Since before the dawn of time, bounty hunters have been some of the most popular side characters in the Star Wars franchise, with Boba Fett and his iconic Slave I leading the pack. In The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader assembles a motley crew of bounty hunters aboard his Star Destroyer, commissioning them to hunt down the Rebels. 75167 Bounty Hunter Speeder Bike Battle Pack brings together four of the six bounty hunters in a single set under $15.

If that’s not enough already to run out and buy this set, read on for our hands-on review.

The build & finished model

Who are we kidding here? The extra vehicles that LEGO includes in their Battle Pack sets are really just filler to ensure they’re not stepping on any licensing toes for the Lucasfilm action figure license by selling minifig-only sets. These vehicles rarely — if ever — depict anything seen in a Star Wars film or TV series, and are thus non-canonical. To put it bluntly, they seem to be table scraps from a junior LEGO designer’s desk. (Sorry guys, no offense — you’re all wonderful and talented people.)

I rarely build the odd little extras in Battle Pack sets, since I’d rather use the parts for something else. In this case, I took 5 minutes I’ll never get back in my life so you can see a picture of this so-called speeder bike.

Okay, so it’s actually kind of cute, with oversized engines in front like a miniature podracer, a bank of four blaster cannons (plus stud-shooters), and a handful of dark azure pieces for color. Still, I wouldn’t have bothered building it except for this review.

The minifigs

The set includes Dengar, 4-LOM, Bossk, and IG-88. Rounding out the list on the bridge of the Executor was the insectoid Zuckuss and the inimitable Boba Fett.

But first, it’s important to note how much I hate stud-shooters, which seem to be the standard weapons that LEGO is giving all minifigs these days. They’re outsized and disproportionate to the scale of minifigs, adding silly bulk where an existing LEGO blaster would be perfectly sufficient.

Then again, I’ve been replacing most of my default LEGO weapons with the more-accurate accessories produced by BrickArms, so I suppose the fact that the set comes with any official LEGO weapons at all is irrelevant. On to the actual minifigs…

Dengar is a stupid-looking character with a bandage on his head like the ghost of Jacob Marley, and thankfully we never see him again (except in the deep background in Jabba’s Palace in Return of the Jedi). Nevertheless, this is his third incarnation as a LEGO minifigure.

This minifig is identical to the one in 75145 Eclipse Fighter from the non-canon LEGO Freemaker Adventures animated TV series. Dengar wears his usual headwrap, with a backpack of unknown purpose.

IG-88 is another bounty hunter I’m not a huge fan of. Oooh, a rogue assassin droid! How terrifying! IG-88 has also appeared in several previous LEGO sets, and like the version in 10221 Super Star Destroyer (which depicts the aforementioned Executor), this one has a printed 1×1 round brick for IG-88’s head. I’ve never really liked the LEGO IG-88 design, which relies on an inverted 1×1 round cone to attach the 1×1 round brick to a standard battle droid body. It makes the droid’s head absolutely enormous and out of proportion to other minifigs.

IG-88 is the only minifig carrying a normal minifig weapon, which he has strapped to his back.

Bossk! Now we’re getting somewhere. Bossk is a Trandoshan bounty hunter who specializes in hunting Wookiees like Chewbacca. Bossk also appeared in 10221, as well as the excellent non-UCS Slave I from 2010. Bossk is entirely new for this Battle Pack, with a light-yellow flight suit resembling a Rebel pilot’s suit. Even Bossk’s toes are printed, with big claws.

Bossk’s head is completely new, with detailed printing and olive-green reptilian skin.

Bossk is such a boss he gets to fly the speeder.

The final minifig in the Battle Pack is 4-LOM, a rogue protocol droid, often confused with his partner Zuckuss. I’m not sure why I have fewer objections to a rogue protocol droid bounty hunter than a rogue assassin droid bounty hunter, but 4-LOM looks like kind of a badass with his black body and insectoid head.

Conclusions & recommendation

Everyone loves Star Wars bounty hunters. Though LEGO has yet to release a Zuckuss minifig, and you’ll have to pick up 75174 Desert Skiff Escape or 75060 Slave I for Boba Fett, this Battle Pack makes it much, much easier to get closer to completing your collection of LEGO bounty hunters.

The completely new minifig here is 4-LOM, with excellent updates to Bossk and minor printing differences for IG-88, plus Dengar as unavoidable filler. Zuckuss would definitely have been preferable to Dengar, but given that 4-LOM’s head is intended to mirror the Gand species of which Zuckuss is a member anyway, creating your own Zuckuss with an extra 4-LOM head wouldn’t be too challenging.

Ultimately, we buy Battle Packs for the minifigs, and the new and updated minifigs in this Battle Pack more than make up for the strange little — actually, overly large — speeder. At only $15 for some of the most-desired LEGO Star Wars characters, this is an utter steal.

75167 Bounty Hunter Speeder Bike Battle Pack includes four minifigures with 125 parts and retails for $14.99. It’s available now from Amazon.com and the LEGO Shop online.