LEGO REVIEW: Star Wars Rebel Alliance Battle Pack #75133

[thoroakenfelder]

The Rebel Alliance Battle Pack is not based on anything in the Star Wars films. It's a set of expanded universe figures based upon the game Battlefront. I'm generally hesitant about battle packs, the builds are an after thought to the minifigures. The builds are forgettable and look generally like nothing you'd like to have as part of your display. I'm even more hesitant to build a Star Wars set without anything canon. LEGO has given us more of the same. In my review of 75133, we'll see if it's not just that. Hopefully it's something truly interesting.

REVIEW: SET DETAILS
Set #: 75133
Name: Rebel Alliance battle Pack
Theme: Star Wars
Parts: 101
Price: $12.99

Before we get to the build, let’s talk value. At 12.99 the price per piece works out to more than $.12 each. This is on the higher side of pricing for a licensed set. There are 4 minifigures in this set, all unique.

BOX CONTENTS

Some people may wind up picking up a set that is open box or, want to verify the box contents before beginning a build. For this set, there are 2 unnumbered baggies and an instruction book.

Speaking of boxes, did you know that these glue sealed boxes have a date stamp on the bottom? This set has a stamp of 50R5. It's strange to me that it took so long for me to realize it.

BUILD AND EXECUTION

I hope that people are amused enough by watching minifigures building sets that they like these pictures. My 6 year old thinks that this type of stuff is really funny.

It's been years since I built a speederbike, but it turns out, it's kind of exactly like I remember.

These guys work well together and don't separate by species, so yay for the Rebellion. We're all inclusive here.

Let me take a moment as an aside about the number of parts in this set. 101 parts sounds like an adequate size for a small vehicle, right? Well, 101 pieces includes the 4 minifigures and all of their accessories. Between the minifigures, jetpacks, stud shooters and ammo, we subtract 37 pieces. More than 1/3 of the set is already X'ed off.

Several 2x4 tile pieces are a welcome addition for folks who part these things out.

The body of the speeder is really coming together. Goggle helmet is checking the underside.

I was curious about the plate with the axle pieces.

I like the flat silver lances. They're in a lot of fairly new sets, but I think Castle fans will want them. 

You build some controller rods out of battle droid arms, they actually look nice. Another stud shooter on the back. I really don't like stud shooters.

All done, time to ride.

REACTION

I got this set hoping that the novelty of unnamed alien Rebel troopers would be enough to make me interested. Unfortunately it really wasn't. The printing is well done, but dull to look at. It's basically just the Endor trooper print done on tan. Ugh, tan does nothing to make people interested. The mix and match torsos and legs give the illusion of uniqueness. The 2 person speeder was uninteresting. I could see it showing up in the background of someone's display. It would be more of an afterthought I think. I did like the use of the A-Wing pilot helmet. I just wish that I could have liked this more. As far as it goes, I'm just going to dump all of these guys on ebay and get my money back. The speeder's not even worth throwing on ebay so will be disassembled for parts. I should know by now that battle packs are great for cheap gifts, not for collecting. If they wanted some species diversity, they could have thrown in a Twi'Lek or a mon calamari. Maybe a future battle pack will have those.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Battle Packs have their place in the universe of Star Wars LEGO sets. They're cheap, you get a bunch of minifigures, and they are easily found. Grandparents, parents, and friends love giving these little sets as presents. 4 army builders usually work well for collectors. The big problem is that unlike 75131 and 75132, this set is not full of characters from a movie or even from a cartoon. These are Expanded Universe figures and that means that they are going to be lowest rung of the collector's ladder.

I expect to see a good number of these on clearance when the time comes. I do not anticipate them to become very sought after long term. If they double in value before they get to 3 years post EOL, I'd be surprised.

Pick up one on Amazon

EXTRA PIECES

You get an extra 1x1 printed tile from the back of the jetpack. The extra studs from the stud shooters belong here, even though they are a part of the official piece count. Extra goggles and a black mechanical arm are the only other pieces of real note.

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[inversion]

I must sadly disagree with you again. These are quite good rebel representatives, mixed and ragtag. For a rebel army you need characters like these. Plus why do regular cannon fodder troopers be in the movies personally? 

[TheOrcKing]

Being able to acquire two of the more unique alien races (even if it is just the head) is a plus and getting double of the two torsos & legs (with no skin tone showing) makes army or scene building easier. Aside from Rebels, I can see options for desert nomads or smugglers. The speeder bike is a tad bulkier than former ones but still nice and more importantly "swooshable". Haha.

[jeff_14]

These characters all appear in the very popular Battlefront video game, which I wouldn't classify as EU. Plus the army building potential mentioned earlier is high. Not as much in my opinion as the companion stormtrooper pack but still decent, especially since these just look better than the usual winter or green soldiers we've had in the past. 

[thoroakenfelder]

13 minutes ago, jeff_14 said:

These characters all appear in the very popular Battlefront video game, which I wouldn't classify as EU. Plus the army building potential mentioned earlier is high. Not as much in my opinion as the companion stormtrooper pack but still decent, especially since these just look better than the usual winter or green soldiers we've had in the past. 

If they're not in the movies, or canonical shows, they are EU by definition. Let's take a look at another battle pack based on EU video game characters. How is 75001 doing? How will Battlefront be doing in 6 months or a year when the notoriously fickle and short attention span video gamers are looking at the next big game? In 9 months, people will be looking for Rogue One related sets. In 21 months, Episode VIII will be the thing. These battle packs have a window of now, with a limited appeal to people later on.

[exciter1]

I think 75001 is doing pretty well for only being retired essentially a year.  I've sold several for $34 FBA already well after the holiday season was over.

I'd put it up against 7914 Mandalorian Battle Pack, which is also doing pretty well and sells quickly.

[thoroakenfelder]

8 minutes ago, exciter1 said:

I think 75001 is doing pretty well for only being retired essentially a year.  I've sold several for $34 FBA already well after the holiday season was over.

I'd put it up against 7914 Mandalorian Battle Pack, which is also doing pretty well and sells quickly.

I must have been fooled by all the sub $20 free shipping sales on eBay.

[Armor]

The Old Republic has a massive cult following. There is also rumors that another knights is in production. 75001 will do just fine. 

Also there is bound to be another Battle Front now that EA has there hands on the ip for video game development. 

[zskid00]

You really should look at both marketplaces.  Many times there are better prices on Amazon, though pay close attention for the higher fees and even the loss you will take on the shipping through Amazon FBM if shipping to far destination in the U.S.  Even for the Amazon elitists there can be better prices on eBay for certain sets at times.

[exciter1]

9 minutes ago, zskid00 said:

You really should look at both marketplaces.  Many times there are better prices on Amazon, though pay close attention for the higher fees and even the loss you will take on the shipping through Amazon FBM if shipping to far destination in the U.S.  Even for the Amazon elitists there can be better prices on eBay for certain sets at times.

Yes, pay attention to both, because buyers, sellers and products on each platform vary in performance greatly.

[jeff_14]

I'm selling 75001 for twice what I paid for it. 100% in a year is good in my books. And Battlefront is not some passing fad. This is a major video game that will be updated and built upon for years to come. I'm still playing the original 2 versions from the early 2000s. Again, the entire point of the game is to play in canon locations using canon troops and vehicles. No one really considers generic alien species in rebel uniforms to be non canon. Even moreso with the Empire troops. Does anyone really think stormtroopers with battle damage, or an imperial officer/technician are non canon because we never saw those particular blaster marks in a movie? 

[zskid00]

With the recent uptick in demand for all things Star Wars due to the new movies, I think you will be pleasantly surprised by the performance of many non Original Trilogy sets.  Just look at what some of the recently retired Prequel, Clone Wars, and EU sets were selling for in December.  Many of them are still selling at very high prices.

[thoroakenfelder]

2 hours ago, zskid00 said:

You really should look at both marketplaces.  Many times there are better prices on Amazon, though pay close attention for the higher fees and even the loss you will take on the shipping through Amazon FBM if shipping to far destination in the U.S.  Even for the Amazon elitists there can be better prices on eBay for certain sets at times.

 

1 hour ago, exciter1 said:

Yes, pay attention to both, because buyers, sellers and products on each platform vary in performance greatly.

Yup, we should look at both. I see more than 20 listings with a lower price than your quoted sale price on Amazon right now. Perhaps we should exclude the anomalies where someone actually pays over the odds for an item.  

2 hours ago, Armor said:

The Old Republic has a massive cult following. There is also rumors that another knights is in production. 75001 will do just fine. 

Also there is bound to be another Battle Front now that EA has there hands on the ip for video game development. 

Yeah, I see that 9497 and 9500 finally started to go up. Cult followings are really the best way to judge future performance

1 hour ago, jeff_14 said:

I'm selling 75001 for twice what I paid for it. 100% in a year is good in my books. And Battlefront is not some passing fad. This is a major video game that will be updated and built upon for years to come. I'm still playing the original 2 versions from the early 2000s. Again, the entire point of the game is to play in canon locations using canon troops and vehicles. No one really considers generic alien species in rebel uniforms to be non canon. Even moreso with the Empire troops. Does anyone really think stormtroopers with battle damage, or an imperial officer/technician are non canon because we never saw those particular blaster marks in a movie? 

Yep, those jetpacks were really memorable in Endor. But that's beside the point. Video games and video gamers do not drive long term toy sales. How's that Pokémon product doing? When the next Call of Duty or halo or Gears of War or whatever the next "IT" game is comes along, the mass of gamers will abandon battlefront. It's what the entire gaming industry is built upon. If it weren't, your 12 year old game would have been the only one that was needed to propel movement on anything battlefront related, AND LEGO would have put a Battlefront label on this set. Just like the Old Republic sets had that logo.

1 hour ago, zskid00 said:

With the recent uptick in demand for all things Star Wars due to the new movies, I think you will be pleasantly surprised by the performance of many non Original Trilogy sets.  Just look at what some of the recently retired Prequel, Clone Wars, and EU sets were selling for in December.  Many of them are still selling at very high prices.

You're looking at uptick in demand based on a new movie after 10 years without a film. It's a wave that will eventually hit the shores. These battle packs will be retiring and maturing in a world where there's a new Star Wars movie every year. Without a named character, without a corresponding movie scene, you're banking on the relatively few collectors who want massive armies of non canonical characters that didn't purchase them at retail while they were readily available and aren't buying the individual figures that they want for $2-$3 each on Bricklink or Ebay.

Despite everyone's protestations, I doubt that a single one of you will be buying these until you can get significant discounts on them, because if you had any faith in their future performance being gold, you'd be scooping them up on minimal discounts. The number of these sets and their date codes in the clearance aisle will probably be the biggest indication of how popular they wound up being. As for me. I'm not picking up these turkeys unless they're $5 or less.

[jeff_14]

You do realize that if you just don't put the jetpacks on, they are standard stormtroopers right? Just like the technician looks like a standard Empire officer? Are we really excluding people from canon because we never had a tour of their equipment locker in the movies? We have seen canon clone troopers wear jetpacks. This isn't really a novelty here. The previous escape pod featured sandy/weathered stormtroopers and sold very well after EOL. I don't think it was because of the umpteenth version of C3PO or R2. People wanted the unique stormtroopers. To my recollection, none of the troopers on Tatooine had any sand sticking to their uniforms. If you want to call these EU, then it's with a massive asterisk beside it, because all of the figures are standard nameless soldiers, many of whom actually did appear in movies. This isn't like they've made a set based on Admiral Thrawn from the books, or Vader's apprentice from Force Unleashed. These are stormtroopers and rebel soldiers. They are ubiquitous to Star Wars. Any media about Star Wars is going to have stormtroopers and rebels. 

My minimum discount I wait for is 20%. I will get a dozen or more of each of these when I see them at that level or better. There's a retailer I deal with that sells battle packs every year for at least 30% off several times a year. I will be loading up when that happens. But even if I didn't wait for a discount, I have sold all my battle packs for 100% over MSRP, because that's what I price them at. That's a great return in under a year. 

These sets are also great for expanding the variety in your online store at minimal cost. Anyone who wanted to build armies could do one stop shopping on mine. I've had quite a few people buy a battle pack plus a random other set at the same time so I think these sets also enable sales of other sets, which increases their value even more. What's better than an AT-AT? An AT-AT with ground support troops. Especially troops with jetpacks. Then the Rebels are going to need troops with speeder bikes to outrun them.  

Edited March 21, 2016 by jeff_14

[exciter1]

31 minutes ago, thoroakenfelder said:

 

Yup, we should look at both. I see more than 20 listings with a lower price than your quoted sale price on Amazon right now. Perhaps we should exclude the anomalies where someone actually pays over the odds for an item.  

That was Buy Box at the time, on several occasions.

[zskid00]

1 hour ago, thoroakenfelder said:

Despite everyone's protestations, I doubt that a single one of you will be buying these until you can get significant discounts on them, because if you had any faith in their future performance being gold, you'd be scooping them up on minimal discounts. 

I definitely see investment potential in these sets, but you are right about the buy in price and timing.  Unless you want 100 of these, are parting them out, or plan on adding them to your personal collection I don't see the point in buying now.  Battle packs have almost always done well for me and yes I do look for them on clearance.  Most I have acquired somewhere between 25%-50% off well into their production cycle.