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Lego has decided to break from their planned release date. The Clone Wars AT-OT with LAAT/c kit is now selling on lego's shopping site.

Already? I thought they were just going to launch it on April...

pesgores wrote:Already? I thought they were just going to launch it on April...

Yep, it's out. Ordered one today.

pesgores wrote:Already? I thought they were just going to launch it on April...

I think it was supposed to be March 30th in the US.

OneEye589 wrote:

pesgores wrote:Already? I thought they were just going to launch it on April...

I think it was supposed to be March 30th in the US.

It was April 12th or 26th in Europe...can't remember correctly.

It's now available in Europa as well, so.

Anyway, it's out. Site was really slow when I was there, probably a lot of orders today.

That thing is fail. Not the way LEGO did it (even so the price is ridiculous), but the design itself (although this is hardly unusual for anything from The Clone Wars).

The 'drop'ship idea is fine, it even makes sense as long it's dropping something useful. The AT-TEs from Episode II, for example. But these "AT-OT" things are open-topped. Lolwut. That's defeating the purpose of making anything a low-ground walker in the first place. It's incredibly stupid. The only reason the low, slow AT-TE was made instead of using wheels is because it's armor compensates for it's slow speed. That at least sort of made sense. But having no top? What? The troops are horribly exposed, not only because they lack most of a wall and a roof, but because the 8-legged walker won't be able to get them anywhere at a speed of more than, what, 20mph? Why not just use wheels? Or repulsorlifts? That way, at least you'd have a fast vehicle to compensate for the lack of protection. But using a much slower 8-legged method of propulsion is just stupid. The troops might as well just get out and jog to their destination.

Dr. X wrote:That thing is fail. Not the way LEGO did it (even so the price is ridiculous), but the design itself (although this is hardly unusual for anything from The Clone Wars).

The 'drop'ship idea is fine, it even makes sense as long it's dropping something useful. The AT-TEs from Episode II, for example. But these "AT-OT" things are open-topped. Lolwut. That's defeating the purpose of making anything a low-ground walker in the first place. It's incredibly stupid. The only reason the low, slow AT-TE was made instead of using wheels is because it's armor compensates for it's slow speed. That at least sort of made sense. But having no top? What? The troops are horribly exposed, not only because they lack most of a wall and a roof, but because the 8-legged walker won't be able to get them anywhere at a speed of more than, what, 20mph? Why not just use wheels? Or repulsorlifts? That way, at least you'd have a fast vehicle to compensate for the lack of protection. But using a much slower 8-legged method of propulsion is just stupid. The troops might as well just get out and jog to their destination.

The actual AT-OT(r something with a very similar design) was used in ep.3 and in EU and carried dozens of troops and was too large to be airlifted in. Why not just deploy the troops by gunship and skip the walker entirerly. Anyway the lego one only carries a small amount do to cost reasons most likly(it obviously didn't help ) and is aircarried because all sets need an action feature of some sort. Atlest it's not more flick fire missiles thrown on anywhere they will fit(some sets excluded like the ones the make sense on like the hailfire droid).

In-universe, the AT-OT is for transporting troops and cargo behind friendly lines. The open-top is super exposed, but it makes it easier to fit lots of troops/big boxes of ammo in them.

Yeah, i would want to buy it if it was dropping another AT-TE...

Course, then the set would cost twice as much.

With that open top, wouldn't you at least add a set of shield generators? The Kamonians really needed to get out more...

IVhorseman wrote:In-universe, the AT-OT is for transporting troops and cargo behind friendly lines. The open-top is super exposed, but it makes it easier to fit lots of troops/big boxes of ammo in them.

I can understand that, but why not use wheels or repulsorlifts for a much higher speed?

Dr. X wrote:

IVhorseman wrote:In-universe, the AT-OT is for transporting troops and cargo behind friendly lines. The open-top is super exposed, but it makes it easier to fit lots of troops/big boxes of ammo in them.

I can understand that, but why not use wheels or repulsorlifts for a much higher speed?

There's a reason that they can't use a repulsorlift to get that thing off the ground. Look at the classic landspeeder. The engine supplies the landspeeder with enough power to get it 3 feet off the ground. There is a certain limit where repulsorlifts can't exceed, without a starship-class reactor to supply power. That's why airspeeders operate off jets to move around. They use repulsorlifts to hang in midair, which is why atmospheric battles take far more power than space battles.

It wouldn't be feasible to make the AT-OT with a repulsorlift for the same reason they didn't make the AT-AT with a repulsorlift. A big enough reactor, plus the actual repulsorlift, plus a constant supply of fuel, would cost far more than it should. Legs cost less, and work just fine.

Now, for wheels. It would actually be a good idea to make it with wheels except for one thing. Remember the Juggernaut? (Six wheeled transport) There's a reason you don't see Juggernauts more often. The Kamonians designed the entire clone army, including all the vehicles and weapons. It is a mass produced custom-made army. Too bad the Kamonians didn't do it before. They were naive. Legs made up the main propulsion system for the large vehicles of the clone army. About the only things that you see without legs are the Clone tanks and the Juggernauts. The Juggernauts were an afterthought, a response to the need for a back-world portable base. The wheel design was an experiment, and a failure. Flaws in the drivechains and the axles led to frequent breakdowns. Instead of fixing the problem, Command just discontinued production of Juggernauts. That was the end of Clone - and in connection, Imperial (the Rebellion used a lot of good wheeled vehicles) - wheeled transports.

So we end up with a cruddy redesign of a Clone Wars cartoon AT-OT.

Actually, The Juggernauts got used right up through The Battle of Hoth.

The reason for legs though? The AT stands for All Terrain. Wheels, even that size, need a fairly flat surface to drive on. Legs can climb over debris.

Also yeah, the thing's way too heavy for repulsor lifts.

Yeah, they did. Thing is, no factories were making replacement parts, so the flaws break the axle, and you can't find a replacement.

And i forgot about the AT designation. Didn't look All Terrain in Return of the Jedi though... Then again, not much else would make it through those woods.

Dr. X wrote:I can understand that, but why not use wheels or repulsorlifts for a much higher speed?

Shields.

It's a very well established point of star wars tech that theater shields allow objects to pass which are physically in contact with the ground.

It's similar to the Dune shield physics but not quite exactly the same. Walkers, people, and droids can march through shields but repulsorlifts will bounce off and faster moving objects splatter or deflect (or explode or get vaporized).

Shields in space come in several varieties and don't all exhibit the same behavior. But the ground variety all have the "walking" vulnerability because if they didn't then the shield would vaporize the ground.

This is why during the battle of hoth, only walkers were employed. The Empire couldn't fly fighters in and they didn't have the time to land fighters outside the shield and drag them through.

Walkers cannot be stopped by shields.