75271 Luke Skywalker’s Landspeeder

One of the sets that caught my eye in the recent set release was this version of an X34 landspeeder from Star Wars.

Some New Sets

I received a “VIP” email from TLG announcing some of the new sets this morning. Here’s my first impressions of some of them as I’ve trawled through for a look.

Monster Burger Truck (31104)

I laughed out loud when I saw this one. It’s a wildly impractical design. As a burger van, customers have to climb up (and down with full hands) some steep steps to be served, then when you go monster trucking, the all the burger ingredients and kitchenware will get bounced around the cabin.

I do love the table made out of tyres though – I’ve definitely seen that at roadside food vans. The dog and small burger are pretty cute too.

It’s not super clear from this picture if it has suspension although I suspect so. That was one of my favourite innovations in the 60180 Monster Truck.

Food vans of various sorts, including in the Friends line, have been popular for a while. It would be a good subject for a budding collector.

 

Luke Skywalker’s X-34 Landspeeder (75271)

There’s been a couple of other minifig scale landspeeders (75173 & 8092) from Star Wars, but this one is a little more detailed, especially the engines. The front curves are made from 6060 arches, so I’d be interested to see what the SNOT arrangement is underneath. A clue is that the set includes 12 41682 SNOT tiles. I guess those are stickers, not printing for the grilles.

The poncho is a nice touch, and I haven’t seen that dark orange cactus/flow stem thing before although apparently it’s been around since 2017.

 

Ariel’s Storybook Adventures (43176)

Here’s something different. There’s four of these “storybook” sets – all Disney properties. The other ones are Frozen, Beauty & the Beast, and Mulan. The book spine 65200 and covers 65196 are all new parts for this year. The book halves can close up with all the parts inside.

This is a great concept for taking Lego with you. The covers are 11 x 16 so it would fit in a handbag and could be pulled out at the coffee shop for your kid to play with instead of going on your phone to keep occupied while you enjoy coffee with friends. The idea of taking your play with you is clearly one that’s been a focus – there’s also a series of Friends “Play Cubes“, and Sweet Mayhem (a Lego Movie 2 character) gets a “Disco Pod“.

I’m not sure what you call these little figures, I guess “microdolls”? They are a good scale for fitting in this little book, and I’m impressed with how they’ve handled Ariel’s tail.

 

Top Gear Rally Car (42109)

Something that doesn’t super excite me, but is sure to be a subject of much discussion is this app-controlled Top Gear branded Rally Car. I hope they didn’t pay too much for the branding, as I can’t see that it adds much to the desirability of the set.

Bluetooth controlled, along the lines of the “powered-up” hub in this set and a couple of other recent sets, is definitely the way to go. However, a disappointment is that there’s no generic app that can be used by MOC builders.

 

Creative Bag Charm (854021)

Strictly speaking, I don’t approve of Lego merch. I already own a Batgirl Minifig torch, a baseplate clock, a cup, and several fridge magnets – and I don’t want to become “that Lego guy”. However, I can see the appeal of this little 2×4 plate keyring. You might want to consider some kraggle though.