Set Review ➟ 75059 Sandcrawler: Part 1
A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away… started one of the phenomenons of the 20th Century, the Star Wars™ saga. I am not going to talk about something that everybody should know, but with the launch of the new LEGO® UCS Sandcrawler™ we are coming back to 1977 to rediscover the most famous saga of the history (sorry trekkies).
At the beginning of the Episode IV A new hope, the Princess Leia stored the Death Star design in the Astromech R2-D2. After that, R2-D2 together with C-3PO were launched to Tatooine to try to deliver it to Obi Wan Kenobi. Once the androids were in the desert of Tatooine, and R2-D2 started to find Obi Wan, the Jawas found both androids and took them to be resold.
The Jawas are inhabitants of Tatooine and they have a huge vehicle to repair and sell all kind of robots and androids. This vehicle is the Sandcrawler. It only appears in the first minutes of the Episode IV, but it is an important part of the history because they sold the R2-D2 and C-3PO to Uncle Owen and Luke, and it allowed R2-D2 to restart the find of Obi Wan and deliver the Princess Leia’s message.
This is the second appearance of the Sandcrawler in the LEGO Universe, after the set 10144 (2005). This set had 1669 pieces and 11 minifigs (including all robots). This set was not considered as UCS and (until now) it was the only appearance of Uncle Owen Lars.
The new 75059 Sandcrawler is a bigger set and it has double bricks compared with the old version. It has a total of 13 characters, including 7 minifigs and 6 robots. One thing that surprised me when I got the box was the weight. Even if the box is really big and that the model has 3296 parts, it is not really big. The reason is that most of the parts are small bricks, plates and technic connectors.
The building process is organized in 16 steps, and in this first part I am going to talk about the first half of that steps.
Started with the MetalBeard’s Sea Cow of the LEGO Movie, this is the second big set with an unique instructions booklet. In my opinion it is something positive to manage and store it. In the first pages there is an explanation of the model and the background in English, but this information is available in other languages in the LEGO website. There is also a stickers sheet. Luckily it is not really big and the stickers are not an important part of the aesthetic of the model.
In the first 8 steps there are only 5 minifigs: 2 Jawas, R2-D2, C-3PO and R5-D4. Both jawas have the same torso and the electric weapon.
The building process starts with the most boring part of the model: the base structure of the Sandcrawler. A lot of parts are used to build the base with the needed pattern to put the rest of the model. Bags 1, 2, and 3 are used to build the base, and I found here the first interesting detail. The retractable stairs to access the inside of the SandCrawler. There is also another interesting part of the model in this section, the mechanism that allows the Sandcrawler to have a steering wheel. It actuates a small technic structure where the caterpillar wheels are connected.
Bag 4 is used to build the bottom part of the walls, and rear columns, which will be part of the main structure. With bag 5 you get both central structures of the sides. It is curious that those structures are not connected to the model with studs. You have to leave both in the middle of the model and in the next step there are two axles in each side that fix that structures to the model. Those central sides have a trap door. It is normally closed and you can keep it closed with an internal mechanism, but they can be opened if necessary.
Bag 6 is used to finish the main structure of the model and its rear cover. In this step the structure is strong enough to take and move the model without the risk to accidentally disassembly it.
In bags 7 and 8 there are all the parts to build all 4 caterpillar wheels. All 4 are exactly the same design, except the connection with the main structure, because two of them can turn, and the other 2 are fixed. Anyway all 4 have vertical movement to allow the Sandcrawler run across the sand dunes.
In the interior of the model there is a kind of small workshop to store and repair the androids but let’s see how it will be in the second part of this article.
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