LEGO Hailfire Droid!

[jedi master sal]

I got this puppy, Friday and it's AWESOME!

Over 600 pieces. It definitely more the style of Technic rather than traditional bricks. (Even though it doesn't say that on the box. Maybe so they don't shy younger buyers from getting the set.)

It has (what I believe to be) the single biggest piece of Lego made for general distribution in a toy. The wheels of the Hailfire droid are 1 solid piece and roughly measure 8 inches in diameter! They fit together with several smaller "gears" to ROLL. You guys have to get this. Putting it together and seeing how they engineered several new parts just for this model AND seeing how the rolling action works is worth the high price that they're asking, IMHO.

[JediTricks]

Oooh! Sounds good, more details please. :D

[jedi master sal]

I don't know what else to say...hmmmm

well it does have 30 missiles. (The only bummer is that they don't fire.) They're actually built into the vehicle but still it looks cool.

This set makes use of some of the same parts as the Bionicle line. Some of the "Armor" are the "Hands from the "snapping" Bionicles and two pieces near the eye are swords from the Bionicle line.

The EYE of the Hailfire droid is very cool. It almost looks lit up in regular light.

I highly suggest getting this set but if you do, one piece of advice (and I do this for all sets)- Organize all of the pieces first. Put them in small piles of exact same pieces so you can build faster and can keep track of them better.

With a set that's over 600 pieces, sorting them will take a good hour or more but the build time will be significantly decreased in the end.

I guess my last opinion on this is that I think it is MUCH better than the large scale AT-AT. Maybe it's because it's mre "Technic", but I think it's that it just looks better and it nearly the same size and yet half the price!

Either way, you can't go wrong with this set. I do recommend it for at least Intermediate if not Expert builders though as some assembly may be a little tricky for young children.

[gtrain29]

Sounds good to me.
With a limited budget I decided to only buy lego sets that went along with the geonosis battle scene. So this one will fit right in.
The ATAT would be more tempting if they started making hoth playsets, though.

[aceguide]

I finally saw this at Target today and was really torn. I'll probably be more torn when it vanishes and I don't have it.

Did also see the new minis. Although no figs.

Glad to hear it is a cool set. One questions - how does it stay together? I have a 7 year old Lego Maniac, but he can get frustrated with sets that do not hold their form.

[JediTricks]

I got this on Friday as a gift, and threw it together yesterday morning. The build was unlike any set I've done before and took around 2 hours. The final result was also unlike any set I've done before, and is pretty dang cool. The extending gun is neat but I keep triggering it by accident, the wheels feel really good riding across my floor but "lock up" for a second when I lift it off the ground and then put it back down, the wheels are impressive as they themselves can act as large gears since their teeth intermesh nicely, but technically ;) they're not in scale with the film version, though I don't mind in the least. On the whole, I really like this set a lot, though it's not quite as impressive as the Technic Destroyer Droid which is the king daddy of Technic robots. But it's charming and unique and loves to be pushed around the floor, so on that alone, I dig it.


And why does the SW Technic line abandon almost all gearing?

[Kidhuman]

I just picked this up on clearance last night and its awesome. I love this thing. I cant beleive I didnt get it sooner.

[JediTricks]

Right on! Yeah, I dig this piece a lot too, it's still sitting by my AT-AT and Millennium Falcon as the "best of the best" of my SW Lego collection. Congrats on the get! :)

[Kidhuman]

I want to get the AT-AT but it is still priced at 100 bucks. Thats a little steep for me now. If it goes on clearance it will be all good. How many pieces isd the AT-AT anyway?

[JediTricks]

For some reason, the piece count isn't on the box, so I'll have to take their site's word for it at 1,064. :D

[Kidhuman]

Wow, thats huge. !0 dollars for each hundred. Man I cant wait for clearances on that one. Was it an easy put together? Cause the Hailfire Droid almost got annoying.

[LusiferSam]

I thought the AT-AT was pretty easy. It took me longer to build because it was some 1,000 odd pieces. The AT-AT is also mostly bricks were as the Hailfire Droid is mostly Technic pieces.

[JediTricks]

According to my review of the set: http://sirstevesguide.com/news/?m=show&id=26905
it took me about 5 hours and was a sea of gray parts. ;) Um... I don't remember this being a difficult build for the size, and there were a few surprises that added to a generally pleasant atmosphere on that build. The cockpit wasn't as much fun to build as the rest, but can't win 'em all.

The Hailfire build was so different from the AT-AT build for me, just different animals. I generally like building Technic, but the Hailfire droid didn't make a whole lot of sense for a while so I had to keep guessing at what I was working on, where the AT-AT starts almost immediately with a sense that I knew where I was going with it (or I thought I did anyway, it actually built up an entire level above what I thought I was doing, but that was ok ;)).