Random set of the day: Star Wars #1 - Emperor Palpatine, Darth Maul and Darth Vader
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 3340 Star Wars #1 - Emperor Palpatine, Darth Maul and Darth Vader, released during 2000. It's one of 19 Star Wars sets produced that year. It contains 32 pieces and 3 minifigs, and its retail price was US$5.
It's owned by 1361 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
Help me come to life! If you like the set I've chosen for you today, please pledge your support for me on LEGO Ideas so I have a chance of becoming an official LEGO set!
89 likes
29 comments on this article
There's three in a sauna you wouldn't expect.
The build here is frankly... umm, there is no build. (And, why? Isn't the whole deal with why we can't have Collectible Star Wars minifigs something to do with not having a licence for something that broaches into action figure land? Was that different in 2000 A.D.?)
I have a disproportionate love of this set, though, for giving me my first Darth Vader and my first Sidious/Palpatine. Looking back, though, the character I remember it best for is Darth Ogel, which is what you get when you take either a spare Darth Maul or a spare Sidious and swap heads with your spare Ogel. The was no Rule of Two in my LEGO childhood.
Yes, it is just a few minifigs on stands with cards, but they're a hefty sum these days. It pains me to only have this one and the one with the Chewbacca and the Scouts. It's hard to justify $40 for Droids and $100 for Luke, Han, and and Boba. I only happened to get the two I have because someone donated their collection to me, and now I feel the collector's itch to complete the series.
I did not have this one but I did have 3342 and 3343. These packs were great to bulk up on minifigs. The nba ones were my favorite
Well this one has certainly appreciated in value over the years
One day we'll get a Star Wars CMF series :'(
@Formendacil said:
"The build here is frankly... umm, there is no build. (And, why? Isn't the whole deal with why we can't have Collectible Star Wars minifigs something to do with not having a licence for something that broaches into action figure land? Was that different in 2000 A.D.?)"
I think these sets were a big reason TLG got in trouble with Hasbro back in the day. Frankly, I'm amazed they were able to offer things like 40300 and 40176 years later, too; maybe the action figure license was modified by then?
My copy of this set includes an Emperor with black hands instead of yellow; I believe they corrected this with later production runs.
Given just how popular Star Wars Lego was 20 years ago, I can't believe that only 1300 people here claim ownership of this set...
The box opens on the long side rather than the short side; another strange quirk for a strange set!
Maul with a hood: no spoilers.
@oldfan said:
" @Formendacil said:
"The build here is frankly... umm, there is no build. (And, why? Isn't the whole deal with why we can't have Collectible Star Wars minifigs something to do with not having a licence for something that broaches into action figure land? Was that different in 2000 A.D.?)"
I think these sets were a big reason TLG got in trouble with Hasbro back in the day. Frankly, I'm amazed they were able to offer things like 40300 and 40176 years later, too; maybe the action figure license was modified by then?"
The whole "we can't have CMF Star Wars because of licensing" seems to be a myth. And we need to stop buying into it.
That’s a title to match Vikings.
We just got a Marvel CMF series, and both Marvel and Star Wars are owned by Disney, so I think it’s safe to say the licensing excuse is dead. It’s just a matter of time.
$5 for three minifigures with display stands when now you have $6 for just one...
Ok, so from my understanding, LEGO's license agreement prevents them from releasing sets that count as "Action Figures" because Hasbro own the rights of producing Star Wars themed action figures. But, in 2015, LEGO released the Star Wars buildable figures line (for example, sets like 75111 or 75112) , which lasted for three years, and they didn't seem to get into any trouble for it. Unlike the minifigures, whose status as action figures is debatable, those sets were 100% action figures, and Hasbro took no issue with their release.
With that in mind, I seriously have to question whether there ever was a contract preventing LEGO to release "Star Wars action figures" to begin with.
Looks like two dudes in cloaks, one dude in a suit and cloak who all work for the Blacktron 1. Seriously, all that black, a bit of yellow, some trans red even....
I'm the reverse situation of the person above me: I never got the Chewbacca and Scout Troopers collection nor this one, the Sith Lords. On a trip to LEGOLAND California for Christmas 2000, I got the Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Boba Fett collection as well as the Battle Droid collection. I loved them and they were the centerpieces of my Star Wars collection for a time alongside the UCS TIE Interceptor. But unlike the TIE Interceptor, these minifigure collections definitely lost a lot of their luster as the years and sets rolled on.
You see, what's not visible from the scan is that the boxes were designed to hang on store pegs, and on the hanging cardboard backing was the message "Contains 1 Unique Minifigure". That was the big draw for these in 2000. Aside from the one with Chewbacca (who was released that same year in the first Millennium Falcon set), each of these Star Wars minifigure packs contained a novel figure. For this one, Emperor Palpatine was the unique one. In the Battle Droid one, it was the Battle Droid Commander (OOM-9 if you'd like). In the Luke Skywalker, it was brown-pants Han Solo, though the Jedi Knight Luke with a hood was a novel redesign of the character, so you almost got two unique figures.
But as we all know, their uniqueness was not to last. An identical Emperor Palpatine was released in 2001 with the first Imperial Shuttle. Battle Droid Commanders are a dime a dozen these days after the big Clone Wars releases. And Luke Skywalker in his yellow-skin form became very prevalent by 2002. I think that Han Solo with the brown pants and yellow skin is still rare. I'm not pulling up Brickset's archive right now to verify.
Anyway, they collected dust on their neat little stands with "Star Wars" etched into them for years until my family moved. I disassembled them easily and they are still in their original boxes to this day.
I like the face print of this Darth Maul. New ones look too cartoonish.
$5 for 3 awesome SW minifigs of these famous villains!
What a deal!
And this was only 20 years ago, we aren’t talking about the 1970’s.
Inflation / Disney Tax is a bitch!
Battle pack, battle pack, BATTLE PACK! Oh wait, they're all named characters, none of them are any good for army building. Boo!
/s
@LegoDavid said:
"Ok, so from my understanding, LEGO's license agreement prevents them from releasing sets that count as "Action Figures" because Hasbro own the rights of producing Star Wars themed action figures. But, in 2015, LEGO released the Star Wars buildable figures line (for example, sets like 75111 or 75112) , which lasted for three years, and they didn't seem to get into any trouble for it. Unlike the minifigures, whose status as action figures is debatable, those sets were 100% action figures, and Hasbro took no issue with their release.
With that in mind, I seriously have to question whether there ever was a contract preventing LEGO to release "Star Wars action figures" to begin with. "
It would really depend on the agreements and what it defines an action figure to be. There are Star Wars figures which require enough assembly they are classified as model kits rather than action figures. It may be the amount of assembly required for the LEGO buildable figures was enough that it did not infringe on Hasbro's agreement, whilst the assembly required for a mini-figure did.
Or perhaps LEGO didn't want to become involved in a potentially protracted and expensive legal battle over something they didn't need to sell.
What Sith? What Sith!
Force lightning in the air!
What Sith!
Kenobi’s going spare!
What Sith!
Their sabres are all red and he’s got horns atop his head, “unlimited power!” has been said, what Sith!
I have fond memories of this set. I picked it up along with the other ones while my wife and I were on honeymoon in Brussels, back in 2002. We found them on a shelf in a comic book store, and grabbed them for just a handful of Euros. They cost a bit more now, but I'm never selling them.
@Formendacil said:
"The build here is frankly... umm, there is no build. (And, why? Isn't the whole deal with why we can't have Collectible Star Wars minifigs something to do with not having a licence for something that broaches into action figure land? Was that different in 2000 A.D.?)
I have a disproportionate love of this set, though, for giving me my first Darth Vader and my first Sidious/Palpatine. Looking back, though, the character I remember it best for is Darth Ogel, which is what you get when you take either a spare Darth Maul or a spare Sidious and swap heads with your spare Ogel and vice versa. The was no Rule of Two in my LEGO childhood."
Holy crap i thought I was the only one, that did this. I actually didn't know who Darth Maul was back then, but I got this huge bag of used Lego and it had a disassembled Ogel and Maul figure. So I legitimately thought the Maul head belonged on Ogel. Found out a year later, after my dad showed me peeron, that this wasn't the case.
@oldfan said:
"Frankly, I'm amazed they were able to offer things like 40300 and 40176 years later, too; maybe the action figure license was modified by then?"
I would guess that's why those figures include a fairly complex display stand.
In addition, it might help that minifig polybags that they're usually free giveaways.
@Lego_Lord_Mayorca said:
"I'm the reverse situation of the person above me: I never got the Chewbacca and Scout Troopers collection nor this one, the Sith Lords. On a trip to LEGOLAND California for Christmas 2000, I got the Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Boba Fett collection as well as the Battle Droid collection.
...
Anyway, they collected dust on their neat little stands with "Star Wars" etched into them for years until my family moved. I disassembled them easily and they are still in their original boxes to this day."
:1
Should have never said what they were worth, I could've bought them off you...
These minifigure packs are CLASSIC.
And I had this one! Still do, in fact, for the most part, and 3341 as well... though I regrettably got rid of their display cards when I was a kid, and they're uncomfortably expensive to replace these days. These sets only saw a limited release, if I recall rightly - here in the UK, at least, they were only available from Legoland Windsor, the Bluewater Lego Store, Lego Shop @ Home, or as a prize for getting your model photo featured in the UK Lego Adventures magazine - which doesn't help my case: I've been checking Bricklink occasionally, but don't much want to spend something like £15 each for a few pieces of card.
They were practically my first Star Wars minifigures I got, though - after only the cast of 7121 - and the actual first ones I got in the context of having seen the movies. So they hold a special place for me, even if they're just not that unique anymore otherwise.
Could definitely go for more packs like these (especially at that price!) nowadays!
-
On the action figures subject: I think I read in the book Star Wars Year By Year: A Visual History that it was something like 2002 when Hasbro's contract with Lucasfilm changed to give them exclusive rights to make Star Wars action figures; I feel like Episode II was the first movie for which that was put into effect. So these were able to squeak by without being affected by it, but would explain why we never got any more.
As to the other examples... like others have said, I think the constraction figures got away with it because their emphasis was still on being building toys rather than single (more or less) piece figures. And by the recent individual minifigures... I half suspect that Hasbro just *doesn't care enough* anymore. I notice, after all, that they didn't seem to make a single action figure for Rise of Skywalker when it was released, and I haven't seen anything new on the Star Wars figure racks in local toy shops since then - though plenty of The Last Jedi figures are still hanging around! I think Hasbro might just have got Star Wars fatigue, and simply have given up trying.
@CliveyB said:
"I have fond memories of this set. I picked it up along with the other ones while my wife and I were on honeymoon in Brussels, back in 2002. We found them on a shelf in a comic book store, and grabbed them for just a handful of Euros. They cost a bit more now, but I'm never selling them."
I don’t know which part of the story is better: the fact you got them fairly cheap or the fact that you got them on your honeymoon with what sounds like the full support of your new bride. AmIriteguys?
@Formendacil:
@oldfan:
@SinKiller_Nick:
@MrBob:
I’ve heard this claim for years, though it’s usually targeted at the magnet minifigs. And I’ve heard it’s not true. What I haven’t heard is what _is_ true.
@LegoDavid:
I can see arguing that minifigs count as action figures because you can easily assemble them from just a single photo, and many action figures have removable accessories that require more assembly than the average minifig. Polybag minifigs are also not a violation of this supposed rule because (excluding CMFs) they don’t ever sell them. They’re always GWPs or pack-in exclusives. Lots of things stop being against the rules the instant you shift from selling something to giving it away.
@Lego_Lord_Mayorca:
One possibility that I’ve heard thrown around on rare occasion, but never officially confirmed, ties directly into that observation. We’ve known for years that minifigs drive sales of sets because we have bought sets for years just to obtain specific minifigs. LEGO Marketing was a bit slower to pick up on this, and before they learned that packing a single exclusive minifig in each set can drive sales of those sets, they probably had to learn that ownership of a minifig could also make you less inclined to buy a set that includes that minifig. These minifig 3-packs and the magnet packs made a lot of minifigs easily obtainable without buying the large sets that some of them were otherwise exclusive to. If they saw that Product A was seeing brisk sales at $5, while Product B had sales plunge at $100 right around the same time, it’s reasonable to assume a correlation.
@ThatBionicleGuy:
Keeping in mind that Ep1 ended up becoming both the most (more total product sold) and least (more warehouses clogged with unsold product after the dust settled) successful merchandising campaign of all time, I think Hasbro has had to make significant shifts in their marketing strategy. I do see new product show up periodically, but it’s mostly OT and Rogue One stuff, with a dash of The Forced Remake and Solo. And the only really new stuff is, of course, from The Mandalorian. It’s not that Hasbro has gotten “Star Wars fatigue”, but that the audience has woken up to the fact that Disney cranked out a trilogy that could best be described as “stink, stank, stunk”.
@Slithus_Venom said:
"One day we'll get a Star Wars CMF series :'("
not with hasbro in the way.
I have this (and 3341 3342 & 3343)
And love them so much I’ve bought several hundred of the display stands over the years, to display my SW minifigs on.