Summary: I was surprised by this set. It is absolutely amazing, almost flawless. This little brick of a ship has been a classic for years since The Empire Strikes Back in 1980. It has inspired countless toys and play experiences, and still reigns as a top collector's item, procuring several great LEGO renditions. This 20th Anniversary Snowspeeder (75269-1) is one of my absolute favorite small sets and did almost everything right.

Build: This build is pretty flawless, I have to say. It looks like a classic snowspeeder, even better in my opinion than the one from the film. In the film, the front is more narrow and straight, and the colors on the "wings" are much duller. LEGO takes it to a next level, making the shape more interesting with slanted pieces on the front of each "wing" angling inwards. The colors on the "wings" have more variety. The movie version has much more white, without LEGO's added grey pieces and a variety of orange sticker elements. While I discuss the "wings," let me just point out how happy I am with the tiny detail on the left "wing," the white 1x2 slope piece with a grille on top of a bright orange accent piece. This is brighter than the movie version, but looks great and sticks out nicely I think. I appreciate that little touch. The cannons/guns on the "wings" look great, exactly like the movie version. It looks like a series of round pieces segmented by small slanted builds, ending in a long turret-like piece. Unfortunately, the segments do not actually connect, but each one is held down nicely and will not just get bumped off somewhere. It is very sturdy, and I appreciate the stickers and the two flaps. The bottom of the ship is very simple; it is mostly grey pieces, with three 1x3 inverted slope pieces as "landing gear" or whatnot. Some people may complain about two brown 1x2 bricks you can see from the bottom, although I think it brings some nice color to the dull bottom. I also love the way the designer used some 1x4 slope pieces in the build to sort of prevent the sloped "wings" from being angled down. It holds the "wings" pretty solidly in place and it just looks really nice and smooth. I appreciate that part usage. Additionally, the underside of each "wing" has a traditional spring-loaded shooter. As for the back of the ship, it is mostly a large, black grill type thing that looks very common among snowspeeder models (I was unable to find any images of the back from the film). The grappling hook is simple, usual, and functional, and I appreciate how it does not use a bulky or out-of-place technic mechanism. The brown axle with the stud on the end that holds the grappling hook mechanism in place looks a little out of place on the end, but again the color works nicely with the ship. As for a rear gun, the ship features a single mounted hand-held stud shooter. The cockpit is great. The entire midsection opens up, from the end of the front slope brick all the way to the black grill section (to which the hinged cockpit is actually attached. It opens much farther than the movie version does, but I can't complain about that; the minifigures become very accessible and the space is very nice and open, holding two short guns at the back. The screen for the rear gunner looks nice but is only semi-believable. The cockpit glass part looks great but is slightly different from the film. One complaint would be about the way the glass section attaches to the brick-built section. It simply sits, held on by one row of studs. It is functional and not terrible but looks awkward when the cockpit is open and can get bumped off easily.

Side-Build: The set harbors a simple side-build of a Hoth cannon, complete with a stud shooter on the bowl and a clip on the side for some binoculars. The rotating mechanism is very nice and simple, with a great range of motion. You can spin the cannon around 360 degrees, and the cannon part itself is on a hinge that allows it to move back until it is shooting straight up and forward until it is shooting down at a slight angle. It is a very appropriate side-build for a Hoth set and adds a huge amount to it.

Playability: This set has a great amount of playability for a vehicle of this size. You can use the grappling hook mechanism on the back to simulate tripping up an AT-AT I suppose, or however else you want to use a grappling hook. The stud shooter and spring-loaded shooters are great -- they bring a much-needed layer of artillery that the main cannons/guns do not have. Just watch your eyes and where you're shooting; they get lost easily. Other than those two, there aren't really any action features, which I would have liked to see, although the ship isn't massive and I don't think that's a massive deal. An issue with the cockpit is the small amount of headroom compared with the pilots' large helmets. Their helmets are always touching, and if not aligned correctly, can easily prevent the cockpit from closing completely. There is also not exactly a designated place for Luke's lightsaber -- it sits in the armrest area, held down by the minifigures' arms. This isn't a massive deal and personally I don't mind, but if it will bother you that the blade is always touching one of the pilots' arms, you may want to use a custom build for that or leave the lightsaber out of the ship. The side-build can hold binoculars and minifigures, and has a stud shooter and turret for either shooting studs or just imaginative play. All in all, the play experience is great.

Minifigures: Although the focus of this set for me was the actual build, the minifigures are nearly flawless. Pilot Luke ended up being my favorite, with a great looking pilot suit and classic helmet, as well as two highly detailed faces, one with his visor down and the other with it up. His expression is very Mark Hamill-like, and I appreciate this minifigure. He looks amazing and is easily a top favorite in my collection even though he isn't necessarily rare or anything like that. I cannot praise this minifigure enough. Dak Raltar, on the other hand, was disappointing. His suit is the same as Luke's I believe, but his face is the generic pilot face, and his helmet is a dull white with only a couple of details. There is nothing special about him; I wish LEGO had designed a different face for him. The Hoth Rebel Trooper looks great and is a great upgrade to previous versions. I love his white torso and happy-looking, detailed face. He looks very good. I would've liked to see a leg-print for him but I can live without that. Finally, there is the 20th Anniversary Lando Calrissian. He looks great, the same as the original from 1999, but still great. His simple blue robes and face are a classic must-have for Star Wars original trilogy fans. His back has the 20th Anniversary logo, so it will not pass as the original. Luckily, Lando's classic cape (which I also love), covers this up so it isn't obvious.

Price: At $34.99, this set looks pretty good price-to-part. It has some good-sized pieces so it's not unreasonable at all to list this at $34.99. I would prefer $30 but $34.99 is not bad, especially for a Star Wars set. As always, I would recommend looking for a sale somewhere. For the amount of stuff I see from this set, I'm pretty happy. Again, I'd like to see a sale somewhere, but it looks like a good amount of stuff for the price. Also, the set itself is great, so I'm happy to pay $34.99.

Recap: This set is excellent, easily a favorite among my collection, especially with its size and price. It's a classic set with some new spins, and though maybe not all that much different from previous renditions, it is both a great addition to any Star Wars collection and a good playable set for children.

Main Build

To preface, I've never owned a LEGO Snowspeeder before but I am really impressed with the details here. The kit feels adequately dense and stable in the hand. The built in play features are easily accessible but aren't easily triggered during handling. Highly swoosh-able! The greebling is decently built up and a plethora of stickers round out the fine details throughout (and through-in!) the craft.

The main body came together surprisingly quickly. There's some smart geometry included to ratchet the wings at the right angle that also prevents them flopping around. There's room to fit two mini-figs and consoles for both seats.

The back of the craft features the famous tow cable! The tow cable line is made using a grappling hook, some string and a technic assembly. It works...adequately. Dak's harpoon gun is simulated by a stud gun mounted above the cable line.

The two wings are mostly symmetrical, so the building process got a bit boring on the second one. As stated previously there's a neat mechanism that holds the wings in the proper angle without allowing them to ratchet up or down during play. 1x8 door rail pieces are used to bring the wings flush with the main body. The effect is pleasing on the finished model.

Side Build

The side build here is of Hoth rebel trench-line turret. The turret is mounted on a white triangular plate to simulate Hoth's terrain. There's 360-degree rotation at the turret's base and a roughly 90-degree hinge point where the dish meets the turret base. A stud gun is integrated into the turret's main gun and the entire assembly is mounted to the dish via a rod-hole connection. The turret is a nice little play feature that's an addition to the main feature of this kit!

Mini-Figs

The four included mini-figs are fairly nice. There's Luke Skywalker, Dak Ralter, a Hoth Rebel Trooper and Lando Calrissian.

I do have an issue with my two pilots printings. Their chest armor are supposed to be white, but the Rebel orange shows through just too strongly. I think this is a noted (to death) issue so I'll gloss over it here. Otherwise the Pilot's printings are crazy detailed and awesome! Last time I had a Rebel Pilot the printing looked fairly similar to Dak's helmet, so the printings on the Luke's helmet blows my mind! Luke has his blue lightsaber and a pilot’s pistol. Dak only has a pilot pistol. While both figures are decent, I prefer Luke to Dak.

The Hoth trooper is just a generic trooper. He has some nice silver details on the chest and for the buckle. He also sports a backpack, and warm(?) hat and some snow googles that cover the whole face. The trooper’s accessories include a pair of binoculars and old school large rifle. All in all, a standard Hoth trooper figure.

Lando is freaking awesome! His cape is awesome, his old school blaster is awesome, his printings are awesome! The entire 20th Anniversary min-fig line is a fantastic idea. I hope LEGO does more of these collectable lines in the future. I don't particularly mind the big honking print on back of these figures. There may have been grumbles over these prints but the figures are made to displayed, no? On display most people will never see the 20^th Anniversary logo, so I think this one compromise is acceptable.

Conclusions

I think this set was well worth the price. The building techniques used were intriguing and the finished model is quite feature dense. The included mini-figs are pretty good and none of them come with stud guns as their primary weapon! (Although I'm sure you make some by scrounging the harpoon gun and turret laser.) All-in-all, I was quite pleased with the set when I wrapped up.

Lego is more redundant with its Snowspeeder releases than the second season of The Walking Dead at this point. When it came to the 20th anniversary sets, who would have only seen this one coming. The title is a sarcastic one, but not entirely. On one hand, I think that Lego could have gone with a little more original approach to their anniversary sets, on the other hand Snowspeeder is basically a trademark set.

My secondary title is "Where is all the orange?". And this question does remain. What happened to the orange outlines on this set? It is honestly quite shockingly inaccurate in its colouring theme.

Anyway, I did start on a negative tone here, but the set is far from bad, so let's get to the review itself.

PRICE

Oh boy. The 40$ price mark does not sound too good. And as usual there is some backlash against its pricing. But I am going to do the unthinkable, and I am going to stand by Lego's side this time. It is a special set with a collectable minifigure. The set would normally be 35$ bucks anyway so this makes sense. It is not the best deal by a long shot, but the price is not too bad.

MINIFIGS

• Lando Calrissian. I would honestly never write the name correctly without looking at the stand he is stationed on. It is an OG minifig with a brilliant cape. The print is the same as the original from 2003 in 10123. There are few differences though. The hairpiece is the modern black one with a little bit of shaping done and the minifig has a huge 20YEARS Lego Star Wars on its back. Why? Probably to differentiate from the original minifig.
• Hoth Rebel Trooper. This is the weakest of the three minifigs which are the part of the playset itself. He comes with a decent torso and back print. But has no arms, legs nor waist print. The head has one face which I am fine with. There is a white backpack which is nice and a helmet. The helmet is where I have the biggest issue with this minifig. You can put the white goggles into two positions on the helmet. When it is placed above the visor cap, all looks fine. But when you decide to put it in front of the eyes, the guy looks dumb. The eyes are so close together and the huge goggles makes him look like he is squinting. It is hilarious but also pretty dumb looking. Also, the rebel trooper comes with a camera for a gun. This a homage to the old Snowspeeders.
• Dak Ralter. The print for the torso is immaculate. The print continuous through the waist down to the legs. There is no arm print but the print we do get here is extremely detailed and well-done. The only issue here is that the orange of the vest bleeds through the white vest. The helmet is a classic rebel pilot helmet with a blue rebellion insignia. The head has yellow visors printed on and also comes with two facial expressions. One is having a wide confident simper. The other though is a face of horror. And God damn this looks horrific. This is the type of expression one has upon waking up after a party in Las Vegas which has ended with a marriage to a Chinese pole dance, adoption of a koala bear stationed in a polish zoo in Warsaw, a 1500$ speeding ticket and being registered as a sex offender. It is what I presume is the expression before he gets killed in the opening battle of the episode V. Which is pretty dark for a Lego set honestly. So my hopes for a younglings episode III battle pack have just sky-rocketed. Dak is armed with a regular blaster pistol.
• Luke Skywalker. He has the same print as the previous minifig. The only differences here are the helmet which has a different and little richer print and the face expressions. Which are just a mild smile and a stressed grin. Luke is also armed with a regular blaster pistol. Luke also comes with a blue Lightsaber.

BUILD

I will start with the small dish laser canon. It took me by surprise with how many pieces this thing actually consists of. It is like 40 pieces. None of them are noteworthy except perhaps for the dish itself. But if you collect Lego for a while you probably have this one great many times. The canon has a stud shooter which does look like it is suppose to be a part of the canon. It can be removed if you are bothered by stud shooter being a part of the build. The dish can lean 80 degrees back and 20 degrees forward. It can spin around completely.

It is a nice little addition to the set to paint the scene and if you end up buying more of these I can imagine this helping you set a nice Hoth battle moc.

The speeder is the reason to buy this set. And if you have never bought a Snowspeeder, you might be little surprised with how much there is to it.

The building experience is quit enjoyable with one exception to which I will get a little later, as there is no pain inducing redundancy. But be warned, this set does come with 11 stickers and some of them are pretty difficult to apply. The wings are nearly identical, but they do have few little differences. The speeder is very sturdy and once you build it, it does not wiggle at all. If you drop it on the ground it usually breaks into few pieces which you can assemble back together pretty easily and it does not usually require a usage of a manual. You can fit two minifigs into the cockpit without any problems and there is a nice storage space at the back for the blasters. You cannot fit the lightsaber there but it can be placed next to Luke in the cockpit area. The whole cockpit canopy can be opened for easy access. What I really like about the detailing here is that the little sticker at the back of the cockpit shows what a pilot would see while using the harpoon. The small wing pieces at the back of the engines can be opened, and they reveal engine stickers which adds to the nice detailing of the set. I will get to the playability features later.

As for the demerits of the set, there are few. What I cannot get my head around is the colouring of the model. Why is there almost no orange at all? The orange makes the speeder look more detailed and closer to the real in universe thing. The almost complete absence of any radiant colours make this set look like it comes from a black and white picture.

The opening mechanism of the cockpit comes with an awkward deficiency. When you try opening the whole canopy there is no problem. But if you wish to open just the front part, you need to press against the rest of the canopy, otherwise it will fall apart pretty easily. The same goes for the small engine wings. If you just try to open them, they will get detached from the speeder's wings.

PLAYBILITY

There are two spring loaded shooters under the wings of the vehicle. You cannot see them even while being loaded unless you look directly from the bottom of the speeder. And then there it is. A stud shooter. Now this is the case in which the stud shooter is a perfect choice. Its bulky appearance does not disturb the overall visage of the vehicle, because it is suppose to represent a harpoon shooter not a handgun. And it adds to the playabilty of the set. Furthermore, there is a cable at the back of the vehicle with a hook attached to it. You can extend the cable with a simple knob.

The Snowspeeder is like a burrito in a good Mexican restaurant. It is a standard go to meal when you are indecisive about what to eat and it is almost always an enjoyable one. But there is also the inevitable explosive diarrhoea at the end which you are doomed to experience almost every time. The explosive diarrhoea of this set is building the cable mechanism. Now the mechanism is pretty simple. But it is the cable itself which causes most of the suffering. You need to stick the cable, which consists of smaller strings wrapped around each other like a Pomlázka, through a really small hole twice. And I can assure you that the strings are going to get unwrapped and you are going to get furious to the point you will be making the same sound as Anakin made while he was burning to a crisp on the sunny high-ground beach of Mustafar.

CONCLUSION

As you can see there is more to the simple Snowspeeder than you might expect. If you do not own any Snowpeeder, and you desire one, I would recommend you buying this set.

The speeder is detailed and well-designed. There are some shortcomings, but they can be dealt with, you just have to be little cautious.

The minifigs are excellent and there is plenty of playability. This set is definitely a right choice for the kids to play with and for the adults to display. Except for the strange colour exclusion, which I consider to be a major mistake, I would say this is one of the better looking vehicles in all of Lego Star Wars. It is one of the sets you can just build and put on your office table. It is conveniently sized and easily recognizable.

For the whole process of writing this review I was hell-bent on giving it nice 3 stars. But now, when I think about it and I have just re-built the set, I think it deserver 4 stars. The price does not enrage me, the shortcomings are present but not to the point of rendering this set useless, the minifigs are nice and plenty and there is a lot of playability. This is where the mere 5 stars rating system shows how insufficient it is. This set is a classic 7 out of 10 for me. But since I fail to convince myself to do otherwise, I will rate this one with 4 stars.

Summary

The Rebel snowspeeder is one of the more famous of the original vehicles of the Star Wars trilogy. Over the years, many kits have been released; it is telling that among the first sets released in the Lego Star Wars line was a snowspeeder and that two UCS sets have been released so far. Recently there has also been the Rebel Sandspeeder (set 75204),which was pretty much a snowspeeder in desert camouflage. The big problem with the more recent snowspeeder sets was their price (at least in Europe).

The 20th anniversary set is no exception, but thankfully seeing it at a discount, I decided to get it. What helped the deicision is that it is a traditional snowspeeder with the 20th anniversary minifigure. In the end, I like the build and the minifigures, and I like the overall look of the speeder. Overall, I think this an OK set, which one should look to get at a discount. If I had already had the Rebel Sandspeerder or (in particular) the 2014 Snowspeeder (set 75049), I highly doubt I would have gotten this set.

Build experience

The two builds IMHO are simple enjoyable, and the vast majority of 7 year olds should be able to build it quite easily. The build is divided over 4 (!) bags, which could easily have been reduced to two. One starts with the construction of the laser canon. Much of the construction involves sideways construction. I myself am not bothered by the stud-shooter, but if you do not like it, it can easily be replaced (with the spare parts included in the set).

The main build is the snowspeeder. When comparing it with the Sandspeeder and 2014 Snowspeeder, in design the changes are fairly minimal, and there are a lot of similarities in the basic construction of the set. The few stickers are easy to apply, and IMHO definitely do enhance the looks of the set. The main canopy is a print, thankfully.

The minifigures

There are four minifigures included in this set, all of them, with three of them being unique (so far) to this set: Dak Ralters, Lando Calrissian and a Rebel Snowtrooper.

Luke Skywalker is the only minifigure that is not unique to this set, as he is also found in the 4 Plus X-Wing Starfighter Trench Run (set 75235). The print on the front and back of the torso and the legs is highly detailed. Unfortunately, the white vest is not opaque enough, with the orange plastic of the torso bleeding through the print. I like the two face prints, one with the visor down and slightly more determined expression, and one with the visor up (and more relaxed expression). He is armed with a light sabre, which cannot be stored on the snowspeeder.

Dak Ralters has the same torso as Luke (and therefore the same printing issues). His helmet has a simpler print with blue rebel symbols (those on Luke's helmet are red). I like his two face prints. In both his visors are down; in one he is smiling, in the other he seems to be dismayed. Unlike Luke he has communication gear.

The Rebel Snowtrooper is well done, and IMHO arguably the best minifigure of them all. He has a highly detailed and well done print on the front and back of his torso. I like the backpack and the winter hat with snow goggles. He has a basice face print, with a somewhat determined expression. He is armed with a blaster piece that by now might be 30 years old in design (as the 'telescope', 'range finder' known from classic space in the 1980s'.

Lando Calrissian is the 20th anniversary minifigure, and a replica of a 2003 version of this character which appeared in the Cloud City set. For that reason he has the 20th anniversary logo printed on the back. This logo is covered by his cape, thus not visible when he is displayed on the stand. The minifigure is IMHO well done.

The build

The Snowspeeder looks like a snowspeeder, and is technically well done. On the one hand it looks rather sleek, while from above it was surpring to me how wide the whole vehicle is. The spring-loaded shooters are nicely hidden underneath the wings, while the studshooter can easily be left off (and be replaced by something else). The canopy fits, but is ony fixed to the main body by four studs at the very end. It comes off quite easily. Overall, I think the designer has done a great job, and I personally have no idea where significant improvements can be made.

Play vs display.

This seems to be, above all, a play set. The snowspeeder is very swooshable, easy to handle, and the springloaded shooters are connected in such a way that they are fairly easy to operate, while the speeder can still be handled without launching the bolts by accident. What is missing is something to charge at, unfortunately.

It also works quite well as a display piece, especially when placed on a small stand. It is well finished enough for that.

The verdict

Overall, I think this is a nice set, which unfortunately has two problems: its RRP (though the most palatable of the three versions sold for this price), and the printing on the Luke and Dak minifigures. This takes away from an otherwise well designed and well engineered set of a classic Star Wars vehicle. Personally, I would look for this set on a discount, but not for RRP.

One of five sets released to celebrate 20 years of Lego Star Wars, this is an update of one of the very first sets, the original #7130 Snowspeeder, from 1999 (and the very first Star Wars set I picked up!).

Harking back to that original set, it includes a white/grey Snowspeeder with Luke Skywalker and Dak Ralter (Luke's gunner at the Battle of Hoth), and a laser emplacement with a Rebel trooper. All have been significantly updated, with the laser doing a much better job of capturing the original's shape. A small stud-shooter is featured, and a clip holds a pair of macrobinoculars in place.

The Snowspeeder itself is a world apart from the original - looking back you can really appreciate the challenges the designers faced, adapting complex vehicle designs into brick form.The build itself is fairly straightforward, with a few stickers to apply (the vehicle only has one printed part). The canopy opens up to reveal seating space for Luke and Dak, and storage for their blasters (but, disappointingly, nowhere for Luke's lightsaber). There are two projectile launchers tucked underneath, which thankfully aren't terribly intrusive. There is also a stud-shooter on the rear, where the grappling hook launcher would be found.

The launcher itself hasn't been forgotten, being fitted to the rear of the vehicle by means of a winch, The long string is perfect for wrapping around the legs of an AT-AT (hint hint, Lego!).

Overall, this is an excellent representation of this classic vehicle, capturing the complex shape with plenty of detail. Lastly, as a 20th Anniversary Edition, it includes a collectible minifigure - Lando Calrissian, as featured in the original 2003 Cloud City set. The highlight of this minifigure is the cape, which is light blue on one side and yellow on the other, nicely capturing Lando's dashing fashion sense. He comes with a display stand, which can link with those included in the other four. The set's instruction book includes a comparison with the 20-year-old #7131.

If I can level one criticism at this set, it's that it's not significantly different to the other numerous Snowspeeders produced after #7131, such as #75049. However, if you haven't got a Snowspeeder or are looking to add the 20th Anniversary Editions to your collection, I highly recommend it.