Review: Ultimate Collector's AT-ST

Bianca & Gavin join the Rebellion
Review by Mark Larson with additional commentary by Bianca Lamb & Gavin Gorilla from BrickZone.net’s Fabuland® Housewives
Photos by  Mark Larson 

In the year 2000 The LEGO Group brought us the first sets in the Ultimate Collector’s Series; 7181 Tie Interceptor and 7191 X-Wing Fighter. Ever since then this series has given us the most advanced and detailed designs in the LEGO Star Wars Universe. This tradition of amazing sets continues with 10174 Ultimate Collector’s AT-ST.

Set Details

As a Star Wars fan I’ve been looking forward to a nicely detailed LEGO AT-ST since the first year of the license agreement. This set is it! Measuring over 16.5” (42cm) tall and containing 1068 pieces, the UCS AT-ST is impressive.

LEGO has been relatively consistent in the last few years with numbering the content bags for easier construction. The first part of the instructions uses bags numbered one, the second part of the instructions uses bags numbered two and so on.

Unfortunately this set does not use the numbered bag system. You have to build this one the old fashioned way, by opening all of the bags and dumping all of the pieces out and going blind searching for the next piece. That’s unfortunate here because despite a few pieces this set is mostly compiled of grey and dark grey bricks. Since it is sometimes difficult to tell the difference between dark grey and black in the instruction manuals, make sure to take advantage of LEGO’s handy step inventory window. I’m not sure what the official name for it is, but it’s the window at the top of each step that shows you what pieces are added during that particular step. It’s usefulness is very well demonstrated with this set. If this is your first build, pay close attention to this window to make sure you don’t miss anything. Backtracking through two books and step after step of grey bricks can be pretty frustrating.

That’s right, it’s also another set that has two books worth of instructions. This set does take a while to build, but it’s well worth it. Even though the bags aren’t numbered, the instructions are divided into three main sections. The first section consists of the two legs. Everything is here including the Joint Shield and the Fence Cutting Blade on the toe. The legs are a highly accurate replica of the machine in the movies.

The second section is the Drive Engine and Gyro System also known as, “the thing that connects the two legs and the head.” It’s impressive how the LEGO Group didn’t leave out even the smallest detail of this awesome piece of Imperial machinery.

The third and final section consists of the head of the AT-ST. There is some ingenious SNOT technique used here. For those of you who don’t know, SNOT stands for Studs Not On Top and is a non-traditional LEGO building technique. Here the armor of the head is constructed with an ingenious and unique technique. The base holds four Technic axles held vertically at angles which the side armors plates are connected to using technic beams and rubber bands. The front and the back armor plates are attached using traditional and click-hinges. All of the weapons are here; the Twin Blaster Cannons, the Light Blaster Cannon and the Concussion-Grenade Launcher.

I wish there was enough room inside for a detailed cockpit. All of the other Ultimate Collector’s vehicles have really cool detailed cockpits. I think the challenge here was not to make the head too heavy, otherwise the model wouldn’t balance on it’s own. I remember trying to build my own AT-ST using just the schematics from the Star Wars books and I never came up with a version that didn’t have to be supported by other means than the legs. Keeping the head light is key to keeping the AT-ST upright. However, it still would have been nice to see some controls, monitors and seats inside. 

The only other thing I found lacking in this set was the ability to pose it in different stances. The legs are incredibly sturdy but they are locked in that one position. The head can swivel from side to side but not very far before it runs into the Joint Guard. Even though you can’t pose it in a cool battle position, it still looks amazing next to the other UCS models on the display shelf.

Unlike the other System (mini-fig scale) versions of the AT-ST, the proportions of this one are correct. The head on the current System version (7657 AT-ST) is about the same size as the legs. In order for the set to look right, the height of the legs should be greater than the height of the head. In the pictures on the next page you can see a mini-fig scale version I built based on the UCS scale with the pieces from this set.

The Ultimate Collector’s AT-ST is a must-have for any collector. At around $80 (US) it is reasonably priced compared to the other sets in the Ultimate Collector’s Series. The LEGO Group has done an excellent job of creating a very detailed model of one of the coolest vehicles in the Star Wars universe!

Mark Larson is an AFOL who has been interviewed by BrickJournal for his LEGO series, “Fabuland Housewives,” which can be found at http://brickzone.net/fabuland_housewives.html

You can see some fun alternate models here!