Sunday, October 23rd, 2016 at 10:08pm by Andrew, BZPower News Manager
There's still about two months until Rogue One: A Star Wars Story releases in theaters, but the toys are already here, leading the marketing charge. Of course there's a bunch LEGO sets to go along with it, and today we're looking at one of the buildable figures, 75120 K-2SO. Will this be the droid you're looking for, or is he better off getting thrown in a Jawa's trash heap? Come watch our video and check out the text and image review to find out!
Presentation
From the design of the box to the instruction manual, these are the first things you see before building the set.
The front of the box, interestingly enough, does not have any mentions of Rogue One. It's very clear, however, that this is a LEGO Star Wars set, belonging to the Buildable Figures line, and that Disney owns everything. K-2SO is standing so tall he's partially obscuring the logo, in front of what looks to be a city under fire (maybe Jedha or Scarif?). It looks like there's action going on, and this droid is in the middle of it, and you can be too if only you buy this set.
On the back we see the main logos again, along with a different shot of K-2SO. Along the left side they show off his action feature of movable arms similar to those of Skull Basher. The bottom encourages you to buy the other two Rogue one buildable figures - Jyn Erso and the Imperial Death Trooper.
Building
Half the fun is had building the set. How fun is it to build and how easy or challenging is it?
With 169 pieces in a buildable figure, K-2SO has double the parts of a lot of similiar-sized constraction sets, with many of them being Technic elements. This makes for a very intricate build - not as much as an actual Technic set - but more that snapping beams and shells together. In fact, the model doesn't use a torso piece, and the entire structure is built piece-by-piece from the ground up. I didn't find the build challenging, but it does take a little longer than normal and will keep you fully engaged. I definitely enjoyed the process and hope we continue to see more Technic-heavy builds interspersed with the normal constraction designs.
Set Design
Now that the set is complete, we can critique how it looks from every angle. New or interesting pieces can also be examined here.
K-2SO includes a couple of pieces new to this set and a whole bunch of recolors. Exclusive to the set are:
Black K-2SO Head
Black Lightsaber Handle
Black Shoulder Shell w/ Imperial Logo
Black Weapon Barrel
Black 4x4-1/2 Shell w/ Shafts
Black Minifig Rapier
Silver Metallic 1x1 Technic Beams
The head is very detailed and matches the images we've seen of the droid quite well. The other pieces are all nice to have in new colors, especially the Bionicle Gen 2 armor shell, the lightsaber handle, the rapier, and the 1x1 Technic beams.
There's a bunch of rare parts as well, including one that is only available in the three new buildable figures, such as:
Black 4x7x4 Shell w/ Ball Joint (available in 1 other set)
Dark Stone Grey 9M Beam B (available in 1 other set)
Silver Metallic 24mm Technic Corrugated Pipe (available in 1 other set)
Black 4x8x3 Shell w/ Ball Snap (available in 2 other sets)
Obviously the standout here is the new thigh shell, which covers the legs nicely and still offers two shaft holes to improve the connectivity options. It like it much better than the shin armor because of this, even though that piece has some great aesthetic uses.
There's also a good handful of other constraction parts and a whole bunch of Technic pieces, mainly in black. It's a good variety, especially considering all of the uncommon parts.
From what we've seen so far, the set does a good job capturing the look of K-2SO from the upcoming Rogue One film. Obviously it's not perfect, but there's only so much that can be accomplished with LEGO parts. The arms and legs aren't quite as smooth, but since the character is a droid, it's easier to look past than with human characters turned into buildable figures. He looks nice and solid from pretty much all angles. My only gripe is the 4x7x4 shell used on the back that has an exposed ball joint. It's not a big deal, but I'm usually not a fan of this. All in all though I really like how he looks - a tall, lanky robot ready to fight the Empire!
Playability
The other half of the fun is in playing with the set. How well does the set function and is it enjoyable to play with?
As mentioned above, K-2SO's play feature is similar if not identical to that of Skull Basher's from last year's Bionicle sets. There's a light-bluish grey 'boat bottom' piece on the back that you can use to move his arms around. Push it to the left and the arms move to the right. Push it to the right and the arms move to the left. Push it in and both arms swing forward. It's nice to have something different from the normal gear mechanism and it works decently. It does make the arms a little harder to pose, but I think the tradeoff is worth it.
As you can see, you can still pose K-2SO in a variety of positions. Balancing him with those lanky arms and legs can be tricky, but it's still possible. Of course, if you get the other Rogue One figures the overall playability increases as you can recreate scenes from the movie (once it comes out) or make up your own situations for the characters to face. Maybe K-2SO has been fooling the Rebels all along and is secretly an Imperial plant!
Final Thoughts
Once it's all said and done, how does the set stack up? Should I get it?
Pros
What's to like?
Nice new thigh armor pieces
Lots of unique and rare recolors
Captures the movie character well
Fun play feature
Cons
What's not to like?
Can be difficult to pose
Exposed ball joint on the back
Of the three Rogue One buildable figures, I think K-2SO is my favorite. He matches what we've seen from Rogue One pretty well and definitely captures that robotic look. There's lots of nice pieces, as long as you like to work in black, with a bunch of recolors and some nice new elements. The set is a little expensive at $25, but that's pretty par for the course when it comes to Star Wars constraction, so there's not much that can be done about it. If you're only going to pick up one Rogue One set, this would be my recommendation.
Thanks as always for taking the time to read and/or watch our review. We hope you enjoyed it and would love your feedback in the Talkback or YouTube comments. Are you planning on picking up K-2SO or any of the other Rogue One sets? Let us know about that too! If you're still not sure, stay tuned to BZPower for more reviews and LEGO news!