Ya know, it wasn’t until fairly recently, and by recently I’d say the past couple of years, that I got into board games. And looking back at LEGO’s very short lived efforts into making buildable board games, I have to give them credit for branching out outside of their normal product line. None of their games were all that complicated because, you know, they’re for kids and all. But they went out of their way to try and provide a solid experience. I only played a few of them. Heroica sticks out in my mind the most for having a base game and several expansions. They were pretty fun I guess.
One game that I have that I haven’t played yet is 3866 Star Wars – Battle of Hoth. It was just one of a handful of licensed games. There was a Batman game, a Hobbit game, and … that might be it. Today’s polybag, 6012306 Battle of Hoth Die Key Chain, was a promotional item for the game.
It comes with the familiar rubber-edged die with the keyring screwed into one of the die faces. And this is my only criticism. I would have rather have had the mounting point at one of the corners so that the die face is untouched and can take another tile. I’m sure it was done this way for ease of manufacturing.
The set comes with five tiles. Having not played the game, I wasn’t sure which ones are duplicates from the game and which ones were made for the key chain. But thanks to the power of Bricklink, I now know.
The three tiles with the Imperial and Rebel symbols come from the game. The other two tiles are the bees’ knees though. One is a LEGO logo, the other is the Star Wars logo. Oddly enough, the listing for the key chain on Bricklink doesn’t have an inventory. The LEGO logo seems to be a pretty rare part. Assuming this is the correct part, it was last seen in a set back in 2011. I was unable to find the Star Wars tile so this may be the rarest, undocumented part in existence. Or, I’m not that great at searching Bricklink.
The only other notable thing about this key chain is that it’s buildable. Every other keychain they’ve released was prebuilt and un-dismantleable. The fact that the tiles can be attached already makes this fragile and unrealistic to use as an actual key chain. You’d lose the tiles or get them all scratched up. But if you wanted to hang this off a desk lamp or your rear view mirror, hey now that would be a great use for this key chain.
Does It Suck or Does It Rock?
This set rocks! That Star Wars tile is probably the best thing to come out of this license. And you can only get it in this Battle of Hoth key chain. Functionally, it’s not the best key chain, but the printed tiles are more than worth it.
You Can Win This And Every Other Polybag I Review This Year
I’ll be raffling every polybag I review this year in one big lot, all 260 sets (with the possibility of more). Each set will be individually stored in a ziploc baggie complete with the extra pieces, instructions, and the actual polybag bag it came in. The cost of a raffle ticket is just $1 USD and you can enter as many times as you want. Send a PayPal payment to paypal@fbtb.net for $1 USD for every ticket you want to purchase. DO NOT send one payment for multiple entries i.e. do not send one $5 USD payment for five tickets; five $1 USD payments must be made insteavd. Raffle is open to everyone in the world except where raffles are illegal. Be sure to put “POLYBAG RAFFLE” in the notes section of the payment in order to be entered successfully. Winner will be drawn sometime early January 2023 and contacted at the PayPal email address the payment was sent from to arrange for delivery. For a running list of all the sets that you can win, check this Google spreadsheet.
