Review of 7752 Count Dooku’s Solar Sailer [Review]
In our first Brothers Brick exclusive review, we bring you a look at the newest LEGO Star Wars set: 7752 Count Dooku’s Solar Sailer, scheduled for release in February 2009. This limited edition set first appeared at a few Toys R Us stores this week, marked for sale at $59.99. It includes 385 pieces and 4 minifigures, most notably the new Count Dooku.
Oveview:
$60 for 385 pieces is a very steep price and will deter many from purchasing this set. However, the remarkably well-designed Count Dooku minifig and the set’s limited edition bearing will spur others to purchase it right away. In my following remarks, I will list the qualities of Count Dooku’s Solar Sailer pertinent to builders of all ages, collectors and sellers.
Building experience:
This is a simple and straightforward set to build without any awkward connections or fragile sections. Only a few Technic parts for the missle firing mechanism interrupt the entirely System-based build. Symmetry and repetition are displayed on the folding wings and basic SNOT techniques are used effectively to achieve the overall appearance, making the build slightly more fun the average set.
Play features:
- Back panels open to unveil a removable speeder bike
- Push mechanism fires two missles from each side of the ship
- Four folding wings: two on top and two on bottom
- Cockpit opens to reveal removable pilot droid
Overall, an average set of play features, nothing new or revolutionary. The push-fire missles are weak as usual.
Parts:
If you’re buying this set for parts, something is wrong. 7752 offers a very low parts per price ratio and do not contain notably unique pieces except for the two light bluish gray bubble windscreens. A few dark tan pieces and 1X6 tiles may be useful; there are no notably unique brown parts. In the end, I find the stickers to be the most interesting piece; their neutral bluish gray tones make them applicable on a variety of creations. An image of the parts list can be found here.
Collectibility:
Star Wars minifig collectors will be pouring over the new Count Dooku, and rightfully so since this unique minifig is likely to have its only appearance in this set. The pilot droid is also a unique minifig, but unlike the Count, it can be made with LEGO pieces from other sets, but I admit that the use of a skeleton leg for the head is pretty clever. The limited edition bearing marks this set as an exclusive to only the store that carries it (in this case Toys R Us) and LEGO stores/LEGO Shop at Home. In addition, this set may have a short lived production frame and may be sold out within a shorter time period than the average LEGO set. For collectors, keeping a new copy of the set may be a good investment.
Display:
As a set for display, the Solar Sailer lacks any dynamic visual appeal except when its wings are expanded, but in this position, the model cannot sit upright (the left side photo above makes use of a temporary support). Even in its collapsed-wing version, the model either tilts forward or backwards and is extremely difficult to balance as in this picture.
Resale value:
Not all of us are builders or even collectors, just ask the sellers on Bricklink and Ebay. This set may be sold in several forms, from MISB (mint in sealed box) to parted out with minifigs. The Count Dooku minifig will fetch a hefty sale price of at least $20 and possibly over $30 while the Magna droid guards currently go for about $10 each. Once the set is out of production, you can expect both its MISB value and minifig value to rise to more than 200% of the set’s retail price, talk about a lot of money!
Concluding remarks:
For a set with limited positive attributes, it sure has a lot of downers to discourage buyers. Most obvious is the heavy pricetag, but less so are the uninteresting selection of parts. Nevertheless, a few redeeming features like the unique Count Dooku minifig and decent collectibility value make this set more geared towards collectors than builders. Unless you really want the Solar Sailer, there are other sources to spent $60 of your income or allowance money.
For more pictures, see the full gallery here.
January 10th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
Thanks for the review and tips Nannan, I don’t think it’s the greatest set but if your predictions about minifig prices are true than it would pretty much pay for itself if you were to sell the figs after its sold out.
January 10th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Darn that pricetag – that Dooku hairpiece is a must-have for a LEGO Einstein….I hope we start to see more sets with all these Clone Wars hairpieces.
January 10th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
And once again, None for Hawaii TRU. Either that, or she couldn’t find it on the computer correctly.
January 10th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
Agreeing with Nathan here…hopefully the hairpiece shows up in another (hopefully non-SW) set at some point in the future. That way the SW fans/collectors can have their fun, and the rest of us get more options for minifigs.
If not…well, I may have to eventually break down and get me some Arealight pieces. Of course part of me says I should just do that anyways… :)
January 10th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
:( Thanks for the review. Nice. Thorough. I think I’m going to pass on this one. Too much money for a scary mini-fig. Thank goodness I got the Dooku minifig the 1st time around! (think I’ll build the new speeder, though).
What’s with the pricing lately? There’s some really price-per-piece expensive sets lately!
January 10th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
It looks like you may have not mentioned his lightsaber. The only other set that has that bent part also happens to be a Dooku set which was rather pricey last time I checked. The lightsabers themselves were going for $5 and more last time I checked (just a few weeks ago).
The solar sail really is a pretty bad deal altogether though. Too bad they didn’t design something cool for the sails.
January 10th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
Wow… that is a really horrible price for such an ill-designed set. We don’t even get sails for that extra $20? On the Solar SAILer?
I have a feeling that the price was set partially by TRU itself. Apparently they haven’t learned their lesson even with their shelves still packed with overpriced Clone Wars sets.
January 10th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
I was thinking about getting this set, but now I see lego has gone pathologically insane. Heh.
January 10th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
Unless Dooku was made from solid gold there is no chance I would ever pay $60 for such a small set.
January 10th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
Yeowch! For $60 you could get the Creator Transport Ferry! 1279 fantastic pieces–you’d have to be out of your mind to drop $60 on that flimsy little non-set. Horrible!
January 10th, 2009 at 8:22 pm
The fact that it completely lacks a sail is a massive problem with this set. Its looks like it should be called something like Spudnik or the Mk5 Potato Cruiser, its only redeeming value is Dooku’s light-saber which i lost my original in a tragic dog related accident.
January 10th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
I’ll just have to trade for the Dooku minifig. That’s way too much!
January 10th, 2009 at 8:44 pm
Wow! That price is terrible. :( …what’s been happening? What in the past has TLG and TRU believing that people would actually pay that price? No matter how cool a dinky new Dooku may look.
…Great Review on your part! I really appreciate you staying honest to all the downsides of this set.
January 10th, 2009 at 8:55 pm
I’ve been honked off at the prices on all the ’09 Clone Wars sets. Seems to me TLG has roughly adhered to a 10-pieces-per-buck pricing system for years, at least in the US. (This is common knowledge, right? Isn’t that the math Pepa Quin uses to get “that extra $20?”) But many of the new CW sets go by that formula plus ten dollars, thank you very much. Grrr.
Still, that is some way cool hair.
January 10th, 2009 at 10:11 pm
“you’d have to be out of your mind to drop $60 on that flimsy little non-set.”
Well that explains the LEGO Star Wars fans…….
…….and Nannan. :)
January 10th, 2009 at 11:25 pm
TRU does seem to set its prices without any regard to LEGO’s MSRP (frequently higher, but also lower sometimes, to be fair), so I suppose we can hope the price-to-piece ratio will be more reasonable once this is available directly from LEGO.
January 11th, 2009 at 2:33 am
Eeek! 60 bones? No thanks. The Dooku torso and hair are cool but not enough to even consider buying this set. Those Clone Wars faces are butt ugly and don’t go with the previous minifigs at all. Although, everyone knows that by now. Boo!
January 11th, 2009 at 9:23 am
The set is $60.
Yes TRU, and even Walmart now marks sets up, however go to LEGO and change the country to anything else and the set is -50-60 euros.
January 11th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
Which would upset you more?
a) a $60 set whose minifig resells for $20
b) a $30 set whose minifig resells for $20
I’m gonna have to go with b).
Personally, I loved this ship from the movie. Maybe by the time I can afford it, it will be on sale.
January 11th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
Actually, I just sold the Count Dooku to a very fine buyer from the Netherlands for $37, and the Magna droids will sell soon at $10 each. Considering I paid $50 for the set after two coupons, it worked out that I made a profit.
January 12th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
I agree with the remarks about the lack of sail.
I think it’s a bit of a miss for a ‘first official BB exclusive review’ to give this aspect no attention whatsoever. The rest of it is highly informative, by the way. I like this sort of thing!
Also: fine buyers from the Netherlands are formed by an (artificial) scarcity of available sets and high prices over here ;-)
January 14th, 2009 at 6:22 am
SO what is a good piece to price ratio? And while I’m asking, what is a good price per pound for Lego? It would be good to have an average established for smart shoppers to refer to.
January 14th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Paul Lee: The ideal price-to-piece ratio in the US for most people would be about 10 cents per piece, which at the moment (it changes due to the exchange rate) would be around 15p per piece.
January 14th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Piece for price has gone a bit this year. I say it’s about 13 cents per piece now in the USA.
However TRY has the set for sale, for $60, and I don’t think that is even marked up yet.
January 25th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
[...] for free. 2). I also bought Count Dooku’s Solar Sailer for $50 (after coupons), had fun writing a review, and then sold the Count for $37 and put up the Magna Droids for sale at $10 each. In the end, you [...]
January 17th, 2010 at 12:43 pm
[...] about the set going out of stock soon judging by the last time we reviewed a limited edition set (7752 Count Dooku’s Solar Sailer) and it’s still sitting comfortably on shelves a year later. On the contrary, there are [...]