(NEW YORK, NY, February 18, 2005) Star Wars bricks are back just in time for LEGO's 50th anniversary.  With fans previewing glowing lightsabers and countless new environments for their own creations, there's a lot to like with LEGO this year! 

LEGO held a V.I.P. Gala for collector media at their New York Showroom to debut their line for Revenge of the Sith. Guests were given a goodie bag of swag including a Vader Transformation set specially packaged just for Toy Fair. Besides the new collection previewed in the showroom, a special Destroyer Droid building contests was announced for Celebration 3, where teams grouped between the light side and the dark of side of the Force are pitted against each other to test their brick building skills. Prizes include a special custom LEGO Darth Vader and LEGO Darth Vader medal.

An exclusive unveiling of the humongous UCS Death Star II by one of the lead LEGO designers from Denmark was a special treat for those at hand along with a display of LEGO prototypes. Look for more info and details on the UCS Death Star by visting LEGO.com later this week.

Representatives from LEGOLand, California were promoting a special Star Wars Weekend event of their own from April 30 to May 1st. Lots of Star Wars related activities are planned, so mark your calendars if you're a LEGO Star Wars brick fanatic. The folks at Eidos also had attendees test out their new LEGO Star Wars video game coming out in April. 

Much like all of Star Wars merchandise for 2005, there's a lot of deja vu. There's a return of Darth Vader in the Darth Vader Transformation set (#7251,  53 pcs, $6.99) which gives birth to the character as we know and love him. There's a Clone Scout Walker (#7250, $9.99) which is a spiritual prototype to the AT-ST. The ARC-170 Clone Fighter (# 7259, 396 pcs, $39.99) will undoubtedly bring to mind the venerable X-wing, and so many other brand new items will color the texture of the Star Wars universe from now on. 

To get one big question out of the way-- Trilogy stuff-- we can tell you right now that there isn't going to be much of it. The TIE Fighter that came out in the beginning of February is going to be it for a while, but thankfully LEGO is making up for it by producing vehicles that, for the time being, are not on tap at Hasbro. (That we know of.) 

The spiffy and huge Clone Turbo Tank (#7261, 801 pcs, $89.99) is a rarity in Star Wars-- something big with wheels. While antigravity hovering craziness has always been the order of the day, this unique monster set has a working suspension and a BARC speeder which recalls the old Speeder Bikes from Return of the Jedi. It comes with several figures and for $90, will undoubtedly delight spoiled kids and collectors come April. Not to leave the enemy forces out, a Droid Tri Fighter is also on its way (#7252, 148 pcs, $14.99).

The Wookiees are represented by a few sets. One is Wookiee Attack (#7258, 282 pcs,  $29.99) where you have the hairy behemoths take on some Battle Droids on Kashyyyk. The $30 set includes several figures and two vehicles as well as the first Spider Droid in LEGO. The Wookiee Catamaran (#7260, 376 pcs,  $49.99) is $20 more but has several awesome characters that are now able to fight through the wetlands of the Wookiee homeworld. Both of these should hit stores in April, too. 

Several other sets showcase key scenes in the film, like the General Grievous Chase (#7255, 111 pcs, $19.99), Ultimate Lightsaber Duel (#7257, 282 pcs, $29.99), and the aforementioned Darth Vader Transformation.  Combined with numerous brand new vehicle sets, it's a very exciting year for fans of the bricks of Denmark. Since the very first Star Wars LEGO kits rolled off the assembly line, it doesn't seem like there's ever been a better time to be a fan of Star Wars LEGO! 

So what's on tap past April? Stay tuned to Galactic Hunter throughout 2005 for all the news as it develops!

 « Back To Main