Review: 75391 Star Wars Microfighter Series 11 Captain Rex Y-Wing

Let's finish out the Star Wars Microfighter review week.  This is the release from last year, I'm calling it "Series 11" but there isn't a Series tag on the box.

Box.  MSRP was $12.99 for a $0.13 Price per Piece.  I paid $8.49 at Target for a $0.09 Price per Piece.

Instructions.

Minifig.

Parts 1.  Plates, Brick w/Studs on Side, Bricks w/Pinholes, Inverted

Arches, Stud Shooters, Bricks, Brackets, Corner Bricks w/Cutout,

Tiles, Translucent Plate, Cheese Slopes, Studless Slopes, Flick

 Missiles, Stud Shooter Triggers, Rounded Plate, and Round Plate.

Parts 2.  Corrugated Round Bricks, Truncated Cones,  Round Plates, Round Bricks

w/Pinholes, Translucent Dishes, Plate, Jumpers, Printed Cheese Slope, Translucent

Round Tiles, Studless Slopes, Translucent Cheese Slopes, Stadium Tiles, Friction

Pins, Axle/Pins, Bars, Wedge Plate w/Cutout, and Corner Tiles w/Cutout.

Build. Two IO Frigates (2Ras/1Y) and a HVA. 

The Questions:
Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  Above.  (-10)  (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  Yes.  (+5)
Score: +5 (B+).  Once again, nice pieces and colors but the price kills the score.   At the Clearance price it gets an A+.

Review: 75344 Star Wars Microfighter Series 10 Boba Fett's Starship

This release for the Star Wars Microfighter line is from two years ago.  I'm calling this "Series 10" but it doesn't have a Series tag on the box.  There was another set released that year but I never picked it up.

Box.  MSRP was $9.99 for a $0.12 Price per Piece.  I bought this for $4.00 at Walmart for a $0.05 Price per Piece

Instructions.

Minifig.

Parts 1.  Wedge Plates, Translucent Windscreen, Plates, Bracket

Bricks, Clip Plates, Tile, Rounded Plates, Large Cheese Slope,

Translucent Plates, Brackets, Inkwells, 3L Axle/Pins, Flick

Missiles, Wedge Slopes, Macaroni Bricks, and Cheese Slopes.

Parts 2.  Plate, Inverted Studless Slopes, Studless Slopes, Tile,

Wedge Plates, Brackets, Corner Wedge Slopes, Bricks w/

Axle Hole, Slopes, Panels, and Bricks w/Studs on Side.

Parts 3.  Dish, Macaroni Tiles,

Plates w/Pinhole, Tile, Large

Cheese Slopes, Bushings,

and Lightsaber Hilts.

 

Build.  IO Frigate (2Ras+d8/2W).  Systems are Black.

The Questions:
Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  Above.  (-10)  (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  Yes.  (+5)
Score: +5 (B+).  This was a decent set -- good parts, good colors -- but that Price per Part kills the score.

Review: 75321 Star Wars Microfighter Series 9 Razor Crest

This release for the Star Wars Microfighter line is from three years ago.  I'm calling this "Series 9" but it doesn't have a Series tag on the box.  This was the only one released for that year.

Box.  MSRP was $9.99 for a $0.10 Price per Piece.

Instructions.

Minifig.

Fitting that the head is just a blank.

Parts 1.  Plates.  Wedge Plate w/Cutout, Wedge Plates, Bracket Brick, Tile w/Clips, Round

Bricks w/Pinholes, Brick w/Studs on Side, Bricks w/Pinhole & Plate, Bar Plate, Large

Jumper, Double Curve Slope, 2x2x2/3 Plates w/2 Studs on Side, Tiles w/Studs,

Brackets, Inverted Studless Slopes, Corner Plates, Offset Plate, and Stud Shooters. 

Parts 2.  Round Plates, Round Large Jumpers, Wedge Plate, Plates,

Grille Tiles, Ingot, Jumper, Wedge Studless Slopes, Large Cheese

Slopes, Tiles, Printed Large Cheese Slope, Cheese Graters, Friction

Pins, Translucent Round Plates, Quarter Circle Tiles, Translucent

Cheese Slopes, Truncated Cones, and Stud Shooter Triggers.

Build.  IO Frigate (2W).

The Questions:
Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  At.  (0)  (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  Yes.  (+5)
Score: +15 (A).  It's not a bad set, you get a build and plenty of spare parts.

Terrain Workshop: Sci-Fi Metal Trees

This is sort of a throwback to my Neue Regel table-setting and also kind of another "New Beginning" post.

I have a ton of the Hero Factory Weapon w/Jagged Blade part and I've used them before as "trees".  As I've mentioned multiple times before, I like using big, clunky, and unconventional parts in builds so they won't sit around taking up space in my parts bin.  Although in the prior usage I classified each one as one piece for the rules regarding Cover.  This time around each one is going to be 1 Hit, as is.  The hard part for this build was finding enough of the 1x1 Brick w/Axle Hole and assembling bases for them to mount into.

Size comparison.  These are 1 Hit each -- as mentioned before -- and 25

feet high, from the base, and 12 feet wide in 6P scale.  Although, I will

say the bases are a little unstable in that orientation so I may change the

direction the "blades" face and see if that improves the balance any.

Here's a few of them together.  I hope this gives people ideas

or techniques to use in their terrain builds. Flickr page.

Terrain Workshop: The Evolution of Star Command Base

The idea for this, once again, started with something mentioned by Occam's Spork.  Although it was a conversation totally unrelated to MFZ.  That led to me looking at an old toy called the "Star Bird Command Base".  Which led to me building another table setting.  Tom's also to blame for this due to an interesting discussion about Elevation and Highly Durable Terrain after a game almost a year ago.

Start.  Here we lay out the parts I have on hand to get an idea of what I need to fill in the space on the battlefield.  I originally thought about putting this in a water setting but I had bought trees from the PaB Wall for a different project.  I may put together a set of Blue baseplates to represent water in the future but I'll need to build some other terrain to replace the trees.

Phase two.  All the supports for the "deck" are in place.  I'm figuring them at 1 Hit each.  I now have eight trees per baseplate.  They're 1 Hit each and, as you can see in the picture, they can be arranged into walls and patterns to block out space.  I also have a section of LURPS that, with the addition of some small plates, will be 1 Hit each.

Phase three.  Now I start work on the building.  It came together in roughly six sections.

One.  Ground floor.  9 Hits.

Two.  Second floor/Landing

Deck.  5 Hits.

Three and four.  Landing Deck walls.  11 Hits each.

Five.  Third floor/Observation deck.  6 Hits.

Six.  Fourth floor.  8 Hits.

This build went together pretty quickly.  Having some of the parts on the local PaB Wall and being able to "raid" my local Dollar Trees for other parts in bulk made for fast assembly of the base terrain.  The building took a little longer but it's an example of why you buy sets and store the unused parts for later.

Here's the Battle Report so people can see how it all came together and how it played.

I have a Drone's Eye video of the whole thing assembled but it's twice the size limit of Gmail attachments so I'm not sure how I can share it.

I hope that this gives people ideas or techniques to use in their terrain builds for future games.

Terrain Workshop: Wing Trees

Today we're going to experiment with using 9L Wings w/Stylized Feathers as parts for trees.  I first started working with these parts almost ten years ago.  I called them "Alien Trees" back then.  I'm coming back to them because of a recent review, and the chance to experiment with more terrestrial colors.

The Original.

In the original build I used each 9L Wing as a piece so a group of six was 1 Hit.  This time around I'm adding in 1x1 Round Plates w/Open Stud to help "bulk up" the design and to lessen the amount of 9L wings you may have to procure.  I didn't use them when I first built these because -- I think -- they

were only available in White at the time.  And I didn't have very many.

I feel like this time around it looks like a fold-out paper tree

from a greeting card.  This version of the tree is 2 Hits, is 23

feet tall, and covers 15 feet from edge to edge in 6P scale.

You can give them a boost in height by replacing some, or all, of the 1x1 Round Plates

w/Open Stud with 1x1 Round Bricks.  One layer of Round Bricks would add 2 feet in

6P scale while keeping the amount of Hits the same.  Two layers of Round Bricks

would add 4 feet in 6P scale while keeping the amount of Hits the same.  I used 1x1 

Round Bricks w/3 Bamboo Leaves to add a little ground clutter around the tree.

These are all made from Make-It Blocks parts but you can easily do the

same in Lego.  Except for the Reddish-Brown wings, unfortunately.  I hope this gives people ideas or techniques to use in their terrain builds.  Flickr page.

Review: 30699 Mini Ninja Combo Mech Polybag

This was a Gift With Purchase at the Lego store for the second half of May 2025.  I'm not sure what the availability is elsewhere but, once again, a cool mech polybag gets limited availability in the United States.

Box. MSRP is $4.99, for a $0.06 Price per Piece.

Instructions.

Parts.  Plates, Wedge Plates, Technic Bricks, Rims, Studless Slope, Ball Joint

Plates, Rounded Plates, Plates w/Pinhole, Jumpers, Corner Tiles w/Cutout,

Clip Plates, Padlocks, Tiles, Ingot, Wedge Studless Slopes, Pins, 3L Friction

Pin, Translucent Round Tiles, Round Plates, Stadium Tiles, Cheese Slopes,

Translucent Cheese Slopes, Studless Slopes w/Cutout, and Quarter Circle Tiles.

Build.  Frame (2W).

The Questions:
Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away? Yes. (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio? Below. (+5) (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away? Yes. (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts? Yes. (+5)
Score: +20 (A+). Frame-in-a-Bag with plenty of leftover parts.