Well, I know this has been reviewed before but since I had it on hand I thought I'd try my hand at the art of reviewing. ;)
As you can see its the typical, ridiculously over-sized box of a battle-pack. It's slightly disappointing to open the box and find that it is less than half-filled. Ah well.
All the parts were in two bags except for a white, 2 x 12 plate which was inexplicably loose in the box. It could easily have fit in the larger of the two bags. Weird. One of the first things you notice is the lack of a sticker sheet which have become all too common in Star Wars sets.
The parts selection, although small, has some nice variety, including bricks, plates, tiles, slopes, and clips. Though only coming in at 65 pieces that is significantly more than measly 48 of the Mandalorian Battle Pack.
The build is short, as expected of such a small set, and slightly repetitive so nothing really to recommend there.
Finishing the build leaves us with but one extra piece, a "Black Arm Mechanical, Battle Droid". This was a bit of a surprise as most sets seem to have three or more.
Above are some parts which I found useful and/or interesting. There are two "Dark Bluish Gray Slope 18 2 x 1 x 2/3 with 4 Slots". Never can have too many of those. There are also two "Black Minifig, Weapon Spear Gun", two "White Slope, Curved 4 x 1 No Studs", four "Light Bluish Gray Plate 1 x 1", and four "White Minifig, Footgear Ski". None of them are unique or rare but I found them to be useful. I haven't mentioned what merits the presence of the white jumper plates because those are easily the three most interesting pieces.
As you can see they have small bevel, similar to tiles. I've never seen jumper plates like that before and Bricklink neither lists them as an alternate part, or even has a listing for them at all. If anyone knows anything about them I'd be interested in hearing what they have to say.
The speeder is frankly quite the swooshable machine. It's very sturdy and it's hard to stop yourself from picking it up and "vrooming" it around the room. :) Besides the minifigs, which we'll get to next, the BARC speeder is what really sells the set. Although nice, it really doesn't match the source all that well as you can see in the photo below. (Thanks Wookiepedia) The angles in the front are non-existent in the model and the protrusion in front of the driver in the model is absent for the most part on the real thing. It has the general proportions right but the shaping is all wrong.
Now on to the minifigures, which are really the whole point of this set.
There they are, four of them, the typical number for a battle pack. All three types are new, not available in any other set.
It also includes two of the new hand-blaster, similar to the ones that came with the "ARC Gear" from clone commanders.
First up are the "Bomb-Squad troopers" with beautiful orange helmets and torso and leg printing. The printing in the legs and torso is neat with crisp edges. The helmet printing though is a bit messy and the white could be more opaque. The only source photo I could find is below. They appeared in Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 1, Episode 17. From what I could see, the minifigures match the source quite well.
Now onto the next minifig.
This guy has got to be my favorite, the sand green is lovely and the printing is very crisp, colorful and well done. Again, they seem to match the source very well, a testament to the skills of TLG's graphic design team.
And the final 'fig.
The helmet on this guy is a new, unique, mold, depicting a clone "ARC Trooper" which is apparently the predecessor to the scout troopers of RoTJ. The helmet is very well done, the printing is neat and legible although it gets a bit rough around the front of the helmet where the grey is. Detracting from the helmet is a standard clone trooper torso which from the photos of the "real" guy is apparently accurate, albeit boring as you can see in the below photo.
Well, we're done with minifigures, now for the ratings.
Value: 7/10 The minifigures make up for the less-than-golden parts ratio and the speeder is quite a bit of fun, though lacking in distinct play-features.
Accuracy: 6/10 The minifigures are spot-on but the speeder is far from it.
Swoosh-ability: 9/10 The speeder is very sturdy and just begs to be "swooshed".
Quality: 8/10 Most of the minifigures and parts are, as is usual for TLG, top quality. Some printing issues keep it from a 10/10 rating.
Build: 5/10 Being so small you can't really expect a very enjoyable build but the speeder was a bit repetitious even so.
Play features: 3/10 Play features are entirely lacking, the swoosh-ability of the speeder makes up for it some though.
Minifigures: 7/10 The minifigures are spot-on, kids describe them with words like "cool" "awesome" and "sweet". The 'figs standard clone heads and lack of versatility keep the rating down.
Overall: 7.5/10 Whether you want to get the set or not really depends on why you're getting it. If you're looking for minifigs or a set for kids, get it. That's all what the set's about, kids love it. If you're looking for parts...not so much. Nothing is unique other than maybe the white jumper plates with bevels.
