9496 Desert Skiff™ review

[Resh1138]

At $25 and three good minifigures (also, Boba Fett), this set shows a whole lot of early promise… In some ways, this is a hard set to pin down, mostly because it doesn’t really exist outside the Jabba’s Palace and the upcoming Rancor set. You need to get all three of them to get the figures together (and you’d still be missing Slave Leia) to get the scene together. Also, having a Sail Barge would also help. Minifigs is where this set really jumps out to shine. At $25, we get four figures, one new, three revised, and all that were in expensive sets previously. We get a new Lando in disguise (from the Sail Barge), Jedi Luke Skywalker (from the Sail Barge, UCS Shuttle, or Death Star Playset… as well as a watch and an SDCC exclusive), and the Paris Hilton of the Star Wars Universe, Boba Fett (from the absurdly overpriced Slave I reboot). Rounding out the set is a new figure, Kithaba.

The set itself has two main pieces, the Desert Skiff itself and a Sarlacc pit. The Skiff is the skiff, and the sarlacc still looks like a something in a health class video about the dangers of STDs. In truth, this is kind of a hard set to pin down when it comes to the reviews. Make no mistake, this is a glorified, $25 figure pack, but it somehow feels more than that. Sure, you never need more than a couple of these to put next to your sail barge, but you feel fine buying it.

Now, all of that being said, I still really like this set. Sure, the skiff is just off, but honestly, these aren’t replicas or models, they’re building sets. While the set isn’t accurate, and the inclusion of a flick-fire is just baby town frolic crazy (though not as bad as the LotR Weathertop set)… as a building toy, this works. It’s got a great little mix of parts, great figures, and is a good value for the money.

What I liked:

Great value for the set
Lando’s Face is awesome, even if the rest of his figure is at best average
New canopy parts that come with the sarlacc are great
What I didn’t like:

The front of the skiff does not look right… it looks better, but still wrong. Needs more guard rails
Would have preferred to see a Gammorean guard on the skiff, or something similar, in place of Boba Fett or Luke
Flick fires? I’m actually shocked they didn’t put some in the Sarlacc as well, the way they’ve started to inappropriately stick them everywhere
Too much detail on some figs is overkill

nice review .... I do like "building" sets ..and the fact that this one has so many minifigs included is very nice

not only does it sound like a good build challenge ,sounds like there would be a very large amount of play value to it too... a bonus for both a builder/gamer ...and any child/adult who gets it as a gift

same here; i'd almost recommend you save up and get one of the larger vehicle/ship sets; but for the money that skiff is a 7.5/10; compared to the 4.5's of everything else in the star wars lineup for value

it really is a easy to build set though; especially when compared to the fury class interceptor

lets face it the very name "Lego" adds $$$ onto any price your about to pay ...when you put both "Lego" and "Star-Wars" on any type set it triples any regular price for a building set of X amount of pieces....

in fact "mega-blocks" building sets are fully compatible with Lego sets and some sets both companies have on the store shelves ..only difference is the colours and the "official" building sets names ....

star wars adds the $$$$, lego stuff isn't that much more expensive of parts per price than anyone else; its the licenses(star wars, DC, Marvel, Disney, etc...) they pick that means the higher cost

mega-blocks weapons and other parts are not as durable as their LEGO or even fan made parts

I actually have not really noticed the lesser durability factor in the sets I did own...but then ..I did no-mega playing with them either....

well the average megablock piece in my collection of minifig weapons broke in half the time as the fanmade/actual lego ones

wow... thats not so good....those you could repair though right???

a bit of plastic / epoxy you could fix the broken weapon fairly well ..???

not really; it wasn't a clean enough of a break to be able to repair

thats a real bummer

not really; i prefer brickarms weapons over megablocks(cause you can get more of them and know that they aren't as hard to get replacements)

i'll work on my next review today

ahhh...I see then ...

oh-okay ...I'll look forward to it

im too tired to post it; its done and saved on my comp so.... goodnight and i'll post it when i get on tomorrow morning