Battle Droid with STAP - Review of LEGO Set #75428

Part of me wasn’t completely drawn in by this LEGO set when I first saw it, probably because I am usually more a fan of minifigure scale sets, and the buildable characters aren’t often accurately constructed, and possibly because it wasn’t a character I was immediately drawn to either… BUT… when I had a closer look at the battle droid I quite liked the way this was designed, and seeing it in store I quite liked the overall look. The other reason I decided to purchase this set was because I know my son likes the Star Wars droids (and this happened to be the droid set that was on sale at the time), so when I was able to get it for about AU$70 less than retail I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to have this as a display piece… and now, I can tell you that I was not disappointed by the building process or the final product.

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Note: You may notice my photo of the sticker in the instruction book labelled as sticker number 3, that is an error as I had already used sticker 3 earlier in the instructions, it should have said sticker 2 at that point. It is not an issue though as it is obvious which sticker you need to use at that point.

This set is noted as a 12+ set, and I believe it is one that really could be a bit tricky for the younger builder. The complexity of the design to create the angles of the STAP speeder is something worthy of respect (seriously, where would one start in attempting to create the correct angles and have all the connections covered up so neatly), and the posable attributes of the battle droid are complex enough to allow for great movement without the floppiness that could be possible (I am hoping that over time the firmness of the joints holds out so that it doesn’t collapse easily).

The battle droid can stand on its own, with a buildable blaster than can be attached to its back or in its hands, or the battle droid can be attached to the STAP. The droid’s hands clip onto the STAP handles, and the droids feet have studs on the rear of each foot to allow them to attach to the foot-rests better. The backpack can be removed from the droid too, and the STAP can be removed from the stand, allowing flexibility to how you can handle the build, or display the build, and making it a play set just as much as a display set (you can even have the droid in a walking/running position if you balance it carefully, and I have seen an image of it positioned with one knee on the ground as well).

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According to the LEGO website the dimensions of the battle droid on the STAP in this 1,088-piece set measures over 38 cm (15 in.) high, 30 cm (11.5 in.) long and 14 cm (5.5 in.) wide… I struggle to stand by droid upright enough on the speeder to reach the full height personally, and it is a few centimetres shorter than it claims (perhaps I need to work on the angles of the wrists combined with the elbows so suit the droid sitting more upright and in closer to the STAP handles). The droid itself is about 30cm tall.

The Battle Droid with STAP retails for AU$199.99 in LEGO stores. I managed to acquire it during one of their end of year sales for about AU$130 (which I consider much more appropriate… though lets not go into the rising cost of LEGO in general), and it is possible to pick it up cheaper than retail on ‘Amazon AU’ as of the time I type this up.

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If a buildable battle droid is on your wish list then grab this set if you can. I was going to say if you collect Star Wars LEGO vehicles to get this too, but the scale is completely different to any other vehicles made I would say (correct me if I'm wrong, as I would be interested to know of any) so it isn't a natural Star Wars vehicle collection addition. Even the droid scale doesn't match other buildable figures too much from what I can tell, not even with the Droideka (#75381) which is a little bit small to be regarded as the same scale as this B1 battle droid. LEGO designers must be designing these sets for as accurate construction to the character/droid, and not necessarily aiming for consistency with scale. From what I have seen the latest R2D2 and C3PO are matched in scale well, though these two are an obvious couple of sets you would want to display together (LEGO possibly only redesigned R2D2 for the purpose of matching the C3PO they wanted to release). Perhaps this is why this battle droid comes with an STAP speeder, to create something a bit different and not necessarily having all the droids lined up next to each other to make the scale difference obvious... I guess we'll never know. Whatever the reason, it does take away from the playability of the sets, when they can't interact quite the same as they could if they were of the same scale. Yes, I know they are designed as display sets for adults (or 12+...when you turn 12 kids, be prepared to be served display sets rather than being able to interact with play sets 😜), but even though I am an adult I would find it fun to create a scene with the Separatist droids attacking R2 & 3PO (please, if anyone has all these sets, post an image of them in the comments so we have a better idea of the size comparison of them).

To wrap this article up, I like this LEGO set a lot, and will mostly have it on display with the droid riding the STAP (mainly to keep it all together). But I think I'll let my son play with the droid and pose it because I like that aspect about this design. It will mix up the display a bit for variety. I very much enjoyed the building process with the SNOT techniques, joints, clips and angles too, as it is different from many of the sets I have put together.