Best SW lego gimmick?

[Gainesvillain]

Most of the great gimmicks are mentioned above (I am especially fond of the chrome-my-minifig effect and hope it continues on future minifigs), but here's hoping the best Lego gimmick is that the new Hoth set Taun Taun splits in half to shove a near-frozen Luke into!

[ktonlai]

hands down. 7163 republic gunship's removable top portion and opening front end. Those gimmicks made it into a playset. too bad they got rid of the opening front end in the new one =(.. im trying to mod mine to make it split in half though.

[SkwerlJones]

My favorite gimmick, just because it is so absurd, is the dropping mechanism on the stormtrooper battlepack. There are no side rails, no seats, and the whole thing drops with the switch of a button. A rebel pilot in disguise could do some pretty mean things to the stormtroopers who are waiting to be safely dropped on the ground...

[sharkshark]

good topic, made me post anyway...

Coolest, nerdiest gimmick ever has to be the working Droideka (8002)

Bless the internet, somebody's got a Youtube vid of it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiMF-ubjvjA

I built it for the first time during a vacation in Jamaica (bought it on the way to the airport and flew with it!)

A set that to this day I know I'd never be clever enough to design.

[Mofo Jones]

The best SW LEGO gimmick is the fact that SW LEGO even exists. Look at how much money LEGO has to have made in the last ten years from all of us!

[donneyboy]

the AT-OT and Republic Dropship. we have two Gunships, and two AT-TE'S and now a dropship to carry them.

[Dendo]

I have a quick list - some already mentioned and some not:

- The V-19's wings and landing gear
- The opening of the wings on the newer X-wings and the clone ARC fighter
- The walking AT-AT
- The missle clip and bomb dropping mechanism on the Republic Shuttle
- The spring loaded missles on the front of the newer AT-TE and in the Rouge Shadow
- The different ways of opening cockpits, like on the Magnagaurd Starfighter and the V-19

I could keep going on, but what most impresses me sometimes is just the way some sets are put together in ways that I would have never imagined.

[lordvader208]

Just bought the Republic Attack Shuttle, and I must say that I am impressed by the missle rack on the top. I don't care much for the bomb dropping function, but that missle thing is pretty neat. And so is the opening cockpit. I get the feeling that I'm gonna lose all the missles in a week or so because I'll be shooting them all around the house.

[LL918]

Well probably the biggest gimmick is the whole Star Wars line itself. But that isn’t what you are asking. I would say the best thing is the ever evolving functionality of the sets. Way back in the original 7140 X-Wing we had the wonderful new click hinges enabling you to set the S-foils in attack position… and it had that great cockpit windscreen, and the little storage compartment at the back and the slightly odd compartment in the nose…

And ever since then the functionality has just been getting better. Look at the later versions of the X-Wing (4502 and 6212 being near identical) with that brilliant Technic worm drive operation of the S-foils. I had held off getting 4502 for a long time because at first I thought it was jut a bit bigger and a bit more detailed. But when I got the 6212 version later, building it and operating the mechanism was just as much fun as the original X-wing several years earlier.

So in raving about this functionality gimmick I also have to mention the 7259 ARC-170 Starfighter with its opening wings and bomb mechanism, the 6209 Slave 1 with all its pivoting bits, compartments and hidden weapons, 7662 Trade Federation MTT with the racks of droids that come out and the various other bits and pieces that fit inside, even something as simple as the opening doors on the 7666 Hoth Rebel Base, (well the doors were a bit small – I had to buy 3 to make them big enough to get an X-Wing through them, so I ended up with a fleet of new snow speeders too.)

And the piece de resistance of functionality has to be a walking AT-AT. I bought the first imperfect 9754 Mindstorms version, missed the non motorised 4483 (and was cursing myself because it was a nice model) but now also have the new 10178 version to try stomping down those Hoth doors. Now, just to get a couple of Taun-Tauns from that new Echo Base set.

And I don’t have one yet but all those functioning bits in the Death Star are also brilliant – it may top the AT-AT but I am yet to see it in real life.

[a red shirt]

The best Lego Star Wars gimmick? Perhaps this is more a "best of" topic now, but I'll add my two cents. Most everything has been said before, but my picks for best gimmick would have to be:

- 8002 Destroyer Droid- This set looks actually like rubbish on the box, and I don't think the engineering that went into this set got the credit it deserves. The video posted by sharkshark will explain this set better than I ever could.
- 9794 Lego Mindstorms- Not the best perhaps, but pretty good considering its been more or less ten years since they came out. Nice engineering, although the appearance of an all-technic AT-AT will haunt me...
- 7153 and 6209 Jango Fett's Slave I and Slave I- these sets don't have anything too fabulous, but they are just so packed with little things. On 7153, the rotating blasters, jail cell, detailed internal mechanics, the magnetically sealed seismic charges, and little things like that. On 6209, the brick-built missles, seismic charges, Han in Carbonite compartment, and the little storage areas. Some solid sets.
- 7163 Republic Gunship- The front end here is a nice feature, and the bubble cannons are neat.
- 10123 Cloud City- This had some nice features, and the arm/leg printing on Boba Fett was a nice touch.
- 4502 X-Wing- Really, I would say that all the X-Wings have had their features: the compartments, the hinges, the gears, all good points. Yoda's hut in this set was very nifty
- 4504 Millennium Falcon- The design was pretty accurate (despite the small cockpit), but the way the panels open up, the way the boarding amp goes up and down by the pulling of the side, and the sealed escape pod are all good features. The gunner's turret was not bad. The printed circular chess-like board piece radiates nostalgia.
- 6210 Jabba's Sail Barge- This set had much the same appeal as 4504 in the way it opened up. The prison, kitchen, armory, and the other little details made this set noteworthy. The Boba Fett launcher, however, does not.
- 7662 MTT- This set has a truly amazing minifigure count, and the new arms were also a nice touch. The destroyr droid was vicious looking, however disproportionate it was.
- 7674 V-19 Torrent- Regardless of what you think of the set (I like it), the engineering is phenomenal. The way you can simply push the vertical wing into position and have the other two wings fold down into position, and the landing gear up, all at the same time is superb. A great set by my accord.
- 7676 RGS- This set had some nice features. I won't go on here, the features are well enough known.
- 10178 Motorized Walking AT-AT- enough said...
- 10188 Death Star- If I need to explain why this set deserves to be on the list, we have a problem.
- 7675 AT-TE & 10195 AT-OT/Republic Dropship- pretty gosh darn awesome. I can already see the multitudes of Geonosis MOCs now...
- 8018 AAT- Some people probably wouldn't put this one on here, but I really like the little transport that folds so quickly and neatly out of the back. Really, this alone gets it on my list.
- 8019 Republic Attack Shuttle- The firing mechanism and the bomb mechanism are genius. This set is just well engineered.

My, what a rant. I suppose this is a good topic. Anyway just my introspection on the matter.

Red Shirt

[Flynn]

I always liked how LEGO would use to always try to fit playset elements into their older sets, the prime example being the original MTT, what with the back opening up and all.

[theJudeAbides]

Call me old-fashioned, but I really enjoyed the opening/closing mechanism on the X-Wing (6212) that allows me to "set S-foils to attack position." That line always gives goosebumps in the movie, and even though I've done in countless times in several videogames, it just never gets old. So twist that little technic gear and let fly the "pew pew pew"s.

[dWhisper]

Slave Leia, complete with Chain, to attach to Jabba. Totally worth the price of any set its in.

[LL918]

Slave Leia, complete with Chain, to attach to Jabba. Totally worth the price of any set its in.

Just a moment, is this the same dWhisper that suggested Jabba's Palace in the 'worst set' thread a few days ago? But I certainly agree that it would have benefited from the addition of Oola. Perhaps here we need to cross reference Don's Aayla Secura thread.

[The Brain]

Interesting observation LL918, but I'm pretty sure he meant it in terms of the Sail Barge set. I looooved that set.

[lordvader208]

It could be either Jabba's Palace or the Sailbarge. It just depends whether you prefer a fleshie Leia or a yellow one. I for one, own the palace, not the sailbarge (because I bought the 6211 ISD instead). In fact, I never noticed the "slave" part of Leia until after a few days with the set. I never noticed it on the box for some reason, so I was kind of shocked when I realized it, because I was like 10 when I got it.

Let me add another gimmick/feature that I really liked in a SW lego set. That would be the 4504 Millennium Falcon, in general. I just like how everything opens up and it has a pretty darn good interior (good compared to other sets). The one feature I don't like? The escape pod. It's extremely useless to me and just tends to fall out of the ship when it is tilted.

[drsherpa]

I really like all the secret compartments and random areas lego puts into their sets. There is always a section of the ship that has some sort of storage space that can hold weapons. I also love the look of the doors on the new Sep shuttle and the Endor battle.