Cad Bain's Speeder

This is my first purchase / build from the brand new range of Lego Star Wars sets that have hit the shops over the last few weeks. I haven't particularly got into the Clone Wars cartoons; I've caught a couple and, yeah, the quality of the animation and the storylines has been good but I can't help feeling that it's shelf life is going to be inevitably short. Lego, of course, are sponsoring the show and with good reason - it gives them plenty of opportunity to extend their best selling Star Wars range. I can't fault their marketing but one wonders how long they can keep it going when George Lucas's final film is already 5 years old. The whole range is now kept in the public interest by spin-offs alone.

And yet it does seem to be working. The Star Wars range is still Lego's best seller and the popularity of the models shows no sign of diminishing. Being a fan of the range I can see why. The models are beautifully crafted; the aesthetic targets are set high. Lego have also begun rereleasing - though redesigning would be a better word - some of the earlier classic models; giving them a revamp utilizing new Lego technology to improve on the original. Of course for collectors like me who love nothing more than being able to display a timeline evolution of the models it means I end up with several versions of the same model. A fool and his money, eh?

I'll be focusing on some of these reissues in the coming months... but for now let's savour Cad Bain's Speeder 8128. This isn't a reissue or a redesign but a brand new model which features in the second series of Clone Wars. The model leapt out at me for it's beautiful and elegant shape. Plus of course you get the relatively rare Cad Bain minifigure (the guy in the big hat) which is an obvious bonus. The build is simple and quick - nothing overly complicated and the functionality of the model is minimal: the back portion merely hinges backwards to reveal a secret storage compartment. And yet the aesthetics are spot on. It's Star Wars with a little Flash Gordon retro thrown in for good measure. A very handsome looking model.

(Click on the images to enlarge.)