I'm a LEGO fan, I've talked about LEGO Force Awakens sets on this blog, I sell Star Wars minifigs and sets... and I have not seen the movie yet. In some circles this probably makes me a bad person, so please forgive me for reviewing a Star Wars LEGO set and for not seeing the latest Star Wars movie yet.
Today's set is the Battle of Takodana (#75139). It retails from LEGO for $59.99 in the US. It has 409 pieces ($0.146 per piece). This is rather high, but it's a licensed set and it's Star Wars and... it has 5 minifigures. There are 2 First Order Stormtroopers, Finn, Maz Kanata, and Kylo Ren. As the only other set with Kylo Ren in it is Kylo Ren's Command Shuttle retailing at $119, I'm sure the LEGO Star Wars fans are excited to pay half as much to get a Kylo Ren minifig. This set was released on 2 January 2016 and is still available from LEGO Shop at Home.
The box is pretty standard.
The front shows the set with all of the minifigures on the bottom right. As an aside, I'm still not used to seeing the Disney logo tied to Star Wars.
The back shows some of the play features, weapons, and another view of the set.
Nothing too special about the contents. There's an instruction booklet that as per usual was shoved into the box and was folded with a crease (come on LEGO, you can fix this!), 3 bags, and a sticker sheet (with only 2 stickers!).
Bag one included the First Order Stormtroopers, a brick separator, and some pieces. The build is fairly easy and straightforward. Nothing too out of the ordinary.
Completed Bag 1
Bag 2 added in some more details to include movable doors. It also included Finn and Kylo Ren with hair and his mask.
Bag 2 build complete.
The final bag added Maz Kanata and the rest of the structure. There are a number of Technic elements used to create some play-ability. The tree falls over, a hidden container pops out, and some pieces of the wall fall off.
Final set with all the minifigs.
The final verdict... in my opinion, it's all about the minifigs for this set. The rest of the set doesn't do much for me. Would it be different if I had seen the movie? Maybe. If you're looking to get Kylo Ren or Finn and to not pay over $100 or buy the minifigs on the secondary market, then this might be the way to go for you. For those of you that build MOCs, this isn't a bad set in terms of pieces. I enjoy the textured 1x2 bricks that have the brick texture on them. There are 28 in this set which is great for those of you like me who enjoy adding buildings to their town/train scenes. The textured 2x4 round bricks in brown are good and the 2 foliage pieces are as well.
I'm curious to hear your opinions. Leave them in the comments.