TL;DR This is your set to get, if you really want the "new" General Grievous, even on the used market.

The Figures

The Minifig selection in this one is pretty good, because you can perfectly recreate the movie scene, this set is meant to recreate. I really like the addition of the electro staff, so you can really do anything, that happens in that scene.

Obi Wan looks very crisp, and the addition of printed legs is a very welcome one. General Grievous is a really cool and unique figure that a lot of people really want in their collection, however, it bugs me a little, that the whites of the legs and the printed parts don't match. It's a small thing, but lego could've probably printed the white on in multiple layers to counteract this. General Grievous himself is quite fragile, so you really have to be careful to not break his arms (replacements don't come cheaply). This set is in my opinion the best way to pick up General Grievous for your collection by far to date.

The Build

Although the bike is a lot larger, than it actually should be (kinda not really achievable without using some seriously illegal techniques, and making more fragile), it is a huge improvement over the 2005 version. It has all the angular and aggressive lines of the original and is instantly recognisable as such. I really like the way, they built the actual wheel around the transparent Lego motorcycle wheel piece. That being said, the build is just plainly repetitive and therefore not really that enjoyable, although rolling the wheel segments onto the transparent wheel is pretty satisfying. The whole build sadly is also a bit fragile in some places. It is very easy to knock off one of the side panels of the legs or break the wheel, because one of the segments didn't stay in place. Not really a problem for me, but a kid wanting to actually play with this, might find that rather annoying.

The value on the used market

(! Disclaimer: I've rated the set based on its retail price in Germany, but this section is about specifically about the used market at the day of writing this!)

So this definitely still is the best way to pick up a General Grievous figure, if you need one. You can get the whole set with all Minifigs on your preferred "used items sales site" at about the price, you would pay for a used General Grievous figure on Bricklink. This set still is a great value option and is an absolute no-brainer in my opinion.

I'm not one to look back on the “forgotten” themes of this era with resentment, in fact I'm longing for Lego to get bolder again with their original themes. Sure, some might be misses like this one, but you also get hits like Power Miners, Ninjago, ExoForce or Space Police III.

I recently collected this whole theme, to answer my late childhood question: “How good are the shooting mechanisms in those?”, and the answer is mostly a resounding “meh”. Let's maybe start at the builds themselves though.

The green bike is a pretty neat overall and I really like, that the designer(s) has/have been thinking a little outside the box for this one. Instead of just throwing in the motorcycle with the cross bike fairing, they came up with a small missile launcher sidecar. The missiles aren't plain old flick fires either, they actually managed to build a pretty consistent shooting mechanism onto this tiny platform. Sadly the launcher likes to tip forward if you are not careful, but overall, this is a nicely playable model with a competent shooting mechanism (which actually makes it better than most of the theme's launchers). Now to the lesser of the two bikes....

The black bike is well ... let's say “lazy”. The fairing screams “slow boomer cruiser” way too much and the sticker flames don't do it many favours either. I'm not really one for those 6 piece minifig motorcycles, but I get that most kids don't want their fully snotted Lego bikes to fall apart in one touch, but you could have at least made the model a tiny bit more creative and playable.

The podium and the snakes are nice additions, but I wonder why there is a third place in a death race with two teams, it always bothered me way more, than it probably should.

The minifigures are pretty standard for the time, nothing very special. One very notable exception are the helmet prints, because Lego actually didn't cheap out on those, by just putting one layer of white on them. Yes, the white on dark printing in 2010 was better quality than now. “Fix yer prints Lego, we don't need grievous in inconsistent grey tones.”

Overall this is a decent set, if you want something for your kids to play with, this might be something for you. If you are looking at it for the parts, it probably isn't for you.

Recently I reviewed the set, that was the best way to get a new General Grievous Minifig. Well today I'm going to do the polar opposite. This set is the absolute worst way to get one.

The Minifigs

The Minifigure selection in this set feels a little bit like an afterthought. The Obi Wan Figure is super lazy. Instead of doing another print run of his torso, Lego just decided to throw the "Anakin vs Obi Wan fight Version" with the burnt robes into this set.

General Grievous obviously had to be included. He is as fragile as ever, so the inclusion of two spare arms is a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one. The highlight of this set is the Airborne Clone Trooper from the 212th. Although he feels pretty random in this set to be completely honest, I absolutely appreciate them including him (although a Cody would probably have made more sense).

The Build

The building experience itself is pretty enjoyable, and the star fighter turns out quite sturdy overall. It's a tad large and doesn't fully capture the droopy and curvy lines of the original, but it's probably the closest, Lego has ever come to the original. I'm a bit annoyed at the use of cones in the front, because the shape in the original is so different, but it's not that big of a deal. Actually the Lego version looks a lot more aesthetically pleasing than the original, because it isn't quite as lumpy. The sliding action of the stowage space in the engine pods is super satisfying and works great! You can even shut it by flicking the fighter forward. It's a bummer, that while doing this, the cockpit slides forward too. This is the main culprit of this build. The cockpit slides open with way too much ease and a fixing mechanism with a clip would have been very appreciated. The shooting action is very fragile, it attaches to the bottom of the fighter like it was an afterthought of the design team. The slide trigger action feels very satisfying, but is prone to misfires.

The Price

We inevitably have to talk about the price. PPP at 16.4 is an atrocious deal no matter how you slice it. If you want a new General, get the Wheel Bike used. If you want his fighter, get the previous version used. There is really nothing justifying the price. 49.99€ would definitely be a much better suited price point, but that is nearly 40% of the initial price (this is also the price I got it at, in some Amazon flash deal thingy).

The Conclusion

Just don't get this, at least don't pay more than 50 bucks for it. Get the two sets and a set of spare grievous arms mentioned above for a combined 45 - 50€ used, it's definitely doable.

So there has been this steady flow of sets specifically aimed at 4-year-olds in the past few years. Now you might be surprised, that I'm not a 4-year-old, so I clearly am not the target demographic here. I once too, was a 4-year-old though, so I hope to be able to give my thoughts on this myself.

The target audience:

I first off, honestly don't believe, this set is completely marketed at 4-year-olds. Sure, the packaging and the theme name might suggest that, but the decision to put 3 unique minifigs in these sets (one of which is the best rendition of a character to date), seems rather intentionally aimed at adult collectors with more money than judgement. (Yes I know, awareness to a problem is the first step to self-improvement). I won't speculate, if this is being done, to improve the figures on how many of these are being sold, because I'm neither a shop, nor do I have any data on this. However, I can't imagine they are selling a lot of these to actual parents, who are buying this for their kids.

The pricing:

Let's be honest here for a second, no matter how you slice it, 35 bucks for this is a rip off. Even at 20 bucks, this is a huge stretch (I bought it for 20 Euros at a sale) and my suggested price point would be closer to 15 Euros. There is just no way you can justify the price, even taking into consideration, the 3 very nice Minifigs, large parts and printed parts. There have been sets with large, specialised parts, that have been less expensive. You can't tell me printing is that huge of a deal, because there have been small 4$ Tiny Turbo sets, with high quality prints unique to them. And minifigs aren't that hugely expensive to produce either, because there have been battle packs nearly quarter the price of this, with pretty intricate printing.

The audience:

I personally don't really believe in the category "for 4-year-olds". Most of the smaller sets these days are absolutely fine for that demographic. Stickers might be a bit of an issue, but other than that, it's fine. Furthermore, I don't believe Star Wars should even be on the table when making sets for 4-year-olds.

I think canister sets, like those Creator canisters were the peak of sets suitable for that demographic, let me explain: So 4-year-olds aren't usually very mobile by themselves, they are getting lugged around by their parents and inevitably tend to lose pieces of their sets at their grandparent's, aunt's & uncle's, friend's, etc. It is a great idea, to make the packaging reusable for transportation, so pieces get lost far less often. A canister can also provide play value, like a garage for a car for example.

The "builds":

AFoLs don't have the best reputation, when talking about sets aimed at younger people, but know this, Lego hasn't been more AFoL friendly ever before, so there shouldn't be any problem right?

The whole thing with those 4+ sets seems almost boringly patronising to me. Most young children I have built Lego with (small cousins mostly) don't have problems with small pieces or even steps, that require a few pieces per step. They have problems with instructions taking way too long, making them bored and disinterested. With over 80 pages of instructions, this set becomes really tedious really quickly.

What arguably would've been a way better model for this kind of set, would be something like the 7127: Imperial AT-ST . It is not only a way more pleasant build (yes even for smaller kids), but it's also, way more playable! Smaller children would get so much fun out of the leg action of that set. The speeder could've just been one of those old battle pack speeders. They are not significantly more complicated to build and get the point across a lot better than this. The tree is alright, I guess, and the catapult provides quite a bit of playability.

The conclusion:

A set that completely misses the mark on pricing and engagement during the build, and leaves playability to be desired.