The Resistance gets a crack at the First Order and it is the Resistance that packs the more effective wallop! Let's dive in!

Contents:

The packaging is nice showing what looks to be a scene on Takodana, even though on film no ground fight took place between these factions.

We get 2 bags a booklet and a 4 by 10 plate.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/N2oSAm][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/N2oSAm]PA232286[/url] by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/139708441@N07/]Macster Tome[/url], on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/NtL2YX][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/NtL2YX]PA232284[/url] by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/139708441@N07/]Macster Tome[/url], on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/N2oSf1][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/N2oSf1]PA232300[/url] by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/139708441@N07/]Macster Tome[/url], on Flickr

Figures and Parts:

The draw is the minifigures and we get a great set here. The set includes 4 battle ready troopers one of whom is their officer. The detailing on these is pretty good though the best part by far is how accurate the dual molded helmet is to its film counterpart. These are all great to have! You will have lots of trans blue studs left over as spare pieces.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/NtL2zv][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/NtL2zv]PA232304[/url] by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/139708441@N07/]Macster Tome[/url], on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/N2oRzo][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/N2oRzo]PA232315[/url] by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/139708441@N07/]Macster Tome[/url], on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/N2oS49][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/N2oS49]PA232303[/url] by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/139708441@N07/]Macster Tome[/url], on Flickr

The Completed Set:

The modified Gian-211 Speeder included in the set is great! It comes with a heavy duty blaster attached and best of all, all 4 figures can ride this thing! Compared to its First Order counterpart this set seems more battle ready. The First Order better watch out!

[url=https://flic.kr/p/Nm7cA6][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/Nm7cA6]PA232316[/url] by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/139708441@N07/]Macster Tome[/url], on Flickr

Overall:

Though the build is simple the overall play value is off the charts. Four battle ready figures and a fast and well armed speeder they can all ride into battle with. Certainly a very good offering and a great value in most regions for what you get!

I am giving it a 5 despite the simplicity of the build!

I seem to have amassed more than a few FO Stormtroopers so despite my ambivalence towards this pack I decided to pick one up on discount to give them some opposition - and am glad I did

Minifigures

This is all about the figures so I'll deal with them first. The highlight is the awesome helmet design with 2 part moulded & printed helmet and visor and the hinged jaw piece, they look great. There are a mix of heads and torsos so you could easily get a few variants with the torsos having sharp prints featuring bandoliers front and back and in 2 tones of brown.

Legs are a little disappointingly just plain but I guess the money went into the helmets. It would have been nice, like the FO BP, to get some more variation in skin colour for the head, they really missed a trick there.

Studshooters of course... not a fan so have just swapped in some regular blasters but at least they come with an additional grip piece that makes them look more like an RPG type launcher.

The build & parts

What makes this set even better is the 2 man speeder with turret. I don't recognise it from a film but it's certainly StarWarsy looking enough and adds a lot of play value. The build itself brings no suprises and is of a Microfighter type scale but goes together well. If you don't like the vehicle then it has a good range of usable parts for a MOC or mod of your own.

Overall opinion

At full RRP I probably wouldn't have bothered with this set but would have missed out. Even though you barely see these guys in the film, they're great to have for setting up against your First Order troops. For me, this is what a battlepack should be - a good selection of figures and a fun little vehicle.

When the names for the 2016 Force Awakens Lego sets were first revealed before the movie came out, the Resistance Battle Pack was the least exciting for me. Compared with promise of the names 75139 Battle on Takodana and 75140 Resistance Troop Transporter, as well as the obvious appeal of 75132 First Order Battle Pack, this set always seemed like an afterthought to me. Now, here we are, in January 2016, and since the majority of us have been disappointed by the First Order Battle Pack and the glorified battle pack that is Battle on Takodana, the Resistance Battle Pack is looking a lot more desirable. I'm going to make a bold statement and say that is one of the best battle packs the Lego Group has ever done, a throwback to classics such as 7668 Rebel Scout Speeder.

Box/Instructions

One interesting note about the battle pack packaging for 2016 is that the boxes are now taped like regular sets. This is a welcome change, for too often I went to the store and saw the boxes that can be opened with your hands savaged and looted. Inside the box there are two bags, an instruction manual of typical battle pack size, and a loose 4x10 light bley plate.

Minifigures

As most everyone knows, the only reason for purchasing battle packs is to cheaply amass generic cannon fodder for some big battles. In recent years, Lego has inconsistent in meeting this criteria, with home runs like 75035 Kashyyyk Troopers being exceptions to the trend of more niche figures like 75088 Senate Commando Troopers. Thankfully, the Resistance Trooper Battle Pack delivers, offering three foot soldiers and an officer for First Order target practice. Now, if only the First Order Battle Pack succeeded in the same fashion. The officer, who the DK Visual Dictionary tells me is a lieutenant based on his rank insignia, is the only one of the four minifigures without the new helmet, instead sporting slicked back brown hair. His face has a microphone printed on it, the same one introduced in 75034 Death Star Troopers. The lieutenant's weapon is one of the horrendous stud shooters, the only one in this set without a stock added. This figure has dark brown legs and a simple but accurate tan torso that I hope to see on more Resistance officers soon. As for the other three grunts, what stands out about them is the over molding of the two piece helmets that allows for a yellow visor. These pieces look lovely and very accurate, with the chin guard flipping up just like in the movie. I'm not sure what practical military purpose it serves, but hey, it looks impressive. Maybe the NFL can figure out how to do this with their helmets. Each of the soldiers carries a stud shooter with a stock attached, which still does nothing to hide the awfulness of these poor excuses for blasters. Please Lego, bring back the normal guns in the battle packs. All three of these figures wear gray pants and have a shirt with a printed vest of ammunition, though on one of the soldiers the vest in shirt are darker, adding some nice variety. The darker printed torso also appears in the Resistance Troop Transporter. This faces for the figures are all different, the best being a new head with a huge mustache that looks like Dum Dum Dugan. The other faces are Lex Luthor, which looks too angry for a good guy, and the common nondescript determined face that has already appeared on numerous members of the Resistance and First Order. I think it has replaced the smiley face as the stock expression for everything. My one gripe with these figures is that they represent a quarter of the world's population. Given that the picture of the Resistance soldier in the Visual Dictionary is African American, it's a shame that Lego couldn't diversify. I find it ironic that the Nazi-like First Order has more females and people of color represented in Lego form than the Resistance. Unless Lego is expressing some pretty radical views here, there is no reason why there can't be more diversity.

The completed model

Never the focus of a battle pack, the model included is actually pretty nifty and reminds of the Rebel Scout Speeder, which is always a good thing. Though most battle packs have a non-canon vehicle, the Gian-211 speeder does appear in the film, albeit without the back turret. Other than that addition though, the speeder is very faithful to the movie, right down to the color scheme and offset laser cannons on the front. One of the best things about this model is that it can fit all the figures on it, something you can't always do with battle pack models. The engines are nicely detailed for their size, something overlooked often by Lego in models of this size. The turret, on the other hand, is poorly placed for a minifigure to use, but this was necessary in order to fit a pilot under it. My only major complaint with the speeder is that lack of controls for the driver. A control panel or control yokes would have gone a long way here. Should you wish to demolish the speeder, which I don't recommend, it has a fairly decent parts selection for its size. All in all, this is a vehicle I would have no qualms about dropping into a D'Qar base MOC or a battle scene, something I can't say about the gun emplacement in the First Order Battle Pack.

Overall opinion

This set is everything a battle pack should be. It has great generic figures that you need a fair amount of coupled with a decent vehicle. Unfortunately, Resistance Battle Pack also inspires a lot of negative emotion in me, because it's excellence increases my bitterness regarding its counterpart. To equal the amount of generic soldiers received in one of this battle pack, one has to acquire three First Order Battle Packs. Without any comparisons though, this is a fine set that you should pick up a few of, and thankfully you don't need as many as you do of the First Order Battle Pack.

It was good to get the resistance troopers with the new helmet. The officer is not bad either because he doesn't stand out too much and he could just be imagined as a trooper who lost his helmet. This is a pretty good battlepack and th speeder build reminds me of the rebel fleet troopers battlepack speeder. I would highly recommend picking up at least one of these if you like the sequel trilogy.

Set #75131 Resistance Trooper Battle Pack: I’ve been getting behind in LEGO Battle Pack purchases, to the point that I’ve missed some decent Star Wars Minifigure packs, that being said it was great to finally get this one, considering I already have the First Order battle Pack from this year.

Box/Instructions

Box: The boxes are always small and reflect the overarching design of the Theme from year-to-year. The action shots are always the best in the Licensed Themes, well no, that does a disservice to the likes of NINJAGO and LEGO City, but they do often seem more dynamic on these Star Wars.

Instructions: The biggest issue I have with instructions in the battle packs is that LEGO does not include the wave or Minifigure checklists in the back, considering these sets are still a part of the wave and that feature is always fun to look at due to how the pages are designed, I’m always disappointed when these pages are omitted. In the end however they still serve their part well, showing how to build the model without any real issue.

Minifigures

Resistance Officer: This character has a radio transceiver device printed on the side of his face, so he’s probably in communication with Resistance HQ. He has a brown Bruce Wayne hair piece and an officer’s uniform print on his dual-sided torso, plus includes the stud shooter without any parts added on to make it look like a blaster. Basically a decent figure for a set of this sort and a great generic looking figure to join the Resistance.

Resistance Trooper: The trio of troopers in this set share similar parts, but have some distinctive looks to help differentiate them from one another. Two of them have light tan bodies with identical torso prints showing some ammo pouches and belts and an armor-like vest, the third is dressed in a similar pair of pouches and belts while wearing a different top, a darker tan top if I’m not mistaken.

All three are wearing the same helmet piece and include stud shooters built up with pieces to try and look more like some sort of blaster model, however the three of them at least have unique facial prints… well two of them are unique, one even has a mustache, the third is just an Angry Clone/Lex Luthor in disguise.

The build & The completed model

Building a small two-person ground speeder with this set takes very little effort, it’s quite an easy build and really fast, the model then is quite fun to play with. It can be zoomed about and includes a stud shooter to fight against the First Order Gun Emplacement, and honestly of the two Battle Packs from this year for The Force Awakens I think this model works much better and is a slightly better deal for the set.

Overall opinion

I really love how easy it is to collect a ton of generic figures for your Star Wars displays with these Battle Packs, honestly this set, which was released in 2016, is a definite must have and I recommend it for fans of LEGO Star Wars. I’d go so far as to say this set is a better deal when it comes to models and overall play opportunities. The First Order Battle Pack has great Minifigures, but this set has the complete package and definitely worth tracking down since it’s retired now. Strongly Recommended.