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    Discuss This Story ReviewFriday, February 10th, 2017 at 12:31pm by Andrew, BZPower News Manager
    [Source: Nuju Metru]

    Rogue One: A Star Wars Story introduced a lot of new characters into the Star Wars universe. LEGO, as they often do with Star Wars, has released a number of sets to tie in with the film, and the second wave of buildable figures is on its way out. Today Forum Assistant Nuju Metru is taking a look at 75525 Baze Malbus, one of the Guardians of the Whills who joins the mission to steal the Death Star plans. Read on to see how this set stacks up and if you should consider adding it to your collection.

    Hey guys, and welcome to BZPower's review of LEGO Star Wars set 75525, Baze Malbus! As always, I'd like to heartily thank TLG for giving us at BZP free stuff... I love my job and I love my free LEGO. Read on to see my thoughts - captured for you in both a video and a text/image format - on this new Constraction figure. Will this set BAZE a fire in your heart, or leave you feeling MALaise?

    Let's find out together.

    Presentation
    From the design of the box to the instruction manual, these are the first things you see before building the set.

    75525 Baze Malbus Review 01

    I usually have so little to say about LEGO boxes in my reviews. They're so... competent. Not super-interesting, not too flashy, not bad; they do their job, they do it well. They present the product in a flattering light, going for attention without seeming needy. The 75525 box, like most LEGO boxes, is a class act. Baze Malbus, pulling a classic "bold and stoic" pose, fills the space, accompanied by mysterious fires. Looking at both the front and thick side of the box, you're fixed with a doleful Baze gaze.

    75525 Baze Malbus Review 02

    The back of this box looks very much like the back of the box of most LEGO Star Wars Constraction figures of the past: blueprint/hologram gridlines, action feature call-outs (here, only one, since Baze's only real function is his blaster), other-set call-outs, and a little size indicator.

    All in all, I find the packaging here wholly average. Let's move past it.

    Building
    Half the fun is had building the set. How fun is it to build and how easy or challenging is it?

    75525 Baze Malbus Review 03

    When you open up the box, a few crinkly bags, a sticker sheet, and an instruction manual come falling out. Just from a first look, you can see 75525 features a bunch of red and dark tan parts, and also a lot of smaller Technic elements.

    This plethora of little parts makes the build process on 75525 much more interesting than that of a more basic Constraction product. Numerous times during the build, I was caught pleasantly by surprise (infrequently, of course, because I've been doing this sort of thing for my whole life) in discovering how bits and pieces of the figure come together. I won't show you the build process in pictorial form for two main reasons: one, I don't want to spoil these surprises - the kinds of things I enjoy most about a new product - and two, I never look at build-in-progress shots myself when reading these kinds of reviews.

    The upper body assembly was probably the most fun bit. There were a number of stickers to apply during this build process, by the way (see the sticker sheet in the above image to get an idea of how many), and while I found them pretty easy-application and didn't really mind, other people might. So I thought it'd be considerate of me to mention.

    Anywho, onto the meaty stuff: the finished product.

    Set Design
    Now that the set is complete, we can critique how it looks from every angle. New or interesting pieces can also be examined here.

    Before we critique the set from every angle-and oh, we will - let's take a look at the prodigious amount of new and interesting elements included in 75525. Out of 148 total parts, 26 were new molds or recolors (that's 17%). They are:

    75525 Baze Malbus Review 04

    • Baze Head, in dark flesh and black, with lots of detail printing and subtle molding (1x)
    • Blank(!) SW CCBS torso, in dark tan (1x)
    • 3/4 wrap CCBS shells, in dark tan (2x)
    • 6L CCBS shell, in dark tan, with print (1x)
    • 6L CCBS shell, in dark tan (1x)
    • Hexagonal armor part, in light bley (1x)
    • Hexagonal armor part, in light bley, with printing (1x)
    • CCBS old-school torso shell, in dark tan (1x)

    75525 Baze Malbus Review 05

    • Round shoulder armor, in red (1x)
    • Rounded windscreen, in red (2x)
    • Wheel/barrel/whatever, in gunmetal (1x)
    • 2-pin-hole Technic connector, in gunmetal (1x)
    • Axle-and-pin liftarm, in dark tan (2x)
    • 1x4 bowed slope, I think new in dark tan (2x)
    • Axle-and-bar connector bit thingie, in dark brown (2x)
    • 1x2 plate with two clips, in dark brown (2x)
    • That cool pin-hole and axle bit, in red (4x)

    75525 Baze Malbus Review 06

    And this is what Baze looks like when he's all assembled.

    75525 Baze Malbus Review 07 75525 Baze Malbus Review 08 75525 Baze Malbus Review 09 75525 Baze Malbus Review 10 75525 Baze Malbus Review 11 75525 Baze Malbus Review 12 75525 Baze Malbus Review 13 75525 Baze Malbus Review 14

    We'll critique from the head down. I like Baze's head mold; it's detailed, accurate to the character (would've appreciated a little of the white in his beard, but you can't always get what you want), and looks good from all angles. Its poseability gets restricted a little by the neck-guard parts, but I hardly mind since the neck-guard parts are cool! Really, the Technic-built section which armors Baze's upper chest and shoulders is my favorite part of the build. The shoulder armor and the front rounded plates connect on low-friction hinges, meaning they adjust easily to how you pose Baze.

    The tank on Baze's back - a cool and distinctive part of his character - looks much more solid than I had expected. Its interior is actually full of various Technic parts. The point where the hose connects down to his gun has a low-friction peg keeping it responsive to posing. The gun itself feels a tad small for me, given the weapon's magnitude in Rogue One, but it's hard to imagine a way the designer could have satisfactorily beefed up the given gun mold without taking from the build elsewhere. Baze's arms are pretty standard, not really much to speak of, here.

    Moving down the torso, I like the way the ammo pouches were included and attached; they add a sense of bulk to Baze's middle, distinguishing his silhouette from that of other SW CCBS humans. The stickered details add some more movie accuracy, and they look good even if you didn't like putting them on.

    Baze's legs feel skimpy and skinny to me, especially compared with his full, beefy torso. Those 3/4 shells do their darndest to cover everything, and from most angles they do so, of course; however, they're just not broad enough to look adequate to support the rest of Baze's body. The detail around Baze's right knee looks great, and it's all printed, which makes it even better. I also appreciate how calf and back armor have become routine in SW CCBS figures; they really add to a sense of fullness from rear angles, and help Baze in this department too.

    Dark brown feet leave me wanting more dark brown CCBS parts, but that's neither here nor there. Let's examine 75525's play features.

    Playability
    The other half of the fun is in playing with the set. How well does the set function and is it enjoyable to play with?

    75525 Baze Malbus Review 15 75525 Baze Malbus Review 16 75525 Baze Malbus Review 17

    Baze poses okay. I found it hard to find poses to flatter his thin legs, but he's not so unbalanced that he can't, say, stand on one leg, or adopt some battle postures. Because of his long shin armor and bulky neck armor, Baze's head and feet also aren't as poseable as I wish they were.

    75525 Baze Malbus Review 18 75525 Baze Malbus Review 19

    The new "ol' reliable" of Constraction launchers has become, it seems, the 1x4 spring block element. I love this projectile system: it looks cool, it's compact, and it's very fitting for Star Wars. Baze's gun works in the expected way, with a little trigger on the underside and a space to store a spare shot over to the other side.

    An unfortunate byproduct of Baze's tubed gun: if you raise the arm too far, the tube is prone to snap off. Its attachment point isn't the firmest, either, so this actually happens a bunch when you're trying to pose Baze in anything other than "bold and stoic" posture.

    Final Thoughts
    Once it's all said and done, how does the set stack up? Should I get it?

    75525 Baze Malbus Review 20

    Well, that's the lot of it. Let's tally things up...

    Pros
    What's to like?

    • Enjoyable build process, more complex than usual CCBS set
    • Lots of new and interesting parts
    • I like the shoulder/chest armor section
    • Blaster function works
    • Accurate representation of character

    Cons
    What's not to like?

    • Numerous stickers
    • Blaster feels too small
    • Chicken legs
    • Some limited poseability in feet, head, gun arm (tube snaps off)

    I find 75525 to be a good set. It's a fairly well-designed version of the character Baze Malbus, which comes with a satisfactory number of new and interesting pieces. The Technic-heavy parts of 75525's design make for an enjoyable build experience, and differentiate this figure from other CCBS characters. Even if this recreation of Baze has skimpy legs, he's no slouch, and I'd recommend 75525 to most LEGO Star Wars collectors and CCBS builders.

    75525 Baze Malbus Review 21
    Red and dark tan: who wore it better?

    Now that you've read the review, head on over to the Talkback to let us know what you think, and to thank Nuju Metru for taking the time to put it together. Of course thanks also goes out to LEGO for sending us the set to review in the first place. We're working on reviews of the other two new Rogue One sets, so make sure to keep checking back on BZPower for those and all of the latest LEGO news!

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