Random set of the day: Snowspeeder
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 7130 Snowspeeder, released during 1999. It's one of 13 Star Wars sets produced that year. It contains 215 pieces and 3 minifigs, and its retail price was US$20, which equates to about US$38 in today's money.
It's owned by 11,494 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you should find it for sale at Brick Owl, BrickLink, where new ones sell for around $130.90, or eBay.
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42 comments on this article
Double OT Star Wars!!
This might be my favourite of the OG Star Wars sets. Always loved it for some reason.
The OG Snowspeeder is great, I don't care what anyone says. It's gray, and that's enough for me because Snowspeeders are gray. Maybe not this dark a shade, but you make do with what you have.
@BabuBrick said:
"Double OT Star Wars!!"
Double Luke Skywalker, to boot.
Absolute cinema
This set holds up incredibly well. Fantastic box art too. They just don't photograph them like they used to
This is the first Star Wars set that I bought. I remember reading on Lugnet that someone had found them at Walmart, so I made an immediate bee-line for my closest store, and sure enough, they had it on the shelf!
Got this for my 9th birthday!
@MCLegoboy said:
"The OG Snowspeeder is great, I don't care what anyone says. It's gray, and that's enough for me because Snowspeeders are gray. Maybe not this dark a shade, but you make do with what you have."
One of the best ways to revitalize LEGO Star Wars would be to bring back light stone grey (which was mainly used in Mindstorms NXT) and give many vehicles like this accurate colors.
Luke and one of his ships on the same day, that's fun!
@MCLegoboy said:
"The OG Snowspeeder is great, I don't care what anyone says. It's gray, and that's enough for me because Snowspeeders are gray. Maybe not this dark a shade, but you make do with what you have."
I have a Technic beam in Light Stone Grey from Mindstorms set. That color would be great for snowspeeders and X-wings.
My first Star Wars lego set. I was so excited to get it. I think they did an excellent rendition given the piece inventory that they had at the time.
Nice--I've always felt this one holds up well in the looks dept, but had a huge miss for not including a harpoon like later models did. Of course I guess we didn't have an AT-AT to trip up until 2003 so maybe it wasn't that much of a problem.
My first Star Wars Lego set and my last Lego set before I went into my dark age. I returned almost ten years later.
@Norikins said:
" @MCLegoboy said:
"The OG Snowspeeder is great, I don't care what anyone says. It's gray, and that's enough for me because Snowspeeders are gray. Maybe not this dark a shade, but you make do with what you have."
One of the best ways to revitalize LEGO Star Wars would be to bring back light stone grey (which was mainly used in Mindstorms NXT) and give many vehicles like this accurate colors."
If your goal is accurate colors, you need to first start by taking everything that’s orange and converting it to dark-bley instead, _OR_ changing the minifigs to include some other pilot from Roque Squadron, because this is definitely not Luke’s Snowspeeder.
One of my favorite Star Wars sets that I own. I think the design still holds up alright.
While more modern snowspeeder designs chase accuracy, this one effortlessly mastered charm
I keep it pure since it looks good for a 25+ year old SW set. But I think it can use minor improvements here and there. I’m a little conflicted about it though.
The set responsible for the end of my Dark Age!
Still a great set.
Wasn't this one of the best sets from the first Star Wars wave?
@chuckschwa said:
"This set holds up incredibly well. Fantastic box art too. They just don't photograph them like they used to"
It’s telling it basically served as the template for snowspeeders for years afterwards.
@Anak said:
"My first Star Wars Lego set and my last Lego set before I went into my dark age. I returned almost ten years later."
Same with me. I've been a huge Star Wars fan since I was a child. I always dreamed of having Lego sets from the movies, especially since the Battle of Hoth was one of my favorite scenes. I've tried many times to recreate them with available bricks, for example, making Stormtroopers from Aquazone suits. It's all the more sad that my Dark Age coincided with the introduction of the Star Wars series.
Now I have a UCS AT-AT with the 2019 anniversary Snowspeeder and it's a blast!
This is a great one. Two cockpits and a small space in the middle to hold the lightsaber. Pretty good. That cockpit, the wedge plates and the gun parts were all made for this set and the X-Wing and it shows, as this looks excellent too!
I have very fond memories of 7130 Snowspeeder. My very first Lego Star Wars set, bought for me by my sister to cheer me up when I was unwell. It really brightened my day and many days since.
Also love the little piece of trivia that this was the first time Dak, Luke's gunner in the Battle of Hoth, got a figure in any format.
@PurpleDave said:
"If your goal is accurate colors, you need to first start by taking everything that’s orange and converting it to dark-bley instead, _OR_ changing the minifigs to include some other pilot from Roque Squadron, because this is definitely not Luke’s Snowspeeder."
This is exactly why I don't collect Star Wars and most licensed stuff. The orange here is the only thing holding it back from being an entirely grey wedge! Sure, it's not Luke's livery but it's still recognizable as one of the snowspeeders!
Compare it to modern Snowspeeders. They use all their budget to be the exact shape (but in white) with the exact on-screen features and nothing more. There's no budget for hidden compartments, breakaway escape ships, storage spaces etc. Because that budget can go to accuracy. Sets like today's one at the very least understood that it needed to be a toy first and a representation of a ship from the films second.
The pursuit of accuracy above all else sometimes just kills all charm of lego sets and the creativity they can embody. Just look at the zany vehicles from the Space subthemes.
There's of course a huge demand for screen-perfect accuracy in sets. I know why things are the way they are right now. I bet most people on this forum would rather have it as accurate as possible.
But for me personally it loses charm. And if you ask me, right now the not-display-models and models that don't represent a concrete specific design from real life or media feel far too stifled by being put in the same 4-5 themes for years on end.
Sets like the 1999 Snowspeeder still tried to continue the design philosophies from before, as everything about its marketing emphasized it was LEGO Star Wars, and all that entailed incl. the alternate builds. I respect that.
But it's also why I stopped collecting the theme early. The 1999-2001 era of Star Wars has a lot of individual models that sometimes go together but more often than not were very incoherent. The Snow Speeder had nothing to go with it. As did the Land Speeder, the Endor Speeder Bikes etc. All because they each depicted a scene from the films with wildly different settings and times in the timeline. Even when I was young I didn't feel rewarded for collecting more from the theme because I knew the sets I did have weren't supposed to go together. Because they so clearly represented specific things that it was hard to be creative with them.
There’s something about the box art of this one that has always spoken to me. Again, simplicity and playability of the early sets is superb….oh, and no stickers.
I completely agree with the comments about reintroducing very light grey, or developing a similar colour. The challenge is that even if the shade was being created for a single set, like an X-wing or Snowspeeder, you would probably need something like 100-150 parts available in the new colour from the start, which is not really how new colours are handled nowadays. You would almost certainly need synergy across multiple themes to manufacture that many elements at once, as we saw with reddish orange in 2024.
This is still the best Star Wars Lego set! All that have come after are nothing compared to this perfect set! It’s so accurate, price point was great and it still brings me joy all these decades later. The advent of Star Wars Lego has kept me in my childhood!
@GSR_MataNui said:
"Luke and one of his ships on the same day, that's fun! "
Probabilty of this ocurrence @huwbot?
A true classic! I got it when new and still have it!
The last of the Original Five Original Trilogy (OFOT) sets I got--I had the other four from when they were new in stores, but this one was a gift from a non-LEGO fan who knew I was a LEGO guy when I was in college, close to a decade later. Thanks to used LEGO, I ended up with a second copy in more recent years and the parts to more.
Put me on the team of those who are willing to say this is the Best LEGO Set Depicting a Snowspeeder (which is answering a different question than the saying the Best Lego Depiction of a Snowspeeder). Despite that, it was my least favourite of the OFOT and not because I didn't have it--I didn't have it because it was the least-interesting of the five.
My brother had it from early on, so I'd seen it close-up, and unlike some other "brother exclusive" sets, this one just didn't register as high on the envy-o-meter. Part of that is the figs--I had 7140 so I already had Pilot Luke, and I thought Biggs > Dak. Rebel Soldier was definitely > than Rebel Technician--and in hindsight I REALLY like his old brown visor/white pilot helmet, but at the time the figs were a wash.
And the X-wing was better than the Snowspeeder, because the X-wing was a real spaceship with a hyperdrive. Sure, for the purposes of play, my brother's snowspeeder was spaceworthy and hyperdrive equipped, but that wasn't "true," so it was a point against the snowspeeder.
Nowadays, I still think the X-wing is more iconic, but this is definitely the sturdier build. Like a LOT of early Star Wars ships 7140 has extraneous bits that LOVE to fall off with moderate play, but the Snowspeeder is a rare example from this era of a build that rarely does that.
@Mister_Jonny said:
" @chuckschwa said:
"This set holds up incredibly well. Fantastic box art too. They just don't photograph them like they used to"
It’s telling it basically served as the template for snowspeeders for years afterwards."
It is not. The very next Snowspeeder, 4500, figured out how to do the “wings” correctly, and significantly changed the frame. That’s the one that all subsequent Snowspeeders were based on.
@Brickalili said:
"While more modern snowspeeder designs chase accuracy, this one effortlessly mastered charm"
Yeah,. this was in the era of Lego sets that happened to be Star Wars, instead of the other way around like nowadays.
@Maxbricks14 said:
"This might be my favourite of the OG Star Wars sets. Always loved it for some reason. "
Same. It's a "more than the sum of its parts" set. It looks great for the era and was so swooshable.
@560heliport said:
" @MCLegoboy said:
"The OG Snowspeeder is great, I don't care what anyone says. It's gray, and that's enough for me because Snowspeeders are gray. Maybe not this dark a shade, but you make do with what you have."
I have a Technic beam in Light Stone Grey from Mindstorms set. That color would be great for snowspeeders and X-wings."
They come up with so many shades of colors for friends, botanical, etc., while we still only have two greys. I dream about a very light cry for years and hope the re-introduce it before the next UCS Imperial Shuttle, Snowspeeder, X-Wing.
I actually have this set and love it! Cool flashback.
i like this set.
DAK: "I feel like I can take the whole Empire myself."
LUKE: "Really? Cos… Cos that would be awesome. Hey everyone! Dak says he's got this one!"
PILOTS: [cheer]
DAK: "You know it, b*tches!"
*Flies away*
DAK: "Hey, Imperial fleet! Get ready to suck some Dak!"
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-soVTWVDEo]
Family Guy: Something, Something, Something, Dark Side
This is the only OT set from the initial wave that I don't have, and honestly, it never really interested me that much, although I did like the use of the Aquashark head print (I know it's shown up in other places, but I always associate it with the Aquasharks) for the gunner.
@TheBrickKnight said:
"Also love the little piece of trivia that this was the first time Dak, Luke's gunner in the Battle of Hoth, got a figure in any format. "
You mean he hadn't even gotten an action figure before that point?
@TheOtherMike said:
"This is the only OT set from the initial wave that I don't have, and honestly, it never really interested me that much, although I did like the use of the Aquashark head print (I know it's shown up in other places, but I always associate it with the Aquasharks) for the gunner.
@TheBrickKnight said:
"Also love the little piece of trivia that this was the first time Dak, Luke's gunner in the Battle of Hoth, got a figure in any format. "
You mean he hadn't even gotten an action figure before that point?"
Guy tried to hold up an AT-AT foot after dropping the understatement of the year about fire suppression systems. No, he didn't. Also, remember that Kenner only ever made one pilot figure for each of the basic outfits (orange, red, dark-green), and Hasbro had only been making He-Man-style SW action figures for two years when LSW launched. It would be quite a while before Dak merited a spot in the Hasbro roster. Pretty sure they'd already started repeating character/outfit combos by then.
For some reason, a while back now, I had a dream that I think reoccurred once or twice, of finding an unopened Lego Snowspeeder set in the back of my parents' wardrobe that they'd meant to give to me years ago but had forgotten about. I'm not certain it was this specific set... although from what I remember, the box design didn't match any of the existing Lego snowspeeders, so who knows which version it was meant to be? Whatever the case, while I'd never owned a snowspeeder at all (except the tiny one from 4486) it had also not been a vehicle that I was particularly interested in back in the day, meaning it wasn't a set I'd ever been hoping for. So I've no idea where that specific dream came from, or why it stuck in my memory for so long.
(Not to say I wouldn't have been grateful if I ever had received the set as a gift, even so...!)
@TheOtherMike said:
" @TheBrickKnight said:
"Also love the little piece of trivia that this was the first time Dak, Luke's gunner in the Battle of Hoth, got a figure in any format. "
You mean he hadn't even gotten an action figure before that point?"
Looks like that would be correct. According to Stephen Sansweet's Star Wars Ultimate Action Figure Collection book, the first Hasbro action figure of Dak was released in 2002, three years after this! It seems, from Sansweet's earlier Action Figure Archive book, that Biggs and Wedge were the only named rebel pilots besides Luke to have figures in the Power of the Force 2 line; and even then, Wedge was only available packed in with a figure carry-case and Biggs was a late addition to the line in 1998. It wasn't until post-Phantom Menace that other named pilots such as Dak or Porkins made it to the action figure scene.
@ThatBionicleGuy said:"It wasn't until post-Phantom Menace that other named pilots such as Dak or Porkins made it to the action figure scene."
I can't think of Porkins without also thinking of the RiffTrax for A New Hope. Porkins?!" "They named the fat guy Porkins?!"