The Droid Escape Pod has been represented 3 times in LEGO form, and this is probably the best one. It has a lot of stickers, but in my opinion they add to the model. It has the best interior of the 2 previous models, and has the most movie accurate exterior too. The set also comes with 2 Jawa's which have only been seen once before in the extremely expensive $300 Sandcrawler.

Box/Instructions

The box has a nice Tatooine backdrop with a Sandcrawler on the right side, and the iconic Krayt Dragon skeleton just visible from underneath the sand dunes. It displays the pod wrecked with the droids walking away, while the Jawa's try to sneak up from behind. For some odd reason the all-important death star plans are half buried in the sand. The minifig gallery runs across the right corner, and a Disney logo on the left. It is a little odd that they chose to put the Kylo Ren banner on a OT set.

The back has a blueprint-like diagram of all the accessories, features, and details. It also displays the pod opened up, with the droids trying to get away from the Jawa's. Once again the Death Star plans are buried in the sand. It also shows a cinematic scene of the pod floating around in space, in orbit of Tatooine.

The instruction booklet was a little wrinkled, and has the same image as the front of the box.

Parts

The set had some big curved wall pieces, and a cockpit piece. Out of the 197 pieces there is nothing special.

Minifigures

C-3PO is a combination of parts used on other figures. He has the same head as always and his torso is borrowed from the C-3PO polybag. His legs have been used on all 3PO minifigs since 2014. He has a lot of good detail in his gold plating, and has the open stomach plate revealing a lot of colorful wires. His leg printing is good although, it does get chopped off at his knee.

He is not as dirty as the version in the Sandcrawler, and does not have the restraining bolt. He is a very good figure in general, and represents the character well.

R2-D2 is the exact same figure as 75059, and 75038 except one tiny different detail. He has a great print as always with the dark blue printing and all the controls and compartments on his body. He has a dark silver metallic dome, as with recent versions, with a different colored light. All previous versions have a red light printed on his dome, this version has a lavender one. It is a nice little detail, and good to have a "new" version.

He has no printing on the back, but he does on his dome.

You get two Jawa's in this set, each with different printing. The first Jawa has a brown belt wrapped around one side and a weird mingled print around the other. The belt has lots of little containers on it, and a buckle printed on the back. There is also some wrinkles printed underneath the belts. He comes with a brown hood, a tiny brown leg piece, and a blaster built from a black megaphone piece and a trans-blue stud.

The other Jawa has a black belt on top of a brown one. Both belts have a lot containers on them. The black belt has a buckle printed on the back also. There are a lot of wrinkles printed underneath the belts also. His blaster is built out of a grey handle piece, and a trans-blue stud.

The Jawa's head is plain black with two glowing eyes printed on it.

The build

The build was fun, and took about 20 minutes. You build the middle, main part, then the two hinged walls. Since you get 4 big wall pieces that make up most of the build, there is not as much building required.

The completed model

The pod has a lot of detail thanks to a lot of stickers. Usually stickers don't add much but, the stickers really add something to this one.

The bottom also has stickers. They are very familiar to the ones on the top, with a added yellow band.

There are 4 trans-orange dish pieces, representing the engine boosters. There are a couple of cone pieces hinged onto a ring piece.

There are some sloped bricks on the front. The cockpit dish seen in this set, has been used in a lot of different SW sets, and works well in this set also.

The model opens up, to reveal the interior. There are two seats for the droids. And a couple of stickers too.

The interior is built out of tan plates, and trans-red grilles. Tan is a odd color choice, but I don't know what color the interior was. There is a seat for C-3PO, and two jumper plates to put R2 on. There are four trans-red grille plates trying to replicate lights I think. There is a grey handle bar for 3PO to hold on too.

The droids fit it the pod well, and it can close while the are inside.

There is a trans-blue plate with a sticker on it, and metallic cones on each side. The sticker has a diagram and some Aurabesh on it. The Aurabesh reads "SND".

It can come out and attached to it is a black 4 by 4 tile with a death star diagram printed on.

This is a new element, and I think they did a good job on it. It is based off the diagram of the death star we see toward the end of A New Hope, at the rebel base.

There are stickers on each side of the interior. On the right side there is a viewing port. This replicates the scene where the droids look out the port at the Star Destroyer while they descend towards Tatooine. There are some details around the window. It replicates the scene quite well in my opinion.

The other side has a diagram, of the pod going toward Tatooine. There is also some Aurabesh on this, it reads off "DESTINATION TATOOINE". Its a cool little detail that most people won't notice.

Overall opinion

Overall, I think this is a pretty good set. It is much better than 9490. The two Jawa's are a great inclusion and I think that's why most people will buy this. The stickers will make some people rethink this set, but if you can look past the stickers, it's a great set!

Lego reissues the Tantive IV escape pod with the droids for the third time and this time they got it right.

Box/Instructions

Standard mid range small kit box with a nice set image on the front. Quite a thin box, though. A Jawa is the figure of choice for 1:1 image on the top. The back has the 'holo tech spec' of the pod from forward, aft and side. The main picture shows the open pod and several showing the play features and the weapons included.

Parts

The expected price per piece ratio for a kit of this size. Nothing particularly out of the ordinary in the assortment. There are two bags in the box. Bag 1 contains a Jawa, R2-D2 and the main hull of the escape pod hull. Bag 2 contains a Jawa, C-3PO, the interior seating assembly, the forward hull assembly and all the aft thruster vectrals and jets.

Minifigures

The kit come with 4 minifigures.
Firstly R2-D2 is the now standard R2 and nothing out of the ordinary.
C-3PO is nicely done, with good detailing to the body and the leg printing is nice, even showing the silver parts on the right leg.
The 2 Jawas are the same as the one from the 2015 95097 Advent Calendar. These are really what I purchased this set for because it's nice to finally have a kit where you can get the little scavengers that doesn't cost the earth. One is armed with the megaphone style gun and the other is armed with the thinner ion blaster type.

The build

Total building time, 15 minutes.
Yes, there are stickers. I know some folks hate these but they are large and easy to apply. Four decorate the outside of the pod and two on the inside wall to represent the window and a scanner. The last decal is for the control panel. The Death Star plans are a new printed tile.
Nothing complex but a it makes a nice, solid pod which is good for kids if they're going to fly it around. The top hinges open on each side to reveal the interior seating area. There is a nice piece of structural reinforcement under the seats.
The controls are a simple set of hand grips and there is a H.U.D. In the front. This slides up and can be removed and the Death Star plans are attached to this.
The forward window is the same as the Eta-Actis 3 Starfighter. There are 2 moveable attitude control thrusters at the top.
The aft section has 8 positionable thrusters, 4 main propulsion units and 4 directional thrusters.

The completed model

Probably the best version of the Tantive IV escape pod to date. It measures 14 cm long and 7.5 cm wide. The opening hinge mechanism is nice and sturdy and allows for easy play. It's a very solid little ship and the section to hide the plans is a nice touch. A little thought has been applied to the thrusters and it looks good.

Overall opinion

A nice little set and to be honest, worth it just to get 2 Jawas. I will probably get a couple more of these so I can populate my Sandcrawlers and then use the pod parts to create 'scrap' for the holds.

With all of the hype around the new wave of Star Wars films at the time of release, larger Lego sets from the classic trilogy were very much in the minority. Fortunately, there were a whole series of smaller sets to choose from, with A New Hope represented by C-3PO and R2-D2's escape pod from the beginning of the film.

The build itself is relatively straightforward, although there are a couple of points which younger fans may need trouble with. First of all, the doors are a little bit fragile mid-build. They're fine once the pod is fully assembled, but due to the nature of the assembly, they aren't massively secure for a short while after they're first attached. And secondly, the stickers for the doors may be a bit tricky to apply. The use of stickers in the Star Wars sets is a bit divisive - personally I don't mind them for adding an extra level of detail - but the large stickers for the pod doors are some of the most frustrating I've come across. First of all I'd recommend applying them all at once, so as to make sure the pattern lines up, and second of all I'd advise to watch out for air bubbles, as they can get trapped quite easily under stickers of this size and slightly spoil the overall effect.

Those criticisms aside, it's a nice little model once assembled, although not the most exciting in the Star Wars Lego lineup. The opening doors are the only moving feature, but I guess it is an escape pod and so shouldn't be expected to do much else!
Obviously the set comes with R2 and 3PO, but as these are some of the most commonly recurring characters in Star Wars Lego sets, you probably already have several of both. The Death Star plans are a nice little touch, however, although it's a shame there's no way for R2 to hold them... oh the irony! It also comes with a pair of Jawas for hunting down the droids. They're shorter than standard Lego minifigures which is cool, but the tradeoff for this is that their legs are fixed, making them less poseable for collectors and probably less fun to play with for the kids.

To summarise, aesthetically a nice little set to own and have on display, but not particularly exciting and adults should probably help with the doors.

Box/Instructions

It seems every Star Wars box released this year will get a Kylo Ren picture on it, even if the set doesn’t come from The Force Awakens. I like it, I got bored of Darth Vader ;)
Inside the box, you’ll find two bags, the instructions booklet and a sticker sheet. Yep… stickers, huge ones. I’ll get to that later.

Parts

There are some uncommon parts I didn’t even know they existed, such as 14719 and 18646. The huge panels (30562) are the main parts, as the entire pod is built on and under them. Even with the stickers on it, I find them useful to build other spaceships or locations such as a base or spaceport. There is also a printed 2x2 black plate with the Death Star plans. It’s accessory but pretty cool.

Minifigures

The best things about this set are the minifigures. The two droids are pretty common, with a very good print, especially C-3PO. The two other are the jawas, that you could only find in the UCS Sandcrawler before. So, it’s a nice thing to be able to get them in a cheap set (I mean if you compare to a UCS). Each jawa has a different torso. Unfortunately the legs aren’t printed, but in the movie the jawas are supposed to wear robes. Maybe that is the explanation.

For fun, I wanted to take a comparison picture of the minifigures' evolution :

The build

The construction is quite simple until you have to put the stickers. Be VERY careful, as the stickers are the most visible things on the completed model. It’s even harder to put the medium ones in the inner side. Apart from that, the inside uses the SNOT technic very well.

The completed model

The set is very satisfying. The general shape is close to the source material, appart from the size, and the way the droids sit in it. But It’s not easy to get a cylindrical build with bricks. The play geature isn’t amazing, as you can just open the panels and hide the Death Star plan, but I’m ok with that. The set is worth for its minifigures, and each one is very detailed.
I got that set to add it to my Tatooine collection, and I’m very glad with it, even if it’s a bit overpriced (as always, but I’m French, I love to complain !).

For now, Brickset lists the price of this set as 20 pounds, which is equal to what a set like Rey's Speeder costs - about 10p per piece, and this set has twice the number of figures. On the other side of the pond however, we're expected to pay a whopping €36 for a set with not even 200 pieces in it - that's €9 more than what Rey's Speeder costs. Us euro paying folk always seem to get whipped by the LEGO prices but this is getting out of hand. I wouldn't have gotten any of these sets, would I not have found a store which could sell it for €25 thanks to a soon-to-be-expired coupon we couldn't use for anything else.

Box/Instructions

It's a small box, really filled with the pieces. When you get them out, you'll notice they're divided into two bags and HOLY MANY STICKERS, BATMAN! I guess with the front of the box I already noticed that the outside of the pod was stickered, but damn, the sticker page is about half as big as the entire front of the box. Four huge stickers go onto the sides of the pod and another three, two reasonably big, go onto the inside. These stickers also seem to be made of some new material which sticks to surfaces quicker than the old stickers, so make sure you get them right the first time.

Parts

As to be expected, lots of grey. The inside has some beige/sand colored pieces.

The most interesting piece I think, is the Death Star plans. As far as I can see right now this seems to be an entirely new part, and it's printed. It looks as great as a Death Star blueprint on a 2x2 tile can look.

For now, this set as well as the other new sets have dishes on the feet of many characters. Don't know why they have been shown this way, but just so you know these dishes are not present in the set.

Mini figures

Ultimately, this is what most people will buy the set for. At four mini figures, this set is one of the few small sets to boast such a large number of figures without being a battle pack. Seeing as who these specific figures are, this is a good thing for both those who collect and those who play.

• Jawas: Have only really been in two huge sandcrawler sets and in the 2015 advent calendar, so most people won't have them yet and will be interested in this set just for them. They look very nice, as good as a LEGO representation of a Jawa can get.
• C-3PO: Has been in a bunch of sets though this one, with the printed legs, has only been in the recent huge Sandcrawler set so it's safe to say many people won't have this C-3PO yet. Just like the 3PO with the Sandcrawler, sadly the leg prints only go down to just below the knee, which is sad since 3PO has one silver leg, the printing of which just looks weird now.
• R2-D2: This new version of R2 has been in a couple of big and small sets so you might have him already. I got this R2 along with the 2014 Jedi Interceptor, and I have the old one from the 2012 X-Wing. I still think this new R2 is much more true to the movies, even when the changes seem small.

The build

A set this small naturally has a quick build, thanks to the pod having many elements (top, bottom, inside) it's a pretty diverse build as well. I hated the big stickers though, and seeing as their prints should align but they'll remain a few millimeters apart I'm not happy with them. A single printed piece used four times would have been less true to the way the pod looks in the movie but would probably have been worth the lack of big stickers.

The completed model

The outside of the pod looks great and reasonably true to the movie, the inside less so. It's clear that the inside was modeled after play options instead of being true to the movie. I have not decided yet if I think this is a bad thing, but the people who open it up will most likely be the ones to play with it anyways.

As for the outside, this model conveys the look of the movie pod better than the 2012 sloped one but I can't help but feel that LEGO has evolved far enough to be able to give us a small slope on the outside.

Overall opinion

All in all, this is a nice set, which most people will probably buy for the mini figures. It must be said though that if you live in a place where LEGO/stores feel they can charge you almost double what this set is supposed to cost, feel free to skip on this set and make a stand against these ridiculous prices. The new sets now just feel like an empty cash-grab.

Pros:

• Four excellent figures in a small set
• Two Jawas, figures so rare they allow for an extra figures pro point, as well as 3PO (not seen in a small set in years)
• Best looking Escape Pod yet

Cons:

• Outrageous pricing (though not in all areas, it seems)
• Great number of stickers for such a small set, stickers are big and hard to align
• Outside of the pod still seems off when compared to the movie

Pro or Con or neither (depends on your own view)

• Inside of pod designed for playing, does not look true to the movie

In the end, having two Jawas and C-3PO probably justifies getting this set for most people even without counting the new R2-D2 and the escape pod.