The Assault on Hoth Lego set is one of my favorite sets! The build is really fun, there are so many playable things, such as the entrance, the ion cannon, and much more. There are good amount of minifigures, but they could have come out with some different minifigures but I'm still happy with the overall set. Some parts like the ion cannon are a little bit incomplete. This set comes with a snowspeeder, tauntaun bay, control spot, trenches, shield generator, ion connon, and more little things.

One of the most controversial Star Wars Lego sets released in the brand's history, sees even more sections of Echo Base make it into model form. The designer has used more references from the original McQuarrie drawings and an old Hasbro micro-world playset in creating this which is why so many fans have been disappointed when they saw the final product.
Given the highly critical response, is this set really as bad as people make out? I apologise for the length of the review but there's a lot to cover in this set and for collector's I wanted to cover it thoroughly. If you don't want to read it all, skip to the Overall Opinion at the end. :)

Box/Instructions

A very large kit box (22 x18.5 x3.5 inches), trying to emphasise that the UCS label requires a massive box to make it feel like you're getting your money's worth. The kit could easily fit into a box half this size.
All the figures and beasts are displayed on the top. Figure of choice is Han Solo. The front of the box has the set as a battle scene and the back has more battle scenes and panels showing all the play features.
There is one, solid almost A-4 sized thick instruction book.

Parts

The price per piece ratio is quite poor and as a result, the set is about £50 overpriced. This has been one of the key complaints from fans. Basically the expected white and grey bricks with some colour here and there for detailing.
There are thirteen bags in the box.
Bag 1 contains the Snowtroopers, speeder bike, E-WEB cannon and an end piece of the snow trench.
Bag 2 contains the middle of the snow trench, the Atgar 1.4 FD P-Tower laser cannon and the two Merr-Sonn Munitions Mark II medium repeating blaster cannons.
Bag 3 contains an end piece of the snow trench, the two Golan Arms DF.9 anti-infantry batteries and 3 Rebel Soldiers.
Bag 4 contains the power generator
Bag 5 contains the main hull and port wing of the Rogue Squadron Snowspeeder, Wedge Antilles and Wes Jansen.
Bag 6 contains the starboard wing and canopy of the Rogue Squadron Snowspeeder.
Bag 7 contains the ice wall aperture for the Echo Base hangar doors.
Bag 8 contains the doors and accessories for the Echo Base hangar doors and 2 Rebel Soldiers.
Bag 9 contains the base control room, Major Bren Derlin, K-3PO and R3-A2.
Bag 10 contains the Wampa cave, Hoth Wampa and Luke Skwyalker.
Bag 11 contains the Taun-Taun feeding pen, vehicle crane, transporter vehicle, Taun-Taun and Han Solo.
Bag 12 contains the ice base and middle body for the Ion Cannon and Toryn Farr.
Bag 13 contains the exterior shell, upper controls and firing mechanism for the Ion Cannon.

Minifigures

The set comes with a huge 15 minifigures and 2 beasts.
Dealing with the beasts first we have the Taun-Taun, which has made several appearances since 2009's Echo Base set but it never hurts to have 1 more.
The Hoth Wampa is a welcome addition, especially as it has only appeared once before in 2010's Hoth Wampa Cave and there's supposed to be lots of these furry menaces all over the planet.
We have 2 very plucky Snowtroopers to make the first 'assault' on Echo Base. They are the standard new version of the trooper and each is armed with a blaster.
All the Hoth troops have nicely detailed bodies and legs. Half have the white jacket and grey trousers style and the others have the brown jacket and white trousers design. A variety of heads are used to make them all unique. There are an assortment of rifles, blasters and pistols, as well as pairs of white electrobinoculars for them to use.
The new brown suited Han Solo (Hoth Gear) makes another appearance. He has his smiling and concerned faces on his head. A shame his hood wasn't included. He's armed with a black blaster pistol.
Luke Skywalker (Wampa Attack) has a double sided head with smiling and bloodied faces. He's armed with his trusty lightsaber.
K-3PO is far superior in every way to the 2007 version with nicer detailing across the body and now the legs.
R3-A2 is new and exclusive to this set and is a great little astromech, colourfully standing out with his orange detailing.
Major Bren Derlin his a nicely detailed jacket but sadly no leg printing. The face is well done and he's armed with a black blaster pistol.
Toryn Farr is another exclusive to the set and has the brown jacket / white trousers Hoth gear. Her head has smiling and concerned faces. Although she's not show with a weapon, there are plenty included for her to use.
The last figures, and both exclusives come in the form of Wedge Antilles and Wes Jansen from Rogue Squadron. These figures are identical with the exception of their helmets and sport the new Rebel pilot dual sided head with smiling and scared faces. This is a shame as there was time taken to give all other figures unique heads but not on the pilots.

The build

Total building time, 150 minutes.
There's nothing particularly complex in the build, a good mix of regular bricks and Technic pieces for certain parts, especially the doors.
As you work through the set you find that it's quite a 'bitty' build, with lots of small pieces never really assembling into something substantial. The in book design is somewhat odd with the Wampa Cave backing onto the Command Centre and other odd connections.
The biggest part of the whole set are the Echo base doors.
When looking at the scale of some parts, you wonder why the designer just didn't make them a fraction bigger. The best example of this are the doors themselves. If they were just 6 studs wider, a snowspeeder would fit through them with no issues but as it is, Wedge has to pull a 45 degree banking manoeuvre on the angle of the interlocking door ends just to get out of the base.
The Ion Cannon is quite nicely done to capture the shape, even if it's the wrong colour.
There is also a sense of a half finished set. With the backs of so many parts not completed, it leads to a disappointing view from some angles.
There are 20 stickers. Some of them are questionable as to why they're even there - the speeder bike ones for sure.

The completed model

This is not so much a model but more a series of playset pieces. As a whole it works moderately well, especially when combined with all the other Hoth sets released to date.
It's also a good start point for anyone who has just begun to collect Star Wars Lego as you get a lot of the main components in one box.
The doors, turret base and the trench wall have 7 grey platforms between them. These allow you to place the weaponry where you wish and can customise the appearance as you see fit. With 2 Golan Arms DF.9 anti-infantry batteries, 2 Merr-Sonn Munitions Mark II medium repeating blaster cannons and an Atgar 1.4 FD P-Tower laser cannon, you have a good choice.
The doors have a cog wheel mechanism to open / close them. The doors are better than the previous version but still way too small. The back of the door section is not complete and looks very messy with no effort to 'ice over' the mechanism. There is a watchtower on the end which can be dropped down by moving a lever. The piece measures 43 cm long, 10 cm wide and 12 cm tall.
The minuscule command centre is actually nicely done but should've been triple the size. It has consoles and tactical displays and clips for 3 spare missiles. It measures 9.5 cm long, 8 cm wide 11 cm tall.
The Rebel transport is a faithful representation of the one seen in the hangar, but about half the size it should be. It seats 1 figure and there are 2 storage crates in the back with blaster pistols in. It has 4 small wheels underneath and lowering tail gate. It measures 8 cm long. 4.5 cm wide and 3 cm tall.
The Taun-Taun pen is a weird set up and like most things here, incomplete. There is also a double jointed vehicle crane built in there as well. There are green leaves for the Taun-Tauns to eat but I bet import duty on those was abominable! The crane rotates 360 degrees in a base which does the same and can slide up and down the set. It measures 13 cm long, 13 cm wide and 10 cm tall to the top of the crane at a 90 degree setting.
The Golan turret base is very basic and measures 9 cm long, 6,5 cm wide and 2 cm tall. The turrets themselves measure 11 cm long (back to gun barrel), 7 cm wide (at top) and 9 cm tall. They are a variation on the one from 2016's Hoth Attack set and each have 2 spring loaded missile launchers, can rotate a full 360 degrees and have opening top hatches.
The ion cannon has an opening top hatch and area to seat one figure, the cannon can hinge upwards through about 70 degrees. The cannon has a rather ugly 2 stage spring loaded missile launcher system which also fouls the back of the unit. The base is 12 cm long, 11 cm wide and 12.5 cm tall to the top of the cannon sphere.
The Wampa Cave has a tilt plate for Luke's sabre when it's stuck in ice and you can suspend young Skywalker from the ceiling. A very basic set and measures 9.5 cm long, 6 cm wide and 10 cm tall.
The Power Generator is another glaring error as it's missing a generator blade. There is a very obvious plank flick mechanism in the back which allows you to flip the blades out to simulate them exploding. It measures 16 cm long, 12 cm wide and 8 cm tall.
The defence wall is a jointed affair so both ends can angle back if desired. There are 4 of the grey platforms for weapon placement. There are the two Merr-Sonn Munitions Mark II medium repeating blaster cannons on the wall. Each has its own power box and are nicely done. The Atgar 1.4 FD P-Tower laser cannon is quite nice but the rotary stud shooter is not a necessary addition and blocks out the front too much. Each one can rotate a full 360 degrees and the Merr-Sonns can angle up and down as well. The trench wall measures 38 cm long, 11.5 cm wide and 3.5 cm tall on the wall.
The Rogue Squadron Snowspeeder is a variation on the 2014 version with orange markings. There are 2 spring loaded missile launchers under the wings. Sadly the aft grappling gun has been replaced with another stud launcher so this was replaced with something that could hold the grappling hook. The cockpit hatch swings up and seats 2 figures inside. It measures 18 cm long, 14 cm wide and 5 cm tall.
The bewilderingly present speeder bike is nothing special and just there to give Imperial troopers a way to flee. It measures 14 cm long, 3 cm wide and 2.5 cm tall.
Finally we have the BlasTech E-Web heavy repeating blaster cannon. Now, if you remove the stud shooter from the top, this is probably the best version of this gun to date. The legs are better, the design tighter and the power box, with it's opening lid and carry handles is just nicer in design. A shame this much thought could not have been applied to the rest of the set.

Overall opinion

The opinion for most collectors on this set is overwhelmingly negative.
Was it an appropriate use of the UCS label? No.
Is it good value for money? Not really as it's about £50 overpriced.
Was it named correctly? No. Perhaps just Echo Base would've sufficed.
Is it a good set?
Underneath it all, it's still a fun playset piece. When combined with the other 15 Hoth themed kits you do get a rather impressive looking display. A few white sculpted base boards would've been a welcome addition to the set, especially as so much of the huge box was empty space, and these could've allowed piece count to have been used on other things.
Despite the fan reaction to this set, I'm still happy to have added it to my collection.
Yes, there are a lot of unforgivable errors in the construction and a somewhat lacklustre approach to what could've been an amazing set, but a 'proper' UCS Echo Base Assault set would realistically be approaching the £1000 mark and no-one is going to pay that.
I suspect that this will be a purchase for the die-hard collector's only but maybe Lego will learn a valuable lesson from this release.

I was unsure about this set for quite some time, but decided to purchase it since I already had the recent AT AT. It was about what I expected, but it had a few upsides that made me feel better about the purchase.

Box/Instructions

The box is, as you would expect, quite large. The instructions were clear, and I experienced no comprehension problems.

Parts

Two words sum up the parts: White and Technic. You get a lot of white pieces, which are distributed throughout the various models. The technic pieces make up most of the would-be cool models.

Minifigures

The minifigures were definitely a highlight of this set. The two intimidating snow troopers are the same as the other recent incarnations. It's not really worth going through each minifigure. To sum up the rebels, they make fantastic army builders, though they lacked diversity (Torsos and legs were reused). The astromech droid and K-3po are fantastic. I would suggest finding them on the secondary market. They both feature detailed printing and are a much needed break from the many humans included in the set.

The build

The build was relatively chaotic. I continuously found myself beginning to enjoy a build, when I was suddenly finished and had to move on to the next one. The only parts that were even vaguely difficult were the technic play features.

The completed model

The completed model actually looks pretty good from the front. However, the technic parts add a certain surreal beauty to the back and make you feel like the set is a picture out of the movie (Sarcasm implied). All joking aside, the model is filled to the brim with play features, some of which are a quite amusing (I had far to much fun with the simple exploding shield generator). The snowspeeder is similar to past versions, but fits with the set well. With the addition of a few other hoth sets, you can set up a pretty epic battle using the included models.

Overall opinion

Though certainly not a must buy, this set is great if you have the recent AT AT (Then you can create an actual assault). Once you get it, it isn't as bad as you might think it is. The minifigures were definitely great. If you have kids and are looking for a playset that you can enjoy, then I would definitely suggest this one.

As you can tell from the title, no sarcasm will be used at all.

Let's begin.

Box

The box is large. I'm very glad it has the UCS logo on it. The disjointed build looks very appealing, I don't understand all the hate...

Minifigures

Wedge and Wes are nice figures. The best part about them has to be the use of identical, generic heads.

The rebel troopers are perfect. Totally would not have benefited from dual moulded legs.

Toryn Farr had a way more crucial role than Leia in the film, and thus I am so happy to see her instead of Leia.

*totally does not pause sarcasm*

Luke is a decent minifigure.

K3PO (I almost typed K2SO!) is too.

The Orange droid is cute.

The Snowtroopers are good too, but they reuse a 2014 design.

Tauntaun and Wampa are decent.

*totally does not enter sarcasm mode again*

The Rebel Officer is superb! Dont ya love it when they include unnamed characters and not named ones, especially at this price range?

Han Solo is okay...... I love his hair, it is completely accurate and has so much texture.

Okay, we got the figures finished. On to the...

Models

I love mini small models for UCS instead of one whole large model! When you buy a UCS, you want many mini models, totally not one huge model! Let's go through them one by one...

E-Web Blaster

Super accurate. I love laughably oversized things, especially in UCS sets, because accuracy is the least of worries in UCS sets.

Snowtrooper Speeder Bike

Utilizes an old design. Nothing much here, E-web blaster is way awesomer.

Wampa Cave

Great! Flawless! I like the attention to detail by putting the Wampa cave right next to Echo Base, and in the movie the Cave was extremely tiny, about 3 studs deep, so the scale is right. The lightsaber launching mechanism is so amazingly powerful, it launches the lightsaber right into the backyard!

Shield Generator

It is super cool how they included a shield generator with only three disks. Sure, in the movie, there were four, but hey, who cares? It's a UCS, after all. Since UCS sets are all about play features, there is a lever which sticks out quite considerably for you to hit, and the shield generators will explode revealing colorful pieces underneath. Glad they didn't include the AT-AT that caused the explosion.

Trenches

Nothing special. Movin' on.

P-Tower Cannon

The 2013 one looked good, but this looks even better, as they compromised accuracy for play. Stickin' a rapid stud shooter at the front should be fun for most AFOLs to play with.

DF-9 Cannon

Yay! They compromised accuracy for play again! The top opens up to allow a minifigure to sit in there, which looks super-accurate to the film! Spring-loaded shooters add tons of playability, who cares if they detract from the look of the cannon?

Blast Doors

They open and close in synchrony, and when fully open, barely allow a Snowspeeder to get out without hitting the doors, which is just so awesome! The back has tons of Technic pieces and gears exposed, which really add so much to the look of the model. The lookout tower is so accurate and uses one of the most sophisticated methods i've seen to raise and lower it: manually lift it up and use a click hinge to hold it there, or hit the click hinge away and drop it. Never mind that it doesn't go down all the way and compromises the base entrance's looks.

Tauntaun Pen

The part that absolutely makes the most sense in this set. I'm glad they included bright green leaves for the Tauntaun, a creature native to a planet with no vegetation whatsoever, to eat. The very tiny crane is very very very strong.

Rebel Base Transport

Small and sweet.

Snowspeeder

Almost a carbon copy of the 2014 version, just different colors. I'm so glad they lazily reused a old design with little modification, even though the 2014 one had several flaws.

Command Centre

Very very tiny. I love the size, it's an awesome replication of that in the movie! Extra missiles clipped to the side totally do not detract from the base's look at all!

Ion Cannon

As they say, save the best for last. The spherical shape is nothing noteworthy, but I am totally in love with the design of the back! Exposed technic mechanisms and a multitude of colors are fabulous! The front cannon is compromised to fit two spring-loaded shooters, which look spectacular. It would totally not have benefitted from the removal of the spring loaded shooters, inclusion of a better barrel, and covering up of the back.

Value

This set has amazing value, as its US price is about $40-50 overpriced.

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Final Verdict

I've put all sarcasm aside. This set is dreadful. Absolutely do NOT get it. Spend your money on any other UCS, they will do better than this Ultimately Crappy Set.

Wasting so much accuracy on playability is really bad for a UCS. Even the playability is hampered by the severe lack of Imperial Forces.

Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed this review. :)

P.S. Here is the definition of sarcasm: sarcasm |'sär?kaz?m| noun: the use of irony to mock or convey contempt.