LEGO Star Wars 7662: Trade Federation MTT

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There are studies proving that a parent is much more likely to buy something if they can relate to it. While children may be the target audience, Lego is really selling sets to adults. So when Star Wars is chosen over say, Castle, its because of the parents, not the children. Gungan Sub, which does a poor job of approximating the vehicle. Amazingly, the remake of this (9499: Gungan Sub) did the same thing! The Ultimate Collector's Series represents the pinnacle of the LEGO Star Wars theme, usually valuing detail and authenticity over every other factor. 75098 Assault on Hoth was released in 2016 and does not adhere to those principles at all, instead containing an array of small models which would be far better suited to a standard retail set by the admission of the set designer in the instruction manual. These models are of mixed quality and combining them to form a focal point does little to improve the design. I agree with those who have suggested that early sets are beholden to different standards in relation to those released today and made certain to stress the limited availability of parts and colours during that period in the article, as well as the potential for limited source material being available. I have selected ten sets which I believe to be among the worst ever released and have tried to explain my reasoning for each selection below. The following items have not been taken into consideration as I do not think they can be properly compared with conventional System sets.

LEGO Star Wars will be celebrating its twentieth anniversary next year and most of the 643 sets released since 1999 have been excellent in my opinion, depicting numerous iconic vehicles, locations and characters.However, there are a couple of mitigating factors to be taken into consideration. Firstly, the designer probably only had access to limited material from which to take inspiration as the set was created while the film was in production. The range of pieces and colours available was also far less comprehensive than it is today. Elements such as curved slopes, which have been used to good effect in modern Sith Infiltrator sets, were not created until 2004. 7184 Trade Federation MTT

had a bunch of small sets that were mostly pretty good. The worst to me, by far, is 4489: AT-AT. It makes me sad to say an AT-AT is the worst set of a year.Once again, this issue can be attributed to the limited selection of colours available. Dark green pieces are ideally suited to Boba Fett's Slave I and have been used on every subsequent model of the vessel. Unfortunately, they did not appear until 2003 so the designer had to use the standard shade of green which is not at all suitable. This model also suffers from a severe scaling issue and its flaws become even more apparent when the set is compared with 7153 Jango Fett's Slave I which was released just two years later. 7257 Ultimate Lightsaber Duel Furthermore, the interior is very sparsely detailed. Later models have contained a smaller vehicle but this one is almost entirely empty and certain areas of the hull therefore feel flimsy. The minifigures are also relatively unappealing and the absence of any opposing forces is disappointing. The overall shape of the vehicle is reasonably faithful to the source material though and I quite like the idea of opening the model to create a static base. 7144 Slave I It surprises me in how many cases do I actually fundamentally disagree with the choice you made for the worst set contenders. Actually, I agree just about the Assassins Droid BP, which is trully odd and then the new releases - Scavenger, Hoth and two TLJ sets. However, I think it would be unfair to ignore sets from the first few years of LEGO Star Wars entirely. Sets should be judged according to the context of their release and in that regard I think certain older models, such as those mentioned in the article, fare comparatively poorly in relation to other sets released in the same year. Also, from a purely practical perspective it would be almost impossible to identify a single year after which we are able to judge sets by modern standards. I definitely fall into the camp that believes comparing the builds from the first few years to sets from several years later is something of a pointless exercise. As already mentioned numerous times, the color palette, available parts, and experience in creating these sets was at a much lower level than later. For the most part, the best you could hope for was an approximation of what was being created. I think each of the three sets listed here actually do a good job in that respect.

After 2007, things are a little more difficult for me. I never had a real connection to the Clone Wars show (though I greatly enjoyed the initial shorts). Lego also begins adding in some other Star Wars properties that I have no connection to (such as Force Unleashed, Yoda Chronicles, Freemaker Adventures). In a few years, you get more and more exclusive sets and small polybag type sets, both of which can be difficult to obtain. There are a lot more sets I don't care about. Even some of the base movie sets are at times uninteresting. Just because I'm not interested, are they really that bad? Hard to say. The LEGO Star Wars range is primarily focused upon vehicles but it has also included some splendid location-based models. Unfortunately, 7257 Ultimate Lightsaber Duel is not among them in my opinion as the control rods around which the entire set is designed do not work particularly well. These rods for each minifigure are a nice idea but their execution is rather disappointing as the platforms tend to rotate freely, making them difficult to direct. Thomas the Tank Engine would be a great choice for a system licensed theme. (the old tv show). Theres roughly 70 years of fans and the lego train fans would go crazy. (this is if there were parts included to remove the engine's faces).The reason there is a large market of child star wars fans is because there parents are either SW fans themselves, or watched the movies as a child. Say whatever you want, but calling licenced sets a bad thing just shows your ignorance of the wider market and how business works. I think it is not fair to say those sets from early years are bad, because designers got limited amount of well designed slope pieces[1] and the idea of combining interesting building technics to create play feature revolves over times.[2]