Spook Central

Having focused my previous post on the Ghostbusters ECTO 1 Cadillac, my attentions now shift to the Ghostbusters HQ building. Before I get into that, however, I need to apologise for the title of this post -  I'm well aware that "Spook Central" is actually 55 Central Park West, the Ivo Shandor-designed super-conductive antenna inhabited by Dana Barrett and Louis Tully rather than the Ghostbusters' converted firehouse, but Ray Stanz's "Spook Central" quote has stayed with me ever since I first saw the movie so I couldn't resist....

From Liveforfilms.com

Finding photos of the building wasn't too hard, although that's assuming that all you want to look at is the front and the left side.... If however you're interested in the roof, back and/or right side of the building then you're probably out of luck - I couldn't find any images of these aspects at all. As I trawled the web for images and information, I was interested to discover that up until recently the building still functioned as a working firehouse. That may however no longer be the case - according to this article it was threatened with closure back in 2011 due to budget cuts (sniff). Can any locals give us an update ?

Design-wise the building's basically an elongated box with a big, arched front door and lots of windows. As such, I figured that it'd be reasonably easy to come up with something that looked vaguely similar to the real thing, with extra brownie points available for managing to imitate some of the more distinctive details. One of my biggest headaches was the question of scale. My plan was to build a model that wouldn't look too out of place alongside LEGO's range of modular buildings so that I could eventually display it alongside the modulars as part of my LEGO City Layout, but I also wanted to try and build it so that it'd fit into one of the showcase cabinets that LEGO brand stores make available to LUGs to display their own models, similar to what I did with my City College building. In the case of the showcase cabinet, it'd mean not making the building any deeper than one and a half standard baseplates, or 48 studs. With this in mind I powered up LDD and got to work, arriving at the design below after a few evenings (click pics to enlarge).

In terms of scale, it's a bit of a fudge. The finished model should hopefully (just about) fit in a LEGO showcase cabinet, but it'll probably be a bit small for my City Layout; when it's time for it to take its place in the layout I'll therefore consider stretching it by half a baseplate in length which should hopefully do the trick. Other design choices included a decision to go with dark orange for the upper level of the building as I thought it probably offered the best approximation of the real thing. In the absence of any photographs to guide me otherwise, I chose to make the two long sides of the building fairly similar but deliberately included a few differences which I'll mention later. I also decided to put a large window into the back wall, in order to avoid it being blank and boring. Talking of windows, I really wanted these to be light bley but was dismayed to discover that the parts I'd need to get the effect I wanted weren't available in that colour. After some experimentation I eventually decided to go with black windows, a choice which would allow me to design the windows as I wanted them without hopefully compromising the look of the building too much. Finally, I decided not to add interior detail, at least initially, as it wouldn't be readily visible in the finished model and would slow me down a lot. Reasonably satisfied with the overall look of the building on LDD, and able to live with the compromises, I moved on to the job of sourcing the necessary parts to build it.

As described in my previous post about ECTO 1, an inventory of parts was obtained by generating an html building guide via LDD, the last page of which consists of a parts listing. Then it was once again a case of raiding my loose parts stash for as many of the 2,440 parts as I could find and getting the rest from various Bricklink stores and LEGO's own Pick a Brick (PaB) and Bricks & Pieces (B&P) services. I initially feared that the dark orange elements might be tricky to source, but most of them were actually surprisingly common and affordable via Bricklink; a few were admittedly a bit of a pain to track down, but they were definitely in the minority. I ended up getting most of the window elements from PaB and B&P as they turned out to be considerably cheaper direct from LEGO. Given the sizeable number of elements in the model I sorted the parts into 3 clear crates to make the build a little more straightforward - one crate for elements 2 x 2 studs or less, one crate for larger plates, and one crate for bricks and everything else - and you can see the crates containing all the sorted parts laid out below (click picture to enlarge).

The LDD building guide took absolutely ages to generate - at least 30-40 minutes, believe it or not. Once finally completed, it broke the build into an eye-watering 1250 steps which helps to explain the long wait I guess. You can see a couple of sample screenshots of the building guide below (click pics to enlarge).

In marked contrast to some MOCs I've assembled from their LDD building guides, I have to say that construction of this model was a pleasure - straightforward, relaxing and therapeutic. I've captured some snapshots of the build at various stages of completion below (click pictures to enlarge) so you can see how it all came together. The base of the building consists of a couple of layers of dark bley bricks and slopes, upon which the light bley ground floor is constructed. The main difference between the right and left sides of the model is the absence of doorways on the right side; other differences are more subtle and only likely to be evident to the most eagle-eyed of readers - I'll leave you to find them ! The ground floor windows are mounted on jumper plates and offset backwards from the outer wall by half a stud which I think makes the model look a bit more interesting. The blue structure protruding from the middle window is presumably some sort of air conditioning unit.

Prior to 2012, the eye-catching dark orange colour utilised in the upper part of the building hadn't appeared in official LEGO sets in any great quantity, and I'm therefore indebted to LEGO for releasing Set 10224 Town Hall last year as this has helped to ensure that there's a decent quantity of affordable dark orange bricks in the hands of Bricklink sellers. The paving effect on either side of the windows on the upper part of the building is something that I'm rather partial to and have used in previous MOCs such as my City College building. The technique has also been utilised in official sets such as Set 10197 Fire Brigade. It's achieved by stacking 1 x 1 headlight bricks and attaching bley tiles to their forward-facing studs so as to create a paving effect on the outer surface of the wall. The downside of this technique is that it requires a whole lot of headlight bricks - almost 400 of them were needed for this model.

You can see a number of pictures below (click to enlarge) of the finished model taken from various angles. It's a fairly sizeable build - 38 cm (15") long by 26 cm (10") wide by 38 cm (15") tall - and it's heavier than I expected. Because of this it's rather cumbersome to transport, and in hindsight I should probably have constructed the model in three stackable levels similar to what LEGO do with their modular buildings. I'm not sure why I didn't think of doing this from the beginning, to be honest, and I don't think it would be a difficult modification to incorporate, so I may do it at some point. 

Having recently aquired a small supply of silver metallic 1 x 1 round tiles I was pleased to find a use for them as decoration on the small air conditioning units (picture below - click to enlarge) that you can see protruding from some of the windows on the upper level. I'm not sure they provide much from the perspective of realism, but they do add some welcome bling....

Once again the finishing touch came courtesy of minifigs.me who provided me with custom stickers of the Ghostbusters logo to stick onto the sign hanging above the front entrance. The upper level of the building is supposed to be flying the U.S. flag; I'll probably try to dig out an official LEGO U.S. flag from one of my old sets when I get a chance, but for now a couple of pennants in red and blue are doing the job well enough so there's no hurry.

You can see the finished Ghostbusters HQ building below together with ECTO 1 (click to enlarge). So far so good, then, but we're missing an essential component - the Ghostbusters themselves ! Have no fear, however - I'll bring you Pete, Egon, Ray and Winston in the final instalment of my Ghostbusters trilogy in a couple of weeks time, so check back then.

< -- ECTO 1                                                                                   Ghostbusters Minifigures -->

Who Ya Gonna Call ?

Having recently finished up and publicly displayed my reproduction of cavegod's massive 6,200+ piece UCS AT-AT, I figured it was about time I got to work on a MOC of my own. I did initially think about cracking on with my LEGO City layout, but given that there's still some sorting out to do in my LEGO room before I can comfortably work on it, I decided instead to tide myself over with a new, shorter project while I freed up the necessary space. The question, then, was what to build, and it didn't take me long to come up with an answer. Having recently been impressed by some of the Ghostbusters-inspired MOCs on Cuusoo, and also having coincidentally initiated my youngster in the delights of the first Ghostbusters movie, I thought I'd have a go at designing and building the iconic Ghostbusters ECTO 1 Cadillac and headquarters building.

Perhaps surprisingly, I felt more daunted by the prospect of building the Cadillac than the Ghostbusters HQ. Buildings are often well suited to being translated into LEGO form given their angular morphology, and the Ghostbusters HQ is no exception. Cars, however, with all their vehicle-specific characteristic features and subtle curves and contours, are a totally different story. Builders such Ralph Savelsberg a.k.a. Mad Physicist have spent years taking LEGO vehicle design to a different level, while I hadn't meaningfully MOC'ed a car since I was a kid. I decided to face my fears and start with the Cadillac.....

Image from Screenrant.com

One of the concerns I had was that I'd agonise endlessly about every little detail of the model and end up never getting the thing done at all. I therefore made a conscious decision up front to fight my natural instinct to get everything perfect and instead just try to capture the essence of the subject matter and not obsess too much about getting every little detail included and accurate. I figured that once the thing was built I could tinker with it to my heart's content if desired, but the primary objective was just to get something built and "good enough".

My first job was to track down some half-decent photographs of ECTO 1; this proved harder than expected. While an internet search yielded an enormous number of images, most of them appeared to be die-cast models of the vehicle, LEGO renditions of highly variable quality, or horrific attempts to turn real-life respectable family saloons into ECTO 1 with just a lick of paint and a few decals.... I had initially hoped to find some reasonable quality movie stills, but these seemed to be few and far between. Eventually, I stumbled across a useful posting by speederice on moviefancentral.com containing a ton of useful ECTO 1-related information and some usable photographs including the one above which I could use as a reference. Without any further ado I powered up LDD and got stuck in. When designing a new MOC, some people prefer to just dive in and experiment with real pieces, but I find that the almost infinite choice of elements available via LDD, compared with my limited selection of loose LEGO, means I can just get on with the design process without wasting lots of time searching for parts.

I spent a few hours on LDD over a couple of consecutive evenings designing and refining, and you can see a couple of LDD screengrabs of what I came up with below (click pics to enlarge). I predictably struggled with aspects of the design; while the passenger compartment and roof look pretty good to me, the front isn't quite right - it looks too narrow. Also, there's supposed to be a pair of headlights on each side rather than just the one, and the blue hose is supposed to insert lower into the bodywork. Even so, I felt that the design captured the essence of the vehicle sufficiently well and was "good enough" to be going on with. From a technical perspective, incidentally, I couldn't figure out how to detach the control sticks from their hemispherical bases on LDD; if anyone knows how to do this then please let me know.

The next job was sourcing the 310 parts needed to build the Cadillac; Superkalle has written an application called LDD Manager which can, amongst other things, take an LDD file and export a list of the constituent parts into an Excel spreadsheet which can in turn be imported into Bricklink as a wanted list. It only runs on PC, however, so as a Mac user I had to resort to a more cumbersome approach, namely using LDD to generate an html building guide, the last page of which contains a parts listing. I printed out the parts listing and systematically went through it, digging out those elements I already owned from my loose LEGO stash, and adding those I didn't to a Bricklink wanted list. During the process of trial and error that ensued, it became evident that a few of the elements would be best sourced direct from LEGO, be it their Pick a Brick (PaB) or their Bricks and Pieces (B&P) services. The remaining elements were eventually sourced from a bunch of diferent Bricklink stores and the aforementioned LEGO services and gradually arrived over the next 1-2 weeks. You can see a picture below of the 310 parts (click to enlarge) - doesn't seem to be a great deal to show for all that hassle....

Once the parts had been sourced it was time to boot up LDD once again and enter building guide mode in order to generate a building guide from the Cadillac's LDD file. For the uninitiated, this is an automated process available from the LDD menu at the click of a button, and in the case of a relatively small model like the Cadillac it only takes a few moments. The resulting guide differs from the html building guide described earlier in that it's possible to rotate and zoom the images on the screen at every step, thus allowing the builder to look at the build from multiple angles; this can be especially handy if it's a complex build. The building guide for the Cadillac consisted of a total of 145 building steps, and you can see a selection of the steps below (click to enlarge).

With the building guide up on the screen it was finally time to get building with real bricks. Having previously extolled the virtues of LDD, I do have to admit that one disadvantage of using it is that I sometimes end up virtual building with it in quite ridiculous ways, doing things that I wouldn't dream of doing if I was building out of real bricks. Unknowingly using seven elements where just one would do, for instance. I merrily go along adding more and more bricks to my designs, quite oblivious to all the brick-stacking crimes that I'm committing until I come to actually trying to translate the design into real bricks, and it's only then that the extent of the bizarre building techniques becomes evident. It can make for some unstable builds, not to mention higher-than-necessary part counts. Thankfully, notwithstanding a few idiosyncratic brick combinations, the build was fairly quick and reasonably sensible on this occasion, and the finished model held together OK; you can see a couple of pictures below (click to enlarge).

So nearly there, but something's missing.... Regular readers will be well aware that I'm no fan of stickers, but I knew from the moment I started to design the Cadillac that it just wouldn't look right without the Ghostbusters logo plastered onto it. Given this, there was only one place to turn; Caroline and Nick Savage, a.k.a. Minifigs.me, have quickly made a name for themselves as designers and purveyors of excellent custom minifigs, but they also have the necessary equipment to produce custom stickers. Having sourced the Ghostbusters logo from the internet and e-mailed it to them, they were able to make me some perfectly-proportioned stickers for my Cadillac. An advantage of their stickers over those produced by LEGO is that you can wet the part that you want to stick them on to and slide the stickers around on a thin film of water until you're happy with the position, at which point you dab the stickers dry and they stick fast. It took a matter of moments to apply the necessary stickers to the Cadillac, and you can see some views of the finished vehicle below.

In an ideal world I would have loved to have ended up with a faithful reproduction of the Cadillac, but it was never really on the cards; as I stated up front, the objective was to capture the essence of the subject matter, and I think I've done that at least. I'm very happy with the passenger compartment and roof rack containing all the ghostbusting equipment. Less satisfactory is the fact that the rear wheels are more hidden than I'd like, the front is too narrow, and there are supposed to be two headlights on each side rather than one. Also, the blue hose is supposed to insert into the bodywork below the red stripe, not in the middle of it. There's certainly room for improvement, then, and I may yet do some more tweaking at some point, but all that having been said, it's "good enough" for now, and I'm delighted to even be able to say that given my initial misgivings.

Next up : Ghostbusters HQ. Stay tuned....

                                                                                                       Ghostbusters HQ -->

American Beauty

As I noted in a recent posting, one by-product of LEGO's current upsurge in popularity has been an explosion of LEGO-related publications. I've already reviewed a couple of offerings on here this year - Sariel's Unofficial LEGO Technic Builder's Guide and Nathanael Kuipers' Amazing Vehicles volume 1 - and I hope to review a couple more in due course - David Robertson's Brick by Brick and Pete Reid and Tim Goddard's LEGO Space. Each of these books has a distinctly different focus, highlighting the incredible diversity of LEGO-related publications out there right now, and recent arrival Beautiful LEGO by Mike Doyle continues in the same vein, offering something very different to any of the other books in my LEGO library.

First impressions of this surprisingly weighty tome are very positive - Beautiful LEGO is a beautiful book. The front cover (above) showcases one of the author's own creations, snappily entitled "Contact 1: The Millenial Celebration of the Eternal Choir at K'al Yne Odan" (I kid you not) while the back cover (below - click to enlarge) highlights a few more modestly-sized creations. The book looks like a hardback from a distance, but the front and back covers, which fold back on themselves to confer additional rigidity, are actually made of card and are printed with a mixture of sumptuous matt and glossy photographs. All in all there are well over 270 pages of content, and it's all beautifully laid out and printed. Quite exquisite, actually.

In the preface, we learn that the author only became aware of the kinds of LEGO artwork that people were creating about 3 years ago. If, as this suggests, he didn't start to design and build his own LEGO creations until that time, then he's a rare talent. To put things into perspective, he's managed to accumulate his astonishing portfolio of original work in the time that it's taken me to build a few official LEGO sets, tinker with my LEGO City layout and reproduce cavegod's UCS AT-AT. Gulp.

Alien Chestburster, by Ramon & Amador Alfaro Marcilla

The organisation of the book is pleasingly haphazard, with chapters showcasing the work of specific builders rubbing shoulders with collections of models focused on specific and seemingly random topics as diverse as birds, architecture, mecha, mosaics, space and Monty Python. Maybe a third of the book's thirty or so chapters focus exclusively on the work of individual builders. Some of these LEGO artists, including the likes of Nathan Sawaya and the book's author Mike Doyle (both of whom I've previously featured here) I was already aware of. Others, such as brothers Ramon and Amador Alfaro Marcilla, creators of the incredible Alien Chestburster model above, I wasn't. For me personally these builder-focused chapters are the highlight of the book, as in addition to the featured models they also contain text which provides insights into the motivations, creations and favourite elements of the builders. The chapter which casts a spotlight on Mike Doyle's own creations features some of my favourite-ever MOCs, namely his series of Abandoned Houses, one of which you can see below.

Three Story Victorian with Tree by Mike Doyle

The chapters focusing on specific topics consist predominantly of collections of models made by different builders, although in a few cases all themed models in a chapter have been built by a single individual. Topics covered range from the predictable (architecture) to the plain inspired (Monty Python), and the featured models range from tiny to huge and showcase an almost bewildering array of different building styles. These chapters would I think have benefitted from explanatory text to accompany the pictures; I would have particularly appreciated getting some insights into some of the ingenious building techniques used in the models. That having been said, I guess the author had to draw the line somewhere in the interests of keeping the book to a manageable size. As a Brit, it was pleasing to see a number of models created by fellow Brickish Association members Tim Goddard (his Rearing Stallion model can be seen below), Barney Main, Rod Gillies and James Pegrum - great work, guys !

Rearing Stallion by Tim Goddard

One minor downside from my perspective is the absence of a few specific builders and their creations from the book. I was disappointed that the work of Ed Diment (Lego Monster) wasn't featured in some form, for instance, and the omission of his stupendous and much-admired model of U.S.S. Intrepid was particularly surprising to me. Fully forty pages of mechs and space ships without a single Peter Reid (legoloverman) creation was also disappointing, as was the absence of any of Ralph "Mad Physicist" Savelsberg's fabulous vehicles. Admittedly, as the author is at pains to point out in his preface, for practical reasons it would have been impossible to feature all of the models that deserved to be showcased, and in a book of this type there's consequently always going to be a substantial element of personal preference in the selections. Truth be told, therefore, aside from a few notable omissions I actually think that the author has done a pretty good job of highlighting a diverse range of different models and building styles; I suspect that had I been responsible for choosing the content it would no doubt have been criticised by some for being too EU-centric, so you really can't please all of the people all of the time.... Talking of preferred content, in an ideal world I would also have liked to see more commentary on the models, and better still get some insights into the building techniques used, but again it's a fairly minor gripe.

Temple of Jugatinus by James Pegrum

I suppose there's a potential question to be addressed regarding the purpose of the book. It's undoubtedly wonderful eye candy, but you could argue that most if not all of the featured creations can be freely seen on the net, and there's precious little accompanying text to provide additional value. Interestingly, non-AFOL friends and family were particularly wowed by the book - they couldn't quite believe that the models were made out of LEGO - but I don't see much likelihood of such people actually buying it. AFOLs, on the other hand, will generally know where to find such content on the net, so is the book really worth the $29.95 MRSP ? Well, that depends on your perspective. The book is beautifully presented, and it showcases a thoughtful selection of impressive, inspiring, amusing and thought-provoking creations which richly deserve to be captured for posterity. You can therefore look upon the book as a source of inspiration and an object which brings pleasure in it's own right. If that's important to you, as it is for me, then I can wholeheartedly recommend the book to you. Otherwise you're probably better off saving your money and looking elsewhere.

Westie by Shin-Kai Huang

Beautiful LEGO is available now. At the time of posting you can buy it at a decent discount from Amazon in the U.K. (click here), the U.S. (click here) and elsewhere. Many thanks to the publisher, No Starch Press, for sending me a copy to review here on Gimme LEGO.

A Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy....

Whenever there's talk on the various forums (fora ?) about which Star Wars sets are ripe for a makeover, a few 'usual suspects' invariably emerge. One of those fan-nominated prime candidates, Set 4480 Jabba's Palace, has now been the subject of a pretty decent remake in the form of last year's Set 9516 Jabba's Palace.  Set 4501 Mos Eisley Cantina is another set which features prominently in such discussions; is it indeed crying out for a remake, or should LEGO leave it well alone ?

There are actually a couple of different versions of Set 4501, although the differences are purely cosmetic. The set first surfaced in 2003 (blue box version), with an Original Trilogy black box edition appearing a year later. Both versions utilise the same core set imagery on the front (picture above - click to enlarge), although the design is embossed on the black box version and this together with the absence of the unsightly sidebar of the blue box version gives it a clear edge in the style stakes IMHO. The black box version above features the parts count in the bottom right corner which suggests that my set might potentially have begun its retail journey in the U.S. where I believe there's a requirement for the number of elements within to be displayed on the packaging.

The back of the boxes (below - click to enlarge) share a number of images which provide an overview of the set overall, the play features and the minifigures. The blue box version includes an additional image, that of an alternate build which can be assembled with the elements contained within the box; while I'm generally a big fan of LEGO printing images of alternate builds on its boxes and instructions, I can't in all honestly say that the bizarre creation here is much to write home about; maybe LEGO just let the designer's child loose with the elements and told them to build something....

The boxes are designed to be opened via thumb tabs, although the previous owner of my used blue box example was kind enough to carefully open the box by sliding a sharp instrument under the left box flap exactly as I would have done. My black box version is still sealed, so it was the blue box version that I built for this review.  The set contains a total of 193 pieces, and these fill only a tiny fraction of the box which is around 11 inches square and 3 inches deep; the box could have been half the size and there would still have been more than enough room for the contents. In addition to the parts there's obviously an instruction booklet, but no DSS.

In the case of the blue box version at least, the cover of the approx. 8.5 x 6 inch instruction booklet (above - click to enlarge) mimics the front of the box, with only the recommended age range omitted. The booklet contains 32 pages, although it feels like less. In addition to the building instructions there's a single page showing a couple of other Star Wars sets (below - click to enlarge) plus advertising for a LEGO product survey and the LEGO Star Wars website, which I'll wager looks a bit different now to what it looked like back then....

Colour representation in the building instructions is horrible (picture below - click to enlarge). Those white-looking 2 x 4 bricks in the middle of the build are actually light bley, and the 1 x 8 bricks on either side of them are supposed to be black, while the 1 x 4 x 1 panels on the sides are dark bley. It's disorienting to begin with, although you get used to it.

Given the modest parts count, the set contains a surprising number of rare and/or unusual elements, and you can see some of them in the picture below. The dark bley engine and 22L flexible hose in the top left of the picture are unique to Set 4501, as are all five of the sand red elements in the middle. Sand red is one of the rarer colours in the LEGO palette; according to Bricklink, only 39 different elements have ever been produced in this colour (click here for details), and if you exclude the various minifig parts you're only left with 25 in total, so to find 5 of those 25 elements in one small set is pretty cool. The dark red 1 x 1 x 1 corner panel only appears in one other set apart from this one, as does the tan 1 x 6 x 2 arch with curved top, while a number of elements - the dark red 1 x 2 x 1 panel, the dark red modified 1 x 2 tile with handle, and the dark red 3 x 2 left and right wedges, as well as the sand blue jumper plate - only feature in three sets in total including this one. All 21 elements in the picture are found in 8 sets or less.

In addition to being a repository of rare elements, this set is also a veritable treasure trove from the perspective of the minifigures it contains. A total of five minifigures come with the set, with the undoubted star of the show being Greedo (below - click pics to enlarge). A used example of this minifigure commands upwards of £20 on Bricklink and eBay, reflecting it's status as one of the more desirable Star Wars minifigures. Although by today's standards his relatively complex moulded and painted head isn't necessarily particularly unusual, back in 2003 it would I think have seemed quite exotic, and his painted arms would also have been a fairly unusual feature. Greedo only ever appeared in this set, and in addition to this his head, torso and legs are all unique to this minifigure, all of which helps in part to explain why he's so prized by collectors.

LEGO have released lots of different minifigure versions of Luke Skywalker, but the version found in Set 4501 was the first. This version initially appeared in Set 7110 Landspeeder back in 1999 (the first year of LEGO Star Wars) prior to being included in Set 7190 Millennium Falcon in 2000. It made its final ever appearance in Set 4501. The head and hair were included in a number of other Luke Skywalker variants, but the tastefully printed torso and legs are unique to this figure. There's no backprinting on the head or torso. Luke comes complete with a lightsaber, featuring a nice shiny chrome silver hilt.

Next up we have Han Solo. While unique to this set, he's actually almost identical to the version of Han Solo which appears in Set 7190 Millenium Falcon, differing only by virtue of the colour of his legs which are standard blue in Set 7190 versus dark blue in this set; the dark blue legs, which feature a printed belt and holster,  are exclusive to this minifigure. The torso, which sports a white v-neck shirt and black waistcoat, and the head, with its smirking expression and brown eyebrows, adorn a few different versions of Han Solo spanning a number of different sets. There's no backprinting on the head, torso or legs.

The version of Obi Wan Kenobi below (click picture to enlarge) is another minifigure which is unique to this set. The torso and head, neither of which are back-printed, have only ever graced two minifigures, both of which are versions of Obi Wan. Strangely, while Luke is provided with a lightsaber in this set, Obi Wan is not, which could potentially cause problems should they encounter a scarred sociopath with the death sentence in twelve systems while they're visiting the Cantina....

The last of the minifigures is a Stormtrooper (pictures below - click to enlarge). While his legs, torso and helmet are pretty standard Stormtrooper fare, the addition of a cloth pauldron and the rebreather on his back makes this variant unique to the set; Bricklink alternatively describes this figure as a Sandtrooper on account of these additions. Unusually, the Stormtrooper isn't supplied with the regulation blaster, instead sporting what looks to be some kind of balance bar, presumably to help him stay mounted on his dewback ride (see later).

Aside from the clutch of rare minifigures, another highlight of the set is the one and only appearance of the dewback (below - click pictures to enlarge). This sand green monstrosity is made up of ten separate elements not including the saddle and harness. The head has a limited range of movement in the vertical plane, and the tail articulates at the body and also near the tip, which attaches via a rather unsightly light bley Technic half pin. Similar to the original version of Jabba the Hutt which can for example be found in Set 4480 Jabba's Palace, the dewback is rather plain and would have greatly benefitted from  some printed detail. Even so, once the saddle and harness are in place and the dewback has a Stormtrooper on its back it actually looks pretty cool, as you can see below.

Having put together the minifigures and the dewback it was finally time to get stuck into some proper building, and I started with the landspeeder. It'a a very simple build, occupying a mere ten pages of the building guide, and you can see the finished model below (click pics to enlarge).

Although far from perfect, it's not a bad rendition of the X-34 landspeeder (movie still from Wookieepedia below - click to enlarge). Of note, it's the only version of the landspeeder that LEGO have ever produced which tries to approximate the colour of the subject matter - all the other versions LEGO has released are predominantly tan in colour. The model is fairly crude and maybe seems a bit too long, but I do like the way that dark bley flexible hoses have been used to create a striated appearance on the side and front of the vehicle. The vertically-mounted engine at the back sits on a sand red 4 x 4 plate, and the whole assembly tips back on a couple of hinges to reveal a small hidden compartment; that's it in terms of play features, apart of course from the ability to swoosh the model around the room, and in truth that's the most important thing....

X-34 landspeeder from Wookieepedia

The Cantina itself completes the set, and you can see the finished structure below. It's made up of three distinct sections - the booth in which Han and Greedo 'work out their differences', an arched entrance and a tiny bar area. The sections are joined by brick hinges which allow some degree of flexibility in arranging the sections relative to each other. The tabletop between Han and Greedo (a tan 2 x 4 plate) tips up to reveal a hidden compartment that's just big enough to conceal Han's blaster - handy, that.... I have to confess to quite liking the sand blue, tan and dark red detailing even though it's almost certainly just an affectation - I'm pretty sure that in Star Wars : A New Hope no such decoration was visible inside or outside the Cantina.

Everything comes together as you can see in the picture below (click to enlarge). While the set has undoubted play value, at only 193 pieces there's obviously not much to it, and it was clearly never designed as a display piece. Given the limitations of the set, it's easy to see why the fan community is clamouring for a remake - there are few more iconic scenes in Star Wars than those which take place inside the Cantina, and the possiblities from a design and minifigure perspective are almost endless. In fact, bearing in mind LEGO's tendency to release updated versions of older sets (sometimes over and over again....) it's actually quite surprising that they haven't already remade this one. I certainly wouldn't bet against it.

Set 4501 Mos Eisley Cantina was available at retail between 2003 and 2005, at a RRP of £27.99 / US$30. It contains 5 minifigures, of which 4, including the popular Greedo figure, are unique to the set. It also contains the dewback, which is similarly unique to the set. Overall, therefore, it's not hard to see  why the set is prized by collectors, and why it commands such a hefty premium in the aftermarket - Bricklink prices for a boxed example start at around £90 / US$145. If you're lucky you might find a cheaper example on eBay, although eBay sellers are increasingly wise to the resale value of LEGO these days and price accordingly.

Mostly on account of the high aftermarket price, it's hard to recommend the set now unless you're a Star Wars completist and/or a minifigure collector. It's not that the set is especially bad, just that as previously stated there isn't really much to it, so unless you really can't help yourself, there are better sets to spend your hard-earned cash on.

A pair of landspeeders from Set 4501 & COMCON024