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Set Review: 75530 Chewbacca
 Monday, November 6th, 2017 at 2:08pm by Andrew, BZPower News Manager[Source: Nuju Metru] Welcome to our latest set review here on BZPower. Taking a look at the LEGO Star Wars buildable figure series, Forum Assistant Nuju Metru is sharing his thoughts on 75530 Chewbacca. As usual we have both a video and a text and image review for your consumption pleasure. Will this Wookiee stand tall and proud as part of your collection? Or will he be ignored during the medal ceremony despite his major contributions? Let's find out! Hey guys, and welcome to BZPower's review of LEGO Star Wars set 75530 Chewbacca! As always, I'd like to heartily thank TLG for giving us at BZP free stuff... I love my job and I love my free LEGO. Read on to see my thoughts - captured for you in both a video and a text/image format - on this new Constraction figure and vehicle combo. Will this Wookiee win your heart? Let's find out! Presentation
It's rather standard. It's a LEGO box. The graphics are nice. Chewie stands in front of the Millennium Falcon, looking out over whichever planet he and Rey travel to on their quest to find Luke at the end of TFA. [Editor's note: The planet is Ahch-To, duh. :P] We find out that this is - shockingly - a buildable action figure, based on some text at the bottom of the box.
The back of the package looks like every other LEGO Star Wars constraction figure's box has looked: a hologram deck(?) where an alternative pose of the model occupies center stage. Play feature callout boxes, measurements of the final product, the norm. Clean design, and expected too. All in all, I find the packaging here wholly average. Let's move past it. Building
When you open up the box, a few crinkly bags and instruction manual come falling out. Just from a first look, you can see 75530 features a bunch of reddish brown. No surprises there! I won't show you the build process in pictorial form for two main reasons: one, I don't want to spoil these surprises - the kinds of things I enjoy most about a new product - and two, I never look at build-in-progress shots myself when reading these kinds of reviews. That all said: the most interesting part of the build is the torso. Not an unusual state of things, on a complex Constraction figure. The way the designer achieved Chewie's sloping shoulders, in particular, made me happy. Anywho, let's have a look at the finished product. Set Design
Before we critique the set from every angle, let's take a look at the new/interesting elements included in 75530 (forgive me if I've missed anything, or added something here that isn't new/interesting!). They are:
Of course, I omitted the new Chewbacca head element from these lists (as it's so obvious, and merits its own discussion). The first thing that strikes me about this part is its sheer size. While Chewie's face's size is demonstrated on the box as the 1:1 reference part, it has to be held to be believed. Trust me: it's a big compound brick. The detailing is great, from the 360-degree sculpt to the nougat highlights. Chewie's white teeth and eyes are achieved with a second, permanently affixed plastic layer that peeks through pre-ordained holes in the furry exterior.
But enough about parts. Here's the finished model! Instantly recognizable, quite big and striking, this recreation of Chewbacca looks nice on initial inspection. Let's take a look in more depth...
The thing that impresses me most about this figure is that it, effectively, achieves the Great Constraction Dream: armor coverage all over the body, from every angle. Back? You betcha. Back of legs? Better believe it. Under the neck? Uh-huh. Sides of the body!? It's there. It's all there. Chewie doesn't really have any of the gaping holes we've almost come to expect from Constraction figures. The only missed spot, really, is his under-arms. He's very, very tall. I like that. It feels right. 75530's color scheme, while simple, is effective and accurate to the character. Our favorite big brown walking carpet looks, for all intents and purposes, like a big brown walking carpet. The touches of nougat and dark grey printed on Chewie's limbs and chest add dimensionality to what would otherwise be a flat palette. I like how the bag and bandolier are separated from Chewie's body by being dark brown, a color not used elsewhere.
Chewie's legs look - aptly - like tree trunks. Round, thick, and with supplemental coverage on the knees, they're bulky and feel sturdy. I do wish his feet were a little bigger. The burly, barrel-chested torso screams "Chewbacca!" I love the lateral coverage and de-tapering effect those spiderleg spikes have. I mentioned the sloped shoulders earlier; something about them really helps to capture Peter Mayhew's physique.
The bowcaster bears proper shape and inconspicuously implements the SW blaster base piece we've seen so many times before. Nice. Playability
Chewie has a standard range of motion... technically. All the usual Constraction articulation points, minus lots of actual flexibility. A downside derived of the complete coverage I touted earlier is a lack of poseability. His knees have a very small range of motion, his hands are obstructed from twisting by the overhang of his forearm shells, his head can hardly turn - it can't look up or down, either - and his arms can't lift over his head. The above images represent my best attempts to find dynamic poses aside from the stoic stance seen on the box. I wasn't too successful.
It's a spring-loaded SW Constraction gun; it has a spare shot holder on the side. In these ways, Chewie's bowcaster doesn't stand out as a play feature. I found, though, that it was difficult to load, due to a different trigger design than normal (here, gravity works against you; the trigger is on top, not bottom, so it works against you as you try to click in the bolt). So that's like an average play feature, plus inconvenience.
Something I mentioned earlier is how LARGE Chewie is. Here he is with the Constraction Scout Trooper for visual comparison. Any guesses who's gonna win in a fight? Final Thoughts
Well, that's the lot of it. Let's tally things up...
75530 is a faithful and aesthetically satisfying recreation of our beloved Chewbacca. Though the figure's burly armoring limits its poseability, and the bowcaster proves a little inconvenient to load, I find it overall a very gratifying figure. Chewie stands tall and proud, and feels very much like himself.
As always a big thanks goes out to LEGO for sending BZPower this set to review, and an additional thanks to Aaron for actually making the review happen. And of course thanks to you, readers, and viewers, for taking the time to make it to the end. Let us know what you think of this set in the Talkback or comments along with any other thoughts or feedback you might have on the review. We'll be back as soon as can be with another set review, so stay tuned to BZPower!
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