LEGO 10236 Ewok Village Review

1990 pieces, 17 minifigures, 1 amazing set.

I thought I’d do a review of the Ewok Village, #10236, seeing you all have the chance of winning one for yourself this month, and I am fortunate enough to already have this beautiful build. This set was released in 2013, and is approximately 35cm high, 55cm wide, 35cm deep, and weighs a little over 3kg. The original price was about A$360 and, according to BrickEconomy.com, it is now worth roughly A$740 for BNIB (brand new in box)… at the time of writing this, that is, as its value could continue to rise. If you are looking for BNIB from an Australian seller on BrickLink, however, you will need to cough up at least A$879, with most on offer from A$900 to A$1,000.

As far as the actual set goes though, it is unique and enjoyable to build, display, and play! For a Star Wars themed set, I prefer the Ewok’s leafy home to the grey bulk of many of the vehicles on offer; although I am a fan of anything Star Wars, the Ewoks do have a special place in my heart, but it is not just this fact that makes me love this build. The Ewok Village has many playable features as well as plenty of detail to please both the LEGO fans who like to simply build and display, and those with an inner child (or an actual child) who wants to be more interactive with the village.

The village is basically a platform built up in the tops of 4 large trees, one of which is separated by a rope bridge. Each of the tree trunks has a slightly different feature to it, meaning these are not so monotonous to build as they otherwise would be, but they are also the beginnings of the playable attributes that make the set so interesting. The hidden features of the tree trunks themselves include the bottom of a slide, a pop-out spider web, and two doors into a storage space and a hideaway, the latter containing stickers which are Ewok graffiti... a cool bit of extra detail.

A rope ladder takes you up to the village level where each tree again has rooms of various sorts, such as the top of the slide that takes you down through the middle of a tree, a kitchen, a bedroom, and more. Each treetop can also rotate for easier access to all the rooms. The solid village platform holds a rotisserie (where you can slowly barbeque Han Solo over the flames), a throne for C-3PO which you can cause to levitate, an Ewok drum kit as well as drums made from the helmets of the enemy stormtroopers, and there are two posts for tying up your captives. Hanging below these posts are twin ramming logs for setting up an ambush and crushing the Scout Trooper and his speeder as they rush beneath the village. Another trap to watch out for is the net that will catch any unsuspecting Wookiee wandering along the forest floor, and drag them up to the treetops. There are also two catapults, one small one in the top of one tree, and another larger one on the ground.

All these features, along with extra details such as the flaming torches, railings, fungi, and vines that are spread around the set, make for a great build and a lot of fun getting in there and re-creating favourite moments from Return of the Jedi… or creating new ones, such a my young son did when I came home to find stormtroopers with jetpacks amongst the leaves of the trees, or a velociraptor scaling the broken rope bridge with the rebel soldiers fending it off… ok, that last one may have been me.

Although it doesn’t have Ultimate Collector Series written anywhere on the box, it is classified as a UCS set, and having 17 minifigures means that only the UCS Death Star sets and Mos Eisley set have more figures than it out of all existing LEGO Star Wars sets. 5 of these minifigures are unique to this set, notably Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker and Teebo. Teebo is one of 5 Ewoks that come in the box, all with nice detail printed on them. The only character I feel lacks in detail in this set is Chewbacca, who is the only minifigure without printing on the eyes, a minor flaw in an otherwise brilliant Lego set. If I was getting picky, I might argue that such large trees might have more foliage, but on the flip side I understand that this would then make additional branches and leaves more obtrusive to the playability of this enjoyable little village.

If you don’t have this set, and you are a fan of LEGO Star Wars, I highly recommend entering the competition to win it this month… if you don’t you will regret throwing away a chance like this for the rest of your LEGO-loving life.

Click on this link to head straight over to the competition page and register for your chance to own this highly desired LEGO set.