LEGO Star Wars 75345 501ST CLONE TROOPERS BATTLE PACK Review! (2023)

Battlepacks going back to regular blasters are most likely the Best change ever

A good thing about no blue print is that the binoculars can be mixed and matched with other clones. Would be nice to have a black line at least though.

I can say my favorite thing about this is the fact we got a new mould for the macro binoculars, hopefully we can receive a Commander Bly minifigure this year!

I have to say the printing for the 501st troops on the new helmets looks way better than the printing on the 212th

This is like the DLC expansion pack to the 501st set

The Macrobinoculars is definitely one of the best things coming out of the set,

The hole helmet seems to work incredibly well for troopers with visors or macros. The hole is in the proper location for both those accessories. Rangefinders are the main issue where it should attach at the ear port. I agree that a piece with a single hole for the rangefinder would be the best choice. It would have a good range of reuse potential: -Rex -Fives (S4/5) -Wolffe -All of the BF2 P2 Officers The main issue for a new visor is that there would technically need to be two new pieces. Cody, Fox, Thorn, Doom, and the Kamino Commander all have extra accessories on their visor (antenna and headlight (minus Thorn)) The heavy troopers in BF2 lack these accessories. This would leave one or the other inaccurate if only one piece was made.

Something that I think is easy to overlook is not just the quality of the build, which in my opinion is high, but also the quality of the parts selection. I am starting to find that especially in troop builder packs, a good parts selection is invaluable. Sure, Bricoleur Bricks is going to make something awesome out of it no matter how boring the parts selection is, but I love to see that this pack has the modified 1x2s with bars on the side, ratchet pieces, curved elements, wedge plates, technic elements, and studs on the side brackets. Additionally, including two brackets for the heavy troopers is great for folks who want to build up more sizeable backpacks, and while the lack of waistcapes and pauldrons is unfortunate, that is easy and cheap to fix. Do I see a ton of alternate builds from this set? Due to the lack of large plates and standard bricks, no, but I do see these elements being a great addition to parts collection of many lego builders, making the extra parts more of a treat than a bullet to bite when purchasing multiples of this set.

the pure excitement i felt upon finding out this set exists is indescribable

It'd be even cooler if this became a theme—212th battle pack followed by a 212th specialist, a shock trooper followed by a shock trooper specialist... that'd be nice.

It’s crazy I remember when you got the original 501st battle pack!

I think that because lego aren’t doing skirts for clones anymore and printing them they should give them atleast the duel molded legs, which gives it a 360 colour for the legs instead of the skirt only being on the front. I’ve had this idea for a while and I want to spread the word

Man this set is so close to being perfect imo, but the lacking waist cape, helmet holes, lacking satchels and lacking visors/prints just feel lazy. Like if they put 5% more effort in, this would be a perfect sequel.

This is definitely a battlepack that was released by LEGO.

It’s nice not having a “filler” build of landscape to increase the piece count to justify the price… although, it was kinda nice having extra pieces to have for whatever else you wanted. As a side not though, the biggest bummer in my opinion is not having a cloth kama for the commander.

Personally, I think the advantage to the macrobinoculars being unmarked is that I can give spare ones to, say, my 212th troopers from the AT-TE. Since they aren't marked by legion, they can fit with any type of Clone of any legion or Phase.

Excellent review Ryan! I concur with your thoughts on the officer and the new macrobinocular piece. However, while I really appreciate the printed tile for the heavy troopers’ packs, I feel the packs are a bit small. One or two more pieces really would have been great to give a more substantial feel to them.

The 501st clone trooper battle pack looks very cool. This is a great set with the cannon and the clone figures. Very cool

I miss the fabric kama skirts. They felt more "premium" in hindsight. A new clone helmet with only one hole is an intriguing idea, but seems like a bad thing to have a mold of such limited use in their inventory, but they also have a lot of unique character heads/headpieces for other themes so I guess my point is moot.

This set is a nice surprise. Even with all the drawbacks, it still is the perfect companion to the original 501st battlepack.