Random set of the day: Motorised Walking AT-AT
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 10178 Motorised Walking AT-AT, released in 2007. It's one of 18 Star Wars sets produced that year. It contains 1137 pieces and 4 minifigs, and its retail price was US$129.99/£89.99.
It's owned by 5258 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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32 comments on this article
I will never understand why the rear legs bend backwards and are shown to bend backwards on every AT-AT set except for the first one, 4483 . Does it happen in the movies? Yes, when they are being tripped and being destroyed, but never when walking! AT-ATs are like Elephants, there are no backward joints on AT-ATs. Perhaps if thrown into reverse, I suppose it's possible, but never in actual combat, I mean, we even see one take a step back and it doesn't even bend backwards. One of the biggest pet peeves I have.
Such a cool set, and with a bit of a legendary status, just like the 2003 edition! I just got the 2020 AT-AT, which is a great one, but I just wish it had those printed disc pieces for the shoulders and knees...
Angry SW fans: GIVE US A UCS AT-AT!!!!!
This pseudo-ucs set: Am I a joke to you?
Aw, yeah! This is actually the second motorized AT-AT I own, after the Galoob Action Fleet version. I remember I got that in college, came back to see that some of my friends were playing Risk in the dorm lobby, unboxed it, hid it behind my back, casually walked up to the table, plunked it down on either Asia or North America, and proceeded to lumber across the land, kicking tiny armies out of the way. The looks of horror were absolutely priceless, especially when I explained that I’d carefully chosen to set it down in the middle of a large group of nations that were held by one army each, so there’s only one legitimate way they could go back on the board.
Somehow, I don’t think it would work out so nicely if I tried that with this one...
Forget a UCS set, this is what I want!!!
Such a great set! I need to get it back out and rebuild it!
Really great mechanism. The head looks around, and all four legs walk driven by a single motor!
I always found this set incredibly interesting. When was the last time we had a motorized SW set?
@MCLegoboy said:
"I will never understand why the rear legs bend backwards and are shown to bend backwards on every AT-AT set except for the first one, 4483 . Does it happen in the movies? Yes, when they are being tripped and being destroyed, but never when walking! AT-ATs are like Elephants, there are no backward joints on AT-ATs. Perhaps if thrown into reverse, I suppose it's possible, but never in actual combat, I mean, we even see one take a step back and it doesn't even bend backwards. One of the biggest pet peeves I have."
LEGO models of the AT-AT omit the uppermost leg joints, underneath the body, so the legs cannot move up and down properly. Allowing the 'knee' joints to rotate backwards provides many more options for posing and balancing the models. Without that ability, the only poses ensuring complete stability would entail straightening all four legs together or straightening two while the remaining two are slightly angled at the knees.
Of course, there is also no reason to restrict the articulation since the knee joint elements are inherently capable of rotating in either direction.
With regard to the movies, I imagine the knees could rotate backwards when the terrain demands it. That could prove important when travelling downhill, for example. While this does not necessarily affect the canonical vehicles, it is interesting to note that McQuarrie's AT-AT concept artwork does show the knees moving backwards.
@CapnRex101 said:
"LEGO models of the AT-AT omit the uppermost leg joints, underneath the body, so the legs cannot move up and down properly. Allowing the 'knee' joints to rotate backwards provides many more options for posing and balancing the models. Without that ability, the only poses ensuring complete stability would entail straightening all four legs together or straightening two while the remaining two are slightly angled at the knees."
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/816843294808997889/832799225527664699/IMG_3197.JPG
TAKE THAT SCIENCE! XD
It is oh so slightly tilted to the left if you were in the cockpit, but whatever, it's stable, and I never touch it anyway.
This is the set that brought me out my dark years.
Glad to see it featured.
My (now) husband surprised me with this set for me for our first valentine's day when it came out. I knew right away he was a keeper!
@brickengineeringdude:
75253. So, year before last. Besides that, there's this, 9748, and 9754, but I think that's it. Frankly, there aren't a lot of sets that really encourage motorization. Most of what they've released is starships that have landing skids, followed by stationary playsets of one sort or another. Landspeeders and speederbikes just hover all the time (seriously, how do you park those when you need to disconnect the power supply?, so the AT-AT's predecessors (AT-TE and Clone Turbo Tank), the Hailfire Droid, and a few other Separatist droids are probably all you really could motorize in any meaningful way that really matches how their on-screen appearance, besides what has already been motorized. Well, and you can kinda fake it with most ground-level hovering vehicles (landspeeders, AAT, MTT, etc.).
Unique: None
Rare:
44375 6x6 dish with mechanical print in light bluish grey x4
3960 4x4 dish with mechanical print in light bluish grey x4
47758 4x4 tapered roll cage slope in light bluish grey x1
What kind of motor was inside this thing? Power Functions?
Of all the sets I missed out on during the Dark Ages, this was the one that really got away.
How well did it actually walk when let loose? And how decent an AT-AT is it without the walking function?
@PDelahanty said:
"What kind of motor was inside this thing? Power Functions?"
Yes, it has a Power Functions motor.
That's my AT-AT.
(But also the reason I can't get any of the newer ones - there's no way I'm ever dismantling the one that can actually walk, but it'd look weird having two different-looking AT-ATs side by side, so this boy holds the shelf alone.)
IMO it's second best AT-AT. 4483 is perfect AT-AT for me. I bought it MiSB on bricklink last year.
The motorisation was very ambitious, and the designers did a great job without ridiculously increasing the price. Check out the you tube videos it lifts two diagonal legs up together while the other two are on the ground to take the weight all with just a medium PF motor. They kept the battery box in the rear section and the motor below the floor to allow some internal central space for storm troopers or cargo.
@Brickalili said:
"How well did it actually walk when let loose? And how decent an AT-AT is it without the walking function?"
In that order: Pretty well, and not very.
The walking function works just fine, a somewhat shuffling, ambling walk, but admirable for a mechanism powered by a single small-ish motor. Check out some videos of it on YouTube, it's pretty cool to look at.
Problem is, that function kind of compromises everything else: It's not a very accurate model in terms of shape and proportion, there's no interior besides the cockpit since the space is taken up by the battery box and drive train, and you can't pose the legs independently.
A very fun set to have marching around the room, but I did eventually rebuild mine into a more accurate display model.
Still my favorite AT-AT.
Watching it walk across the floor always makes me smile.
@PurpleDave: I always wondered, what keeps your landspeeder from just drifting away on a windy day? Or if you park on a slope, wouldn't it just float downhill?
@DBMartin said:
"Such a cool set, and with a bit of a legendary status, just like the 2003 edition! I just got the 2020 AT-AT, which is a great one, but I just wish it had those printed disc pieces for the shoulders and knees..."
I own both the 2003 and the 2020 AT-AT, but man I want this one.
I still am not sure how I got this set. I didn’t buy it. I have it (now disassembled), but I can’t find the instructions for it.
And I have saved the instructions for EVERYTHING I bought.
My daughter really enjoyed watching it walk around when she was a toddler.
@560heliport:
They must be super easy to steal because you can just slip a cargo platform underneath and strap it down. Or hook a tow cable up to it. What happens if you lean against it? That must make for a lot of awkward first dates.
“Sure, son, you can borrow my landspeeder. Just don’t lean on it!”
“Stupid dad...he can’t tell me what to do...”
“Hey, baby! I thought we could...” *WHUMP!*
I wanted this so bad as a kid... Fortunately I got 75054 later when I had my own money. It just can't walk...
My favorite AT-AT.
With this one in particular, I don't care that the proportions are off. It has a bit of a wider stance and a more angular head with the cannons wider apart, which makes it look more menacing. But I applaud the 2003 and 2020 ones for their great accuracy to the source material and I have yet to get any of these three sets. I only own 2010's and 2014's AT-ATs.
@560heliport:
Why would it go down the slope? It's already hovering in midair. As for the windy day... maybe the Force holds it in place?
Miss_Kitty_Fantastico said: "it'd look weird having two different-looking AT-ATs side by side..."
That's a gripe I have with constant updates and improvements of sets - I bought a bunch of stormtroopers with the 7667 Dropship set many years ago, but if I should need more I'd need to buy an updated version. Of course the newer ones are more detailed and better (leg prints!), but they won't match my old ones and I'd have to replace them all.
It's the same with storage solutions, in the article series a while ago people always had everything neatly sorted in matching cabinets. That's not an option around here unless you buy all at once, I've many times bought boxes and tubs I found useful. But when I come back to buy more (like a year or so later) they've stopped selling them, so I either has to settle for some different ones or replace everything I have with new ones - bloody annoying.