If you do not like this set and think that Lego is mistaken to have this made because you think it is just a re-release, then no, my young Jedi. You will find that it is you who are mistaken, about a great many things.

I swear, this has to be the least expected set of the whole year. Ain't nobody has seen this coming. We knew there would be an exclusive set for $100 with 775 pieces, but nothing else. And literally nobody guessed it would be a remake of 75093. Furthermore, I was planning on getting the 2015 from BrickLink or something, but I was stopped just in time by the reveal of this set, which is great, since I would be rather unhappy have I bought the older version.

Anyway, this seemingly not too different edition was received by the community rather coldly since the previous model was not probably a complete hit and this edition does not seem to be all that different, which is a shame for I believe there is enough difference to justify its existence. The only thing that caught people attention was the arm printing on Darth Vader.

I will compare the sets a wee bit, but I will judge this set on its own as a standalone thing to a significant degree, though the context of the other models cannot be completely ignored.

PRICE

$100 is quite a lot to ask for mere 775 pieces, but as I was building this thing, I have noticed a significant amount of larger pieces, namely plates and quarter cones. And the finished build is somewhat spacious and as such I do not think the price is all that bad. It is expensive, but not overpriced.

MINIFIGS

I would go as far as saying that the minifig selection is perfect here. Every character needed is here and is done very well. The only possible upgrade could be the inclusion of Simn Aloo or Janus Greejatus. But that is just a fantasy which is not necessary for the set being great. Would be cool though.

• Luke Skywalker. This is my first ever ep. 6 Luke, so I have nothing to compare him to. But from what I can tell this is a pretty decent and recognizable representation of this beloved character. The torso and the back prints are somewhat tame, but they do what needs to be done as there is not much detail to depict here since Luke does not wear any complex garments in the film. There is no arm printing and no leg printing which I do not like. In 2020, we could get few wrinkles of the fabric here and there so that the legs do not look so barren. A pretty cool detail is the right hand in black to represent the glove over the robotic arm. There are two facial expressions, both rather moderate. One is a small smile and the other a serious grin. The hair piece finally has the correct colour unlike with almost every episode 4 set recently. Luke is armed with a beautiful new green frosted lightsaber.
• Darth Vader. Oh boi what do we have here! We were apparently very well-behaved, since Lego has decided to bless us with an amazing minifig. As already mentioned, Vader comes with a great looking arm printing.The chest print has a lot of buttons and too much detail to describe here. The print from the waist piece connects perfectly with the leg print to represent Vader's robe. There is obviously a print on the back and it is a tame but sufficient one. The head has this milky white colour and few scars at the back. Vader is smiling here, and I am too as there is a lot of detail on his face. The two-piece helmet is somewhat large, but it still does not make the minifig completely silly. The cape is made out of the soft fabric. Darth (which was his original first name in the first picture) is armed with a regular red lightsaber.
• The Senate. Another well-made minifig with a print that connects accurately across all the sections of the body. Sheev does not fancy himself a back print, but comes with two facial expressions. One is amused by Luke's faith in his friend and the other is angry with his lack of vision. Both faces are very wrinkly and do have a lot of detail. Darth Sidious has two force lightning pieces to hold and a red lightsaber with a gold lightsaber hilt. His head, full of malicious intentions, is covered with the new bonnet piece and his old body is partly hidden by a cape made out of the same soft fabric as the Vader's one.
• Imperial guard. The guard is a pretty simplistic figure and there is not much room for showing off. The print on the chest is extremely mild and only shows little wrinkles of the fabric. There is no back pint, no leg and arms print. I would like to see some leg printing action here just like with the Luke's minifig, but we have to wait for a next generation I suppose. The helmet mold has a see through for eyes. The head is all black hence the visors are black. Both guards are armed with two-piece pikes, the hilt is a black flashlight piece with a grey stick. The cape is again made out of soft fabric and one side is crimson red and the other is darker red just like the arms.

The set includes two handcuffs and funnily enough there is yet another red lightsaber with a regular silver hilt thanks to the spare parts.

BUILD

It would be foolish of me to judge this set by its accuracy as there really is not much. The room in the film is too large to be captured faithfully in a lego form in an affordable price range. And because of that the designers had to take some liberties while creating the build.Almost nothing about this set is right, but I have some understanding as to why, so I will not give this set too much slack for that.

The front door section is actually a pretty detailed part with some nice colour usage. It does not exist in the picture and is similar to the entrance to the Sheev's office from the 3rd film. Each side of the door can be opened by pulling a handle from the side. While closed, the doors do not close fully, unless you hold the handles, and there is a small gap in between. Two stickers are used for detailing purposes on the other side of the portal which cannot be seen on any promotional pictures as far as I am concerned. The doorway can be extended from the main build in order to create sort of a platform in front of the steps. Let me tell you, this part is shorter than my liver's lifespan after the university graduation party and it makes me unhappy. Now I do not understand why they made this part so short when there is enough free space under the model. This fact becomes even more aggravating upon realising that the older model had this very platform twice as long. The stairway leading up to the throne has a small lever on the side which upon pressing catapults two steps and anyone standing on them into the air. Behind this stairway is some free space with two clips for Palpatine's force lightning. The throne itself has two stickers, one on each side to simulate control panels. I do not find the clips on the side of the throne very fortunate as they kind of break the design. There are two more clips at the back where you can put the golden Lightsaber. The throne spins 360, but you need to put the lightsaber hilt behind the throne high enough so that it does not touch the chi-slopes around the chair while spinning. Behind the chair is an openable window. I would prefer to have wee bit more space between the throne and the window so that Luke has a place to stand and observe the destruction of the pitiful little rebellion. The large panels on the side can be moved thanks to the joints they are attached by inwards. The red panels are stickers while the small control panels on the side are printed pieces. This whole part can be removed from the build pretty easily since it is attached just by four studs. This is done on purpose I believe to access the space under the throne. As already stated I do not mind the inaccuracy of the set, but the duty posts do drive my nerves a bit. The blue screens are supposed to face inwards, but they do just the opposite in this version while the previous edition had this detail correctly at least on the top. You can fix this by lifting these pieces up, it will not have a place inside for a minifig to stand in, but it will look better than on the official artwork.

Each side has a movable section with a window. The reactor shaft has no floor so that you only have to lift the set a bit to get the thrown-in minifig back. The stickers on the inside and outside are pretty easy to apply. The other side addition has a small bridge standing on one leg which is not attached by a stud but has a half-sphere facing into a hole-piece. That is why the leg holds firmly, but upon getting hit it crumbles the whole bridge down. Under the bridge you can see an overlapping grill piece which is at the end of a lever. If you press the grill piece, it will catapult a minifig standing in the middle of this small platform into the air in a general direction towards the bridge. Both of these sections can be attached by clips to the extendable doorway part and none of these can be removed easily without taking a bunch of parts of the set.

The build has a lot of larger and interesting pieces and is quite a lot of fun to build. The floor is black this time and there is a lot of hidden detail here. The build is not the sturdiest one and since the connections between each section is not usually very strong. It holds together very well, but you have to be careful when carrying the set around. There are 10 stickers in the set.

PLAYABILITY

It comes as no surprise that a set based on a climactic duel has a great playability value. You have all the figures you need and there are plenty of nice play features built into the model. You can re-enact the scene in any way you fancy and there is always something to move, take off or make it jump. This is a fantastic set for kids since it takes a while to discover every little hidden thing here, like throwing people out of the windows.

CONCLUSION

Is this a great standalone set? Yes. Is it better than the previous one? Yes. Is the set worth the money? Yes, even if there are better deals out there right now. If you are into the original trilogy, this might be the right set for you as it is for me. If you already own the previous edition, there is not such a significant difference from the old one to make it worth it unless you are a collector. I think that there is more improvement, except for the shorter walkway, than people give this set credit for. Most of the minifigs are better or at least their weapon is, the building techniques are wee better and different and since the previous model is out of retail sale for a long time, re-doing the set is not such a bad idea. It is not a shameless re-release but a slight improvement and redesign. It is a shame that people bash this set quite a lot.

It holds both a good value for kids as a play toy and a display piece for the older audience as the set still looks pretty crisp on a display. I recommend this set wholeheartedly even if just for the arm printed Vader.