Random set of the day: Watto's Junkyard
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 7186 Watto's Junkyard, released in 2001. It's one of 10 Star Wars sets produced that year. It contains 443 pieces and 2 minifigs, and its retail price was US$50/£39.99.
It's owned by 1837 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
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17 comments on this article
Crazy that hideous Watto fig is worth so much!
Man. That spaceship looks like a box on rockets. Nowadays we have advanced models. Like spaceships that look like big gloves with rockets.
(Rexcelicior)
I never much cared for any of the pod-racers. It was like, given how Lego had to construct them (with all those beams and plates holding them together), there was just no good way to make any of them. It was just impossible to transfer them into toy form.
My tastes in LEGO were in flux in 2001. At the start of the year, this set was really appealing! It called back to my Podracer mania of 1999 and 2000, in which I collected all things related to the exciting scene from Episode I. I had the Micro Machines, the video game (Racer for the PC), and even some other scale models. And of course, I had the Mos Espa Podrace set! After a drought in 2000, this appeared on in the catalogs and I was immediately interested. But with limited parental financial support, I had to bide my time until May, when I would likely make the honor roll and get $50 from my dad.
By May, of course, something came along to wipe Star Wars off the map for me: BIONICLE! With my Toa Tahu and Vakama sets in March, a brief time set in when I almost forgot LEGO Star Wars existed. I think the only set I got at the time was the TIE Fighter. Everything else was BIONICLE! And I bring that up because I think BIONICLE spared me from disappointment with this set.
Two new podracers were included: Aldar Beedo, Sebulba's some-time hitman, and Mawhonic, the three-eyed Gran racer who Sebulba handily destroys during the race in the Phantom Menace. Upon looking at the set pictures again, I noticed how flimsy Aldar Beedo's minifigure looked, and noted the complete absence of Mawhonic. What? Did LEGO think I would be distracted by the weirdly long-legged Watto to not notice a whole podracer was included without its goofy pilot? I was aghast. And then I considered the designs in the set. Aldar Beedo's racer engines had a distinct angle to them when in flight. Here, they have to sit parallel to the ground. One demerit. And the power coupling cables were attached at the wrong points, too. Second demerit (though an easily fixed one). Throw in the third demerit with the missing Mawhonic, and this set quickly fell to the bottom of my "Want" list, if you could call the ambivalent state of mind I had toward it as justification for wanting it. It was a serious let-down, one that followed a full year of let-downs in Star Wars with the Millennium Falcon and Slave I from the year before. Thankfully, things were about to get a whole lot better in 2002!
Aldar Beedo's pod gives me Ice Planet vibes.
I liked the pod designs, all of them. But I just can't get over the beams that connects the components together. It may not be playable, but using clear pieces to display these models would be a great view. Minus the horrible figures.
One I was looking at with envy when I came out of my DA and started to collect SW sets. Good theme, but a redesign with available parts today could be a good thing IMO. At the time it was probably a great set.
So blocky.
If there is one SW set that desperately needs a modern redesign and rerelease, it's this one. Only the TIE Bomber can get close to that title at the moment.
For all the screentime the Pods had, they got awfully few sets, outside of Anakin and Sebulba (ostensibly two of the more boring pods). Perhaps not in the last place because they are tough to accurately replicate in LEGO (looking at Pods like Teemto Pagalies, Boles Roor, Ebe Endocott, Elan Mak/Kam Nale). I'd have taken any of them over the AT-AP and Droid Gunship this year (who are now on their third Minifig scale iterations).
That Watto is crazy expensive!
Such nostalgia.
I honestly think Aldar Beedo's podracer was the most obscure Star Wars set Lego had produced up to this point. Quite frankly, it's probably still in the top five.
When I bought this back in the day, I thought it was interesting that the tan pieces used to create the "walls" of Watto's shop could double as the support frames for the green podracer. Then I thought that it stinks that I could either build the pod or build the shop, but not at the same time...
Nice early SNOT building techniques on display here, too.
I remember really wanting this set as a kid, but I never did get it.
This is the kind of set that I doubt LEGO would produce these days, which is a real shame. It would be amazing to get some secondary pod racers in an updated set.
I love this set for all it's flaws and things that people dislike about it. I love the Watto figure, I love the Aldar Beedo figure, I love the construction of the pods, I love the whole set. Two things that I do agree with as problems is that there is no way to have the shop and both pods together with just the parts in the set, and the absence of at the very least some sort of pilot for Mawhonic's pod, even if it wasn't Mawhonic. Other than those two things, I love this set, and always will. It's not perfect, but it is very 2001, and that was my golden age when it comes to LEGO sets. It's the time where LEGO sets felt the most LEGO to me because that was what it was like when I was that perfect age as a kid.
I'd like to second (or third, whatever) the motion for this set to get an update. Throw in another more obscure podracer, new appropriate pilots, and a decent price (say 3 podracers for 60.00). Now I'm really dreaming lol.
The podrace sequence was a triumph of CGI and sound design, but it doesn't do much to advance the plot. So it's not surprising to me that we've seen so few remakes of them after the initial explosion in 1999-2001. But with the new Master Builder Series, it's possible we may see a new Boonta Eve Classic playset with numerous half-scale podracers in all sorts of shapes and colors.
And as for Mawhonic not being included...https://i2.wp.com/www.fbtb.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/swlego5.gif