Hey hey! Chris here with the skinny on an AOTC toy that'll be on store shelves soon (if not already... thanks Wal-Mart!): LEGO's Jango Fett's Slave I. Which isn't LEGO's first attempt to provide transportation for a Fett. Here's 2002's Slave I (left) compared to 1999's variety:

Already we're seeing how LEGO is improving their art with age: the new Slave I is almost twice as large as the original. It's also got a more menacing color scheme, and it approximates the curvature of its movie counterpart MUCH better. But that barely scratches the surface (literally). Of all the Star Wars models that LEGO has made these past three years, the new Slave I is perhaps their best entry yet into the line (though that Yoda model looks very darned sweet).

A psychotic amount of detail was poured into this model: naturally LEGO improved the design of their Slave I, but also they made it a model seriously worthy of the name Fett. Secret hatches open on the "snout" to reveal hidden rockets (and a tractor beam generator?). Twin "gatling guns" emerge from the sides and a top-loading bomb-chute is cunningly concealed on the underside. Jango Fett's Slave I also has a number of accessories like Jango's guns, hairpiece, extra bricks etc. and room for them is provided with a magnetically-held cargo container.

The best feature of this re-design has to be the cockpit: take the beautiful canopy brick off to insert Jango and Boba behind the console, put Slave I into flight position and the cockpit rotates with the wings. It's a vast improvement over Boba Fett sitting on his back as LEGO had him with the first Slave I.

The minifigs of Jango and Boba are excellent: look closely and you can see beard stubble on Jango's face. LEGO is also using their new "short-leg" brick for Boba: nice to have a minifig of a kid that looks convincingly young. Jango comes with the jetpack that the Boba Fett/Slave I v.1 minifig wears (now blue and silver) and you have the option of armoring him out, or turning the head around and giving him hair. Too bad he doesn't have the ubiquitous minifig "smileyface" as he takes potshots at Obi-Wan...

Building this new Slave I would be a challenge for the beginner, and at times frustrating for an experienced LEGO maniac. Once or twice I had to go back and re-do something because it was easily missed in the instructions. And some spots on the model are a major hassle to join together securely. As the building progresses (which takes place in stages, and LEGO uses a pre-numbered bag system so you won't have to dig for bricks... but if you're a LEGO masochist nothing will stop you there right?) it does become drastically easier to assemble. Give it a nice, leisurely pace of an hour or so to enjoy the construction.

In every way, I was delighted with this model. It meets every disappointment there was with the original Slave I LEGO, and LEGO went above and beyond to produce a quality Episode II tie-in with the same fun spirit of what we can expect with the film. Kudos to you, LEGO! Now hurry up and give us that minifig-scale AT-AT!