Ever since I was a wee lad I desired this vehicle badly and my wish was never granted as my parents never possessed sufficient funds to buy me any version of this fan-favourite Walker. Now as an adult I got extremely excited when the AT-AT was announced for I knew I would be able to make the purchase. And I knew this set is going to be a good one. I could see my problems with it immediately and what I would eventually like as well, so the set itself did not bring too many surprises. Anyway let's dive into the review and see if it is worth the money.

PRICE

I must say I did expect this set to include a Rebel Snow Speeder when the price was clear earlier this February, but I was pretty shocked to see the AT-AT alone. Later I got used to the price and since the set contains 1267 pieces for $160 I do not find it that bad. It is around the same value as the forthcoming and already beloved 75929 Razor Crest. The vehicle is obviously pretty substantial and there is a lot of improvement over the last iteration and as such I take this set as somewhat alright priced. It is an expensive set, but there are far worse in this wave alone.

MINIFIGS

The minifig selection I find to be the most lacking part of the set. The minifigs are gorgeous to the last, but there is just not enough given the price. I think two more Snowtroopers would work far better and the set would give a much richer vibe. I know it is just two minifigs, but trust me, the smallest adjustments can do a lot! None of the minifigs have an arm printing.

• Luke Skywalker. The only real improvement I see at this point is an arm printing which is not present here as the print on torso, the back and the legs is astonishingly detailed and well done. Not even the orange of the body bleeds through the white vest too noticeably in this case. Maybe at the back it does a little. Luke has two face prints as usual. The first one is a mild smile with a visor down and the second is excited with the visor up. The Rebel helmet is as detailed as it gets. Skywalker has his father's blue lightsaber which blade is not frosted in my version and two thermal detonators.
• General Maximilian Veers. One of more capable Imperial high ranking officials, considering he does never get chocked by Vader, comes with rather plane torso and back print, but sufficient as it captures his battle armour pretty accurately. There is no leg printing surprisingly which could be a further improvement in the future. There is an excited facial expression and one mildly concerned. Both do not capture general too well as they show him to be little too old, which is a minor discrepancy. Anyway, the microphone is present in both cases and the helmet is in sand blue colour with no other print beside the goggles. Veers does not come with any weaponry beside his binoculars. Pro-tips and tricks time! If you want to be able to put the binoculars right in front of his eyes, you need to turn the holding hand around and adjust the head a wee bit.
• AT-AT Driver. My boy did Lego step up their game this time. Not only both drivers do have a different face, but they also have different faces to the two Snowtroopers. So no more angry clone faces here! The print feels very well finished and detailed enough. There are some panels at the chest to further the detail game here. Funnily enough one of my pilots does have a print where the middle stripe is going down his knickers at the belly lines up with the print on the waist while the other does not. The helmet is a standard pilot mold with new printing which I find excellent. The only drawback to this mold is the revealed back of the head. Both drivers are armed with small blaster pistols.
• Snowtrooper. Nothing has changed since 2019 with these guys except for the head faces which are not new and were used in previous sets but not in case of Imperial Troopers. The print is pretty well lined up all throughout the torso, waist and the legs. The panels with all the buttons at the back and the front are amongst the finest details and the helmet mold I find perfect. Please, do not change the helmet mold here.I do not know why Lego stopped using the fabric around the legs and the bags for the Snowtroopers, but they did and I find the choice of getting rid of the bags pretty dumb. Their absence is my only real criticism towards the minifig selection in this set. The missing fabric does not pain me since the print is enough of a compensation.

By the way, the use of Luke Skywalker is inaccurate here, since this is NOT the AT-AT he blows up in the picture. General Veers makes it out alive while Luke bombs a different one. This is just a fun fact, and I am not mad at Lego for including both of these characters here at all.

BUILD

E-web heavy repeating blaster canon lacks the small connectable battery station here but I do not mind as the build is pretty sleek and I like it this way better. I am not even sure if this is supposed to be said weapon, but it looks nice and minifig can stand right behind it and hold it without any issue.

The Imperial Snow Speeder bike is in its newest rendition here and shows some surprisingly advanced building techniques for such a small build. The handlebars can not only move horizontally e.g. forward and backward, but since they are attached to a joint, the can move in their base forward, creating sort of a circular rotation if you were to look at the Speeder from the top. A single minifig can sit in the Speeder Bike while holding onto the handlebars. Speaking of which they present the only downside somewhat as removing a minifig holding them might rip them from the Bike.

The main build is a magnificent one, and I am more than confident that this is the best AT-AT produced by Lego to this day. It has the most play features, it has solved the previous issues, is the most accurate model and is built with the best building techniques yet.

There are basically no part falling from the build upon a slight touch and the Walker is pretty sturdy. You can move it around while holding the body, head or even a leg and the build should stay together. If you play with the model recklessly, some panels might get unattached, but that is usually an easy fix. Most of the panels are held by smooth joints to provide a seamless movement. The only panel connected by hinges is the backdoor for the Speeder. The Speeder can get stored in the walker easily since there is a compartment. It does not prevent any minifigs being placed inside. There are railways so that the Speeder is securely held in there. The main area of the body can be accessed from both sides by lifting the large middle side panels. Those are attached by technic rods and because of that they can be moved in a surprisingly large angle and a lot of positions. Inside, there are five seats in a sand blue colour, but there is space for much more troops. On the right side, there is a compartment next to the seats for the E-web Cannon. Right above the neck is the last openable panel which hides a gear for the cable under the belly of the AT-AT. The cable is attached to a blaster pistol which can Luke hold onto while getting lifted towards a little openable hatch on the belly of the Walker where he can throw a thermal detonator.

The neck is surrounded by three large Technic steering wheels. There is a rubber part in the connection of the neck to the body so whenever you move the neck, it will always return to the middle position. As for the head, it can move freely in a roughly 60-degree angle. The head then stays in the position unlike the neck. The head is armed with two side cannons with a full rotation and two smaller cannons under the chin. Those smaller cannons can be plucked off if you push them too hard, so be careful. Right next to those the head holds two spring-loaded shooters. In order to utilise the shooting mechanism, you need to manually press the missiles from the bottom of the head. There is no brick build shooting mechanism incorporated in this model. What is a yet another huge improvement over any previous model is the space in the cockpit which get revealed after opening the hatch that can be moved in various positions since it is connected with Technic rods. The cockpit can house up to three minifigs but not with an absolute easy. Understandably it is quite a tight fit, so you better place the minifig at the back first, and then proceed to seat the drivers without any weapons in hands. The inside is detailed with printed control panel pieces. The face of the head is attached by a hinge and can be move forward slightly.

The legs are articulable quite a lot. You can move them forward in their upper joint and backwards as well. The knee joints allow for a similar movement and the feet can be moved forward and backward but not to the sides. Thanks to this large possibility of movement, the Walker can stand in various positions, but you have to keep the balance in mind as standing on three legs is not a possibility. Also, if you put the front legs too forward, they might slight pretty quickly making the beast crash with its face down. The sturdy build can usually take it though. The armour plates on the legs are connected by little Technic pins which does not sound as the sturdiest connection, but it works just fine.

Overall the building experience was a ton of fun, but it took a little while to assemble as there were some redundant and pretty tedious parts, namely legs. Besides that the instruction were very clear and the model easy to build except for the rope part which was painfully dreadful. There are no stickers used during the build which is a great thing for someone with shaky hands like me. There are no special pieces beside the minifig unique parts I think, but there are some parts which I have never seen in this colour variant.

PLAYABILITY

This is probably the strongest suit of the whole set. Six minifigs from both confronting sides of the conflict are a good start for a battle play. The AT-AT can walk around, has a ton of openable hatches and panels. Furthermore, it provides additional small build to make the experience even better. The spring-loaded shooters are expected nowadays with most of the current models, but they still provide nice play value. The cable gun think at the bottom of the Walker can lift-up a minifig easily. It is clear to say that the playability here is absolutely perfect and any kid can spend a lot of time with this set.

CONCLUSION

Now the important question. Is this a perfect and special set deserving a five-star rating? Obviously the building techniques have evolved, and they are spectacular, but the play features and the accuracy of the build is not guaranteed by the modern times and experience and there are still some inaccurate and useless sets. The minifig selection has a lot of going for it, but the lack of a leg print on one minifig, no bags carried by the Snowtroopers and lack of them are valid drawbacks. The playability is fantastic and the set can be utilised as a gorgeous display piece too. But the demerits of the minifigs are not as significant and the designer team really tried to do their best with the model and it shows, so for me, it is a five out of five.

Should you buy this set? Definitely! If you do not own any previous AT-AT and want one, this is your time. And even if you collections contains any of the Walkers of the past, this is still a major improvement especially for a collector. This model will look wee bit strange next to the others, but as a standalone AT-AT I think it is the best by far. The price is somewhat steep, but it is no Sith Tie Fighter thankfully.

Overall a great set and my favourite of the whole wave, good job Lego.