Review: 7929 The Battle of Naboo

Indexed

Hello all, and welcome to my very first review.

Set Name: The Battle of Naboo
Set Number: 7929
Year of release: 2011
Price: EUR 29,99* - USD 29,99
Parts: 241
Minifigs: Jar Jar Binks (new), Gungan Warrior (new), 8 battle droids, 2 battle droid pilots (new).
*(I paid EUR 24,99 actually, but 29,99 is the regular price)

Today, I picked up the 7929 Battle of Naboo, and decided to do a review of this nice set.
The minifigures are great, and I like the model itself, too. It's actually much larger than I expected, and looks good, although the size isn't accurate to the "real" one. People who'd like to perfect it could modify it, and make it larger.

The pictures are clickable, so you end up in my Flickr photostream clicking them. There, you can view larger sizes of the pictures.

Index:
1. The Box & Instructions
2. The Build
3. The Minifigures
4. Pieces of Interest
5. Ratings

The Box & Instructions

Here's a picture of all the components of the set, including the box and instructions (note the partying droids and Jar Jar chasing the unarmed pilot):




Here's the back of the box. It shows the features and the minifigures, plus 3 of the wave 1 sets:




The 1:1 picture for the minifigs, which is always displayed on the "roof" (top) of the box.
This time, we find Jar Jar in the spotlights:




All the Star Wars 2011 sets from wave 1 (from the instructions):




The part list, that we always find around the end of the instructions:



The Build

Well, onto the build now then, shall we?
The build was pretty fun, but not really much new.

The start of the building process. The "base" for the transport is being built up now.




The build is almost done, and this is what it looks like from underneath now.



The main build has been finished now. All that's left is the actual droid carrier.
So, this is what it will look like without the carrier:




And then, this is what the actual droid carrier looks like, not placed onto the transport.
It's easy to remove the plates that hold the droids. Every plate is capable of carrying 4 droids, so the entire thing can carry 8.
It isn't great, and could use some modifying, but it's fine as it is, to me. I might modify it later on, though.




When placed onto the transport, it looks like this. Pretty nice, isn't it?




Pic of the back only:




This is how the carrier is attached to the vehicle:




"Cockpit" on the front, where you can see the controls (or, the levers...)




And ending the build section of this review, here are the leftovers.
I thought the 1x6 reddish brown piece was an extra piece, turns out I forgot to add it to the front of the vehicle.




The Minifigures:

And now, get ready to see the best part of the set... *drum roll*
The minifigs!

It's great to have this amount of battle droids in a cheap set. The new pilots are a nice touch, too.
But the true highlight here is the Gungan Warrior, along with Jar Jar Binks.

Here are the Gungan Warrior and Jar Jar Binks, both with a new torso and head printings.




The backs of the two are greatly detailed.




They even added back prints, even though those are hidden.
Gives for some great other uses for these torsos.




Comparison shot:
On the left is the new Jar Jar Binks, and on the right is the old Jar Jar Binks. Easy to figure out which one is best.
The head molds are exactly the same, but the new ones have head printing. They even printed the nose holes!




And now, onto the battle droids. There are 8 regular battle droids in this set, and 2 newly printed droid pilots.




Comparison shot:
On the left we have the all-new droid pilot, with a printed body. On the right we have the older version, from 2007's MTT.
I don't have the one from 1999, unfortunately, but these will do. I like the new one best, although the one from the MTT still works well as a droid pilot, even next to the new one. The only differences are the tan printing on the new one's body, and that it has got two of the bent arms, instead of one bent and one straight. Do not fear the shadows.




Next off, we hav- wait, what?! The Gungan warrior killed off the droid pilot by sticking a cesta into his back.
Yes, that long pole with a booma/energy ball on top is called a cesta. Hopefully you learned something new today.

"How's that for a horse-frog head?!"




Pieces of Interest

Next off: the pieces of interest.
By that, I mean the great and interesting pieces from this set. I only showed the new pieces, although the dark tan pieces
are also quite nice. The Gungan heads and the droid body aren't exactly new, but the prints do make them a bit new.

The shield is fantastic, looks very nice in transparent purple.

Ratings

Ah, we have come to the last part of my first review: the ratings.
Here is what I think about this set, and thus what I rated it:

Design: 7/10 - The model looks nice, and has a good design. It has some flaws here and there,
and if I counted the size accuracy, then it would have been lower.. But, they shouldn't have made this bigger - leave that to the people who're going to modify it. Not everything can be minifig-scaled.

Build: 7/10 - The build was pretty good, and can be fun to some, but there's nothing new, really. Hence the 7/10.

Playability: 8/10 - It is swooshable, and although it doesn't have many features, there are still lots of things you can do with this set. The inclusion of so many battle droids in one small set, along with some Gungans is very nice, and serves well as a factor for the playability. I imagine anyone of any age can have great fun with this set, too.
Recreate a small battle scene? Check. Well, I could put on an entire list now, but that would be too long, and I'm not going to do that. All in all, this set has a nice playability, regardless of the small amount of features. But that would be with most sets, then.

Minifigures: 9/10 - The minifigures are fantastic. There's a great amount of battle droids, two new battle droid pilots,
and the highlights of the set: the all-new and awesome Gungan Warrior and Jar Jar Binks. They're greatly detailed. But, there could have been one more Gungan, that would've been nice.

Price: 9/10 - I paid EUR 24,99 for this set, and it was definitely worth it. The piece count is 241, so the price I paid was nearly perfect. However, since the price for many people is about EUR/USD 29,99, that should've been lowered a bit. But it was worth it to me, so it's not all that bad, especially not when you consider the newly printed Gungans, and the new shield. There are people who have other thoughts about the price, though.

Overall: 40/50 - A great set with some flaws here and there. I recommend this set to anyone, for the great minifigures and some interesting pieces. The model itself is pretty nice, too. You could also get this set if you want to modify it, but still having the figures and using some parts from the set. Great work, TLC!

[i]Photos hosted on Flickr.[/b]

~ General Magma

Thanks for the review. This set is really great and I will be getting it.
Frontpaged.

Nice! I think I will get that.




P.S I always wondered what that pole thing was.Thanks for saying!

Now my eagerness for Christmas grows stronger! .....wait, is that a good thing? Nice review, General Magma. I adore the quality of your pictures, and the way you captured the minifigs is phenomenal! Great review!