Lego Cloud City
By Lando Da Pimp

In Empire Strikes Back Star Wars fans were stunned at the conclusion of the fifth chapter. The last part of the movie takes place at Bespin Cloud City run by the pimp daddy Lando Calrissian. Here the rebels are captured by Imperials, Han is frozen in carbonite, and Vader reveals to Luke that he is his father. Lego has now released a complete set featuring all these scenes from the movie. Let's take a look:

The Figures
Lego's Star Wars figures are really great. With the Cloud City you get 6 figures, Han, Luke, Leia, Boba Fett, Darth Vader, a Stormtrooper, and Lando Calrissian. My big complaint is that Lobot is not included with the set! How can you have Cloud City and not include Lando's right hand robot. I had to purchase the Cloud Car set which includes the Lobot figure. Luckily it was on clearance at KB Toys. As always, the Lego figures have great detail for their size. They still have the signature Lego figure smile, but with a couple of helmets and hairstyles you can easily transform the figures into your favorite Star Wars character. The best figure that comes with the set is Lando Calrissian. The other sweet figure is Darth Vader. If you remove his helmet you can see Anakin all scarred up and grey. My only complaint is that the blasters that Lego gives the sets are really lame. They are nothing but the megaphones with a translucent red piece on the end.

The Set
It took me about 3 hours to build the entire set. The set is only about 700 pieces. Not very much compared to other large Lego sets. As always the instructions are very easy to follow. Cloud City is made up of five different areas:

Dining Area
The first area you build is the dining area. This area has a working door that you can raise and lower by turning a knob. My only complaint about this area is that the table and chairs take up the entire space not leaving room for anything else. It's impossible to re-enact the scene where Lando's betrayal of the rebels is revealed.

Carbon Freezing Chamber
The second area you construct is the carbon-freezing chamber. This is by far the best part of the set. Using knobs you can lower Han down into the freezing chamber. When he reaches the bottom you can slide him over and place the frozen Han in his place. By turning the knob in reverse you can raise the frozen Han back to the top, finishing the freezing process. Unlike the dining area there is plenty of room for all of the figures. Because the chamber loads from the top there is plenty of room to expand the area with additional Legos.

Lightsaber Duel
The third and forth areas re-enact the lightsaber duel between Vader and Luke. The inside chamber has two action functions. The first action is a wall that moves playing out Vader's use of the Force to throw objects towards Luke , knocking him off balance. The second action is a window that throws Luke out on to the wind tunnel platform where Vader reveals to Luke that he is his father. The window action does not work very well. For it to work properly Luke can't be holding his lightsaber and must be placed in a certain way otherwise he will not clear the window top ledge. Out on the platform you place Luke on the antenna with Vader asking Luke to join him. You can also remove Luke's hand making the scene even more authentic.

The Landing Platform
The fifth area is the landing platform where the Millennium Falcon or Slave 1 could be docked. The door in the dining area opens up onto the platform where you can re-enact the scene where R2D2 opens up the door enabling the rebels to escape. But because of the lack of space in the dining area there is not much you can do with that scene.

Final Thoughts
Even with those few flaws, this set is great. The Carbon Freezing chamber is worth the money alone. I think it would be great if they had made this set a bit bigger. Possibly making each area an individual set that is purchased separately and can fit together, like Jabba's Palace. This could also keep the cost down a bit. At a price of $100 for the set this is not something you just pick up anytime. You can't purchase this set in any store yet. The only way to purchase it is to buy it at lego.com.

Check out the rest of our LEGO coverage, and our continuing Star Wars coverage.

Article and all images © 2004 MillionairePlayboy.com