Lego 75169 Duel on Naboo is a 2017 set based on the scene in Star Wars Episode 1, which features Darth Maul, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon-Jinn, it features an iconic Location and has 208 pieces, its RRP is £19.99 and is the first time in its long history that the scene was done.
We are fans of Star wars and if you have read before I like the Prequel trilogy as they have aged better, don’t get me wrong I’m not a huge fan of Episode 1 but there were some stand out points of the film, Darth Maul and his eventual Story Arc is one of my Favourite characters let alone that I really like this scene, its stayed with me for years and I even enjoyed it when it appeared in Video Games etc.
Table of Contents
Darth Maul
I think almost all Star Wars fans enjoyed Darth Maul even wth the initial Criticism from Over the top Star wars fans and as a Mini-figure one of the most distinctive and coolest. The torso and black design is great though he doesn’t have his Cape, which is present at the beginning of the fight but not nearer the end so i get it, however the headpiece is the same as the previous, the horns using a crown style piece is great but the critism on his previous headpiece has continued , a weird grin…this is not Darth Maul and makes him look weird, whether its the film or Clone wars and Rebels Series hes never done this weird expression and takes away his look, he has a duel light sabre thankfully.
Obi-Wan Kenobi
As you would expect he’s been done countless times, and this younger version is the same as the previous one from Naboo Starfighter, the torso printing is excellent with the belt and robe pattern however oddly the skin showing and the top is a different colour to the headpiece colour? its orange and I can’t think of why? it’s not like that war colourful T-Shirts underneath there robes lol, the headpiece is ok and a bit generic with two sides of the face, one being a static face and the other angry, I’m surprised they didn’t do anger and shock based on what happens but its not the main problem, the hairpiece isn’t right, it’s nice the braided hair goes onto the torso as a print but the hairpiece is poor and should have been changed.
Qui-Gon-Jinn
Qui-gon has also been a done few times in the early sets but I actually only ever had one of him so it was nice to get him again, he has gone through several tweaks over the years but not actually massive changes, the head and hairpieces are t the point that there very good and don’t need much more, he has two sides of face weirdly one being shocked! it was like Lego mixed up Obi-wan and Qui-Gon in the thought process of the set, being the ist shocked or deeply worried, Qui-gon is a level headed Jedi. The robes are excellent with printing and on the towers dark brown showing difference much like the film, oddly one again there’s an orange-like skin at the neck? which is confusing again, both he and Obi have light sabres.
Duel of the Fates
The point of the scene the Duel of the Fates is this giant hall with this longish corridor separated by multiple laser gates on a timed separator, with these guys battling between and getting separated, with Qui-Gon and Maul fighting at the end with Obi separated, and then him getting his revenge, but at £19.99 this is a small set, so with that, all said let’s look at it. Though this is relatively easy to build there are some intricacy and details for play value, the mechanism under walk catwalk operates the laser field, while down the generator chamber as small catapult ESC design looks to propelled Obi-wan back out, kind of.
The main catwalk is ok for space but a little limited once the laser gate opens and there’s only one, a lot of the underside is exposed both from the look of the big hall and the mechanisms visible, though in the film its a lot more concealed because its a sperate corridor and hall coming off, the main big area. The circular chamber at the end has essentially one panel top and bottom, to show it would be complete and here’s the design but we have taken them off because of the play aspect, well it doesn’t look that appealing, and it’s still tight for space, the use of black and grey is expected and the blue clear pieces try to add effects to it, dashes of purple with the generators etc ad some much-needed colour also.
Overall
If I’m honest the more and more I think about the set I was disappointed, normally Scenes starts from £40 and go much higher, thus the piece count is much higher and the detail can be better, as such a fan of the scene I’m extremely annoyed about the end result, I get what there trying to do with the low piece count and a lot of focus was put into to play in such a small set but in reality, it’s not great, the catwalk is beyond wrong, being more than one gate would have helped let alone there should be several, there are ways to keep the turning gates using technic if they tried, though I’m not sold on the way they did the gates as well, 4 strips across isn’t the same and there are other pieces out there they could have used. As for the Minifigures it was mixed, everyone had issues but for some, that may have not had these yet? for the price its good to have them, I may well be harsh on this set, and for £19.99 ut could have been worse, but with a low piece count and some issues, which to me looks like half a set I was disappointed.
