It's May the Fourth (Be With You), so what better way to celebrate than by having another BZPower set review of a Star Wars Buildable Figure. Today, BZPower Reporter Xccj takes a look at 75114: First Order Stormtrooper. Is this set right on target, or did it completely miss the mark? Read on and watch the video review to see for yourself.

First off, I would like to thank LEGO for sending us this set to review.

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

The front of the box shows off the Stormtrooper standing in front of a fiery explosion, likely from the scene at the beginning of the movie he hails from. There are a bunch of logos visible now: LEGO, Star Wars, Disney, and a "Buildable Figures" logo at the bottom to warn you that this is a CCBS set. The back of the box shows off a different pose, a closer look at his weapons, a preview of some of the other Buildable Figures, and a size chart denoting him at 23.5 cm tall. Inside the box, you get two bags of parts, the CCBS body piece, and an instruction booklet. Currently, this set goes for $19.99 USD, making it one of the cheaper Star Wars Buildable Figures.

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

The build isn't super exciting; unlike some of the other characters, the Stormtrooper has a basic CCBS / Hero Factory design, with a standard body piece creating the torso. It's an okay build, but nothing to get too excited for. The weapons do have a technic design to add to him.

The First Order Stormtrooper comes with 81 pieces, plus a few extras. Colorful he is not; the pieces are primarily white and black, with only a few blue pins, red axles, and trans red spring loaded shooters to stand in for lasers. You do get a few system pieces includes, like some 1x1 plates and tiles, as well as the spring loaded shooter brick. You get plenty of CCBS armor pieces in white, including the new curved leg shell piece and the curved armor piece. This also includes the large torso armor piece; I still think it's highly specialized, but it's also very detailed with printing and fills out the torso, so it does its job well. One of the more interesting new pieces that showed up in this line was the new blaster element, which has a lot of technic connector points, as well as a few studs on the inside for you to fit in the spring loaded shooter. While cool, most of these pieces have appeared in other sets, so they're not exclusive. The exception is the First Order Stormtrooper helmet piece. And it's amazing. It has good printing and texture and really replicates the characters from the movie.

And then there's the First Order Stormtrooper in his full glory. This is a really solid, well rounded model. He mostly has white armor, but that fits the character, even if it does make taking photographs of him difficult. He has some decent back armor too, including the system curved slopes on the back of his calfs to hide the CCBS bone pieces. Unfortunately, the upper legs didn't get the same treatment, but that's because they're utilizing the piece that allows him to holster his blasters. He has the round connector pieces on his lower back that are kind-of movie accurate, but that looks a bit weak in my option.

He comes with two weapons. The smaller blaster is a nifty technic design; it's basic but pulls off the look well. The other is the more hefty blaster build around the new weapons pieces. There are some system and technic pieces added to it to give it a more unique look, and plenty of connection points for the Stormtrooper to grip it from. One small issue is that the axle on the bottom of the weapon that connects to the hand can get pushed too far up into the blaster, and then the only way to get it out requires you to disassemble most of the weapon. Both blasters also have an axle connection that allows them to be easily clipped to the upper legs. That holstering method has been used in other Star Wars Buildable Figures before, but it's nice to see it used here too.

One thing that I mentioned earlier was that the Stormtrooper uses only a standard body piece. To be honest, this is slightly disappointing, because some of the other Star Wars Buildable Figures have had more customized torsos, like the gear system built into Finn. However, the lack of interior customization can be forgiven because the standard build pulls off the look of the Stormtrooper quite well, and it probably also helped keep this as one of the cheaper sets.

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?

The First Order Stormtrooper has a standard 13 points of articulation, and it's nice because most of those joints aren't restricted. Even his helmet has a full range of motion, which is more than can be said for some of the other Buildable Figures. He does have friction joints at his hips, and that allows him to be quite sturdy and get into some decent poses. Standing on one leg: check. Facing down a wannabe Jedi: check.

The main play feature is the spring loaded shooter built into his blaster. There's a lever at the bottom, and although it normally hangs loosely, if you pull on it, it'll fire the blaster. And there's a spare ammo piece clipped to the side for a fast reload. Show that this Stormtrooper can hit his mark.

Of course, one of the advantages to this set is the potential to roleplay with other Star Wars Buildable Figures and recreate scenes from the films. Unlike most of the other sets, the Stormtrooper is an unnamed character, but that just means you'll need more of them to fill out the ranks of your CCBS First Order army. (And what's even nicer is that he's relatively cheaper than the other Buildable Figure sets.) Now, the Stormtrooper can take to the battlefield and face down Finn and Rey.

Of course, this might be an actual named character after all. This could be FN-2199, known in the fan community as TR-8R, who fought against his former comrade Finn in the movie. He doesn't have his baton in set form, but you could probably throw it together using some spare system and technic pieces.

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

Pros
What's to like?

• Lots of good parts
• Looks like the character
• Solid build, no major gaps
• Lots of role play potential
• Decently priced for a Buildable Figure

Cons
What's not to like?

• Build is lackluster
• Still some unarmored parts on his back, like his lower back and upper legs
• Blaster connector issue
• Does not have baton weapon or shout "TRAITOR!"

The design is a bit basic, and I think that's the biggest flaw of the First Order Stormtrooper. However, that basic design works, and what he lacks in gimmicks he makes up for in solid armoring that really looks like the character from the movies. The Stormtrooper may not be everybody's first choice of Buildable Figures, but he's certainly a good purchase in the end. After all, who else is going to fill out your First Order army if not for TR-8R?

Thanks again for reading and / or watching another BZPower set review. Again, a big thanks to LEGO for sending us this set to review. A quick reminder that the views in this review are my own and not LEGO's, but they were still nice enough to send me the set to form these thoughts on. And make sure to stay tuned to BZPower for even more LEGO and Star Wars set reviews!

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