First Impressions
I enjoy the Lego City "People Packs" and like a deal, which is why I picked up this one for reviewing purposes. This set generally appears to have mostly good colors for AFOL creations which the box shows.
Retail Cost is $14.99; Target has them for $13.49 at the the time of this writing which is a fair price for a set with 4 minifigures even at full retail.
Parts
Piece Count 102
All the parts are what I would consider to be good colors which is rare in the many of the Lego sets not geared specifically to the adult market. There are a lot of good bricks for AFOLs for different projects although not too many of them. The collection of capes included with the minifigures is really nice and I think that they would go with any time period where capes would be applicable, that is the stand out in this set to me.
Build
The build on this was fairly straightforward. Due to the dark on dark colors inherent to the antihero theme of the Mandalorians included in the set, the instructions lead to the wrong cape or legs with a specific torso and were not particularly clear. That did not rise to level of an official Frustration but I touched some parts more than once.
Random Rant
Star Wars Rant - Episode IV - A Large Man Rants About Star Wars and Getting Paid in the 3rd Person
A long time ago, in a state far, far away from where he currently lives, a young Karl enjoyed Star Wars too much. He read almost all the expanded universe books he could find, even from used bookstores from before the original trilogy was completed despite knowing that in the newer books perhaps the two most annoying characters in the franchise would complete the same basic plot over and over again with few variations: The Empire, for some reason, would spend huge amounts of money and build some kind of new super weapon for R2-D2 to blow up, killing many thousands of people basically doing their jobs with C-3PO along for the ride and to make noise.
All that changed in 1999 when The Phantom Menace was released, a truly horrible film that lead to the vomiting of Star Wars content from that day forth to try to appeal to a wide audience and failing with few exceptions recently. Literally the only reason to watch The Phantom Menace would be so one could better understand and enjoy perhaps the best movie review of all time which does a better job of summing up Karl's points that he ever could. Nevertheless many people demand that Karl believe it was all part of some bigger plan of George Lucas and he just missed it. He was convinced this wasn't the case. This while watching the movie at 15 years old, even before walking home after the film, and has never wavered from that belief.
The theory is that The George Lucas Grand Master Plan was to write nine movies and release them decades apart out of order. If the plan is to make a trilogy of trilogies out of order, then the owner of the plan should probably not license and get paid for things that are going to contradict the story you have yet to tell. "Episodes 1, 2, and 3 are going to be about Anakin Skywalker's corruption to the Dark Side and some Zen thing about balance to the force as a some kind of messianic figure who is ultimately redeemed in film 6 of 9" isn't really a great idea for a trilogy, but if that was the plan a few story cards and character names would have met this need. Karl has not seen Star Wars: A New Hope in a long time and almost no one has seen the original cut who is of his generation. Karl has seen various editions enough times to be fairly sure that Darth Vader is never referred to an Anakin Skywalker and perhaps not even in Empire Strikes Back. Obi Wan never hearkens back to his days of being a youth when training with ol' Qui-Gon Jinn in a passing reference, nothing. Based on the amount of references that are shoveled in, Karl has no doubt that George Lucas would have tossed in at least one reference so he could be all smug about it years later if it worked out and would have actually improved the backstory of some of the characters in A New Hope. Karl's theory is calling a new movie Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope was at best a vehicle to get into the imagination of the moviegoer to think "What else could be in this universe?" and keep it alive in the minds of the audience.
Even from a young age Karl was very dollar driven and had a rigid sense of fairness. Karl's standard was formed while walking his paper route: Fan fiction, no matter how good, is obviously not canon in the story's universe so as the owner of the said universe the story could be an influence if incorporated by the owner, but too bad for the author if not. When the owner reads a story, no matter how bad it may be, buys it from the author, stamps Lucasfilm Ltd. on it and (this is the key) gets paid from it becoming a book, game, collectable card game, etc. everything in it turns into canon. So, dear reader, if you are going to be the next George Lucas or J.K. Rowling be very careful when trying to make a buck early on if you want both creative control of your universe to this standard and not be the subject of a Random Rant... uh, well, at least specifically on this topic contingent on that Karl cares enough to read/watch your material.
Minifigures
With the exception of the minifig with the brown pants each part of the minifigs has a lot of detail. Being interplanetary bounty hunters short on trust of outsiders, one would assume that damage is quite normal for any Mandalorian walking around.
Set Elements
It was nice to have a couple of set elements in with a Battle Pack. The brown, dark blueish grey, and light grey elements in the terrain tile are nice and can show new builders how to use different angles for rock work as they start making MOCs. I appreciate how the what I will call the TrashCycle is in a few different colors and not a solid crisp Star Wars machine showing it was assembled from different broken bits into something functional. What I would imagine if The A-Team was where Science Fiction writers in the 1950s figured we would be today in 2022 with a sprinkle of Mad Max.
Frustrations
The only weapons that are included are the stud shooters. Incorporating these minifigures into a larger diorama would just make everything look clunky. I would assume most of these guys have different weapons as well, considering the theme of having different armor, patching together the TrashCycle, etc. if they are all based on actual characters from the show (as of this writing I have seen four episodes).
I find it interesting that everyone gets printed pants except Mr. Brown there although he doesn't look awful.
My biggest frustration is that the heads are solid black. In what world would a large, ill fitting, clunky helmet in what is specifically sold as a Battle Back not ever get knocked off? Do these guys never sleep? I understand the lore of the mystery of the Mandalorian(s) but seriously, there are a lot of sandy planets out there in the Star Wars universe and sand gets in everything. One last thought: Have you ever sneezed into your mask during the pandemic?
Final Thoughts & Recommendations
Take it or leave it.
Take it: If you are fan of The Mandalorian or Star Wars and Lego (or know someone who is) this would be a winner. I suspect these will increase in value within a few years and would pick up several if I was planning on selling on the secondary market, and if the parts themselves were a bonus if selling the minifigs separately as they are all good colors and would work for many applications for AFOLs.
Leave it: If you are not a fan of Star Wars or a reseller. I can't justify the parts that it comes with versus the cost for what you get, especially with monochromatic minifigure heads unless it is literally one dollar.