LEGO 75217 Imperial Conveyex Transport from Solo: A Star Wars Story [Review]

The current wave of LEGO Star Wars sets from Solo: A Star Wars Story all depict vehicles from the train heist scene. 75217 Imperial Conveyex Transport is the fast-moving armored train that Tobias Beckett’s gang tries to steal coaxium from aboard their stolen Imperial AT-Hauler while harassed by Enfys Nest’s marauders. The LEGO set is available now, retailing for $89.99 ($109.99 in Canada | £79.99 in the UK), with 622 pieces and 5 minifigures.

The packaging, instructions, & sticker sheet

The set’s pieces are packed tightly in five numbered bags, with the instruction booklet and sticker sheet loose in the box, looking a little worse for wear.

Fortunately, none of the actual stickers were damaged by the sheet being curled up in the box. The sticker sheet includes several large stickers that we’ll apply later to the panels on the side of the train, along with some smaller stickers for display panels, vents, and so on.

The build

The first bag includes the two range troopers and driver, along with the parts for the core and drive mechanism of the engine.

The drive mechanism consists of link treads looped around wheels. Since the tread pieces are three studs wide, the entire engine module is an odd width built around a three-wide core — an unusual width for LEGO sets that are nearly always an even width.

Sub-assemblies from the second bag attach to the three-wide core, sandwiching the drive mechanism between passenger compartments near the back of the engine.

The third bag adds the skin for the engine, including large panels with stickers. The drive chain protrudes from the front of the engine, just like the vehicle in the movie. Large, unprinted TIE fighter canopies in dark gray represent the drive-link housing drum. Although wedge plates provide the skin for the sides of the drive engine, there are still large gaps between the side panels and the long, three-wide section on top that covers the drive links.

The fourth bag builds the base of the cargo module, along with its front and back walls. Some nice shaping on the compartment’s lower hull is achieved with slopes attached to studs-out brackets on the module’s base.

Each end of the cargo container is built identically, with an outer wall attached studs-out and a Technic solution to achieve the carriage’s sloped side panels.

The final bag includes Han and Chewie, with the parts to complete the cargo carriage’s side panels, plus a gun emplacement on the top of the train.

The finished model

We’ll go more in depth in a follow-up article comparing the movie vehicles to the LEGO sets, but in the meantime the most obvious comment one can make about this set is that it represents a small fraction of the vehicle seen in the movie. The conveyex transport runs on a central track in an “over/under” configuration, with a pair of engines pulling a very long train of cargo carriages, but the LEGO set includes one engine and only one cargo module.

The drive mechanism works very smoothly on a flat surface, with the cargo module pulled along on small rubber wheels underneath. At first glance, the big gray train in the movie (particularly as it moves rapidly through the mountains on screen) appears to lack much in the way of detail, but still photos from Lucasfilm reference sources like DK’s Official Guide show considerably more detail on the engine in particular that is absent from the LEGO set.

Both of the train’s modules are well-constructed and sturdy, and will likely hold up well under heavy play from younger builders. However, brick-built solutions — with all the attendant problems of pieces flying off during play — would certainly have been more welcome than the very large stickers on the side panels.

LEGO set designers sometimes add play features to sets that aren’t present in the source material, and the gun emplacement on the top of the train is one example of this.

Instructions show you how to remove the turret and attach it to the top of the drive engine instead.

In another odd “play feature” reminiscent of the non-existent cargo compartments inside 75099 Rey’s Speeder, the drive-link housing drum opens to reveal a bar holder with handle to which one of the range trooper’s rifles can be attached, allowing him to sit unencumbered in the engine alongside the driver.

Like many very large Star Wars vehicles, the LEGO version of the conveyex transport is somewhat miniaturized. The driver and his passenger thus occupy a large portion of the engine’s rear section, nestled snugly into seats with stickered control panels in front of them.

The forward drive engine attaches to the cargo carriage with a Technic axle, with a ball joint underneath to provide stability as you move them. The cargo container’s Technic liftarm attaches over the axle from the drive chain — this is an important detail whose purpose will become apparent when we combine all three LEGO sets in the current Solo wave later.

The ends of the cargo carriage also have large vertical openings, which will also make more sense later…

The cargo carriage has a topside access hatch, which Han Solo uses to sneak in and steal tubes of refined coaxium.

The side panels on the cargo carriage lift up on the interior Technic mechanisms, revealing several crates of coaxium ripe for the taking.

Each crate sits on a 2×2 center-stud tile, and they have a transparent blue piece inside representing the coaxium — a detail that ties together all of the Solo LEGO sets.

The minifigures

The conveyex transport comes with five minifigures — two range troopers, an Imperial driver, Han Solo, and Chewbacca. All five minifigs are unique to this set.

Han Solo sports goggles and a heavy fur coat that extends down to his legs. He carries a security key that lets him access the locked cargo container, printed on his legs over his coat. The mold for Chewie is the same as the one in 75212 Kessel Run Millennium Falcon, but with goggles printed on his face. Some of the official photos make Chewie look a little bit derpy, but he actually looks great in person, with an open mouth full of teeth as though he’s roaring.

Han has an alternate face that looks like he’s concentrating. He has detailed printing on the back of his torso, but the printing on Chewie’s bandolier does not extend to his back.

Range troopers are variants of the Imperial stormtrooper trained and equipped for rugged duty on outpost worlds like Vandor. Range troopers were heavily promoted by Disney/Lucasfilm ahead of the movie’s launch in May 2018, appearing prominently in the trailers, and were part of the first wave of many other toys. Given that, many LEGO Star Wars fans were disappointed that there were no LEGO sets that included range troopers in the first wave of sets in May. That oversight has now been rectified, with a pair of fantastic range trooper minifigures in this set, accompanied by a new Imperial driver minifig.

The range troopers carry heavy white blasters (BlasTech E-10R rifles), with fur collars under their unique helmets. Both range troopers have the same stormtrooper / Clone Trooper head. Despite excellent printing and a great new helmet mold, two key pieces of the range troopers’ gear are missing from their minifig version — range troopers wear a fur “kama” around their waists that matches their fur collars, and they wear enormous “magnetomic gription” boots so they can walk upright on the speeding train regardless of how it twists and turns. LEGO has produced kama pieces in both white cloth and plastic for Clone Troopers and snowtroopers in the past, so the absence of this accessory bulking up the look of the range trooper makes the minifig look a bit top-heavy. Similarly, white 1×1 plates could certainly have bulked up the range troopers’ feet, just like the heavy boots on the Series 8 CMF diver. Nevertheless, these shortcomings are easily corrected with readily available pieces, and the minifigs themselves are excellent LEGO versions of a much-anticipated stormtrooper variant.

At first glance, the Imperial driver looks similar to common LEGO Star Wars minifigs like Imperial gunner figs — in fact, LEGO labels this figure a “gunner” (even though it must be the driver), perhaps to justify the non-existent weapons emplacement on the top of the train. Nomenclature quibbles aside, this minifig is not identical to previous Imperial gunner minifigs. His uniform is gun-metal rather than black, with dark brown gloves and a black fur collar like the range troopers.

The minifig has a head with a commlink, and the long coat printed on the front of his torso and legs wraps around to the back of the torso.

The fur collars on the three Imperial minifigs are completely new accessories, in the newer soft cloth material.

Conclusions & recommendation

One of the things that makes this set disappointing overall is the price point, at $90 for just over 600 pieces. A set with twice as many pieces could have been produced at around the $120 price point that featured two cargo carriages and had more brick-built detail in place of the very large stickers. Frankly, it’s hard to recommend this set at full price, despite a quintet of excellent minifigures, a sturdy design, and several fun play features. But if the set were 25% off at around $68 (as it will almost inevitably be in a few months or even weeks on Amazon.com), that would bring it closer to a reasonable price point for a licensed set with 5 unique minifigs.

As we noted in our recent review of 75219 Imperial AT-Hauler, the three Solo sets in the current LEGO Star Wars wave work best together, and we’ll be taking a closer look at their compatibility in a separate article shortly.

75217 Imperial Conveyex Transport includes 622 pieces and 5 minifigures. You can help support reviews like this one by purchasing your copy of the set from the LEGO Shop (USD 89.99 | CDN 109.99 | GBP 79.99), Amazon.com, eBay, or BrickLink.

Read more reviews from the current wave of LEGO Star Wars sets:

75203 Hoth Medical Chamber 75215 Cloud-Rider Swoop Bikes 75216 Snoke’s Throne Room 75217 Imperial Conveyex Transport 75218 X-wing Starfighter 75219 Imperial AT-Hauler 41619 Darth Vader & 41620 Stormtrooper

And don’t miss our earlier reviews of the first wave of LEGO Star Wars sets from Solo:

75209 Han Solo’s Landspeeder 75210 Moloch’s Landspeeder 75207 Imperial Patrol Battle Pack 75211 Imperial TIE Fighter 75212 Kessel Run Millennium Falcon

The post LEGO 75217 Imperial Conveyex Transport from Solo: A Star Wars Story [Review] appeared first on The Brothers Brick.