Review: 75345 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack

The cannon justifies the cost a bit.

"The success of 75280 501st Legion Clone Troopers doubtless influenced this decision, but providing another memorable unit, such as the Coruscant Guard or 327th Star Corps, would arguably have been even better."

I agree here, I already got a couple of 501st Legion sets so i'm good on those troops and since these are more speciality troops I'll likely only get a couple. If they had done a different legion then I would be buying far more than the 2-3 I'll be grabbing of this.

Will you review 75337 AT-TE?

I love battle packs and wish a couple other themes used them. You get four minifigures and some extra elements for your collection. (I haven't built the model for battle packs since 2011 when I felt like I had enough speeder bikes to last me.) Definitely getting this!

@MCLegoboy said:
"I'm not a video game guy, so I never played Battlefront, but these guys do look pretty great, and even the cannon looks fantastic. That price is a bit of a killer though. $20 is a bit too high, $15 feels about right. My main interest though are the macrobinoculars. If you get an extra in the set, then my custom Phase 1 Bly (I just swapped the arms and legs for yellow and gave him a black pouldron and kama) I made years ago for the 2011 Turbo Tank can finally have the proper headwear. Currently it's just a black visor flipped up, but if I could get the macrobinoculars, that'd be great."

You get 1 extra of macrobinoculars in the set. It's a part of the rangefinder/visor pack.

Looks great, a nice complement for 75280. I'll buy 2. Loved the fact that they are inspired in BF2. Makes me want to play the game again!

BringBackFabricKamas
It's a shame LEGO seems to have abandoned them. At first, I thought it was just.a one off in the Bad Batch Shuttle to allow Echo to sit more easily, but now the 187th Commander and 501st Officer figures lack them, as well as Rex in Skywalker Saga.
Better buy a bunch of the nice fabric ones on Bricklink before their price skyrockets.

I get the "inconsistences" BUT first and foremost this is a kids toy , and are they going to care, I seriously doubt it :)

I just wanna say, how this early?

An alternate model for the cannon would be nice, you know, for people who buy more than one of these.

So we have Cody, now 501st, but no Rex!?

Definetly getting two of this set!

Gotta say, while I’m familiar with the cannon, it just seems like a boring build. Yes, I’m grateful it’s not another speeder, but I really wish we got something more interesting or even more substantial, certainly the price of the set would justify a more substantial build.

I’m sure I’ll get it, but the last 501st battle pack was constantly being discounted so I imagine this one will as well. Only way I’d buy it full price is if I need to add something small to my cart to get the May the 4th GWP.

@alfred_the_buttler said:
"Gotta say, while I’m familiar with the cannon, it just seems like a boring build. Yes, I’m grateful it’s not another speeder, but I really wish we got something more interesting or even more substantial, certainly the price of the set would justify a more substantial build.

I’m sure I’ll get it, but the last 501st battle pack was constantly being discounted so I imagine this one will as well. Only way I’d buy it full price is if I need to add something small to my cart to get the May the 4th GWP. "

It would be great if the build was separatist. Like droidekas, spider droids, crab droids, etc... It's a shame we only had one battlepack that did that.

Still disappointed that the original battle pack was barely available in Australia. Now they release a bunch of specialist that will be available while we couldn't build an army of normal troops. Lego Australia don't make any sense a lot of the time.

I never played the video game on which these are based, I am curious about this "AV-7 Antivehicle Cannon", is it similar to a walker? Or is it deployed by some other vehicle and then just stands still where dropped, with the legs being not much more than shock absorbers and helping to aid targets?!?
The minifigs look very nice, but as others mentioned cloth kama's would have been nicer, or printing on the side and back, or duo-molding on the legs instead.

I don't collect alot of these figures but can someone tell me why Lego lowered the spot to attach the range finder on the box art? Like why would they bother to do this? Silly. Did they think that'd appeal to the 501st collectors.

I assume this is based on the 2017 Battlefront II, because it has nothing to do with the original Battlefront II that I associate with the name. Which makes it a really odd choice for the supposed 20th anniversary celebration of the CWMMP.

Bring back kamas as an actual part.

rangefinder isn't rlly a problem but it feels intentional esp. since it recurs three time across the box. wouldn't be a surprise!

Let’s hope this one is actually available in Australia. Scalpers snapped up every last 75280 and LEGO refused to ship any to our retail stores after 2021. Meanwhile it was perpetually on discount overseas because of oversupply. Surely they’ve learned their lesson.

@MarkingX said:
" @Judgeguy said:
"we also had enough opportunity to amass generic 501st troops with the last battle pack (or whatever you want to call it)."

I never once saw it in stores and was always out of stock through to retirement on LEGO website."

I went to 3 different stores locally looking for the new pack on Wednesday and all had plenty of the old one. If you want some, I’m happy to grab them and ship.

Rather than another specific legion, I think unmarked plain white P2 troopers are what we need.

@R1_Drift said:
" @Judgeguy said:
"I don't get what all the uproar surrounding the holes in the helmet is about."

The uproar is the fact that there are faux helmet holes in the original mold, so when LEGO needed holes for the new commander cody, instead of remolding it so the holes are raised to fit the accessories, they drilled holes above the faux holes.

tldr lego way lazy and people are mad"

Thing is, the Cody visor is mounted above the circle detailing on the helmet in the movies. Only rangefinder and binoculars are mounted unto the circle detailing and even then the binoculars have their struts coming from atop the circle, not just straight on top of the circles. If Lego had just taken the old part and drilled holes into where people think they should go the visors would sit lower and look just as strange as the rangefinder does now, partly covering the helmets eyeholes. Slightly moving the circle indents closer to the top would have still made the mold less accurate to the original part and movie detailing, though arguably what Lego should have considered back in 2011 when the part was designed.

The situation would have always ended badly after 2012 when the decision was made to ignore accessory holes and their future incorporation entirely, unless Lego would have started producing 3 versions of this helmet: No Holes, One Hole, Two Holes, which is what people who care wanted anyway.
One consideration of the helmet with two holes being added to the parts library has also been that the part could be used on clones that need it, not that it would entirely replace the 2012 Phase 2 Clone helmet mold as is apparently the case now. With the new part as it is now already breaking consistency with the previous mold they might as well have changed the circle detailing to be slightly raised up or flat out redesigned everything from the ground up like the much maligned Double Molded Stormtrooper helmet. The only reason why we wanted a helmet with two holes drilled in and nothing more was for consistency which is broken with any figure that has the helmet with holes but doesn't use any accessories, like the regular 212 clones in the AT-TE with their unsightly double circles changing the look of the piece from any angle.

@AgentKallus said:
"Rather than another specific legion, I think unmarked plain white P2 troopers are what we need."

If this were the Lego of 2008-2016 we would not lack these glaring omissions:
Phase 2 Shiny & black Elite Squad Troopers
TK Troopers & Shiny Republic Commandos
Imperial Remnant Stormtroopers with Scout Trooper and white Speederbike
Finally another Battle Droid / Super Battle Droid / Droideka pack

But of course the Battlepack line has been bled out in favor of... I don't know. I don't see any uptake in products that replace my want for Battlepacks. Less regular sets, same amount of large and expensive sets, just brickbuilt helmets have been added which are a garbage fad like Technic figures, Hero Factory style figures and mini models before.

[[I don't get what all the uproar surrounding the holes in the helmet is about.]]

The situation would have always ended badly after 2012 when the decision was made to ignore accessory holes and their future incorporation entirely, unless Lego would have started producing 3 versions of this helmet: No Holes, One Hole, Two Holes, which is what people who care wanted anyway.
One consideration of the helmet with two holes being added to the parts library has also been that the part could be used on clones that need it, not that it would entirely replace the 2012 Phase 2 Clone helmet mold as is apparently the case now. With the new part as it is now already breaking consistency with the previous mold they might as well have changed the circle detailing to be slightly raised up or flat out redesigned everything from the ground up like the much maligned Double Molded Stormtrooper helmet. The only reason why we wanted a helmet with two holes drilled in and nothing more was for consistency which is broken with any figure that has the helmet with holes but doesn't use any accessories, like the regular 212 clones in the AT-TE with their unsightly double circles changing the look of the piece from any angle.]]

Yes, a better solution would be for Lego to produce both the 2013 Phase 2 helmet without holes and the 2022 with the holes and give them to troopers that need whatever specific version. The 212th troopers should've used the helmets with no holes, and the specialists in this pack, Cody and a future Rex should've used the one with holes. But that would mean having two kinds of helmets in production at once which the modern Lego Company obviously cannot allow because it costs more money.]]

Personally I think this review goes a little too easy on the flaws of this set.

For one, I don't understand the lack of kamas. I find it stupid on Lego's part to phase out fabric kamas in favor of printing in the form of little strips on the sides of the front of the legs. It looks absymal without side leg printing.

For the heavy troopers, Lego already has the perfect part in dual molded white/blue legs. They only needed to add some printing to complete it. The white 1x1 printed tile looks great but as backpacks they look a little on the small side and needed more bulk.

The new macrobinocular attachment looks great but is ruined for me by the lack of any printing, as some reviewers have said, looks like a preliminary piece. Even if they didn't want to print the offset vertical blue stripe, they should have at least done the black horizontally down the middle.

And the blatant false advertisement on the box art with the 501st officer's helmet is a wack move on Lego's part.

Lastly, in terms of minifigures, I think the helmet attachment pack need a redesign that Lego could definitely have done when they introduced the Phase II Commander Cody minifigure with 75337 earlier this year. After all, the pack was introduced in 2008 and the sun visor's shape doesn't hold up too well beyond the veil of nostalgia if you compare the shape of it to the actual attachment in-universe. While they update the attachment pack they should go ahead an update the B1 Battle Droid designs as well.

I like that for the build of this battlepack, they tried to give us something accurate to canon, that's the AV-7 anti-vehicle cannon, but I think they could have worked on the proportions. The bulk behind the barrel is too tall and square compared to the in-universe cannon, and the lack of controls is disappointing. Overall, the build is barely recognisable, and personally I wouldn't have known it was an AV-7 if it wasn't in the product description.

I'm definitely picking one up on release to boost my small clone trooper army a little, but unless I find any others on severe discount, I doubt I'd pick up more than one.

Hot take: I never really liked the fabric kamas. We've left most if not all of ours off (of minifigures!) over the years, so as to better achieve consistency across the figs and also so they can sit in vehicles, etc. I'm totally fine with _having_ fabric kamas, since I can choose not to use them (as noted above), but I won't be missing them.

Also: Bring back the classic plastic Castle capes.

@ForestMenOfEndor said:
"Hot take: I never really liked the fabric kamas. We've left most if not all of ours off (of minifigures!) over the years, so as to better achieve consistency across the figs and also so they can sit in vehicles, etc. I'm totally fine with _having_ fabric kamas, since I can choose not to use them (as noted above), but I won't be missing them."

I agree. I don't mind the lack of kamas. I didn't even love them when I was a kid. I preferred the plastic armor. I hate the weird printing on the legs though, and I know my feelings would be the same as a kid. I'm curious what other kids think of the printing. Do they actually care?

Lego was really good at battle packs early in the first few waves with the battle packs but they have gotten progressively worse with the clone and Jedi, bounty hunters, and sith troopers battle packs. even though the 501st legion clone troopers set isn't technically a battle pack it is still so much better than all of those. and this is also really good I wouldn't say it is a step up from the of but lego is going in the right direction with this. I'll definitely be picking one of these up.

@acotterell017 said:
"Lego was really good at battle packs early in the first few waves with the battle packs but they have gotten progressively worse with the clone and Jedi, bounty hunters, and sith troopers battle packs. even though the 501st legion clone troopers set isn't technically a battle pack it is still so much better than all of those. and this is also really good I wouldn't say it is a step up from the of but lego is going in the right direction with this. I'll definitely be picking one of these up."

Agreed that the bounty hunter one wasn’t a proper army building battle pack, but it was a great way to get those characters (plus the speeder wasn’t bad!).

@ForestMenOfEndor said:
" @acotterell017 said:
"Lego was really good at battle packs early in the first few waves with the battle packs but they have gotten progressively worse with the clone and Jedi, bounty hunters, and sith troopers battle packs. even though the 501st legion clone troopers set isn't technically a battle pack it is still so much better than all of those. and this is also really good I wouldn't say it is a step up from the of but lego is going in the right direction with this. I'll definitely be picking one of these up."

Agreed that the bounty hunter one wasn’t a proper army building battle pack, but it was a great way to get those characters (plus the speeder wasn’t bad!)."
I agree. There really is a place for both army-building and roster-expanding battle packs / minifigure packs in the Star Wars line. But I'm guessing it makes more sense business-wise to slot the desirable characters in expensive sets.

@123MrBrick said:
"I assume this is based on the 2017 Battlefront II, because it has nothing to do with the original Battlefront II that I associate with the name. Which makes it a really odd choice for the supposed 20th anniversary celebration of the CWMMP.

Bring back kamas as an actual part."

I've seen images of the box, which this review withholds, but that "20th Anniversary Clone Wars" logo does indeed reference the 20th anniversary of the original Clone Wars Multimedia Project? I've yet to see any official report on that. I would be excited to learn if there is more to it as far as LEGO goes, because there are SPECTACULAR possibilities that could come out of this. In 2003, not only did the Clone Wars rage across the Genndy Tartakovsky cartoon of the same name, but also across novels and comic books. Back in 2016, one of the product designers on the Star Wars team told me they had done sketches for possible sets based on Durge's IG lancer droids and speederbikes (this was in response to my compliments on the release of Anakin's Azure Angel with Asajj Ventress back in 2015). I hope this means these sketches see product development into some truly long-awaited sets!

@CapnRex101 said:
" @Torrent_Studios said:
"Personally I think this review goes a little too easy on the flaws of this set.

For one, I don't understand the lack of kamas. I find it stupid on Lego's part to phase out fabric kamas in favor of printing in the form of little strips on the sides of the front of the legs. It looks absymal without side leg printing.

For the heavy troopers, Lego already has the perfect part in dual molded white/blue legs. They only needed to add some printing to complete it. The white 1x1 printed tile looks great but as backpacks they look a little on the small side and needed more bulk.

The new macrobinocular attachment looks great but is ruined for me by the lack of any printing, as some reviewers have said, looks like a preliminary piece. Even if they didn't want to print the offset vertical blue stripe, they should have at least done the black horizontally down the middle.

And the blatant false advertisement on the box art with the 501st officer's helmet is a wack move on Lego's part.

Lastly, I think the helmet attachment pack need a redesign that Lego could definitely have done when they introduced the Phase II Commander Cody minifigure with 75337 earlier this year. After all, the pack was introduced in 2008 and the sun visor's shape doesn't hold up too well beyond the veil of nostalgia if you compare the shape of it to the actual attachment in-universe. While they update the attachment pack they should go ahead an update the B1 Battle Droid designs as well."

I think I mentioned all those issues in the review, other than the backpacks and updating the visor element. Personally, I find the proportions of the backpacks reasonable and replacing the accessory pack seems like more of a nice-to-have than a necessity. Practically speaking, there are many other potential new elements to prioritise.

With regard to the misplaced rangefinder on the packaging, I am inclined to think that was a simple mistake, rather than an attempt to mislead. Nevertheless, it should have been spotted and must be corrected for subsequent production runs. LEGO has been notified."

I hope LEGO does something about it in future runs. To me and a lot of others, it does seem like an attempt to mislead, but I will choose to give LEGO the benefit of the doubt this time around. They are still my favourite company at the end of the day and I like their products.

About the accessory pack, I think that the introduction of Commander Cody in 75337 provided the perfect opportunity to redesign the attachments to fit the previous clone trooper helmet, rather than redesigning the helmet because that creates inconsistencies in army building. I can't recall a single visor in-universe that looks like LEGO's element, and I think redesigning the visor as well as the rangefinder would be beneficial in the long run.

Thank you for taking the time to respond, though. Great review as always! When can we expect a review for the new T.I.E. Bomber?

@TheBigLegoski said:
"I never played the video game on which these are based, I am curious about this "AV-7 Antivehicle Cannon", is it similar to a walker? Or is it deployed by some other vehicle and then just stands still where dropped, with the legs being not much more than shock absorbers and helping to aid targets?!?
The minifigs look very nice, but as others mentioned cloth kama's would have been nicer, or printing on the side and back, or duo-molding on the legs instead."

It's not in the videogame actually, but it does appear in the 3D animated CW. I don't think we actually see it move, it just kind of appears when needed.