R2-D2 UCS 10225 - Review

Big droid, little droid.

I was going to build Town Hall while I waited for Cafe Corner parts to come in, but the UCS R2-D2 I picked up after working the LEGO Store grand opening in Milwaukee was calling my name. While I love Star Wars, I have somehow avoided building anything from that theme so far. I'm not sure why, but if I had to guess, it's probably because I'm afraid of the path it could set me on. I've missed almost a decade worth of sets and it would be hard to resist the urge to go back and get favorites I have missed.

R2-D2 convinced me to give them a try though. Due to his size, he feels more like a sculpture than a regular ship or playset. The fact that I had a chance to get him at a discount pretty much guaranteed that I needed to have him as well. Also, it's freaking R2-D2, probably one of the coolest robots in all of science fiction history.

Pre-dome from the back.

Out of the box, you get three manuals and bags numbered 1-10. While I was initially a little dissapointed that they had so many stages for building R2, it ended up being a good thing. The droid is made up primarily of small plates, tiles, and bricks. Sifting through a huge bag of those parts would take forever, and it was a big help to just have to deal with a small portion of those at any given time. Trying to find a random 1x1 plate in a sea of hundreds of parts is a pain, especially when so many of them are white.

Like others have reported, I did not get the orange brick separator listed in the instruction manual. I guess that was a packaging error with the first run. It's not a big deal though. I already have a few from other sets. Just worth mentioning so other people are aware of it.

Construction is pretty much what you would expect. You start with the torso, then the mechanism for the middle leg, the two side legs, and then finish off with the dome. As I mentioned, most of the parts are on the smaller side. Plenty of 1x1, 1x2, and 1x3 parts make up the majority of the set, along with the usual battery of technic pins that are needed to give him some functionality. Just make sure you have a clean workspace for building and I highly suggest a few bins to help keep track of parts.

The guts and third leg assembly.

This little guy has tons of moving functions, including a swiveling dome. You can pose him on two legs or drop the third down for the tilted back position. I have heard some complaints that the middle leg should extend out further, but I think it looks just fine the way it was designed.

I managed to get the whole thing put together over the course of about four nights. It would have been three, but I stupidly put one of the little technic pins for the leg assembly in the wrong hole. That little error required taking apart most of the torso to get it out because the leg lowering mechanism was in the way on the other side of the + technic brick it went into. Oops.

The finished product is great. He's not too big, but is large enough to show off some great details. The tool arms that can pop out are really cool and the R2 minifigure that attaches to the display plaque is a nice touch. It gives the set a good scale reference in photographs. I would highly recommend this set to any fan of Star Wars or anyone who enjoys a relatively intricate build. I'm already clearing space in my display case for him.