Ever since the introduction of the minifig Stormtrooper, which was, if my memory serves me correctly, the year 2001, the fans have been clamoring for some type of "army builder" set. At the time, it was only available in one set, 7146 TIE Fighter and you only got one of them. But at $19.99 (USD) retail, it was cost prohibitive to get too many and make what you would call an "army". Maybe a squad, but definitely not an army. Fast forward a year or two later, and LEGO answers the call with collector packs 1, 2, 3, and 4. Those collector packs served a couple of different purposes. 1) It was a cheap and easy way for fans to get minifigs of certain characters without having to spend a whole lot of money on sets that they would otherwise not build. 2) It was a cheap and easy way to boost one's minifig army. It seemed like it was headed in the right direction but the collector packs were lacking a set with a Stormtrooper. Unfortunately, the collector packs were cancelled due to Hasbro throwing a fit, claiming that the minifig packs were too close to "action figures" (in which Hasbro had the exclusive license) and not enough of a "building toy" (which LEGO had the exclusive license to). That pretty much killed off any chance of getting massive quantities of anything in a cheap, easy, and accessible set.
When Episode II came out, there was a similar yearning for Clone Trooper army builder sets. When they were first introduced, the clone troopers were only available in a $69.99 (USD) set, 4482 AT-TE. You did get four of them, but not nearly enough to satisfy the cravings. As a promotional stunt, some Walmart stores held a Clone Building contest. Build as many Clone Trooper minifigs you can in a limited amount of time. The exact details escape me, but I believe if you were one of the lucky few, you'd be able to take home a boatload of Clone Troopers. I myself found out about the contest too late to even participate. Since this was a promotional event, it still left the mass majority of collectors and fans army-less.
It's 2007 now and LEGO is making up for past shortcomings. This is the year of the army builder sets as evidenced by the introduction of 7654 Droids Battle Pack and 7655 Clone Troopers Battle Pack. I guess you can also argue that 7659 Imperial Landing Craft also qualifies since you do get 2x Stormtrooper and 2x Sandtrooper, but it would be a thin argument. For $9.99 (USD), 7654 Droids Battle Pack gives you 4x Battle Droids and 3x Super Battle Droids. It should be noted that the Super Battle Droids in this set differ than the ones from 7163 Republic Gunship. The SBD's from 7163 are a metallic light blue, whereas the SBD's in 7654 are a dark grey. The Battle Droids come with the standard megaphone blaster which is interesting considering that LEGO is now creating actual weapons. These new weapons are included in both the Clone Troopers Battle Pack and the Imperial Landing Craft sets. Hopefully the Battle Droids will get a new weapon mold sometime in the future. For, now they'll have to yell at their enemies.
The set has you build a droid transport which, to me, is a little disappointing compared to the excellent Episode I set from a few years back (7126 Battle Droid Carrier). One particular beef i have with the transport is the side mounted cannons. They are mounted by a single friction pin to the base of the pilot's cockpit stand. Over time, those friction pins are going to wear out and those cannons will perpetually droop and point down. I'm not sure if that's actually how the cannons are, that is, if the cannons are able to rotate on vertically so they can fire at enemy targets above and below the transport's altitude. If that's the case, then the cannons are spot on. But the implementation into LEGO form is pretty poor.
The other item you build is a very nice STAP. Despite it's low piece count and small design, it's a nice upgrade from the Episode I STAPs found in the 7121 Naboo Swamp set no doubt due to the new angled and curved slope bricks introduced in recent years.
Other than those two small models, there's not much else going on here. For about 10 bucks, you get 102 pieces which is about average. Like I went on and on about earlier in this review, this set is about army building. 7 droids for 10 bucks is a deal no matter how you do the math. the two models complement any "army building" endeavors you may have very nicely. Getting a bunch of STAP-mounted droids is like a bonus. Unfortunately, for me, battle droids, super or regular flavored, aren't really my cup of tea. I've seen some pretty ingenious uses for battle droid parts, so for parts monkeys that have such ideas, this would be a great set. Otherwise, it's pretty average on my scale.
Price/Parts ratio: 5/10
Parts Selection: 3/10
Minifigs: 6/10
Construction: 5/10
Design: 5/10
Swoosh Factor: 10/10
Reviewer's Tilt: 5/10
Final Score: 5.6/10
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