Star Wars Day (May the 4th) is always a fun day for LEGO Star Wars fans. As well as the usual festivities, it often coincides with the launch of several new sets in the theme – and a new Gift with Purchase (GWP). This year, we’re visiting the cloners on Kamino with 40765 Kamino Training Facility. With 190 pieces, you’ll need to spend US $160 | CAN $210 | UK £145 on Star Wars products between May 1st and May 5th to get it added to your shopping cart. Luckily there are loads of ways to do that with new sets: helmets from the prequels and sequels, the galaxy’s most violent astromech droid, or to get it all in one go, the UCS Slave I. If you’re on the fence about getting it, read our review to see if it will sway your opinion!
The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
The box and contents
The box is pretty small, and is more akin to mainline Star Wars sets than anything with the black 18+ backgrounds.
On the back we can see the cadets recovering from the training session they just had on the front of the box.
Then it’s punch, punch and we find two plastic bags and an instruction booklet within. We can already get a good idea of how the build will be split up based on the colour palette of each one!
The build
And sure enough, we start with the two bits of training facility furniture. One is a turret, the other a small barricade with weapons storage. They’re decked out in the black-and-white of the training facility, as seen in the Clone Wars and Bad Batch animated series.
The rest of our parts go towards the KE-8 Enforcer – a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it ship that appeared on Kamino in Attack of the Clones. The parts of it that we have in bag one make up its core, with SNOT bricks and brackets aplenty.
Here’s how it looks before we tackle bag 2…
… at which point we add on some external detailing. There’s a big turntable on either side, to which will be attached the ship’s thruster pods later.
For now, though, it’s a question of building the rest of the cockpit. There’s a neat stud inversion at the bottom using clips and bars. Those quarter-domes are making only their second appearance in white, having also popped up in 77072 Peely Bone. They line up very nicely with the trans-black cockpit piece.
The spur at the bottom of the ship is next. It’s all one stud wide. The lower section includes what is presumably the “electroshock stun device” (Thanks Wookieepedia!).
Then, finally, we have the thruster pods. These are probably the most intricate bit of the whole thing, although that’s not saying much. All told, it’s a very quick build – the whole set took me less than half an hour.
The minifigures
We have three brand-new minifigures in this GWP. Well, technically it’s just one, but there are three of them, so… Look, you get what I mean. Anyway, there’s a new torso print with an awesome Kamino cloners logo on the arms. The dual-moulded legs, normally seen on Santa Claus minifigures, are a nice inclusion.
Aside from their choice of weapon, all three are identical. They are clones, after all. We’re building up quite the repertoire of clone variants: all we need are some clone younglings and we can see the lineage all the way back to the proto-clone himself, Jango Fett!
The finished model
In some respects, this set feels a little bit like a battle pack, albeit with one minifigure traded out for a more substantial build in the Enforcer. The two obstacles definitely feel like they come from one: decent small-scale representations of what they are, but more likely to end up in the parts bin.
And now, a confession: although I consider myself a pretty big Star Wars nerd, I had absolutely no idea what the white ship was. It took some fellow nerds to point out it was a KE-8 Enforcer. Its main appearance was in Attack of the Clones, where it was seen flying around the cloning facility on Kamino (or it was if you were paying close attention). Apparently it did feature in the Battlefront II video game as well. Here’s what it looks like if you did miss it:
Image courtesy of Wookieepedia
Despite the limited reference material, this is a pretty good representation of this obscure craft. Given they were for keeping unruly clone cadets in line, it’s likely they would have been piloted by Kaminoans, rather than cadets as depicted here. Although I didn’t get a picture, I can confirm that the Taun We figure from 75333 Obi-Wan Kenobi’s Starfighter just about fits in the cockpit, too.
The only inaccuracy – at least based on the photo above – is that the spur on the bottom seems to be a little long. At least it makes for a sturdy base when folded up. It’s tricky to take a photo of it upright: as you’d expect, it doesn’t balance particularly well on the tip of that wedge piece.
Conclusion and recommendation
This is a very niche setting for a LEGO set. Kamino gets plenty of screen-time in the animated series especially, but a repelled invasion aside there’s not much action. The training facility is seen far more infrequently. In a sense, that makes it perfect for a GWP: there probably isn’t enough demand to justify a full-scale release, but it’s a nice opportunity to get a clone variant that probably wouldn’t appear otherwise.
But to be honest, the clone cadet minifigures are the only real draw in this set. With the exception of the white quarter-domes, none of the other parts are especially rare, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to re-create yourself for a fraction of the buying threshold. I’d say this is one for the minifigure or clone collectors (or anyone who really loves Kamino). If that’s you, then fortunately, there is no shortage of clone-themed sets to qualify for it.
LEGO Star Wars 40765 Kamino Training Facility contains 190 pieces and three minifigures, and is free with LEGO Star Wars purchases totalling US $160 | CAN $210 | UK £145 or more between May 1st and May 5th.
The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
Check out our full gallery of pictures:
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