Pros:

• Highly playable
• Luggabeast is a gorgeous build and the new leg mold just makes it perfect. The head tilt is a bit limited, but captures the look and feel of the "beast" (specially when it's angled down)
• The folding of the tent is just amazing for storing and reducing the foot print of the set
• The plastic sheet tent like roof works perfectly well and I don't think it could be done with regular pieces
• Has a great atmosphere, mostly due to so many small details all over the stall: a weapon, mug, jar, studs for the weapon, a safe with food "portions", bars all over the windows, light on the wall, the hidden gun (with very nicely designed lock mechanism), the droids parts, etc

Cons:

• It's an expensive set, not just in terms of price per parts, but once built it's quite small in overall volume for the price tag
• I don't like the exposed liftarms, specially the light gray one

Set #75148 Encounter on Jakku: The Force Awakens has a rather eclectic looking range of sets and a lot of those sets have repeat offenders when it comes to Minifigure inclusion. This set features two figures we’ve seen before and two brand new figures, which isn’t terrible, until you see the price of the set. I feel LEGO really missed the mark on the price-per-piece ratio on this front, for a set representing Jakku and Unkar Plutt’s exchange station scene it’s certainly missing a few things. A large cast of characters would have helped it greatly, however it’s still a decent enough set as we’re about to delve into.

Box/Instructions

Box: The Force Awakens box design is what we get here and features some nice action shots on the front and great shots on the back showcasing the features and a nice top-down blueprint view of Unkar Plutt’s building in LEGO form. Pretty fun design, though it was a bit tiring seeing Kylo Ren in the upper corner for so many waves.

Instructions: This is a nice thick manual with modular build steps included for numbered bags, five to be exact. There are sets and Minifigure checklists in the back for this wave, this and the blue version of the X-Wing were the only available from TFA in this release. The steps are very easy to follow and nothing tricky jumped out at me during the build.

Parts

Many sand inspired colours in this set for the parts and some brand new elements, the four legs of the Lugga Beast to be precise. Which might be useful for folks looking to brick build an Elephant or something; you’ll also find the Brick Separator included in this set and two of the softer plastic awning part used to keep the harsh sunlight from burning your Minifigures.

Minifigures

BB-8: Included in this set, as he is part of this scene quite prominently it’s BB-8. Nothing much to add for him, he’s the same pair of parts used in the TFA Millennium Falcon, or any of the other numerous TFA and TLJ sets which feature the new iconic little droid. Great print detailing though.

Rey: This is pretty much the same figure included with Rey’s Speeder, she includes the same print detailing on her torso, legs and face, the same hair piece and the exact same accessory. Nothing much else to say, moving on.

Teedo: This nasty Jakku Scavenger captured BB-8 in the film and he features a brand new sculpted head piece to represent his character and a double-sided torso print for his tatty looking scavenger outfit. A large electro pike accessory is included which is built up with three elements, a LEGO nozzle piece, black lightsaber hilt and flagpole element. Definitely not a bad little accessory, at least it isn’t a stud shooter.

Unkar Plutt: Without the unique sculpted head attachment for Plutt this figure is pretty plain, he’s got a plain tan torso, limited leg printing to finish the detailing of Plutt’s interesting looking armor and that’s pretty much it. All of the detailing is included in the uniquely sculpted character piece. It’s extremely detailed though.

The build

Bag 1: In this bag Teedo emerges and the torso of the Lugga Beast is constructed. This build is nicely done and features a lot of greebling for the saddle. It’s a straightforward build as well and very quick to finish.

Bag 2: The head is built up mostly here, you also attach the legs. The head is equally full of greebling and detailing with some very nice steps to add all of the details. Two printed circular tiles are used for the eyes. Overall a great fun build for an awesome model.

Bag 3: Unkar Plutt breaks free in bag three and you get to start building the structure. It’s a fairly quick build with only a few repetitive steps. Nothing struck me about it here, but as always, I strongly suggest building on a solid surface and not somewhere like a bed or anything similar, as it does cause issues of attaching the parts.

Bag 4: With this bag you get to finish the fully enclosed portion of Plutt’s building. Basically this is the front, previously you were constructing the back of the structure. Nothing too difficult here, aside from the roof section, as it attaches with Technic pins you will need to push both in around the same time to avoid any breakage, or stressed parts, once it’s attached though you’ll be done and ready to start bag five.

Bag 5: Rey and BB-8 join the group in this bag and you get to build an area of the exterior of the building that is off to one side under an alcove, some extra work station perhaps or just some nice detailing for the structure, either way it’s not a lot of parts to deal with and a pretty short build, there is a lot of plates being attached onto other plates and a few sloped elements for the walls. Once everything is done it’s time to attach the soft plastic awning to the entire build, this moment may require a little help to make sure it goes on alright, but I doubt it’d be that difficult.

The completed model

Lugga Beast: This is a nicely built brick-build creature. It uses a lot of impressive build techniques to include accurate detailing and a good range of motion, the head can tilt back and forth for fun poses and the new leg pieces can also move independently of one another. Overall it’s a great looking creature.

Unkar Plutt’s Place: This building is a fully enclosed structure, not a simple façade with exterior and interior play areas, the hinge elements are used to allow you to open it up to access the interior where Unkar Plutt sits to dish out his rations. Not a lot of play features here though, you have a stud shooter for Unkar, but there’s also a slide-out section with a hidden regular blaster, which means he can fire with two weapons when facing against Rey. Hidden amongst the various locations are enough parts to build an Old Republic era Battle Droid, extra defense against intruders perhaps.

Overall opinion

Looking at the database it seems that this was priced at 60$, for some reason I feel this was initially 75$ before taxes and checking on LEGO’s official online shop that is the case for Canada. This is a terrible price for this set, the model is not as large or involved compared to other 75$ sets, even taking into consideration the pricing of Star Wars sets this does not justify such an asking price.

The set overall is pretty decent, I am extremely impressed by all of the fun little details, especially on the Lugga Beast and with some of the stuff found on or around Plutt’s place of business. I got this through Costco during 2017’s holiday season and I believe it had been marked down to 50$ or even lower than that, my mother got it for me as a sort of Christmas present. (I opened and built it long before December 25^th though, AFOLs sometimes don’t stick to just opening stuff on Christmas Day.)

However I’m getting off topic, this set, for the cheaper price Costco was offering was definitely a much better value. Fans of The Force Awakens who wanted Unkar Plutt as a Minifigure had to buy this set, if it was 75$ though I still feel it needed at least two more Minifigures, possibly Finn who was also in this scene and maybe another Unkar’s Thug or even First Order Stormtrooper just for added play. I feel the new leg parts for the Lugga Beast may have tipped the price up a bit since they are brand new, but considering they re-used them in the 25$ Black Panther set they couldn’t have cost that much to engineer and produce.

Overall mildly recommended if you can get it on sale or find it still at retail. Not sure I’d recommend it for folks looking for this set on the secondary market since it doesn’t really offer much outside of the Unkar Plutt Minifigure and the Lugga Beast mold.

When this set was announced I thought, firstly, that it was way overpriced (Norwegian list price is 799 NOK = 79 GBP / 110 USD(!)), and secondly, that it didn't look to be up to TLGs standard. The only reasons I purchased this set was because it was on sale (60% off), and I thought that it would make a decent mini display combined with 75099 Rey's Speeder. I am happy to report that I actually was pleasantly surprised.

The set is divided into five parts, two for the Luggabeast and three for Unkar Plutts shack. The Luggabeast is a fantastic little build. The dark azur pieces, though not exactly true to the original, makes it standout and I think it looks quite good. The shack starts well. There are some nice details on the corners and the brick yellow entrance gate (at least I think that's what it's supposed to represent), though simple, has a nice shape. Then comes the roof... It is made up mainly by a 8X8 Grid Plate and a unique printed plastic "sail", perched on top of technic beams. The beams coupled with technic pins sticking up and out, looks awful. I get that it supposed to be a shack for scrap scavenging on a desolate planet, but it's just not right. Maybe if the "sail" had been made out of cloth and had pieces hanging down it would have looked more authentic (?), just a thought.

When it comes to minifigures the selection is quite good. Both Teedo and Unkar Plutt are exclusive to this set, and until the release of 75178 Jakku Quadjumper this was the cheapest set to include BB-8. Rey isn't particularly interesting, but of course has to be included in a set of this kind.

Other than the roof construction, I actually found this set to be a relatively fun build, with some good parts and nice, though not exactly innovative, techniques. The biggest problem, in my opinion, is the price point. At list price (at least the Norwegian price), the set should have included a couple of hundred parts more, or like 3 or 4 minifigs. However, because I got it at such a reduced price, I am not really entiteled to complain.

This is the only set related to The Force Awakens that caught my attention, so it's the only one I've purchased. I was drawn to the set as it includes an amazing-looking brick-built Luggabeest, as well as BB8, and Rey minifigures in a relatively small set.

The luggabeest is an excellent build - I tried to assemble it without using the instructions and quickly realized that this was impractical due to the large number of parts assembled using fairly complex SNOT techniques. I followed the instructions and was impressed by the solid construction and clever tricks used. It also features great colors which aren't as common in recent models. It's a 10/10 excellent model.

The play structure is a simplified re-creation of the structure on Jakku where Rey sells parts in exchange for "portions" of food. It is not terribly faithful to the movie, but does include some clever play features such as opening up to access the interior of building, and a hidden compartment with a gun. It is lackluster compared to the Luggabeest; a pretty average 5/10 rating for the play structure.

The set is not a very good value at a retail price of 59.99, but it felt like a fair value at 25% off so I gave it a try.

In conclusion, I think this would be an even stronger set if the Unkar Plutt structure and figure were excluded and the price were around 35$, but the play features are actually pretty well thought out for this relatively small set.

Review by Tom Alphin, Author of The LEGO Architect. Learn more at http://brickarchitect.com