The biggest of AT-ATs

Well, it had to be bought.  Back in early December, the Lego courier delivered the biggest set of 2021 - and indeed the second biggest Lego Star Wars set in terms of number of pieces.  The enormous 75313 UCS AT-AT.  

What to say about this?  As always, with the UCS sets, it knocks the spots off every previous version of the vehicle in question.  Size - check.  Detail - all there.  Build factor - excellent. Sense of awe - off the scale!  New pieces - several.  

I was at the end of a long year of work and trying to sort myself out for a much-rescheduled vacation so while I did pretty much drop all other Lego activity and start on this, it still took me 5 days to finish it.  At no point was the build really repetitive - even the legs weren't too bad.  And when you got to the two sides, there was the occasional greebling difference to keep you on your toes.  Though I was able to do large chunks from memory.

Here's a photo of the final beast:


Once I manage to get a couple of the old "minifig scale" AT-ATs down off the shelf, I'll do a comparison photo but I've seen footage that shows they fit comfortably underneath the body/between the legs of this one!

So, does it score 10 out of 10 for me?  Of course, compared to the vast majority of Lego sets, it is simply amazing but in UCS terms, I am going to be harsh and only award it 9 out of 10.  Some of the plusses and minuses:

  • Minifigs are a plus: while nowhere near enough to fill all of the seats in here, there is a good selection
  • Design is a plus: I love the way that it all holds together and the legs articulate. Given that technic would be my second favourite set, I'm ok with a largely technic substructure
  • Side doors - I love the articulation on these
  • Loosely attached elements are a negative: the little "mud guards" (not sure what else to call them) to the side of the top joint of each leg fall off at the slightest touch.  I'm sure a better way of attaching them could have been devised
  • Blue half pins are a negative: I hate these fiddly things and the legs include a massive number of them
  • Colour quality is a negative.  "What?" I hear you say.  Yes, colour quality.  There were a small number of plates in the set which came with completely bonkers shades - nothing like the standard pair of grey colours. I really worry about this as I hope it isn't an ongoing indication of the quality of Lego.  Here are a couple of examples:


Dark red parts have been coming in a variety of shades for years (I hate this because my colour vision struggles to distinguish them from reddish brown) and the lime Lambo was famous for this issue (I will be building this after Christmas so will see if my version is similarly plagued).  Anyway, this is a bit of a let-down for Lego, in my view.

So there you have it - 9 out of 10 for a USC AT-AT!
 

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