Brickmaster Star Wars Battle for the Stolen Crystals
Posted by Huw,
The tenth Dorling Kindserley Brickmaster book, Star Wars Battle for the Stolen Crystals, has just been published. Like the others, it has a thick front cover which holds a bag containing (in this case) 189 LEGO parts with which to build the projects in the book, which consists of cartoon strips and step-by-step instructions.
The book follows the story of Commander Gree chasing a commando droid, who has stolen some lightsaber crystals, across the galaxy. There are four sets of two models to build: 'Battle in the Canyons' (V-19 Torrent and Separatist cannon); 'Ambush in the Forest' (WT-RT walker and Vespula fighter); 'Desert Attack' (Desert Speeder and Ph-STAP) and 'Ice Mountain Chase' (Ice Speeder and KD81 Cargo Skiff).
It comes with two minifigs, the aforementioned Commander Gree and a commando droid. They have both appeared in sets before, Gree in the Genosian Cannon from 2012 and the droid in a 2012 battle pack and BARC speeder.
The four sets of models are illustrated on the back cover:
None of them are particularly exciting and I suspect many of the vehicles have been made up especially for this book and do not exist outside of it.
The 'Desert Attack' pair featured on the cover looked most interesting, so that's what I built first. The speeder, below, is not too bad...
.. but the STAP is a bit lame, and as you can see the droid does not stand on it particularly well.
I can't say I was overly impressed with the book or the models and from an AFOL perspective, unless you're a Brickmaster book completist (like me), there's no real reason to buy it. However, the target audience of young boys will love it and will get a lot of enjoyment out of building and rebuilding the models, even if they are a bit contrived.
It's available from Amazon and you'll find it, and all other Brickmaster books, listed on our Amazon books page. (If the page is blank, disable your ad blocker).
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14 comments on this article
Nice review, Huw! Like you, I'm a fan of the Brickmaster books - any set which gives multiple build instructions, or even just suggestions, is all right in my book - and even though this isn't as well-considered as some, I'll still be buying it!
I'm definitely a fan of the Brickmaster books, absolutely. But some of them have been more miss, than hit. I didn't mind the first SW brickmaster book, so if I can get this one cheaply, I might pick it up.
This years books are all available at Costco right now.
Saw them this weekend at costco. All for only 14.49.
Thanks for the review, now I know what to pass up.
Seems like Lego threw Gree in there to try and boost sales. I say this last weekend at Barnes and Noble in the US, as well as another book that looks similar to that Lego Idea Book from a year or two ago.
wow awesome now I will have 3 commander gree
Spotted this in Big W today, not worth AU$25.
Can somebody please comment how the story is delivered? If it is a cartoon, how does it look like? I got myself the Pirates Brickmaster http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=DKPIRATES-1, but in that book, there was no story, just a simple scenarios+building instructions. So the story + building is something new to me and would like to know more.
Each of the four scenarios is preceded by a 2 page photographic comic strip featuring Gree chasing the droid. The models feature in the stories which end something like 'Now read about the v19 Torrent and build your own!'
My boys love these books. But I think it's more to do with having instructions to build different models like the old days. They tend to stay together much longer than their general pile of LEGO.
How come you can buy the star wars brickmaster from amazon but you can't buy the chima one?
If your looking for these at a reasonable price, Costco has them and several other Brickmaster Books/Sets for $14.49US.
Not bad. I already have Commander Gree, but even so, I may still buy it for the content.