During May the 4th, I managed to pick up the brand new LEGO Star Wars Ultimate Collector Series R2-D2 (10225) from Shop@Home. LEGO also had a promotion where if you purchased $75 worth of Star Wars set you also get a TC-14 minifigure and also a Limited Edition R2-D2 poster. The R2-D2 set contains 2127 pieces and retails for $179.99, which is $0.08/piece. The box itself is pretty large and has some many nice pictures of him on all sides. Inside the box, it has 15 numbered bags, 3 instruction booklets, and 1 sticker for the plaque.
Minifigs
There is only one minifigure included in the set and that, of course, is R2-D2. It is the the same one that we’ve seen before in previous 2012 sets.
Build
As stated before, there are 15 bags in which a couple has bags in them as well. In Bag 1, you start off by building the base of the astro droid including the recharge coupling in the front. As you can see, there are many colored pieces along with with some basic white pieces. Nothing too special here.
In Bag 2, we continue with the building the center part of the droid. At this point, you can now see his rounded shoulders. As we move up, we also build the front door panels for his gadgets. On the back side, there is a hole for the third leg release switch that we’ll be building shortly as well as turn switches to pop out his gadgets. For the sides of the inner walls, there are some Technic pieces to act as stabilizers for the leg mechanism.
As we move to Bag 3, the upper body is pretty much assembled. Here we can see the Spacecraft Linkage Control Arms completed as well as the Utility Circular Saw and the Universal Computer Interface arm. In the front, the Burtt Acoustic Signaler and the System Ventilation are nicely built.
For Bag 4, we start building the third leg mechanism and the back switch using a lot of Technic pieces. The yellow connector is joined with elastic bands to form the latch to keep the leg raised or lowered. Also the side panels right below the legs are covered up with some grill pieces.
As we come to the halfway point of the set, Bag 5 allows us to build the retractable third leg as well as the base of R2-D2’s head. The leg fits right between the the yellow mechanism in the previous step.
Moving to Bag 6, we now build the the legs for both sides. They are mounted by a red Technic pin. There are some SNOT work for the blue cover area of the legs.
In Bag 7, the little droid finally gets to stand on his own two feet. Here we see some nice uses of cheese wedges to shape the feet. It slips right into the leg piece where it is secured with a blue pin on the bottom of the feet.
In Bag 8, we build the covers for the shoulder pieces as well as what I believe are the fuel cells for R2-D2. There are also brown tubes which are the Powerbus Cables. The fuel cells easily attach to the inside part of the legs.
As we’re getting close to completing the set, we finally get to build the head. It did get a little annoying to put together in the beginning because it was a little flimsy until the third level. You continue to build up until the dome is almost complete. Some notable features you see are his Holographic Projector and Primary Photoreceptor/Radar Eye in the front and his Secondary Holographic Projector in the back.
On the final bag of the set, we get to cover up the rest of the head and attach it to the body. We also build the stand for the plaque and the R2-D2 minifigure. You also get a good amount of extra pieces in the end.
Results
Overall, this is a really nice set. Building him was very enjoyable and worth the time to make it. I think LEGO did a great job in making our favorite astro droid into a collector’s item that we can construct. The dark blues and grays make the figure stand out. Although it does look a little blocky on the head, it’s not bad at all. The back of the body looks a bit plain but that’s ok.
Some of the features of the set includes a fully rotatable head and the gadgets in the front panel. They include the Circular Utility Saw and the Universal Computer Interface Arm which both extend out. The Linkage Control Arms also flip out right under the dome.
The main feature is the retractable third leg which flips out from the lever in the back. To do this, lean him forward and flip the lever to the “down” position and the leg will drop down. To retract the leg, just flip the lever to the “up” position and it’ll lock in place.
Again, LEGO put a lot of detail in planning and designing this set. He measures 7″ wide and 12″ tall so this is a pretty nice-sized figure. This will definitely be a nice showcase set to add to your collection.
Third Leg Released
Features
Bonus
As I stated before, I got this set during the May the 4th promotion. Along with the purchase, I did get an exclusive TC-14 minifigure as well as a Limited Edition R2-D2 poster. The posters are limited to 48480 and I received #6171.
At the end of instruction book #3, you get the see a preview of the new Summer 2012 Star Wars sets.
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