Lego UCS AT-AT

I love when Lego releases a new big UCS Star Wars set, and this new AT-AT is no exception! Click the link below to watch my video review over on the Kool Kollectibles YouTube channel. Progress photos are further below.

Lego 75275 Ultimate Collector Series A-Wing

The UCS Millenium Falcon and Star Destroyer are definitely hard acts to follow. Lego has chosen a spacecraft that has not yet been done in the UCS line before in the A-Wing. Overall, it's a pretty nice set, but there are a few things that annoy me about it.

Hope you can click through below and watch my full review over on the Kool Kollectibles YouTube channel!

Some pics of the box and build as I progressed through the assembly. Definitely some interesting techniques through the process! The free gift was nice of the little Death Star 2 Battle set with the mini A-Wing and TIE Interceptor.

Bags 1 and 2 done. Pretty nice looking seat design!

Bags 3 and 4 done. Really interesting way that the front top and bottom sections angle and come together!

Bags 5 and 6 done. Frickin hate those damn stickers that you have to put on the rear curved parts. Pain in the arse!

Bags 7 and 8 done. Love the interesting way to attach the front side angled parts. Getting pretty close to finishing now.

Bags 9, 10, and 11 done and it's finished. Not bad overall, and luckily I got the cockpit stickers on OK.

Hate that I didnt manage to get the main sticker on straight. But oh well, good enough. The little mini-fig looks pretty nice too.

A couple of quick views of the completed A-Wing.

Now just need to find a spot to display it!

Lego 75181 Star Wars Ultimate Collector Series Y-Wing

I don't collect too much from Lego, but I do love their Star Wars Ultimate Collector Series. I now have the new X-Wing, TIE Fighter, Slave 1, Snowspeeder, and Millenium Falcon. I just couldn't resist this new Y-Wing, and it's another great release in this series.

Click through below for my full review over on the Kool Kollectibles YouTube channel!

Check out the series of unboxing and build steps below. Glad it was a much simpler build than the Millenium Falcon, but still had some innovative and interesting build sections.

With the May 4th release date, Lego also included the BB-8 figure, similar to their R2-D2 the year before with the Snowspeeder. They go well with each other! I also do a quick review over on the YouTube channel here.

Bags 1 to 3 completed. Nice solid core to the spacecraft.

Bags 4 to 6 completed. The standout is definitely all the detailed greebling in this centre core section.

Bags 7 and 8 completed with the cockpit. Looks nice, but godammit I hate bloodystickers!! No idea why Lego tamps patterns on some on pieces, whilst choosing to leave other markings as stickers. I got most of mine on well enough, but just tamp them all damn it!

Bags 9 to 13 finished off the set. The set is simple and yet so elegantly beautiful! Love the detailed greebling, but was a little tedious to all put together towards the end. Either way, looks nice on display!

Couple of minifigs go with the set. I still hate that the nameplate is a bloody sticker! GAAH!!

A pic for size perspective. Great looking UCS Y-Wing. And yes, I did make some pew pew sounds flying it around the room lol

Lego 75144 Star Wars Ultimate Collector's Series Snowspeeder

After getting the original Lego UCS X-wing and TIE Interceptor back around 2000, I passed on most of the others, including the previous UCS Snowspeeder. But once Lego announced a new version of the X-wing, TIE Fighter, Slave 1, and now the Snowspeeder, I just couldn't resist!

I was actually hoping this year's release would be a new UCS Millenium Falcon, but that was not to be. But Lego have still done a stellar job with this new Snowspeeder!

Click through below to checkout my video review of the new Snowspeeder. Scroll on down for some more pics and thoughts :)

I ordered the set directly from the Lego online store using VIP points that I accrued from the previous UCS sets. They threw in the new 30611 R2-D2 set, which was a nice little build. I thought it was actually just a mini-figure, but the build was a nice treat.

Here's the finished R2-D2, which is pretty nice for a freebie given out with the Snowspeeder! Shame the centre leg can't really retract, but that's a minor nit to pick.

But onto the main attraction! First up, I had no idea who the mini-fig pilots were until I read the instruction manual. I never realised Rogue 2 from Hoth (who located Han and Luke in the snow) was called Zev Senesca. I don't think his name is ever mentioned in the movie. He has the darker helmet of the two, and I still have no idea who the other pilot is meant to be. Both have nicely printed labels on their outfits, and suit the display stand well.

The build for the Snowspeeder was pretty straight forward, and throughout Lego made sure to include some nice moments. There were definitely some engineering design elements that surprised and impressed me. Of note were the way in which the ball joints are used to create the angles at the front of the craft, the way the gears and rear thrusters rotate together to open up the wing flaps, control within the cockpit of the rear harpoon gun, and the design of the cockpit itself.

A controversial point was the use of rubber bands to close the gap of the underside wings against the top folding wings. I worry about the longevity of the rubber bands, but there's not too much tension in them. I still think Lego could've used the usual angle brackets, but I guess they used the bands to make a perfect alignment of the top and bottom wings.

The rear vertical fins fit in nicely and were a separate component to build. Inserting them into the main body was a bit of a pain, so be careful where you put your hands to apply pressure.

As I mentioned before, the front angular panels were created using ball jointed panels, which was a great idea to allow easy adjustment of the panels. Overall I think it makes the front look better than the original set. I also love the subtle angle of the laser cannons on top of the wings. It was great seeing how all the separate parts connected together along the length of the wing.

Perhaps my only other nitpick is Lego's continued use of stickers. I really wish they would just tamp all their decals and save collectors the hassle of trying to align things perfectly. But again, in the overall scheme of things, that's not too big a deal.

On display, the size and detail are right up there with the other recent UCS sets, and make for a great Star Wars display. Hopefully they announce a new Millenium Falcon soon so that I can start saving!

Lego Ultimate Collector Series UCS X-wing

Playing catchup on the website yet again! Here's my video going over the Lego UCS X-wing that I built over the recent Easter long weekend :)

A beautiful set for sure, and a definite upgrade over the older model from 2000.