Technic's Battle Droid - The Lego Set That Almost Killed Me
Written: Jun 09 '02 (Updated Apr 19 '03)
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Pros: Magnetic pieces for weapons, nice design, unique elements.
Cons: Complicated instructions, droid fails to stand on its own.
The Bottom Line: So you say you’re a Lego expert? I dare you to give this set a try!
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| Freak369's Full Review: LEGO Star Wars Episode I Battle Droid |
It doesn’t happen often, but everyone once in a while I come across a Lego set that challenges me and pushes my limits to the brink of breaking. I’ve only dabbled in the realm of the Lego Technic line with some experience in the smaller RoboRiders and Throwbots sets – none of which prepared me for the task of building the Battle Droid. This is one of the few sets that really made me question my Lego knowledge – especially when I had to flip through the instruction book about 50 times to understand the basics of the droid itself. To say that this set got under my skin is a gross understatement. I had to resist the urge [several times] to throw it at the wall and be done with it - looking at the completed droid I'm pretty happy that I didn't.
The Basics
The Battle Droid from Lego is constructed using the Technic line of elements. These allow greater range of mobility, involve the use of rubber bands and give a streamlined look to the completed model. However, all these features come at a great price – a time consuming building process as well as a large possibility of mistakenly placed pieces during the building of the droid. This is for advanced users of Lego and Technic sets and will require your full attention. For smaller kids attempting to build this – you may want to break up the different body parts and do one a day to prevent getting burned out.
Battle Droid
For those that have never see and of the Star Wars films, the battle droids were the massive robotic armies. Even with their basic design and presence, they were still extremely interesting and served a very valid purpose in the films. Surprisingly, the completed droid looks a lot like the battle droid from the film and comics however you have to remember you are dealing with the Technic design so it will seem a little ‘blocky’ until you get used to looking at it.
The Challenge
When I saw that these were on sale I decided to pick up a few of them. I knew that they would never go to waste and that the boys would love the challenge of assembling them. Then the idea came to me – what if I took a set and the boys took a set and we’d see who could complete it first, without deviating from the instruction book. In hindsight, I know now that a bad idea this was. Every fifteen minutes or so I’d get an update from the playroom “we just finished the first leg” or “we are moving on to the backpack now”. All the while I was feverishly sweating over the basics of the set and trying to figure out where the rubber bands went without having them shoot towards my face. Next time I get the urge for such a challenge I think I’d ask someone to kick me a few times and reconsider the proposition.
Step 1 – The Legs
Bag one includes the pieces for the leg assembly and is covered on the first 18 pages of the booklet. This is the easiest portion of the droid since you don’t have to work around other pieces but at the same time it is a little difficult to get your bearings without any points of reference other than the instruction book. This is also the easiest portion of the droid to see clearly in the illustrations and photos through out the instruction book – the legs and torso are in clear view so if you are having trouble assembling this according to the instructions you can always use the photos as a point of reference.
Step 2 – The Body
Bag number two completes the body of the droid. Pages 19 – 30 cover this portion of construction and the twelve pages provide an adequate amount of information to complete this portion of assembly. The head is the easiest part to complete while the torso and parts of the back are the hardest. If you make a mistake with the placement of gears or use the wring placement pin you will be in for a load of trouble when the arms are attached. This was where I ran into trouble – I used the wrong sized pin for the left arm so when it was raised or lowered it would hit into the leg pegs. This resulted in me having to take apart over half of the middle section of the droid and set me back about an hour. You really need to read through the instructions a few times before you start the building process so you know exactly what is going on. Again, this was another downfall that stood in my way.
Step 3 – The Back Unit
Pages 56 – 81 deal with the backpack assembly, leg portion completion and shoulder placement. When you look through the book in order it may seem like you are doing back tracking but what you are really doing is completing steps that would have gotten in the way during the earlier sessions. Personally, I found the backpack to be a little complicated to build according to the provided instructions so I built the outer part of it by looking at the various pictures in the book as well as referring to the box. Since this is a complicated section I highly suggest that you read through it and set aside the pieces needed for each step before you start building it. Even though the pieces are bagged separately, there is still a very large margin for error.
These pages also offer you an alternative to building your droid and these pages are not clearly marked so do a run through the instructions and save yourself some time and aggravation.
The Photo Supplements
Pages 47 – 55 give you photos of the droid in various poses to show you the different positions and actions it can perform. It also gives you the chance to get a good look at the completed frame so you can get a first hand look if you get stuck at any point in the construction. Page 82 shows the completed droid built according to the instructions, sadly, mine doesn’t look this good.
The Instructions
When I first opened my box and saw the instruction book [yes, book, not booklet] I assumed it was a detailed catalog of other Technic products. This monster is 75 pages long, yes, 75 pages. I felt like sliding the cardboard tray back into the box and pretending I never opened it. We’ve build large sets before, but nothing that was this ‘advanced’. What scared me even more was the fact that everything was packaged in separate bags – that is a sure sign of something that will either make you go crazy in the process of construction or really boost you ego if you complete it.
The instruction book is detailed but there are still some issues with certain portions being vague. There were at least three instances of using incorrect pieces to build the arms because it was hard to tell the different between the different axel pins within each of the bags. I hate to think how discouraging this could be to a child that hasn’t had much experience building Lego and Technic sets – this is not something to give a beginner regardless of the price tag or age of the child.
The sections of the droid are broken down and each section deals exclusively with a certain bag and element of construction. The hard part is trying to see if you’ve used the right piece by looking forward in the book. When you are about 3/4’s of the way through the internal portion of the droid gets very tight, so if you have made a mistake you are in for a lot of stripping down to get to it.
The Completed Droid
When completed according to the instructions your droid will have moveable and positionable legs as well as the ability to move at the torso. The locking mechanism inside the torso clicks into place and can be released by pressing the button located in the middle of the body. He stands an impressive 13 inches high with a extended arm length of six inches from shoulder to weapon.
The two magnetic pieces on the weapons enhance the overall appeal of the droid and help to retain a little of the movie magic. Depending on the way you position your completed droid – it may or may not look ‘cool’. The headpiece is loosely connected so if you adjust the body the head section moves freely and automatically adjusts itself. When you are done building it you may also find that it doesn’t stand up easily. The use of the backpack was supposed to help even out the weight of the torso but it doesn’t exactly work out that way.
Things To Know
My biggest suggestion is to purchase a pair of hemostats at a medical supply store and make sure they aren’t the small nosed basic ones. You want something with a wider nose so you can hold the pieces steadily without crushing them. I was foolish and clamped down on a connection bushing and almost ruined it. The hemostats come in handy if you mistakenly used a wrong piece but can remove it and replace it without having to take off additional pieces [great for the external locking pins]. Having a pair of these handy saved me from about an hour of work removing pieces to get to a pin and locking nut in the torso of the droid.
This is not something that you will complete in an hour! Don’t look at the box and make an assumption that it will be a piece of cake to assemble. For some people this will be easy and for others it will be hard, the biggest thing is not to rush because that is the easiest way to make mistakes that will trip up the rest of the building process.
When you first open the box you’ll notice that everything is packaged inside a cardboard tray – this tray is a great thing to keep handy. I found that I didn’t have to hunt down pieces or worry about them blending into the carpeting if I kept them in the tray. It’s also handy if you need to move from one spot to another in the middle of the building process.
The Bottom Line
My Battle Droid may not look exactly like the one on the box, but I’m pretty pleased with it. The biggest mistake I made was thinking that I’d complete this in about an hour. Without the mistakes and back tracking I think I could have completed it in about three hours of non-stop work but that time frame was doubled due to my own errors as well as sloppy portions of the instruction book. If you have a Lego junkie that thinks they can handle this task, make sure you tell them to take their time – its better to go at a slower pace and make sure everything is correctly placed than having to strip the pieces down and start over.
This would be a good set for those that have mastered the Lego sets and are looking for a real challenge. The only set that I personally found to be more complex and complicated is the Destroyer Droid. Considering this was on sale for almost half the retail price, I consider this a sound investment for the growing Star Wars Lego collection we have.
The Stats
Set Name: Battle Droid
Family Set: Star Wars Technic
Lego Set: 8001
Number of Pieces: 328
Age Recommendation: 9 and up
Ease Of Assembly: Advanced / Difficult
Time Of Assembly: 6 hours [yes, six hours]
Cost: $12.99 [sale]
As always, thanks for the read!
^V^ Freak ^V^
© 2003 Freak369
Other Lego Star Wars sets ...
R2-D2 Technic Droid
Jedi Starfighter
Jabba’s Prize
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): $12.99
Type of Toy: Blocks
Age Range of Child: Whole Family
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