LEGO Slave I: The 2006 Edition

Two things defined my childhood: Star Wars and LEGO. And when the two finally came together in the spring of 1999, I was one of the first in line. I've bought or received dozens of Star Wars LEGO sets over the past seven years. No doubt my favorites have been the Millennium Falcon (the 2004 version), the AT-AT Walker, and the Imperial Shuttle (the original one, not the re-release). All of those were gifts from Lisa. I've got both versions of the X-Wing that have come out, Jabba's Palace, the Mos Eisley Cantina (also from Lisa, for my 30th birthday), bunches more. And as of this past week I also now have all three Slave I models.

Slave I is a weird ship to try replicating in LEGO. First of all there's the strange curves and angles of Boba Fett's ship. Then there's it's flight orientation: the ship rotates forward on its lateral axis upon takeoff, so that what is the "top" of the ship on the landing pad becomes the front of the vessel. And then there's all the detail - particularly the weaponry - that's boasted by the ship of the galaxy's most notorious bounty hunter.

To date LEGO has made three attempts to create a faithful rendition of Slave I in the building bricks medium. The first one was released just before Christmas 1999:

I bought this one at Toys R Us two days before that Christmas. It looked... okay let's not beat around the bush: this Slave I left an awful lot to be desired. Definitely not the best the company's done. It's tiny for one thing: the cockpit barely holds one LEGO minifig, and that's only if it's put in the sitting position. The guns aren't attached to the ship very well. The wings swivel too easily, for me anyway. As an attempt at a minifig-scale model, the first Slave I screams for a redesign. But for some reason I'm still quite attached to this one. If you ignore how ridiculously small it is compared to its Boba Fett minifig, it's really quite a nice model. I had this one proudly sitting atop my computer in my apartment when I lived in Asheville, and couldn't resist playing with it every now and then. One other thing this one has going for it: LEGO Slave I 1.0 was the first set to include the Boba Fett minifig. And it even came with a "minifig" of Han Solo frozen in carbonite that could be stored inside the ship. In its own way, this Slave I has charm... but I still wanted to see a ship big enough for the Boba Fett minifig to have room for hidden weapons, a real cargo hold, and maybe living quarters where he could sleep and use the bathroom. It didn't matter if those things weren't built into the model itself: it just had to be big enough for me to imagine that they really were in there somewhere.

Well, apparently a lot of folks weren't all that crazy about this first Slave I set. So a little over two years later LEGO took advantage of the build-up to Star Wars Episode II and released their second Slave I model...

Now we're getting somewhere! Jango Fett's Slave I was supposed to be released in late April 2002. But while I was spending the last weekend of that March with Lisa we found this set at the Wal-Mart in Buford, Georgia (the one near the Mall of Georgia). Wal-Mart let a lot of Attack of the Clones merchandise get sold before their intended street date. I heard that when they were caught doing it they put a "freeze" on the goods so that if you brought them to a register, they wouldn't take the sale. I nabbed this one (paying 'course) a few days before the hammer came down, and Lisa and I spent part of the following afternoon putting it together in her apartment. This Slave I was by far one of the toughest LEGO models I've ever assembled. I had to go back and "reconstruct" parts of it at least twice. But in the end I really like how this one came out. It's true to minifig scale (note the Jango Fett and Boba Fett minifigs). There's a concealed missile launcher and those cool "sonic charges" that Jango used on Obi-Wan in the movie. A cargo container holding several accessories is held in place by a clever magnetic system. Best of all the cockpit swivels along with the wings... and it's big enough to hold both Jango and Boba in a standing position! This Slave I is also one of my favorites. But nice as it was for Jango to get a quality bounty hunting vessel, I also wished that son Boba could also have one befitting the prime of his career.

So a few months ago it was announced that LEGO would be releasing another Slave I model, as part of its 2006 line. Which if you know LEGO means that it would probably come out just before Christmas 2005. That it did, and I had this box in my grubby little paws for about a minute a week before Christmas but decided to hold off on getting it at the time. Lisa gave me a gift card for Toys R Us, and every week or so since Christmas I've been going to Toys R Us to see if they had gotten anymore in. A little over a week ago on Thursday night, I found it and brought it home...

At first glance it looks very similar to the 2002 version. But structurally they are two quite different models, especially so far as the "snout" goes: the 2002 one has dual missile launchers that swivel out from concealed compartments. Slave I 3.0 has a trigger-activated "torpedo" that fires out of a spring-loaded launcher: meaning that this Slave I is potentially dangerous to anyone standing near it. As a ship belonging to Boba Fett should be. They're not that many that a casual observer would notice, but I did catch quite a few places where this Slave I differs from the previous one.

537 LEGO pieces, in several bags fresh out of the box:

The very first thing that all LEGO sets (all the ones I've seen over 20+ years anyway) have you do is put the minifigs together. Which meant opening at least 3 of the bags to find all the various pieces because LEGO never seems willing to put them all in just one baggy. But when all of that was done the set yields you FIVE minifigs: (left to right) Han Solo in carbonite, Boba Fett, IG-88 (first time in LEGO anywhere), Dengar (also new), and a Bespin Guard:The Bespin Guard is the very first minifig I've ever owned that is "dark skinned" (which is ironic considering the answer I got when I once asked LEGO officials why there was no Lando Calrissian figure). Also, don't you think that Dengar looks kinda cute the way his mouth is covered up by his bandages? Guess it woulda been pretty tough imitating that surly visage he had in The Empire Strikes Back, huh? Probably my favorite minifig though is IG-88: he replicates PERFECTLY into LEGO. Someday I may try and build his ship, the IG-2000 from scratch, just to put him inside it. Anyway, back to building...

30 minutes into construction: the 2002 Slave I had its body in two or so separate "pieces" that you had to build separately, and then put those together. The 2006 edition is all one solid unit from the base up:

Now we're about 2 hours into assembly. All the internal workings are in place, and the whole thing is starting to take shape nicely:About 3 hours after starting, and Slave I 3.0 was finally finished. Of the three Slave I sets, I felt after building it that this one is by far the most faithful to the spirit of the one we see in the movies:Boba Fett sitting in his cockpit (which also swivels into flight position along with the wings):Very, very sweet model to have, if you're into Star Wars and LEGO. Not too tough to build, but still a little bit of a fun challenge. And instead of having just the Boba Fett minifig, LEGO really showed class by including a few that weren't necessarily connected to Slave I. Which lent themselves toward my having the idea of re-creating, as best I could, the famous "bounty hunters assembled" scene from The Empire Strikes Back:Now if only LEGO will make minifigs of Bossk, Zuckuss and 4-LOM, I could do the entire scene in LEGO :-P

EDIT 3:04 PM EST: In regards to the Dengar minifig, FBTB.net (which stands for "From Bricks To Bothans") just posted a great cartoon about him...