I recently pulled the parts for this out of my lego bins and put this together in about an hour and a half.

Box/Instructions

I actually received this set as a hand me down, so I had no original instructions or box, but I easily found the instructions on this website, and I had no problem with it!

Parts

The parts are all technic parts, so they are sometimes a bit tricky to fit together, but the instructions were easy enough to follow. This also has a lot of rubber bands, which is how the entire thing functions. You just gotta be careful with those!

Minifigures

No minifigures in this set, this is a 12-inch technic functional replica of the Droideka

The build

If you're a decent technic builder, you won't have a problem with this. It does take a while, but it's worth it.

The completed model

It looks pretty darn awesome when it's built and extended, and makes a great display piece. It also looks pretty cool when it's unfolding, if you can get it to do that properly. I admit, it doesn't always unfold 100% correctly, but it often does if you fold it correctly.

Overall opinion

This is an amazing set, the only negative I can think of is novice technic builders will have some trouble building it, and especially folding it. If you don't know how the mechanism works or how to fold it, you can screw things up. Otherwise, buy this set if you can!

First of all, I think that whichever designed the set deserves an award. It’s an absolute masterpiece! I’ve had this set for some time but never really got down to building this until I saw one on display in a store. Having the set and not opened it, I didn’t realize how awesome it looks till I see it with my own eyes.

Before I embarked on the build itself, I checked some reviews for this set and was quite taken aback by the very mixed reviews. During the build itself, I understood why. Because there were times where I felt the build was actually pretty difficult. My last build is 7676 Republic Gunship and on the scale of difficult, this set is definitely higher.

500+ small parts! Patience and parts management was the key so a smooth building process. And the magic behind this set… Rubber bands! Lots of them! In total there was about 15 of them holding the set in place and for movement.

Upon completion, this is where the real fun began. In Star Wars, destroyer droids would roll from one place to another and upon stopping; it would jump up and unfurl itself. That's actually what the set does! We can roll the droid on the floor and upon hitting itself against the floor (on a lever), it will unfurl itself, jump up and be ready to fight. That is so… awesome! Even my elder daughter (6 yo) was playing with it rolling it to unfurl the droid.

But the unfurling doesn’t happen every time because it has to hit a lever just at the right spot for the process to happen. But when it happens, it just so awesome!

Like I said before, the magic is in all the rubber bands that work in tandem. And I never built a set with so many rubber bands before. Normally, big sets are awesome because it their sheer size and level of detail. But playability can sometimes be low. This set is relatively small and it’s hard to imagine that it has over 500+ parts and yet it is so much fun to play with after the build.

The designer should really get an award because the level of detail and realism is so high and its so close-to-life in the movies. It’s almost unbelievable. And I can imagine the designer spending sleepless nights tearing his hair out on this set and making numerous trial and errors just to get it right. The end result is really very satisfying. Kudos to the designer!

In any case, I think that the Star Wars Technic series is a little under-rated, but this set certainly deserves all its praises from the reviews. As for the bad reviews, it could be due to the fact that there were amendments to the original instructions, if it wasn’t followed, the set just wouldn't work. Unfortunately, due to the mistakes, some follow-on pages had the wrong illustrations. So it was easy to make mistakes. One small error and the unfurling process just wouldn't work. Also, this set is not an easy build for me because my fingers are big and the parts are all small.

I managed to finish this set in about 3 hours over 2 nights, just slightly shorter time than building the 7676 Republic Gunship. But I must say quite a fair bit of time was taken to check and make sure I didn’t make any silly errors due to the small parts.

BTW, I checked the prices for this set MISB and realize the high prices… but I having built it, I can fully understand why it commands such a high calling price and fully deserves it. This set could just be the best Lego set ever…

This is easily the most impressive design i have ever encountered in my 27 years of playing with nonstop with LEGO. Whoever designed this is a genius, and should be put to better use for the good of humanity than just designing toys. oh who am i kidding! there should be more sets on this level.

even if you dont care about starwars, the mechanical complexity and integration of all the different links will astound you. having said that, and also being a diehard starwars fan, the look of this thing is right on the money.

i was so lucky to win this set on ebay. get yours NOW! you cant have mine!!

Like all of the reviews before, this is definately not a model for beginners. I'd been building technic models since I was five and still had difficulty with this one. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to have one. It's a truly outstanding testament to the Lego designers art, that such a complex and functioning model can be achieved without a single cog, gear or beam. It's completely made up of the sort of pieces that you find in the very small packets at the bottom of Lego boxes. A wonderful challenge to build, those who like to tax themselves should definatley get one of these. I loved it and only paid £32 when it first came out. Bargain.

This is a fantastic model. It looks good and is even better. Building is not easy. The instruction even contains a leaflet with a correction, so it was difficult to print correctly for Lego as well. The set takes quite some skill and time to build. When ready it is bigger than expected, quite impressive. Folding the model into a ball takes some practice and will probably go wrong a few times when tried the first time. It also needs to be done with precision. Rolling the folded model will unfold it - when it works. It is not always unfolding - and why it won't unfold this time and will unfold the next time - it's not clear to me. Fold and unfold with precision, replace the elastics regularly - and according to my experience - it will improve the correctly unfolding into a standing model!