Set #79108 Stagecoach Escape: This set alone is one of the best all around sets LEGO could have possibly conceived of for this Theme, or indeed any Theme. It's a great looking set, the build is spectacularly clever in how they achieve the look of an 1800s era stagecoach and the play features work nicely. There are very few shortcomings in the set, read on for my complete thoughts on the entire package.

Box/Instructions

Straight out of the gate I'll say the Lone Ranger box designs are fairly ordinary, and yet they work so well as a whole. I enjoy seeing them on the shelf, however brief a time remaining that may wind up being and I enjoy the simplicity of the design for the images on the back. They remind me of Classic LEGO sets from my younger days.

The instructions for these sets are also nicely designed and of a unique colour, not too many yellow manuals out there for the covers. If I had to change anything it would be the lack of a Mini-Figure checklist/showcase, and the cross-promotions just aren't there. I understand this is more of a limited run Theme, however if most other licensed Themes can have checklists and cross-promotions in the back (or with included comic book adventures in the case of Super Heroes) then why must this Theme be so minimalist? All you get are the instructions for the build and a few stray images in the back, mostly for stuff like the LEGO Fan club or the online site for the Theme. It's a bit mediocre and I know LEGO can do better, and it can't just be because of the license, after all if memory serves their Toy Story manuals were pretty impressive with cross-promotions, their Cars Manuals also look great and had a checklist in the back for all the characters. I believe the other Disney Themes have been much better packaged for the instructions, LEGO must have been lacking a bit of confidence in their Western Theme.

Parts

This set is full of some great parts, odd looking Technic bits for the axles, I don't see them too often, they're sort of curved a bit and hook onto pins in three spots. Then there's the large half-dish shaped things commonly found on spaceships and stuff to make the body of the stage, and of course we can't forget the wagon wheels. Always nice to see them in a LEGO set, since there aren't too many of them around outside of the Castle and Fantasy based licenses.

Overall a lot of useful parts for MOCs, not a whole lot of rare colours or things like that, but still quite impressive.

Minifigures

Five in this set, the two staples found in just about every set and three unique characters.

Tonto and The Lone Ranger are the exact same prints from the Comanche Camp, they have the same accessories for the most part, Tonto doesn't come with his tomahawk in this set, instead he has a printed tile with the old pocket watch he was always carrying around in the film. (Making him look even more like Jack Sparrow this time around.) I can't really add much to what I said over in that review.

Then we have the two villains.

Jesus is the one wearing a red bandana. He comes with a nice looking double-sided torso print, some classic western pants printing (think they're known as chaps or something like that) and a nice pair of side-burns with a dark smirking expression beneath his bandana. He has a knife for an accessory and the great new cowboy hat they've introduced in a brown colour.

Barret is the second villain, mind you I can't recall who's who from the film since I haven't seen it in such a long time. Still these bandits are pretty impressive looking, Barret rides the brown horse in this set and carries the long-barreled rifle and a stick of dynamite for accessories. His leg printing is a nice touch and his pinstriped shirt print looks great underneath his dark grey coat. There's back printing here, but again it's a minimal amount showing off creases in the folds of the coat more than anything else. He's got side-burns too and has a scowling expression, he's also wearing black gloves and a matching black cowboy hat. This is the same new hat as the Lone Ranger, only in black instead of white.

Red Harrington is one of only two female characters released in Mini-Figure form, it's also the second time Helen Bonham Carter has been made into a Mini-Figure, first was Bellatrix Lestrange now we have this figure. She's tops, her torso has double-sided printing that looks quite impressive, looking like a red overcoat with a corseted dress underneath. She also has waist printing and her legs are multi-coloured. One is plain red and the other is pure white with leg printing on it. This is to show off the feature of the character involving her false leg (I believe made out of ivory) and it works beautifully on this Mini-Fig.

She includes one of the new sculpt pistols in a dark stone gray, she has a double-sided facial print with one side frightened and the other looking smug and sassy all rolled into one... Kind of reminds me of Catwoman actually. Her hair piece is brand new and is just plain awesome, it's made out of the same material as Friends hair and includes a hole, so that she can wear her small extra accessory (a fun looking hat with a red trim and a light green colour). She's just a really great looking Mini-Fig, she's even got a small lower leg cloak/cape piece that fits around her leg pegs. She's by far the best looking Mini-Fig in this set.

The build

The build for this set is pure gold, each step takes you through the sheer pleasure of building a vehicle in LEGO form that we have not gotten before. There are a total of three numbered bags in the set, each bag builds one section of the Stage and a few of the Mini-Figures.

I love the undercarriage of this vehicle, it's designed to let the bulk of the body rest comfortably and also bounce up and down like on a real stage, or rock from side-to-side to be a bit more precise. Every step as you go along is just lots of fun, mostly because the end product is so darn impressive and large. My one regret is the use of stickers for details rather than printing directly on the brick, printed elements would have enhanced this set three fold.

The completed model

A LEGO Stagecoach people, that's all I have to say. Well not exactly, but it's downright close to all I have to say to get a lot of fans excited. This stage is a big and bulky looking vehicle, it's really quite tall which I wasn't expecting from the way it looks on the box.

The reins are a real nice touch, it's just a string with studs on either end, but it works so wonderfully. The design of the stage is also quite nice as it allows you to maneuver the team of horses at the front from side to side before the entire stage turns down the path.

The way the two end pieces are made turns the whole thing into a beautiful work of art, and I love the fact that the top is easily removed for accessing the interior. Which, is a bit sparsley detailed, but does allow for a lot of room to fit Mini-Figures.

Even the small green safe on top adds to the look of the set as a whole and works brilliantly. The play features are limited as well, you can push a tab in the back that sends the luggage flying out to knock down a Mini-Fig. The safe is easily stolen as it sits on two single stud plates (or whatever their proper name is) and the doors open and close, that's all you really need for play features here.

Summary

Overall I'd say this is a must own set and the price is perfect. For 40$ it's a great deal, although getting it on sale may be more to your liking if you're not too keen on owning more Tonto and Lone Ranger Mini-Figs. Highly Recommended.

I still think that it is immensely strange that Disney decided to go with The Lone Ranger as one of its summer tentpole productions, and I think that it is stranger still that LEGO decided to go with it as one of their licensed themes for the year. For those among us who are ambivalent towards the upcoming film - and I suspect that that proportion is not a small one - the most that one can say at first glance is that at least the Lone Ranger theme is a throwback to the ol' Western theme from the mid-90's which was cool in many ways, and a theme that would probably remain dead and buried if not for the magic of Johnny Depp masquerading as a Native American (does that qualify as redface, perhaps?).

Cynicism aside, Stagecoach Escape is a really good set, and one that definitely stands well on its own, independent of whatever star power that may be behind it. In fact, this mid-price set may very well be the best in the theme, and certainly one that would be within the budget range of most folks. A host of exclusive Minifigs and a surprisingly detailed construction make this set worthwhile, even if you're only a cursory fan of the Lone Ranger or western-type themes as a whole.

Five Minifigs is a lot of Minifigs for a US$30 set, though of course it turns out that it is possible to have too many Lone Rangers/Tontos running around your house. The star of the show here has to be Red Harrington, which might just be one of the best-looking Minifigs of the year. Her hat turns out to be a separate piece from her hair, which is pretty sweet, and her cloth dress only adds to her uniqueness. I can't quite tell if she's supposed to be a villain or what, but she definitely looks great. Her two bandit associates are somewhat generic, but I don't think that's altogether a bad thing when it comes to licensed sets - having generic bad guys around to beat up is always a plus. Anyway, if you were a fan of the aforementioned Western theme, you'll probably get a kick out of having some fresh new outlaws to play around with.

As I said earlier, the titular stagecoach is actually surprisingly intricate, much more so than even some relatively recent attempts. The stickers are a pain, but if you can forgive/avoid those, there are a number of cool little details that make this set both fun and visually pleasing. There's a series of little steps for Helena Bonham Carter to get in and out of the carriage daintily, a mailbag as befitting of any stagecoach from the old west, a couple of bars for Minifigs to cling to, and a nice mechanism that enables one to jettison luggage from the back for one reason or another. The dark-green safe is also a handsome little construction, though sadly it is a bit too large for Minifigs to safely carry. Most surprising of all, however, is that the stagecoach is designed to sit "unsteadily" on top of the bottom chassis, so it mimics old stagecoaches very well in that it rocks from side to side. Now that is not only realistic but extremely clever.

The downside? As mentioned by others, the stagecoach is monstrously huge compared to the Minifigs (and even the poor horses forced to pull it), so it is bound to dwarf any nearby structures that you have, Lone Ranger themed or otherwise. Given that this has somehow been a problem with carriages since they came into being, I think we have to accept it as more or less an inevitably, especially given the detail that this one packs in. All the same, the size makes for an impressive display, and I doubt that you will find that the size disappoints you too much.

Regardless of how much you care about The Lone Ranger, this is a rather clever set with an impressive array of features for a pretty decent price. It looks good and is a lot of fun, so if you find yourself forced at gunpoint to pick one set from this theme, make it this one.

This set is beautiful to look at and great fun to play with, if my kids are anything to go by. I fell in love with the set as soon as I saw the first pictures so my heart was broken when I saw the RRP for Australia ($70).

The stagecoach is too big compared to the minifigs or horses but I am happy to accept that compromise to allow for the detail in this set, any smaller and it would have been difficult to play with.

Pros

• Very nice set of minifigures in a small set.
  
• The shape and detailing of the stagecoach is very nice.
• Several nice features on the stagecoach (baggage compartment, safe, handles to climb outside of coach, reins for horses)
• Varied and quick build, leaves me wanting for more.
• Western theme.
  

Cons

• The coach is too big compared to the minifigures and horses.
  Realistically a coach of this type would only be a bit taller than a horse.
  
• Way too expensive RRP in Australia.

I absolutely love this set, it is a refreshing addition to the Lego palette. I am a bit biased since there have been so few Western themed sets recently and, movie tie-in or not, this is a beautiful play set by any measure.

If you can get this set close to the US RRP I would wholeheartedly recommend it but I'm not sure if I would be willing to pay more than double that. However it is a great credit to this set that I would not dismiss that possibility off-hand.

As a long time fan of the Lone Ranger, I was overjoyed to see the sets. Upon cracking this set open, everything was well organized and fairly easy to put together. I was really impressed with the look of the finished product and the minifigs that come with it. This is totally worth every penny. I can't wait to get my hands on the other sets.

Hindsight is always 20/20... in 2013 Disney's Lone Ranger film was being advertised as a large scale epic, a western from the same creative minds that brought audiences the Pirates of the Caribbean films. "The sailing ships have been traded in for trains" declared one film journalist describing the upcoming film.

Well the film worked as well as one of its trains hitting a derail switch at full speed... One of the largest financial bombs of its age, Lone Ranger was a sure sign of Depp's fading stardom and a roadblock for future high budget films again returning to the western genre.

While movie audiences though were not ecstatic for the western genre... Lego fans were. It had been nearly a decade since the classic Lego Western theme had retired, one of the final breaths of the "old school" Lego themes in the vein of Space, Pirates, and Castle. The Lego Cuusoo website (beta version of the modern Lego Ideas) had just launched. After seeing a lot of people outside the Lego fan community sign up to use Cuusoo to vote on the Back to the Future set; FOL's decided they needed a set of their own to champion, to see if Lego fans could push through a non-Licensed (and non-NASA) set through to the magical 10,000 votes. That first champion was the proposed Modular Western Town, a modular detailed set with a saloon, sheriffs' office and a bank that imitated the Hollywood backlot sets of the old western films.

Modular Western Town was one of the first Cuusoo projects to also be rejected after reaching 10,000 votes... Lego announced that they had intentions on making a line of sets based on the upcoming Lone Ranger film and that they saw the Cuusoo project as internal competition against what Lego (and probably Disney) were hoping would be a successful licensed Lone Ranger theme. But by rejecting the Cuusoo project, Lego raised expectations high for Lone Ranger. FOL's now knew that a licensed western theme was coming. While not every set Lone Ranger offered reached the lofty expectations the Cuusoo project accidentally set, a few of the sets were instant standouts; including the Stagecoach Escape. Due to the failing of the film, many of these sets became shelf warmers... but they deserve attention from any serious AFOL collector looking to bring some of the Wild West into their Lego room.

Minifigures

The Lone Ranger; this identical figure appears in several other sets from the line. The two silver pistols were new at the time, and have rarely appeared since then.

Tonto; Depp's bumbling role may have been one of the worst parts of the film... but as a minifigure Tonto looks great. He is pretty common, since he comes in nearly ever set in the series; but I still love the cool torso prints and the unique rubber hairpiece with a crow on his head.

Jesus; well, Jesus is pretty white for a minifigure that is supposed to represent a Latino-American outlaw. This was a huge missed opportunity for Lego to produce a far more unique figure; despite the fact nearly all the prints on this guy are unique to this one set! Still, the prints are cool and are great for moc builders looking to include a western outlaw in their builds.

Barret; another exclusive outlaw. Unlike Jesus, Barret wears a bandana over his face. Again, the printing and designs are good.

Red Harrington probably the highlight of all the figures in this set, Red is based on Helena Bohman Carter's character from the film. The hair is a unique rubber mold, with a small hat piece that connects into it via a peg. A stiff skirt piece wraps around the legs of the figure. One leg is cast in white with unique printing, based on the character's artificial leg with a hidden gun inside it.

The Build

As I remember, building methods in this model weren't to special, but still fun to assemble. The three horses using the then new horse mold were a nice touche.

Finished Model

Those who have built the 2018 Grindewald's Escape set may note a similarity to this model (and not just the fact a minifigure based on Depp is in both sets). Both are animal drawn carriages with very similar building methods and designs. However, I do think the Lone Ranger Stagecoach fails in one sense... scale. Its just, so darn big. Lego has gotten very good recently at scaling down models while packing in the same functions as the older larger sets did. Sometimes that is a bad thing (compare the last MTT to the previous version) and other times it marks a clear improvement to the source material (such as the Republic Fighter Tank, with the new one being a far more nimble and compact model compared to the lumbering and unrealistically huge original). This stagecoach is a case were the scale is way WAY to big. The doors for the coach are at nearly minifigure height, and the model dwarves the coaches on the train set which was released alongside The Lone Ranger theme. I don't have the small western town set also released as part of the theme, but my bet would be the stagecoach is likely to tower over the buildings included in that set to.

Fortunately, the increased size is compensated via increased detail. The stickers used are nice graphics, and the safe on top of the coach is a nice touch. The suitcase flinging action feature on the back is one I have never really played around with so I can't tell you how well it works. The body leans very easily when being pushed around thanks to some basic suspension, which is a fun play feature.

At the end of the day, this is a good set, based on a bad film, with good minifigures and some decent play features. I do wish it was smaller, but its easier for a MOC builder to remove bricks to downscale something than it would be to add bricks to make it bigger. I would recommend this set to any Lego Western find, regardless of the lame duck nature of the originating franchise.