[Review] 8092 Luke's Landspeeder

[Rufus]

Happy 2010, Eurobricks!

I picked this up the other day from Lego Bluewater:

Set Number 8092

Name Luke's Landspeeder

Movie Episode IV A New Hope

Year of release 2010

Parts 163

Minifigs 5

S@H Price £24.99 | US$24.99 | AU$49.99 | EUR 26.99

Shop @ Home says:

Adventure on Tatooine…where it all began!

When he drove the old hermit Ben Kenobi into Mos Eisley spaceport, young farm boy Luke Skywalker had no idea that he would end up becoming a Jedi Knight and saving the galaxy. Recreate the moment the adventure began with this special-edition set, featuring an all-new landspeeder vehicle with a secret lightsaber compartment, a cast of droids and heroes, and a sandtrooper guard with a security droid. Are these the droids he’s looking for?

I missed out on the two previous incarnations of the Landspeeder, so I was looking forward to this, particularly as I don't have an OT Obi-Wan or Tattooine Luke. How does the set measure up? Pics are low-res for speedy loading.

In keeping with tradition, we'll start with the box:

Front:

Back:

A nice little action display for the back, showing off the few features of this set, along with advertising for the battle packs and Freeco Speeder.

The side of the box shows a 1:1 representation of Luke:

The little blemish you can see on his chin was present on my figure; I don't know if it's meant to be there but it looks like a misprint to me.

Inside the box, you get three bags, the instructions, two loose grey tubes and no stickers.

(apologies for the blurry pic; there's not a lot of daylight on the Ice Planet of Hoth in the UK at the moment.)

Parts:

Lots of Republic red here. I don't know about you but I'm up to my ears in dark red tiles at the mo. Pieces of interest include the new 1x1 side-stud bricks (6 of them in dark grey); the curved windscreen from the Indy boat chase, and 2 trans-clear 1x1 round bricks that make up the stand for the little droid. Then there's lots of tan plates, and the usual cheese wedges and radiator grilles.

The minifigs:

Probably what most people will get excited about. We have Tattooine Luke, with printed legs and curtain hairstyle (and chin blemish, you can just about see). Obi-Wan has wrinkles (he looks like Governor Tarkin with a beard) and usual Jedi torso, no cape. My new-style R2 is quite badly misprinted.

Two blue-bladed 'sabers in pearl silver. No printing on the backs, except for 3PO:

C-3PO is similar to the one in the Sandcrawler, pearl gold, except the printing on mine is lighter: (new one on right)

The stormie, with black pauldron and backpack, is a nice addition, shown off in this little vignette:

Ben: I'm telling you, these aren't the droids you're looking for!

Stormie: Yes they are, my instructions clearly say 'a paler-than-usual protocol droid and a badly misprinted astromech!'

Ben: You wanna fight about it? (aside to Luke) Pass me my lightsaber.

Luke: It's locked in the speeder's compartment!

Stormie: For some reason I've got two spares you could use:

Ben: Bley?! No thanks. I'll just have to use the force. (waves hand) 'These aren't the droids....'

A spy robot thingy with clear stand makes up the last of the party (I haven't counted him as a minifig):

Moving on to the speeder:

The build

The instructions are very simplistic, only a few parts per step, doesn't really need the callouts but I'm not complaining (again, apologies for the blurry pic):

The build progresses quickly, a half hour tops.

I struggled a little getting the second grey tube to stay in, but not too much:

Black rounded 2x2 plates make the speeder 'hover':

Clearly the speeder is British, judging by the right hand drive

Note two 1x2 slopes in the centre. Why use one brick when two will do ?

You can see in this shot, the left engine is designed to look 'coverless', as in the movie, which Lego has pulled off with some success.

Another oddity: the side engines are attached using 2x2 corner bricks. Why?

An interesting technique is used to invert the studs on the top engine:

The lightsaber compartment: good to have somewhere to put them!

And finally, the completed set, arranged to look like the cover shot (I've deliberately left the colour dark, to give it that 'Tattooine feel':

Overall

Well, there you are. This set probably isn't going to set the world alight, but it's nice to have a good selection of figures in a reasonably priced set. Most people who get this are probably after Luke, and possibly the Sandtrooper. The speeder is nice, a bit simple; it's not a patch on some of the MOCs out there (I'm looking at you, Lars), and to be honest I prefer the look of the sandred one from 4501, which I don't own.

Design Simple, reasonably accurate speeder, fills a whole in my collection; I like the use of the curved windscreen 3/5

Build Very easy build, about 30 mins, no real challenge 3/5

Playability You can recreate the mind-trick scene! Yay! I guess with 5 figs plus the little droid, saber compartment, and carpet-swooshable speeder, this scores quite highly 4/5

Parts Those 1x1 side stud bricks are going to be common as anything before the year is out. And I don't need more dark red. 3/5

Minifigs This is what the set is about! New Luke, rare Obi-Wan, and a nice Stormie! Not complaining about another 3PO, either. (Oh, and another R2. Woo-hoo) 5/5

Price £25 seems quite a lot in the UK. Blast you, weak pound!!! I think this is good value, for the figs alone. 4/5

Overall score 22/30 73%

Hope you enjoyed the review!

Rufus

Edited January 12, 2010 by KimT
poll added

[-JD-]

Gah! I wish I had bought the Landspeeder when I saw it in TRU as few weeks ago. They were not there the next day though...

Anyway, despite beating me ( ), great review! All that dark-sand-red-something-colour is making me very happy. More than I expected, especially with all the cheese slopes!

[KurttKrueger]

Nice review of a nice set.

I've been after another Obi-Wan, so I'll pick this set up.

[Tereglith]

Nice review! I'm considering buying this set, since I can't find any of my fleshie OT characters except Han, Leia, and C-3PO - this would be perfect for filling out my cast. I had no idea that the lightsaber hilts were pearl silver now. It seems like a nice compromise, not as nice as chrome but not as expensive either, and better than light bley.

I feel sorry for you over in England - the pound is about 1.5 USD, yet this set is 25 of both of them! Lego needs to get their acts together and start charging you less.

[badboytje88]

I like the new minifigs. Luke looks so much better than the older fig!

[Etzel]

Thanks for the very nice review, Rufus!

I'm no SW-fan but I really like the look of this set. The figs are excellent and I'm very happy that they have new faces with those highlighted eyes (fits better with the other themes) I'm also pleased with the pieces in this set. A lot of useful colours (tan plates and dark red tiles are always useful to me) and a couple of those new headlight bricks.

But the price is a real disapointment. It's even £5 more expensive here in Sweden and I'm not sure if I want to spend that much money for so few bricks Maybe I will try to get the minifigs from Bricklink instead.

[badboytje88]

I like the new minifigs. Luke looks so much better than the older fig!

Bart

[Anio]

Thanks for the very comprehensive review. :)

But IMO, that is not a good set :

1) Lego already did 2 landspeeder, and the second is very similar to this one.

2) No new minifig

3) As you said, the building is sometime strange. O_o

4) You have to "break" the lightsabers to put them in the compartment

So, personally, I would have given 4/10 to that set.

Edited January 11, 2010 by Anio

[Mission Commander]

The printing on your luke looks a bit off. Great review though.

[lightningtiger]

Me so happy !

Great review 'Rufus' of my favorite Star Wars set of the year (so far) !!!!

This will be my first 2010 series purchase when it becomes available in stores here in Oz.

The speeder looks good, mismatched spares, pretty well banged up, etc., no wonder Luke got very little for it when he sold it.

Now what my $ 50au will get me - minifigs ! - FIVE - including the one I don't have C3-PO- yes at last I'll be able to have him in my collection !!!!

Thanks 'Rufus' !!!

[sok117]

I guess the new luke doesn't look too bad. Gonna consider picking this one up. Thanks for the review.

[Zorro]

This set looks better then expected, and you do get a lot of minifigs with it as well.

Your review is quite extensive, has very good pics and a lot of details are included, I found it to be very usefull.

Thanks for sharing !

[Big Cam]

Great review, I was hoping to find this set and get the first review off, but no luck, LEGO is sold out everywhere around me.

Thanks for a good review on a new set!

[KimT]

Thanks for the review Rufus.

Frontpaged and poll added.

[RileyC]

I cant wait to get this set! I love the minifigs and I cant wait to get them all. The landspeeder looks really nice and has some good features.

Great review!

[prateek]

Great review. I like this set, but like all of the SW sets this year, it's way too expensive. BTW, the last pic should be brighter if you want a Tatooine feel.

[Badsneaker]

Nice review, I'll be getting this. I'm not a HUGE SW fan, I have the AT-ST, DV's Tie Fighter, and the Hoth Echo Base. I'm getting the X wing fighter soon. I'm really into the "old" SW, since these were the SW I grew up with. The Clone Wars don't do much for me.

[posades]

Great little set, but the price kills it for me. I can understand hiking the price up because of the increased number of minifigs, but I'm going to be passing unless I can buy it on sale or at a discounted price. For those that price is not an issue, it looks like the best Landspeeder yet.

[CaptainRex110]

I'll take some of your dark red...

Nice review. I think that I'll be picking this set up.

[Darth Legolas]

Should I get this set or not? I've been going back and forth for a while now. I'd love some new minifigs because I only have 1 not messed up C-3PO which I will never remove and incomplete-ify my Death Star, and I could use the ship and the Stormie is great, but I really don't think I can get much build experience out of it. Perhaps I'll build this and the Swamp Speeder at the same time.

Edited January 11, 2010 by Darth Legolas

[BlueDragonZ]

Thanks for the Nice review. The minifigures are awesome and what i'll mainly go for. Is this a walmart exclusive or is available everywhere?

[Mr Meleca]

thanks for the review...

26 pounds??????????????? 26dollars??????????

OMG...

[CELESTRIAL]

Thanks for the review ! been waiting for a long time for a nice detailed review on this one !

not sure if ill pick this one up, as i have the Landspeeder that came with the Cantina set. I guess it all depends on the price in AUS.

I wouldn't mind getting it just for the figures perhaps, i like the new R2-D2 Grey head print.

Thanks again for the review

[The Green Brick Giant]

I'd be banned if I were to say what I really think about this set. $25 for something that is slightly better than the $10 one? No thanks.

[ILikePi]

Thanks for this review Rufus!

It doesn't seem like a good deal for the pieces, but the minifigs are extremely good for me as I only own R2-D2 and two sandtroopers with orange-black pauldrons and no rebreathers.

But the Republic Swamp Speeder, well, that's another story...

Should I get this set or not? I've been going back and forth for a while now. I'd love some new minifigs because I only have 1 not messed up C-3PO which I will never remove and incomplete-ify my Death Star, and I could use the ship and the Stormie is great, but I really don't think I can get much build experience out of it. Perhaps I'll build this and the Swamp Speeder at the same time.

I think you should. You get Ben and Luke heads in a new pupil-eyed print and a sandtrooper with new curved black pauldron (the ones that Palpatine uses in the Venator)!