Clone Force 99, also known as the Bad Batch, are introduced at the beginning of the final season of ‘The Clone Wars’, and have subsequently spun off into their own series, following the end of the wars, and the execution of Order 66 by the Clone forces of the Grand Army of the Republic.
As such, the team and their adventures open up a rich new vein of material for LEGO® sets. 75314 the Bad Batch Attack Shuttle is one such craft. The set has 969 elements, and will go on sale on the 1st August 2021. The RRP is $AUD 149.99/USD99.99
I was excited to receive a copy of this set to review by the LEGO® AFOL Engagement Team. I was late to appreciate The Clone Wars, only coming to watch it during the extended pandemic lockdown last year. I am grateful to my son for encouraging me to do so, as the wealth of stories contained within helped me to appreciate the Prequel Trilogy all the more.
There are 7 numbered bags in the set, as well as another containing instructions and the sticker sheet.
The set is heavy on play features, including the Shuttle, as well as a BARC speeder and a second speeder bike. It comes with 5 minifigures, representing the members of the Bad Batch, past and present: Hunter, Wrecker, Tech, Echo and Crosshair. We also find a brick build Gonk Droid included. I was surprised to find all of the key members of the team to appear in the same set, rather than spread out over several sets.
The Minifigures
The Minifigures are distributed throughout the seven bags of the construction, but we shall look at them all, before visiting the build itself.
Hunter, the leader of the group, has a titanium metallic torso and legs, with printing front and back on the torso and on the front side of the legs. He has a dual printed nougat head, with a printed headband as well as tattoos on the left side of his face. One expression is quietly determined, with a grim smile, and the other sees him gritting his teeth. He comes with both a black hair piece, with a centre part, as well as a titanium metallic helmet, with markings resembling that of his tattoos.
Hunter is armed with a couple of daggers.
Crosshair, the sniper, is dressed in black, with a black helmet. He has a Crosshair tattoo around his right eye. He has a printed breastplate, as well as a printed backpack. His torso is printed front and back, and his legs are printed in grey on front only. Cross hair has a rifle element, which has been used in LEGO Star Wars sets since 2007.
Wrecker has the same the armour as Hunter, but with additional pauldrons. His helmet is a titanium metallic helmet previously used in Marvel superhero sets. The pauldron and helmet are printed with the skull motif used in common on other members of the ‘Batch.
His face print features the injured eye, as well as extensive scarring on the left side of his face.
Tech, the communications expert, has a medium stone grey body, with a new print on the chest. His helmet is a unique mold, dual molded in dark and medium stone greys. The helmet is printed with great detail, and is one of the more complicated helmet molds I have ever seen. His head has a double sided print, showing his face with and without goggles. He also has a ‘widow’s peak’ hair piece. He wears a communications pack, with a good old fashioned neck bracket and antenna arrangement.
Finally Echo. Part of the 501st during the Clone Wars, Echo was missing, presumed dead. However, he had been captured and utilised by the Techno Union to provide strategic information to the Seperatists during the Anaxes Campaign. After being rescued by Captain Rex, Anakin Skywalker and the Bad Batch, he opted to join the renegade Clone Unit, continuing to be part of their ongoing adventures. Echo’s pale head is printed with silver connections, and a cybernetic implant. In the Bad Batch, Echo has a data probe in place of his right hand, and this is represented by printed arms and a grey hand.
Finally, the GONK Droid, which provides great comic relief in the series, typically as a foil for Wrecker to for weight lifting, or as a convenient chair. The build is simple, but the studs and ‘stud with bar’ work effectively as legs. Unfortunately, it does not readily fit inside the shuttle, especially if the figures are seated inside.
The Build
Our build starts with the Speeder bikes:
There are two speeder bike builds included in the set, one is a BARC speeder bike, which is essentially a black/ dark stone grey recolour of the one seen in 75280 501st Clone Troopers pack (seen in bright blue/ medium stone blue.)
The second has lime green and medium grey colouring, and includes two outrigger engines angulated next to the handlebars. This feels like a much lighter ride than the BARC speeder – perhaps leaving the rider feeling a little more vulnerable.
The Havoc Marauder is the official name of the shuttle, but I cannot recall hear it referred to more than once or twice over the multiple episodes that it has appeared in. I initially approached this part of the build with quite a bit of trepidation: I have a few difficulties perceiving firm differences between blues and greys, especially when working without a reference colour. However, the instructions were easy to follow, and clear enough for me to be able to use despite
The build itself was fairly straight forward, and I was surprised at the quality of colour delineation in the instruction manual – instructions were quite clear, and I did not find myself confusing sand blue and medium stone grey at any point.
The first part of the build focuses on the cockpit: we have 2 seats, one of which will accomodate Tech (who often pilots the shuttle) or Wrecker.
The nose of the shuttle in the source material consists of a number of converging slopes, with sloped Briggs and hinged creating a variety of shapes on the front of the craft. SNOTwork. (Studs not on top) to the sides she’s the sides slope inwards as well, resulting in a relatively smooth nose. The forward cabin sits two minifigures, one in front of the other. From here, we work on the rear cabin, which attaches to the front via several technic pins.
We then set the stage for some subtle angulation on the side of the main cabin, in preparation for attaching the engines. The wings are essentially several layers of plates, with the shape produced by a number of wedge plates. The basic shape is set in sand blue and grey, but by layering black plates over the top, the overall stability iis maintained. Small amounts of decoration are afforded by the inclusion of some sand blue inserts amongst the black plates on the wings. The engines consist of a stack of ‘weapons barrels’ appearing in sand blue for the first time.
The wings are also able to pivot up and down. After attaching them, we build some cowling over the engines.
We continue by adding a central core to the roof of the shuttle as well as some stickers over the engine outlets, and finally the cockpit itself. The cockpit canopy is printed, with window and greeble detail. There is no transparent componenet here, and while the element has a good level of detail, it serves to disguise the disparity in scale between the ship itself and the minifigures. I was grateful to not have to place stickers on this element.
We add a weapons locker, and decorate the inside of the cabin. The stickered panels read ‘Space Battle’ and ‘ History.’ Two minifigures can sit opposite each other here, although ther is no room for Gonk!
Space Battles 
History
The dorsal fin comes next, and I was surprised to the ‘Plates facing sideways’ solution used in building it. While there appears to be a right side, and a wrong side, the markings line up on the wrong side quite nicely, and I think it is an interesting experiment in design, but I think a vertically stacked brick built solution would have been preferable.
The final ship is quite swooshable, and I appreciate the adjustable wing angles. There is no specific cabin door, and access is by opening the roof on the vehicle. There are no specific landing gear for the vessel, with only a couple of plates on the underside of the fuselage.
Plent of room in the front for 2 
Room in the cabin for 2 figures with packs/broad shoulders!
In Conclusion
I appreciate the final craft: it’s satisfying to hold and swoosh, a little less so to display with the wings deployed. The fact that it can hold four members of the crew is an added bonus The speeder bikes are a nice addition to the set, providing another focus for some action away from the shuttle.
At the Fan Media Days earlier this year, I had a chance to talk with Jens Kronvold Frederiksen, Creative director and Design Lead for LEGO Star Wars, along with Michael Lee Stockwell, the design Manager for the line. They were super excited about the fact that the entire squad were included in the set. When I asked them about the missing Omega figure, they did comment that they can’t comment directly on future sets, beyond saying that there will be future sets relating to the Bad Batch.
I love the overall shape of the shuttle, as well as the way that it reflects the source material. I am not a huge fan of the way that the dorsal fin was tackled, and am curious to see how it might be interpreted in future versions. The cabin space in the shuttle is remarkable, as is range of minifigures. The build experience was much better than I expected, despite my personal challenges in clearly perceiving the colour palette, and I never found myself questioning which coloured part was required in the model (as I mentioned earlier, Sand blue, medium stone grey and dark stone grey can sometimes cause me a little confusion
The BARC speeder has essentially been recoloured from the 501st squadron set, and as such feels a little uninspired.
I love the range of figures, and the way in which they are depicted here is awesome. The details with the head printing leave you with no doubt as to which figure represents which character is which, and the detail in the helmets, as well as the armour is great. I like the new should element used for wrecker, and there seems to be an extra one included into the set!
I give the set 4/5 Arbitrary praise units. If you are a fan of the Bad Batch – whether from the final season of The Clone Wars, or their own program, you will probably get joy from this set.
75314 the Bad Batch Attack Shuttlehas 969 elements, and will go on sale on the 1st August 2021. Please consider using our affiliate links when purchasing from the LEGO Online store: the Rambling Brick might earn a small commision from any subsequent purchases.
Are you a fan of the Bad Batch? Whoe’s your favorite member of the team? Why not leave your comments below, and until next time…
Play Well.
This set was provided by the LEGO Group for review purposes. All opinions are my own.
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