Review: LEGO Star Wars Darth Vader Transformation (75183)

Monday, May 15th, 2017 by Brickfinder

The LEGO Star Wars Darth Vader Transformation (75183) set scheduled for a June 1st 2017 release attempts to improve on the set of the same name (7251) last released by LEGO in 2005.

There is a significant bump in the piece count from 53pcs to 282pcs which definitely adds more detail to this iconic scene compared to its predecessor.

It portrays the scene in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith when a badly burned and dismembered Anakin Skywalker is operated upon at the Emperor’s Surgical Reconstruction Centre and given his iconic suit and breathing mask for a new lease of life with the Dark side of the Force.

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Unboxing

The front of the box shows the scene where Darth Vader force crushes the droids that operated on him and screams in denial upon learning from Palpatine that Padme was killed by Anakin’s Force Choke in Mustafar earlier.

The back of the box shows the start of the scene when a badly burnt and dismembered Anakin is operated on upon arrival from the planet Mustafar to the Emperor’s Surgical Reconstruction Centre.

Sub images show the play features of the box including the rotating and flipping of the operation table, the mask mounting arm and the droid “ejection”.

An iconic side view of the mask being mounted as the final transformation step is also shown.

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Build Experience

The build starts off with 8 similarly shaped sections with some minor differences in “greebling”.

The sections reserved for the play features are quite obvious after bag 1 as the 2×2 jumper plates and the red carpet-like visual stands out from the rest of the build.

I was somehow reminded of the basic Lego Dimensions portal build after this. Palpatine and the DD-13 Medical Assistant droid are also built up at this stage.

The second bag finishes off the build with the mechanism for the operation table and the mask mounting arm.

Badly burned and dismembered Anakin Skywalker, Darth Vader, a brick built FX-9 Surgical Assistant Droid and a brick built Prowler 1000 exploration droid “floating” over some kind of Lightsaber mount are included in this bag.

There were no air bubbles in the two red lightsaber blades so I might have gotten lucky or TLG has improved their processing for this element.

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Play Features

The main “play feature” here is the actual transformation mechanism that allows for you to switch a battle damaged Anakin Skywalker to the Dark Lord himself, Darth Vader.

This same mechanism is employed in the LEGO Star Wars Carbon Freezing Chamber (75137) where Han Solo is encased in Carbonite by the bounty hunter Boba Fett.

As you can see from the animation above, the bar at the bottom controls the rotation and when pressed inward, it lifts the table to prop up the newly minted Darth Vader.

There is also a helmet “holder” that is lowered from above and can be inserted onto the minifigure.

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Minifigures

The set is packed with three minifigures. The exclusive minifigure of this set is ‘scarred’ Anakin Skywalker after his fateful duel with Obi-Wan Kenobi.

The Anakin minifigure is actually missing two arms and two legs. The Dark Bluish Grey Hands and legs are probably supposed to blend into the background of the set to create an illusion of the missing limbs.

One arm and two legs lost to Obi-Wan in Mustafar One arm lost to Dooku. That makes a complete set of missing limbs! His head piece has some nice scarring details on the reverse side.

Darth Vader is similar to the one in the LEGO Star Wars Final Duel set (75093) which also has the new chin-guard/air intake head accessory.

He also sports the new scarred Anakin headpiece as opposed to the Voldermort looking one from (75093).

 

Emperor Palpatine/Darth Sidious rounds out the minifigures for this set which is same one that can also be found in Final Duel set. His head piece has a reverse facial expression as well.

The set comes with three droids namely the Surgical Droid, Surgical Assistant and Prowler Droid. These droids definitely benefitted from the update of new LEGO elements.

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Conclusion

This is probably the stand out play set for this summer’s wave and it will definitely bring joy to the many Darth Vader fans who love LEGO.

I’ll give the set 4 out of 5 stars.

“Noooooooooo!” ~ Darth Vader