction of the front of the cockpit, after which the dark green semi-circular cowls are attached on either side of the cockpit. The dark green elements used for building the cowls are uncommon, with the 1 x 3 x 2 arch with curved top and the 6 x 6 round corner slope being unique to the set, and the 6 x 6 x 2 round corner brick having only previously appeared once before, in the previous version of Slave 1. The cowl on the left side of the ship is given a weathered look via the use of the dark green and silver sticker that you can see in the picture below; no sticker is provided for the cowl on the opposite side, however. The area beneath the cowl where the wing attaches is then reinforced and finished off with some black greebling, and the top of the wing is secured to the ship by way of an additional light bluish grey strut which helps to stop the wings from drooping and keeps them horizontal.
So on to stage 10 and the construction of Slave 1’s body. The rear-most section starts out as a sturdy Technic boom which is then covered on its upper and lower surfaces. The roof projects forward to the cockpit where it provides the attachment point for the large windscreen. The back of the windscreen is stickered where it joins the body giving it a nice curved appearance but it’s hard to get the sticker placement exactly right; get it wrong and it looks messy so it’s worth persisting until it’s as good as you can get it. I’m often critical of stickers, and I especially hated applying these ones, but I do need to give LEGO credit for producing such robust stickers – I applied, removed and reapplied the stickers a couple of times to get them right and they survived the trauma surprisingly well; they also didn’t leave a sticky residue on the areas that I peeled them from which was an unexpected bonus. The roof section features some rare elements – the sand green wedge 3 x 4 x 2/3 triple curved at the very back of the roof is unique to the set as are the sand green curved 2 x 2 slopes. Other elements such as the dark green curved 2 x 4 x 2/3 slopes and light bluish gray curved 2 x 8 x 2 double slopes have only previously been seen in one set.
We’re closing in on the finishing line now. Stages 11 and 12 involve construction of the left and right sides of the body and also Slave 1’s main weapons. The two sides of the body are similar but not identical, differing by virtue of the pattern of tiles on the surface. A combination of techniques are used to firmly attach the sides of the body to the underlying Technic frame including clips, and a towball and socket connection; the latter employs an element which I’d not seen before, namely a Technic 5 x 1 steering arm with towball socket only previously seen in Set 42021 Snowmobile.
Slave 1 is well provided for when it comes to weaponry, carrying a pair of rotating twin blaster cannons at the rear, plus additional cannons and what looks like a concussion missile launcher hidden in secret compartments on either side of the body. As well as the Technic steering arm mentioned above, there are a few other uncommon elements used at this stage of the build including a pair of sand green 4 x 6 wedge plates with cut corners which are unique to the set, and dark green curved 2 x 1 slopes and black ice cream cones which have previously appeared in only 3 sets.
With Slave 1 now complete, all that’s left to do is to build the display stand and attach the UCS plaque, at which point we’re done. The display stand (below) looks a tad flimsy but turns out to be more than capable of securely supporting Slave 1.
You can see the finished Slave 1 model below perched securely on its display stand in flight mode. The secret compartments on each side are open revealing the hidden weapons. Despite the ship now being upright the wings remain in the correct horizontal position thanks to the mechanism I described earlier.
From behind you can see the structures on the underside of the ship that I described earlier, notably the engines and the large radar dish; the stand inserts low down and hence doesn’t obstruct the view too much. LEGO has at times been guilty of neglecting the undersides and backs of its models so its nice to see so much care and attention being lavished on this occasion.
Verdict
I’ll just come straight out and say it – this is a superb model. It’s huge, it looks fantastic and the build is thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish. For a number of good reasons even LEGO flagship Ultimate Collector Series models generally suffer by comparison with the efforts of Star Wars MOC specialists such as cavegod and Anio, but on this occasion I reckon the official version is at least as big, and at least as good, as any of the Slave 1 MOCs I’ve seen online or in the flesh. Not only that, but designer Hans Burkhard Schlömer has also managed to make the model surprisingly stable AND integrate a number of features such as the hidden weapon compartments, rotating wings and opening cargo bay door into the model – remarkable. About the only criticisms I can level at it are that the underside might perhaps benefit from more greebling, plus some of the the stickers were a complete pain to apply neatly, but these are trivial concerns in the face of such an excellent model.
Set 75060 Slave 1 contains 1,996 elements and will retail for £169.99/$199.99/€199.99. It will be available from January 1st 2015. Many thanks to the LEGO Community Engagement & Events Team for supplying the set for us to review.
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47 comments on this article
i'm excited for this set
You should be - it's fantastic!
:-)
I knew I was saving those VIP points for something... :)
@DrDaveWatford - You don't happen to have a picture of it next to the 8097 Slave 1 do you? Curious on the size difference.
I am going to try and see if I can wait until May 4th to snag this one but waiting will be tough! I am a sucker for this ship and anything sand green
This looks beautiful! Hopefully I'll be able to scrounge up enough money for it at some point... Thanks for the excellent review Dave!
Wow, superb review! You may have actually swayed me into saving up my money to buy this set over the other releases :) Very slick and sleek ship.
This was on my Christmas list until they decided to realease it just *AFTER* Christmas I'll have to buy it with Christmas money. This is the BEST Lego set I've seen in a while , looks perfect as the slave one. Only issue is why don't they print for ICS sets? It's 200$! We get useless prints in microfighters , why not in this?
Other than that , this is a just buy for fans of Star Wars or boba fett , or really good LEGO models in general. Also , compared to the last version of fett in the skiff set , the new one only shares the helmet and jetpack. The legs are more detailed as is the torso. The poncho is all new , as last two times it was brown or Olive green.
Wow. Just, wow. This is one stunning model!
Since there's no shot of the printing on the left arm/shoulder of Boba Fett, can you answer, is the Mythosaur skull present on the left shoulder? I know the pauldron cloth mostly would cover it, but if they're going to do arm printing here, it just wouldn't feel right to be missing that detail, IMO.
I really hope it does have the skull on it , it's synonymous with the character (and Mandalorians in general..) and would be annoying if they left that out but had the poncho fully correct.
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23 STICKERS!$? Ugh I hate stickers. I rather pay extra for printed parts.
i think it looks epic, but it has too much stickers!!!! 23!!!!
Outstanding model, but too bad it's got so many stickers! But ordering it is the first thing I'm going to when the clock strikes midnight on New Year's eve. Well... maybe first a kiss for my wife.... :-)
I love Slave I, the last set was what got me out of my dark ages :-)
I'm sure to buy this, there's only one major gripe i discovered on the pics:
There's a misprint on the UCS-Sticker: "tracor beam" instead of "tractor beam".
Anyone know if Lego tends to fix things like this in later batches?
On size, I've seen it in the Lego shop display next to the new modular Detective's Office, and it made the modular building look tiny and pathetic! It's an absolute beast of a set, it looks so solid; I was undecided from the early pics but since seeing it in the flesh I really, really want it!
I've not seen 8097 and this side by side, but I'd imagine it's not far off double the height, width, etc, and it seems in total volume like it's maybe three times the size.
Oh, and 23 sticker's ain't actually all that much for a 2,000 part set... ;)
^ Agreed re: size. I unfortunately don't currently have 8097 built and therefore can't do a comparison, but I'd estimate that the UCS version is anywhere from one and a half to two times the size. As @zipsforbananas rightly says, it's a beast!
Also, for those asking, Boba Fett's left shoulder features the mythosaur skull motif.
Looks like a great set! Thanks for the review! Now I'll have to convince someone to buy me a Christmas present after Christmas :-)
I actually don't mind stickers to much. It's a bit of an extra challenge ;-) just hate those see-through ones, i always manage to get fingertips on those!
You know I love Boba Fett and I have the original figure of him with the printing over the arms. I have purchased every version of the figure up until this point and after the last iteration I swore that that was it. The minor changes they keep making are no longer impressive and its not like the old days when printing on the arms was a real show stopping element. I feel like at this point LEGO is diluting its own brand. I know if I buy this figure they will just make another slightly different version that is really no better. I really wish that they would stop putting their energy into star wars for the time being since we are going to be on overload for many years to come and put their energy into burying galaxy squad and doing great things with their evergreen themes. Mainly castle, space, and (kill and revamp before it is released)pirates. The most recent versions of these lines are depressing and look like they came from the time when LEGO was about to go bankrupt. They have so much talent and when I look at the great collectable mini figures i know they still have what it takes to get me excited in those lines and it makes me sad that their focus is so far from what made the company great.
Nevertheless this is a nice set and of course I wouldn't mind having it. Its just I wish they would put their energies elsewhere. I mean if they are not going to do great space, castle or pirates they could do another UCS thing like the Imperial Flagship or the Emerald Night for us AFOLs beyond the modular houses that at least is in an evergreen theme area.
I think this could easily be my favourite set of all time. The Slave I is by far my favourite Star Wars vehicle and this looks to be the definitive version.
Thanks for the great review Dave!
Man, this looks absolutely fantastic...
Has there been any word on a possible VIP early access ?
LindsayJoy, the licensed themes saved LEGO from that near bankruptcy period you mentioned. Given how popular Star Wars is, it's little wonder they keep producing sets for the theme. Sets like this would surely entice new people to begin collecting LEGO, much more so than Imperial Flagship or Emerald Night.
I suspect only a minority of LEGO buyers share your practice of acquiring every iteration of a character, so I don't think it's a compelling reason to avoid improving them. However, I do want to see the "improvements" stop for another reason: I think the faces have become too detailed and the 2014 editions are worse than the less detailed versions. Luke Skywalker's face from 75052 looks old, fat and tired, even though the character was actually young, thin and energetic. I much prefer the 2011 version of him.
I need it. I love the new windscreen.
I still think that UCS The Tumbler is much better than this, unfortunately, as I am a huge fan of SW...
Oh, I agree. The new faces are atrocious, and should teach LEGO where to stop at the detail. And Star Wars is getting tired by now, unfortunately, the new trilogy will extend the theme's longevity for many more years. Yayyyyy...
I've been lucky enough to see it up close, in my local Lego store and its HUGE!
My goodness... I need to have this one... NOW!!!!
I really do hope they fix the sticker "tracor beam" typo. That's like the "sheild" typo they had in the BTTF set.
@DarthBrickus buy one quick before they correct the sticker sheet - A set with a spelling mistake will become quite collectable. I've no idea why though, I'd rather have a set with correct spelling.
The BTTF DeLorean had a spelling mistake on one of the printed tiles initially. I waited a while to buy mine and they'd corrected it by then.
I've only just got the Sandcrawler so Slave 1 will have to wait until May... there's evidence of a UCS TIE Fighter posted on HothBricks
Great review! I agree on the stickers, and I don't particularly like the one on the dark green slope since it looks out of place being the only stickered dark green slope. I'm glad you went into as much detail as you did; it'll help a lot while I'm writing my review of the set, hopefully to be done this week. :)
Wow DrDaveWatford, you've done a really amazing review! Showing us just enough and no more building involved, a good look at the new elements, you did not mention unnecissary things at all, pictures are superb! What can I say... I really enjoyed it, one of best reviews of a set I've seen lately here on brickset! This also gave me some more insight on the set that other reviews didn't, which is great.
As for the set, I've fallen in love with this redention of my favorite SW ship, so every penny I'll have left goes onto my save-pile for the Slave I. (or I just buy it instantly when it's in the shop ;) ) I've seen and held it IRL before and it is not a single less better in the flesh.
Why oh why are lego so dumb? Where is the continuity between products? It was not long ago that we had the UCS Sandcrawler, so how come that does not come with a UCS decal and black tile?!!! Its not fair :(
I'm wondering, should I get this or the Sandcrawler? Please help me out!
@kopaka14 , I recommend both.
How did I miss this?
^^ @namioik that doesn't help him at all :) I'd get both also, but get the Sandcrawler first as it is oldest.
I really want this!
Are you allowed to create a .pdf of the instructions? If you can, I would greatly appreciate it!
Does anyone know if we are going to get an early VIP release of this set via lego.com? Normally happens around the 19th of the month for a 1st of the following month release, but I've heard nothing! Can't wait to get this and the new modular :)
"Anti-hero"? I think the word you're looking for is "villain".
Once I found out that my 10188 didn't count as UCS, I patiently waited for the day that this would come out...
If I want to order this to Finland it costs 220€ so I´m gonna buy it from Germany when I go there.
I'm starting saving money to buy it !
I want it ! I want it ! I want it ! I want it ! I want it ! I want it ! I want it ! I want it !
I just completed the build and echo every word Dave said! However, there are 2 errors in the instructions. First, page 86 has the wrong picture as it shows what the model should look like after completing page 87. Then, on page 266 there's no part detail for the 1x1 round plate you need to add here. It would be easy to miss if you aren't using a keen eye following along. Trivial, but mildly noteworthy.
I can't recommend this set highly enough!
The model is fantastic, but the build has its issues, mostly due to the instruction manual.
All of the pages are printed on a dark grey background, which would be a nice artistic choice, except that many of the parts are dark and light bley. This makes it extremely difficult to see where things should be added if you happen to have less than ideal eyesight.
That turned the build into a real chore for me at times, even with decent lighting in the room. Lego should make sure there's enough contrast between the background and the model to make building pleasurable, particularly with a model as complex as this.
I completed mine last night. My only issue was, upon completing the display stand, I didn't know a good way of picking the model up to put it on the stand. At first I grabbed it from the sides of the base of the ship, but one section came off. I wound up picking it up from beneath the tail section, lifting to a point I could get my hand under the main structure, then carefully placing on the stand. I had to do this twice because I moved it from where I built the model to it's final location: a shelf over my big TV alongside the UCS TIE Interceptor and the 2012 UCS X-wing.