We continue our 2020 Holiday Gift Guide with a review of Trouble on Tatooine (set #75299) from LEGO, which was revealed last month. The set is due to be released on January 1st, 2021, and is based on chapter 9 of The Mandalorian from season 2, titled The Marshal.
Vital Statistics
Theme: Star Wars
Name: Trouble on Tatooine
Item: 75299
Price: £27.99 UK/$29.99 USA
Ages: 7+
Pieces: 277
LEGO Website Description
Children will love teaming up with The Mandalorian and a Tusken Raider for desert missions with this LEGO® Star Wars™ Trouble on Tatooine set (75299). It features The Mandalorian’s speeder bike with a LEGO minifigure seat and saddlebag for the Child to sit in, plus a buildable Tusken hut and a new-for-January-2021, missile-shooting ballista for the Tusken Raider.
Role play action
This awesome kids’ building toy includes The Mandalorian and Tusken Raider LEGO minifigures, a LEGO figure of the Child (affectionately known as Baby Yoda), plus cool weapons to inspire hours of roleplay fun. A great gift idea for young Star Wars: The Mandalorian fans, it comes with clear instructions so even LEGO first-timers can enjoy the building experience.Galaxy of delights
Since 1999, the LEGO Group has been recreating iconic starships, vehicles, locations and characters from the Star Wars universe. LEGO Star Wars has become its most successful theme with a huge variety of sets to excite fans of all ages.• Kids can recreate scenes from Star Wars: The Mandalorian Season 2 and play out their own speeder-bike-riding, missile-shooting battle stories with this Trouble on Tatooine (75299) building toy.
• Includes The Mandalorian and Tusken Raider LEGO® minifigures, each with weapons for roleplay battles, plus a LEGO figure of the Child (the popular character affectionately known as Baby Yoda).
• The speeder has a LEGO® minifigure seat and saddlebag for the Child to sit in. The set also features a buildable Tusken hut hideout and spring-loaded, missile-shooting ballista for the Tusken Raider.
• Great for solo building and play or for sharing the fun with friends, this awesome construction toy makes the best birthday present, holiday gift or surprise treat for creative kids aged 7 and up.
• The speeder measures over 1.5 in. (3 cm) high, 5 in. (13 cm) long and 1.5 in. (3 cm) wide, and this complete set combines brilliantly with other LEGO® Star Wars™ buildable playsets for creative play.
• Thinking of buying this 277-piece set for a newcomer to LEGO® building? No worries. It comes with easy-to-follow illustrated instructions so they can build with confidence.
• There are LEGO® Star Wars™ sets to thrill fans of all ages, whether they want to recreate famous scenes, roleplay their own stories or just build and display the authentic construction models.
• LEGO® components meet the highest industry standards to ensure they are consistent and compatible for a simple, strong connection every time – it’s been that way since 1958.
• LEGO® bricks and pieces are tested to the max to make sure they meet stringent safety standards.
Review
This set is based on the first episode of the second series of The Mandalorian which airs exclusively on Disney+. The episode sees our titular character, Din Djarin, visit Tatooine where he teams up with Cobb Vanth to help defeat a krayt dragon. We see them working together with Tusken Raiders and villagers to help overcome the monster that is causing destruction and death.
The rectangular portrait style packaging features The Mandalorian in minifigure form in the top right-hand side of the box, denoting the set’s theming (part of The Mandalorian LEGO Star Wars sub-line). The set is aimed at ages 7 upwards.
Inside the Box
The set is comprised of 277 pieces and these are broken down into 3 stages, each in sequentially numbered bags, with a single instruction booklet.
The Build
The set comprises of three main elements — the speeder bike, Tusken Raider hut and harpoon gun, and each can be built in any order as each build is contained in one of the three bags.
The speeder bike is quite complex and features some innovative building techniques, creating a finely balanced vehicle that has room for The Mandalorian, and a rear mounted saddlebag for Grogu.
Likewise, the harpoon is very detailed and includes a lot of greeblies, with a missile shooter at the center of the gun. It is stabilised by a 2×2 transparent brick.
The hut, only half a building, includes a campfire for your Tusken Raider to cook on, and a stock pot and bone are included. It is built using hinge pieces and works well, although the resultant building would not shield its occupants from the sands of Tatooine.
Price wise, at just £27.99/$29.99, this is the cheapest way to get The Mandalorian having previously only been available in The Razorcrest (#75292) and AT-ST Raider (#75254). Also, these two versions feature The Mandalorian wearing his original armour, and here for the first time we get him wearing his full Beskar armour and we think he looks splendid, with chrome accents printed on his arms, representing the mudhorn signet on his right arm, whipcord launcher on his right wrist and whistling bird gauntlet on his left arm. We have compared both versions of The Mandalorian below.
Wherever The Mandalorian goes, so does The Child and we get the same micro minifigure of Grogu included here as we got in The Razor Crest (#75292) and The Child (#75318) — read our review of the latter set here. It shares its body with other LEGO baby minifigures, albeit printed, but its unique head is made from rubber and manages to capture lots of detail despite its small size.
The final minifigure is a Tusken Raider with brick built weapon. This minifigure appeared twice in 2020 in T-16 Skyhopper vs Bantha Microfighters (#75265) and Obi-Wan’s Hut (#75270). It is a shame that a slightly different torso is not included here.
Overall
The completed set looks fabulous, made up of three distinct elements, and it is great that LEGO choose to include the two main characters from The Mandalorian in one set at such a good price point.
This set would look good in display as well as offering lots of play value from the shooting harpoon, speeder bike and Tusken Raider hut. If you are a fan of LEGO Star Wars and The Mandalorian, this is a must purchase when it becomes available from January 1st, 2021.
Thanks to LEGO for sending us the set to review. Any opinions expressed in this review are our own. Please support Jedi News by purchasing your LEGO here for the UK, USA and Canada — happy building!
The Jedi News 2020 Holiday Gift Guide continues later today with a look at some new products from SalesOne, available in Europe from Amerang.
