Set Review - Tantive IV and Alderaan 75011

This is the final set in the Star Wars Planet Series and the final set that I can pay thanks to varko.cz with for their excellent service. I made my order almost 3 months ago and I still am as impressed with my memory of it as I think I was impressed with the service then. Anyway, moving on...

My first glimpse of a micro Tantive IV was in the UCS Imperial Star Destroyer. I was so excited about building my own but owned about 5 of the parts needed. Slowly the desire wasted away until I was reminded of that set with the release of the Planet Series Set. The re-release of this shrunken ship is a touch better than it's predecessor. Still a bit boxy but the color scheme is much better.

But tearing open the packs and dumping the pieces out gave me a certain level of ecstasy. Oh how I wish this had been produced en masse in the US! I would have bought dozens! What a great selection of parts! So much white and dark red goodness and little tiny 1x1 bits all over the place. A micro-builders dream! As for new parts it's the white fez, dark red 1x1 round tile and white palisade bricks that grabbed me. Those fezzes look much better than the pointy cones on the older one. And the capping off with dark red gives better color precision as well.

But building the set made seeing the parts look like a drag. It was that. much. better. For about 15 minutes I was on cloud nine in LEGO building heaven. Maybe it was the time of night or what I had eaten for dinner. This was a fun collection of techniques and the resulting long narrow ship was the most beautiful thing I had seen in the LEGO Planet Series. I'm glad I saved this one for last.

The one thing I couldn't figure was the use of a 4L bar to pass through an otherwise perfectly fine connection of headlight and travis bricks.

I don't ever recall seeing Alderaan in the movies before it was pulverized. Or if it's the one I recall without checking the internets, it was sort of grayish-tannish. This Alderaan planet is much more earth looking with the green land masses, blue waters, and wispy white clouds. Indeed, it was the childhood home of Leia Organa and so we would expect it to support human life quite well. Maybe it was really cloudy the day they took the shot.

Now that the news on non US release has quelled, it seems that these sets can be had for less than the $15-25 that was originally commanded. On Bricklink you can currently get one for $8 if you are unconcerned about the box, minifig and weapon. On the great grey market that is Ebay, $20 and up is the norm. At 42 parts + 11 extras, you're not buying this for the price per part (~20c at expected US retail) you're buying it to collect. And if you're going to choose only one of Planet Series IV to collect, this would be a close first of the one to pine after.