The dark side of the brick

Discounting the microfighter and mini version, there are four proper AATs, two with Naboo paint (tan) and two with colours from the later Clone Wars (dark blue mainly).  They are: 7155 from 2000 8018 from 2009 75080 from 2015 75283 from 2020 Interestingly, the colours switch with each release!  Interestingly, Lego bucks its usual trend of each version getting more and more pieces: they max out with the 2009 version (407 bricks).  The 2000 version does merit a shout out though: with just 158 pieces (and they were limited at the time), it does a great job of replicating the shape.  Some people have voted this into their top 10 - I'm not that generous but it's a good effort.

Tonight I took the wife out for dinner - important to get away from the Lego from time to time! - and hence building was limited. However, I did manage to find time to build up one of the two very limited release sets from last year that I missed and had to purchase from ebay: Yoda's lightsaber . At only 140, mostly fairly common parts, you're really paying for the box and the limited edition printed tile.   Rebrickable has had a large range of lightsaber MOCs over the years so it was only a matter of time before Lego decided to release one of their own.  This is small, totally within keeping of the MOCs and I would have been very happy to get this free.  I'm slightly peeved at the price I had to pay because I was too late to the party on Lego.com.  And I think this is one of those rare sets where I will be putting it straight back in the box and pretenting I never opened it. Yesterday, I started on the last of my big technic sets but I also found a bit of time ...

I spent much of the weekend picking bricks and building up the UCS dropship, which is missing a few key bricks (for the first time ever, a Bricklink order went missing!).  This evening, I've done a quick build of the 2020 AAT ( 75283 ). You get a couple of unique minifigs plus a pretty slick looking tank.  It's not the biggest version (the 2009 version is bigger, as is the 2000 tan version, I think) but the newer bricks mean it's more nicely curved.  Reasonable levels of playability are packed in too - three swivelling guns, two opening hatches and the usual spring-loaded bolts. All in all, not a bad little set.