Ignoring the theme of this set for a moment, it represents pretty much exactly what a perfect battle pack would look like in my opinion.

We have 3 identical troopers to build your army AND we get a scout trooper to add variety while still being an army buildable trooper. Great!

The Speeder build is solid in detail and scale and will greatly add to your army (rather than some non-canon random turret or something)

The E-Web blaster cannon is great, both in its design and just for existing. Children will get a lot of play out of something like that.

The snow bank cover piece is just the icing on the very icy cake.

The only flaws you could point out with the set is perhaps the printed waist capes on the snow troopers and the lack of backpacks. However, I think that taking the sets context into account does make this make sense. It's a set designed to help you fill out the seats of the UCS AT-AT and the play scale AT-AT, and figures cannot sit with backpacks or capes on. So it's understandable, and I doubt children who wanted it for play will really care.

Now perhaps snow troopers and the battle of Hoth isn't a theme that everyone will love but for those that like snow troopers, this set should be perfect.

High quality figures, little wasted potential value, packed with play pieces and a good value. More battle packs like this please!

A battle pack is an army builder set. That's why it exists. Whether you're a kid with $20 looking to have more troops to fill your battles or an adult with $200 looking to fill a baseplate, a battle pack is what you need.

This battle pack is almost perfect as battle packs go. You get a reasonable little speeder build which genuinely adds to your forces (rather than being some ultra-micro-scale version of a gunship or something) You also get 3 generic troopers to pad your army. These troopers are of fantastic quality, although helmet holes may be a problem for some (mostly large youtubers trying to generate outrage content about plastic toys)

You also get Captain Vaughn. For a child Vaughn won't be an issue at all, he's just a clone trooper. For us AFOLs who are burdened by knowledge and know that he's a named character he's a slight annoyance. Made especially annoying if you know that the 332nd Company only had one captain because companies only have the one captain.

Still, 3 generic troopers are still better than what we've had in the past and provides some of the better relative value as far as battle packs go.

The added value of the orange accessories pack, the two blue jet packs and the stud shooter cannon add an often unmentioned bonus for customisation and playability for kids.

Aside from Captain Vaughns existence i'd say the only true flaw in the set is not IN the set at all. These troopers featured in the Siege of Mandalore (exclusively) and we have no Death Watch related sets available at the same time. Not a slight on THIS set but definitely something to note if that matters to you.

Overall, it's a solid battle pack set with great little bonuses and very few flaws.

A set with three 501st Troopers and one 501st Jet Trooper? What's not to like?

Well ideally it should have just been a standard priced battle pack. The world would have kept spinning if this set was standard battle pack price without the battle droids and one of the side builds adding on artificial value.

The AT-RT is oversized and the battle droids are essentially worthless and they both seem tacked on to increase the amount of money army builders would have to pay to amass their army. Essentially doubling the cost of each clone trooper for army builders.

It's actually a very impressive way to get more money from a set while technically adding more value at a glance. And considering how many people went out and bought 100 of these. That was a smart business decision on lego's part. For the rest of us though, it's just a very expensive battle pack.

That small issue aside. The figures are high quality, and were HIGHLY requested at the time. The BARC Speeder build is great if a little oversized, Lego AT-RTs do seem to still be excessively large as well.

That said the figures carry the set and I have bought several of these, and went on to buy several of the figures loose.

The 2022 AT-TE is a fantastic Lego Star Wars set. From the display value, to the playability for kids. This set is simply one of the all-time greatest. By far the best AT-TE we've had so far (as of 2023)

Let's start with the positives:

The AT-TE has great value for money. Coming in at £120 retail at 1082 pieces and 9 mini figs. PPC isn't everything but at 11p per piece it's not the worst PPC. I think the 9 mini figures is the stand-out here though. Compare this to the £150 Justifier (2022) which came with only 4, and you can see that the AT-TE brings an unusually generous amount of figures for its price.

Waiting for a sale you can usually find it at between £80-£90 which makes this one of the best bang for your buck sets of the year.

I personally bought 2 of them for a combined cost of £190. I'd buy more, but I simply don't have the space. Besides, there'll be more AT-TEs in my lifetime (hopefully)

The figure selection is pretty good.
Featuring the much demanded Commander Cody figure who is executed very, very well. One could argue he may need arm printing and a physical jetpack piece but the one we got certainly doesn't miss much. Even down to the grey abdomen.

The clone gunner is a nice figure even if it is the Republic equivalent of getting a Tie Pilot.

The battle droids remain the same as ever.

The Spider Droid is a reasonably good design though it lacks any notable evolution since it's last iteration. This is more difficult to ignore with this as the battle droids simply have always been and always will be what they are. As a matter of being simply "iconic." Buuuuut the spider droid doesn't have such a shield. Nonetheless, it is a good figure.

The 212th Troopers are good in my opinion. The helmet misprinting is certainly an annoying detail on close inspection, although I'm not entirely sure if I'd have noticed had I not had it pointed out to me. Getting 3 of them is solid value.

The build itself is 99% perfect. I made a small modification inside the turret to allow my troopers to get stuck in there, thus making it easier to move them around my displays without the figures falling out. However, for a child the flat surface inside the turret likely makes fishing out your trooper a lot easier, so I can see why that's there, and it's an easy fix for those of us who like our troopers a little more secured in position.

The exterior is outstanding, looking perfect to my eyes. It's simply a joy to look at

The interior is also great, especially for kids. You have room to cram many troopers in there which I remember being one of my desired features as a kid. I know I wasn't the only kid who liked a good troop transport and I doubt that desire died with me. So that interior will be a great play feature for some kids. Along with the 7 cannons on this thing.

And importantly, it does not compromise the exterior look at all.

The play handle is also great for moving the build around if needed, and it isn't too intrusive on the back of the build.

The driver's cabin can be fiddly, but it's a solid solution to letting us put figures inside without an intrusive hatch piece or something.

The builds' sturdiness is also one of the best I've seen in a lego set. Very few loose pieces, just watch out for those ankle wheel things. They might slip away unnoticed.

Now onto some negatives.

Yes, the trooper helmet print is inaccurate. No two ways about it. Does it bother me? No. But it could bother many people for sure. Similarly, many people dislike the helmet holes. Me personally? It's not an issue. They sit nicely on my shelves looking cool, I rarely take a close up look with a microscope and judge every flaw on my figures. BUT it certainly wouldn't harm me if the figures were more accurate and better looking.

Commander Cody could do with a new moulded jetpack. It's a minor issue, but this set is near perfect, so we have to nitpick SOMETHING.

As always with these sets I feel an opportunity to give prequel fans who aren't obsessed with clones a win, was missed. (Not that that includes me, I'll always take more clones)

Replace the gunner with an Obi-Wan Kenobi from Episode 3 and give us a cleaned up robe design since they botched it in the grievous star fighter. This isn't a fault of the set, more just a notable missed opportunity to give the jedi fans a reason to buy this that I'd have really liked to see. It would make the set more well-rounded. Who really cares about a clone gunner anyway?

Those minor gripes aside this set seriously is almost perfect

I'd give it a 95/100. It is by far my favourite Lego set of the past 5 years.

Looks great.
Plays great.
Great Value?

Sounds great to me!

This 501st Legion Battle Pack set is a fun and cheap way for children to grow their ranks of clone troopers quickly and cheaply, featuring a fun-sized but still faithful recreation of an AV-7 Cannon as seen in Star Wars The Clone Wars. It features a selection of nice accessories for you to customise your 501st legion to your exact specification including range finders, weapons, visors, backpacks, and macro binoculars.

If a child likes clone troopers, this set would be a slam dunk gift, no problems what-so-ever.

However

For adult collectors and army building enthusiasts, this set has little appeal. The troopers featured in the set are not representative of those seen in The Clone Wars TV show or any of the films. They are taken from the Star Wars Battlefront 2 (2017) game's non-canon multiplayer mode.

This isn't a problem by any means. It does mean though that most are probably not going to want to fill any baseplates with this set.

The only problem I truly have with this set is that it feels like a wasted opportunity on two fronts for us adult collectors.

This set could have been made into a more expensive but larger and more detailed AV-7 Cannon build with the same figures, and it could have been a fantastic republic vehicle to add to the collection with a selection of interesting one-off figures.

In that same vein we could have seen this year's first battle pack slot used for more desired figures, clone or otherwise. The battle pack doesn't warrant its existence AS a battle pack. I don't need an army of officers, or heavies or specialists. They're great figures, but they're a wasted battle pack selection in my opinion.

But, all that said. My personal disappointment for this sets' failure in the grander scheme of things doesn't necessarily make this a bad set. It's high quality, fairly priced and features some great stuff for kids

Pros:

• 4x high quality clone troopers.
• Highly customisable.
• Solid mini-build of a recognisable vehicle.
• Extra accessories and parts.

Cons:

• Clone Battle pack which features NO standard army buildable clone troopers.
• Non-canon trooper designs will be a negative for certain collectors.
• Disappointing wasted battle pack slot.