Classic LEGO: Classic Hoth
Posted by SprinkleOtter,
Since 1999, Hoth sets have been a constant subtheme of Star Wars, with over thirty sets released to date. Many sets have been re-released over the years, and it is fascinating to see how the models have changed with each incarnation.
Since the announcement of Assault on Hoth has been met with disappointment by many, I will be comparing the sets in this article to the components of Assault on Hoth.
Read on to see how previous Hoth sets stack up to the newest set in the UCS line.
AT-AT: 4483
LEGO has released five full-sized AT-ATs in the last thirteen years. Some walked (10178). Some were technic. Some didn't have enough pieces to finish the cockpit (8129). The only version I feel does the AT-AT justice is the original behemoth. 4483 stands above all other LEGO AT-ATs, and certainly feels bulkier in every direction. AT-AT introduced the Imperial speederbike, which has been a staple of LEGO Hoth sets ever since.
Also introduced were the Snowtrooper and AT-AT pilot. The speederbike and Snowtroopers could both fit inside the body of the AT-AT, true to Star Wars canon.
There is no AT-AT in Assault on Hoth, meaning that the "assault" part of the name is used fairly loosely here and I have nothing to compare 4483 against.
Thankfully for those that want an original AT-AT, the price has not increased as much as other AT-ATs, and can be found used for around $150.
Base: 7666 Hoth Rebel Base
There are only two candidates for this category: Hoth Rebel Base, and Hoth Echo Base. Given as how Hoth Echo Base couldn't quite decide what it was, I have to choose Hoth Rebel Base. The main feature of Hoth Rebel Base is the large gate, which retracts into the walls, accurate to the movie.
Behind the gate was a service area for a Snowspeeder and a control room. Also prominent in the set were a Snowspeeder and DF.9 anti-infantry laser turret. Eight minifigures populate the set, including the first probe droid and K-3PO. One interesting feature of this set was how it included launchers into small models, before the introduction of flick-fire missiles. Both the anti-infantry turret and Imperial E-Web had the ability to fire lightsaber blades, the turret by a mechanism, the E-Wed simply by flick-fire.
The gateway in Hoth Rebel Base looks a little small compared to the new one in Assault on Hoth., and the base behind the gate is certainly improved in Assault on Hoth. Ever since its release, Hoth Rebel Base has been a difficult to find set, and not commands a high price on the aftermarket, going for over twice its original value used.
Trench: 7749 Echo Base
The first time we got a dedicated trench set was Echo Base, in 2009. Echo base included an updated anti-infantry turret, as well as the first Tauntaun. The trench part of the set is fairly lackluster, but it does provide good play value.
The turret is accurate to the film in that you could seat a minifigure in both the top section and base. One unique play feature of Echo Base was an axle that, when pressed with enough force, would send the Rebel troopers behind it flying, as if in an explosion (we're looking at you, 4483...). Yet another version of the E-Wed is included for the pair of Snowtroopers to man.
I honestly think the trenches in both Echo Base and Assault on Hoth are fairly interchangeable, though I do like the superior play features in Echo Base. Those looking to acquire an Echo Base will be pleased to know that it has not experienced a large jump in price, and can still be gotten used for its original price.
Battle Pack: 8083 Rebel Trooper Battle Pack
Two Battle Packs set on Hoth have been released. One was a small Imperial command center and speederbike (again…). The other is a little known vehicle that briefly appeared in The Empire Strikes Back, the Laser Ice Cutter.
The LEGO version appears to be slightly modified, with a pair of additional missiles on the sides. Like all Battle Packs, four minifigures are included, two Rebel troopers, Zev Senesca, and a Rebel Officer. It was nice to see a set like this – taking a little-known vehicle from the Star Wars universe, and turning it into a set.
There is little to compare between these battle packs and Assault on Hoth, except for the minifigures and Imperial speeder bike. Minifigure-wise, by buying these battle packs, you would end up with two thirds of the Rebel soldiers in AoH, while also twice as many Imperials (thought he same number of Snowtroopers). The speederbike in AoH appears to be nearly identical to the one in Snowtrooper Battle Pack. Due to the commonness of Rebel Trooper Battle Pack, it can be picked up for only a few dollars more than its original price (or probably its original price at TRU...).
Wampa Cave: 8089 Hoth Wampa Cave
Surprisingly, only one set fits this category: Hoth Wampa Cave. The set revolves around a small Wampa Cave, complete with hanging Luke, Lightsaber launcher, Tauntaun-back ribs, and a (presumably) Rebel skeleton.
Also included was yet another Snowspeeder. In my opinion, this Snowspeeder should have been removed from the set, with Han Solo mounted on a Tauntaun, tent, and a larger cave for the Wampa.
When looking at both Hoth Wampa Cave and the cave from AoH, the original is the clear winner, with a much larger cave, and additional bones for the Wampa, to better recreate the scene from The Empire Strikes Back. Hoth Wampa Cave has experienced only modest inflation, which I believe is kept in check by the fact that it a large chunk of the part count is given to a Snowspeeder, which most collectors have already.
Snowspeeder: 75014: Battle of Hoth
Lastly, no self-respecting Hoth collection is complete without a Snowspeeder. There have been many Snowspeeders released over the years (eight, in fact).
For the most part, they are all the same, except for small tweaks. Three of which which have included 1.4 FD P-Tower anti-vehicle turrets. My favorite set to include a Snowspeeder is Battle of Hoth, because of the level of detail in it.
The Snowspeeder in this set is, in my opinion, the most detailed to date, from the power harpoon to the power converters. Also included in the set is two sections of trench, complete with an anti-vehicle turret, Tauntaun, and repeating blaster cannon.
To assault the Rebel position are an Imperial speederbike, an E-Web heavy repeating blaster, and probe droid. The icing (no pun intended) on the cake is the seven minifigures in the set, about half as many as Assault on Hoth, with almost exactly the same imperial presence.
I greatly prefer the look of both the Snowspeeder and turrets in Battle of Hoth over those in AoH. The E-Web in Battle of Hoth isn't quite perfect, but it is certainly better than the ridiculously large one in AoH- half the parts could easily have been shaved off the E-Web and given to other parts of the model. However, the trench in AoH is significantly better than the too-short one in Battle of Hoth.
Conclusion
All together, the sets listed above purchased at their original price (without discounts, with were common on some) and ignoring inflation would cost nearly $277, a little over the price of Assault on Hoth.
Combined, these sets would create a base about half the size of AoH, surrounded by a far larger trench system, with the same number of turrets. A trio of Snowspeeders and a pair of Tauntaun-riders would defend this base from a significant Imperial attack.
An AT-AT, backed up by a pair of speeder bikes and sever E-Webs would make up the Imperial presence of this Hoth battlefield. There would be a staggering thirty minifigures in this lineup, and even a Wampa. However, the main base would feel a little lacking, and there would be no Ion Cannon or Power Generator (well, more accurately, 3/4 of a power generator).
Unfortunately, the combination of sets I listed above would cost several hundred dollars these days, so Assault on Hoth will probably be your best bet at owning a large Hoth playset for the next few years.
What are your favorite Hoth sets, and how do you think the new Assault on Hoth stands up next to the older versions? Let me know in the commets.
Below are the links to find these sets on Ebay. As always, the commission Brickset receives from any sales using these links helps keep Brickset free to use and free of ads.
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35 comments on this article
I only own: the first AT-AT, one Snowspeeder and that's it aside from both BP based on Hoth so Attack on Hoth is a must for me as it will no doubt provide me with the chance to own the sets I am missing.
sweet!!
Good, interesting article! I only own the battle packs, a few minifigs from Advent Calendars and the 2014 Snowspeeder, so it makes sense for me to get this set. And now comes the storm of hatred for AoH...
This was a fun review. I'm not a huge fan of Hoth stuff in general (I think it's over represented in ESB toys). Personally I'm fond of the 8089 Wampa Cave and 10178 Walking AT-AT. Other than the shield generator and ion cannon (which is poorly rendered) I'm not sure 75098 has much to offer. I know that I'll get it anyway, so whatever.
Did you forget something, 7879-1: Hoth Echo Base?
I'm really on the fence about Assault on Hoth. The only Hoth set I own is the Wampa Cave, but I've always wanted to get the set with Luke in the Bacta Tank, the red protocol droid, etc. Now I'm thinking of trying to get Assault on Hoth at a slight discount and just minifigures to round out the Hoth crew. I would have preferred Assault on Hoth to have an additional 3-4 minis and 75 pieces or so and up the price an additional $50 US.
You have missed one of the most important Hoth sets of all: 7879 Hoth Echo Base.
The original AT-AT was by far the best in my opinion. Hadn't been able to pull the trigger on any since then until the most recent one. Thanks also for pointing out that the vehicle included in the rebel battle pack was actually from the ESB. Never heard of an Ice Cutter before.
One of the biggest fails with the new UCS set is that unless I'm mistaken, most of the sets you'd be able to use to pad it out (snowspeeder, AT-AT etc) aren't widely available any more. Surely this would have made so much more sense to release a year ago?
As for the whole "is it isn't it" UCS debate, one of the biggest sins in my view is the use of BURPs. I'd always assumed the number one criteria for UCS was "lets make it the best we can - piece count and price be damned!"
Hey, several of the Advent Calendars have to count as Hoth sets. We got an appreciably good E-WEB cannon out of one of them, even if it only shot snowballs.
Hoth Echo Base is a better Hoth base than the new set. What really gets me is the new one is called 'assault' and only has two snow troopers. The new set is just a mess, like LEGO really didn't know what to do, and in the end just made a collection of old sets.
The new set should be a base or an assault with more bad guys, in the end it failed on both accounts.
@Maxximus: @JClay86: It says in the article "There are only two candidates for this category: Hoth Rebel Base, and Hoth Echo Base. Given as how Hoth Echo Base couldn't quite decide what it was, I have to choose Hoth Rebel Base." So no, it wasn't forgotten.
@The Brick Green Giant. Agreed - they should have stuck with focusing on the rebel base. Let people create the "assault" part themselves by purchasing one or more AT-ATs separately if they so wished. Maybe include one snowspeeder in the set, but with space for a couple more - again so that people can pad out the set themselves with additional ones as they see fit. $250 would could have given us a great stand-alone base, plus we'd have the option to make it truly epic if willing to invest more money in $30 and $100 chunks.
7879 Echo Base should have been mentioned as well. There's not much exterior detail there, but at least it came with a Hoth Leia! To me, that's the biggest fail of all regarding the Assault on Hoth, and that's saying a lot. 7879 doesn't look like much on its own, but definitely adds a lot of play value as an add on. I was really hoping for a larger Echo Base in order to combine that set in particular for a more completed structure. I really don't want to have to buy the whole Assault on Hoth set, as it provides so many sub-par duplicates of things I already have. Looks like this will be an uncompleted set for me.
Not even a single mention of the ucs snowspeeder?
My mother-in-law gave me an unopened 4483 AT-AT for Christmas (she had bought it in 2004 for one of my brothers-in-law, didn't give it to them that year, then forgot about it until she discovered it last year). Having built it--and having seen it compared to all the others--I have to agree with your assessment that it's the best.
@SprinkleOtter
Useful article. You really should proof read though - the glaring typos and awkward grammar distract from the otherwise expert analysis.
As part of your conclusion for the sets listed vs AoH, could you also give us a combined part count for comparison? Rather disappointing that separately you could have twice the minifigures and an AT-AT for nearly the same price as AoH.
The combined part count on the sets above is 2,573, only 429 more than Assault on Hoth.
Great article... Have twelve hoth sets so I think AoH is a pass. Very disappointing :(
Thanks for the article. From the title, I thought it would be an overview of the full sets in the subtheme. Just focusing on the Assault on Hoth aspect leaves out some stuff. Why include AT-AT but not the AT-ST? I think a full overview of all the Hoth stuff (including the Advent Calendar minibuilds) would be awesome. For now, I'm glad I can search for all the Hoth sets using the tags.
I think this is a good start, and this concept could be taken even further...like one round-up for each location in each movie.
Re: 7879 - it was arbitrarily glanced over. Rebel base was more of a sad AFOL's attempt to build an Echo Base for his kid.
Cool idea for an article. I don't understand how 4483 is a better set than the motorized AT-AT, but I can see the rest of your points, and wow... Assault on Hoth might be the Jar-Jar of the LEGO Star Wars line.
Also, that Rebel Trooper Battle Pack is awesome. It has a hover-Zamboni!
Love the hoth sets although they can be repetitive. Can't wait for the ucs snow speeder. I'd like to see all the hoth sets displayed together
Still waiting on a Rebel transporter set (ie "The First Transport is away!") but that's probably not interesting enough to pitch as it's not a fighting vessel. But then the Imperial Assault Carrier isn't very interesting and they made that so more unusual things have happened!
I'm glad I still have 7666 Hoth Rebel Base then! I agree with pretty much all of the assessments here in the article. The 2013 Hoth set probably has the most balanced minifigure scale Snowspeeder but across the board, the ranging years of the 'best' versions of vehicles and locations just confirm that we basically have 'better' versions of the contents of Assault on Hoth, certainly if you have been collecting since the mid to late 2000s.
I own most of these Hoth sets (and others).
Thus my complete lack of interest in the 'new' set.
The new Assault on Hoth will be, judging by the comments, a great way to get all the Hoth sets that you may have missed the first time around. Whether you enjoy re-releases or not, is another discussion...
The "UCS" label used to be reserved for large-scale, display model versions that are more suitable for experienced builders and static display rather than being a playset. Now, with the minifigure-scale UCS Sandcrawlers (both versions), Slave I, and Assault on Hoth, UCS seems to be morphing into nothing more than a slightly larger piece-count version of the standard minifigure-scale line of sets. I personally think that there are already enough Star Wars sets in the standard line; I'd rather reserve the UCS slots for the larger display-model designs.
Not a UCS set at all. Not even close. Combining past sets is a re-release at best. Save the UCS designation for sets worthy of the label. Still no UCS A-Wing, Landspeeder, Medical Frigate, Rebel Transport or most importantly, an AT-AT. The walking AT-AT doesn't count and it was ugly to boot. Seriously, who needs another mini-fig sized snowspeeder? Skipping this set. Already have 95% of it.
Question for all you UCS purists: is it required / preferred that a true UCS set not include minifigures / be minifigure scale?
A UCS set to me is supposed to be more than a playset. The issue with the $250 sets this year is they are just super expensive playsets. For it to be a UCS there should be something special, huge, heavy looking that could only be done with the piece count and price.
They could take off the UCS name from "Assault on Hoth" and it' still just a blah set with nothing special.
Ghostbusters HQ is special and couldn't be done otherwise, same with the Cafe Corner series. These articles have proven that Assualt on Hoth isn't special at all.
"Thankfully for those that want an original AT-AT, the price has not increased as much as other AT-ATs, and can be found used for around $150." you say, then linking to ebay listings of it for $400+ (and up to $1000). Not to mention shipping... It's one of those sets that would be cheaper to buy piece by piece (actually come to think of it, very few sets *aren't*)
@darkstonegrey - for me a UCS set is a set that's as good as it can be regardless of piece count (within reason - $200 to $500) and it needs to turn heads of even non Lego fans when sitting on a shelf. I don't care if there's a plaque or not and minifigs are a nice bonus if relevant (rather than being a requisite). The Sandcrawler is 100% UCS in my book as it's pretty epic even if you don't open it up. The UCS Falcon, too. Fingers crossed Lego brings out a $600 UCS Falcon with full interior (and presumably a few minifigs). Likewise, I'd expect a UCS AT-AT to have at least some interior detail for minifigs.
What DOESN'T make a UCS set is lazy shortcuts (like BURPS) and a piecemeal non-cohesive build. Unfortunately Lego's definition now seems to only require the set costs in excess of $200, regardless of whether it's worth that amount in the first place.
Great comparison, well written. Shines light on whether all the rehashing of Star Wars, and in this case Hoth, models by Lego make for an improvement or not over the course of time.
I actually really like the last AT-AT (which is why I have two !). Interesting comparison, and what really stands out, is not so much the value or lack thereof, but rather that Lego has the opportunity to build a really good base, and let people add the peripherals themselves, as others have mentioned. Besides, all that, Lego is about building, and well, there doesn't seem to be that much building (other than little builds), and especially challenging building in this set. I am hoping that some really talented/creative people, can take this set and make some great MOC's - to at least get some ideas for modification if I decide to purchase.
@ magmafrost
To find prices on these sets, I looked at the price guide on Bricklink. Looking at the available listings on ebay will tell you nearly nothing- people will list their set for whatever insane price that they won't get. You just need to separate the chaff from the wheat.
I really wish that I had bought the original Wampa Cave and one of the previous 'base' sets, but I didn't start getting back into this habit until just a few years ago and wasn't sure if I wanted to succumb to the Star Wars collecting urge. Now, I'd like to build my own Echo Base, but the new Assault on Hoth is just too expensive to use as a starter kit. Unfortunate.
For 'Assault on Hoth' I would have done two big sets; one with the rebels and their base and snowspeeder, with a lot of emphasis on the base itself. The other would be the imperial side; AT-AT, snow-AT-ST, speeders and snowtroopers.
Hoth has been pretty comprehensively covered over the years so it's hard to do anything totally new.
And I agree; UCS sets aren't supposed to be playsets. They should just stick with being the large sculpture type sets (like big very-detailed ships with display stands, for example).