In my opinion this may be the best of the 2014 battle packs though they all have been interesting ones.

Box/Instructions

This came in a normal battle pack size box. The instructions were easy to follow.

Parts

This set has not very special parts but I don´t feel it´s needed.

Minifigures

This comes with 4 minifigures: 2 Death Star Troopers and 2 Royal Guards. Death Star Troopers have a new design and specially their helmets are great. Royal Guards are a nice add. Basic stormtroopers would be just a little bit... basic. So, great minifigures for a battle pack.

The build

Building this was quite fast and easy. It took something about 10 or 15 minutes.

The completed model

The completed model is for play more than for display but goes also as a display model. It has a few play features.

Overall opinion

This is better than just "a good basic battle pack".

As an OT purist I've been waiting for this set and this set alone, and have been quite glad that my wallet isn't going to take the usual pounding with this new 2014 Star Wars range!

There isn't so much to say about the model itself, it's a nice enough representation of a Death Star gun. It looks pretty beefy for an 80 piece kit, has nice long and imposing guns, and the obligatory flick fire missile for once isn't at all out of place! The parts are good enough for such a small set, with a few of the newish 1x2 plates with brackets, two dark greys with a Technic hole, and one light grey with a clip. There are some always useful SNOT pieces too, three light grey 1x2 plates with 2 studs going downwards from the side, and one of the fairly new 2x2 2/3 stepped height plate with two studs on side in white. There are three of the new 1x2 curves too, in dark grey. Nothing to shout about maybe, but nice enough to have.

Of course, the figures are what got all the Star Wars obsessives drooling, and they are wonderful!
The Royal Guard figures are great to have. It feels like a while since they were last available in anything but the exceptionally expensive 10188. They have the same helmet and torso print as a previous version (I'm not too sure which - I only have one and I got it loose so I don't know which set it was from), but the arms and hands are in dark red, and the cape is wonderfully two-tone and dark red on the 'inside' too, giving some good texture to the otherwise plain red figure. Mercifully there is no face printed on the black head either, which some may have preferred but I am very glad not to have! Their force sticks seem a little odd to me, a film only sort of guy, but that's neither here nor there really, and a couple of black bars could easily convert them into normal staffs.
The Death Star Gunners are what we've been waiting for, conspicuously missing from the premium Death Star set. They are pretty much plain black, but to make up for it they have printing on their legs as well as the front and back of their torsos. And since the set name was announced it was the helmets that were most keenly anticipated, and they do not disappoint. They are fantastic, accurate to the films, with the imposing jutting out bottom jaw, and the other point going down the backs of their necks. The Imperial logo is perfect, right in the middle of their forehead, and there's a little set of greebles on the left hand side, with a blue and a dark red button. They are marvellous! And even better, each gunner has a great face print with a worried look and a microphone, and each of the figures has a slightly different expression! Call me for double standards maybe, but I love having those proper faces on these figures.

One other thing that has been anticipated since the first pictures of the 2014 range is the new blasters. They are exactly what a close look suggests, a black cylinder with a handle and a hole for a stud at the open end, and a lever that would make anything attached pop out. They work pretty well, projecting the many spare 1x1 round tiles a reasonable distance given the scale of the minifigures, and not so far that you're guaranteed to lose every single one you fire!
I think there will be an AFOL/KFOL divide with these. I really don't like them, how huge they are, and how unlike the real things they look. But I imagine kids will love them, how well they work, and how they can finally get their minifigures to actually shoot at each other!
The other angle on this is the new connections it will make possible. There's a stud at the opposite end to the hole, and they're 5 tiles high with a bar sticking out at a useful angle. MOC heaven! The slits by the open end look like they should just about fit a bar in, though I had to force one to get it in, and it flew a long way when it was popped out! And they dark grey lever doesn't seem like it would connect to anything other than the gun, though I may well be wrong on that.

This being my first battle pack I'm not sure how to think of the value. Going on the price per brick, the value is fairly poor, especially given how small most of the pieces are. But the figures are brilliant, and you get more that the one-for-every-£5 that I imagine as a fair benchmark. And either way, given how small it is, it's just about in pocket money range. I guess that's the point of battle packs!

The final thing to say has to be how it fits with 10188, Death Star. I don't have that set myself, but I imagine the gun could be integrated into it very easily. The base plate is compatible with turntables so it could swap out or be added into any spare space there is fairly easily. And the Death Star Troopers have long been needed and I'm sure would look instantly at home at the laser controls. If you've got 10188, this set is an absolute must buy, you might even want a couple of them.

Pros

• Really fantastic figures; the Death Star Troopers particularly are excellent
• Impressively imposing gun for such a small set
• The new blasters are fun and will add play value to any play fight
• Only a pro if you've got 10188, but I reckon it would add a lot to that flagship set

Cons

• The great-for-KFOL blasters are strange looking for an AFOL who wants to display the set. Not much of a con really, I don't think Death Star Troopers shouldn't really have blasters anyway so who cares?

Apart from starting up an argument about the relative value of battle packs that's true for any of them, or the relative merits of the new new blasters that's true for all of this new wave, there's nothing bad to say about this set! (And there might not be anything bad to say about those issues either, depends on your point of view!)
So in short, nice set, really great figures, highly recommended!

This battle pack is a solid one. The build was great. I easily assembled the minifigures and turret with no difficulties. The turret is great. It looked very cool and it fit well on my display. We got two royal guards, which is great, I love the royal guards and I was in need of some for my imperial army, so that was great. We also got two of the death star gunners\technicians minifigs. The technicians are cool and were a great asset to my army. Also, not a big fan of the studshooters. They are bulky and make the minifigures fall. However, when placed on a base plate, it isn't an issue. I think they are extremely ugly and l just give my troopers the old blasters. Overall, this is a solid battle pack. I would recommend this to friends or to people in general.

Set # 75034 Death Star Troopers: The last of the battle packs from 2014 I have some interesting thoughts to impart here, so read on and find out if this set is for you or not.

Box/Instructions

The box design is the same as the others, and it’s very impressive. I enjoy the dynamic action they managed to get out of such a small set. Showcasing some awesome minifigures and a nifty little build isn’t always easy, but this design pulls it off.

The instructions are functional and include both a minifigure and set checklist from the initial wave of 2014. I kind of wish that the boxes in this size class could include manuals that don’t need to be bent in half without sacrificing the ability to actually see them, but I suppose they’d wind up being too small with the images to actually work.

Parts

With only 100 pieces I don’t see anything rare, impressive or desirable for MOC potential. The main model would be nice if it can fit on the Death Star, as I don’t own that set I’m not sure, but either way the parts here are typical and fairly standard.

Minifigures

Most battle packs only include 4 minifigures and this set does not disappoint.

Royal Guard: The Imperial Royal Guardsmen are iconic looking and these two are no exception. I believe this is, at last, the cheapest method of getting this minifigure in any set and it’s definitely good for army building. The print is exceptionally minimal, with only a single-sided torso print. The rest of his look is plain red, black heads with unique sculpted helmets and red capes. The accessories are the electrostaff weapons that these specially trained guards are known for. Overall some impressive looking minifigs.

Death Star Gunner: All of the printing was used up by these guys, you have printed legs, double-sided torsos a single sided face and even some minor printing and paint work on his new sculpt helmet. I enjoy the fact that LEGO has sculpted these parts, they’re a welcome addition to the plethora of unique head pieces that Star Wars has brought us. The new blasters are stud launchers and you get two in this set, not much really to say that I didn’t touch on in my previous battle pack reviews. If nothing else these guys won’t look out of place in a LEGO Movie Star Wars crossover display.

Overall a great army builder, love the fact that you get two of each with each set purchased.

The build

It’s the cannon on the Death Star, so really the build isn’t much to write home about. It actually takes barely ten minutes to build and there is nothing difficult in the build. Makes a decent looking display piece, if for some reason you wanted to swap the build to make multiple cannons that look slightly different I don’t see too much of a difficulty in that. Sometimes a reverse build can drastically affect the display you want to set up.

The completed model

It is what it is, this model doesn’t disappoint, however it is a little minimal for a battle pack. Honestly with a name like Death Star Troopers and the fact that it probably wouldn’t have affected the price too much, I don’t see why LEGO couldn’t have included a power battery for the cannon with the cables that are shown in the film, or even toss in a mouse droid. This model could stand to be slightly bulkier by adding that power cable thing, I’m sure talented MOCers could figure out how.

Overall opinion

Overall, I strongly recommend this set because of the minifigures, the main model is ok, but could use a bit more bulk to it. And I wouldn’t have minded an extra mouse droid in the set just because that droid is often only found in the really expensive Star Destroyer and Death Star Sets. So being able to army build it too wouldn’t hurt. Also the new stud launchers might be good for play value, but like with all of these sets they detract a bit from the on-screen accuracy of the weapons that LEGO had going for it before.

This is my thirteenth battle pack that i have bought and I got this cause royal guards

Parts

Very meh, nothing at all exciting here

Minifigures

?The Royal guards are awesome!!! they have only been in expensive sets till now so i am pretty excited they put them in a battle pack.

The death star gunners are also pretty decent, I only bought this set for the royal guards but they surprised me with how awesome they are too.

The build

The build took five minutes and was meh

The completed model

The completed model looks kinda alright but the gunner sits on a swivel chair next to the gun? and he has no controls to control the gun? and i always thought that they sat like on the side of the gun not next to it on a swivel chair, so pretty disapointed.

Overall opinion

Get this set even though it is flawed, the minifigures are worth it.