Review: LEGO’s new Hoth AT-ST headlines the Star Wars 2022 lineup with an old school design

All of the LEGO 2022 action is now underway, with a new collection of sets just hitting store shelves. Here at 9to5Toys, we’re beginning to check out what the new year has to offer, first taking a hands-on look at the just-released LEGO Hoth AT-ST. But is this new variant of a classic Imperial walker worth adding to your Star Wars collection? We take a closer look down below. 

Hands-on with the LEGO Hoth AT-ST

Entering as what you could call the flagship release from the LEGO Star Wars 2022 winter lineup, the new Hoth AT-ST arrives at the $49.99 price point. It stacks up to 586 pieces and includes three minifigures as well as a side build, all of which we’ll take a closer look at in just a moment.

One of the more unique things for the kit that also carries over to the rest of the 2022 LEGO Star Wars releases is that the instructions showcase progress along the way. Each of these progress bars at the bottom of a page uses one of the characters in the set, in this case Chewbacca, in order to show how far into the assembly process you are.

As for the actual model, piecing together the LEGO Hoth AT-ST is pretty straightforward. There aren’t too many advanced techniques, but the overall build does end up delivering a solid kit in both form and function.

Highlights 

Once assembled, the set stands over 10 inches tall and has a pretty nice presence to it. As far as any play features go, there’s the usual spring-loaded shooters on the front which seem to make an appearance in nearly every Star Wars set these days. More specifically to the Hoth AT-ST, the LEGO Group has two main features headlined by a rotating head. On the back, there’s a small knob which when turned will also allow the chicken walker’s head to move from side to side.

Speaking of, on the inside of the head is a cockpit area with room for a single minifigure. It’s not all too detailed, but gets the job done and even has room to store some accessories. You can also pose the set thanks to articulated legs, though the actual movement here is pretty limited. There’s a single ratchet joint which allows you to adjust the positioning to pull off some action poses.

Minifigures 

Over on the minifigure side of things, the LEGO Group keeps up with the uniqueness of the Hoth AT-ST itself with three nice figures. Leading the way is a fitting AT-ST Driver, which is rocking some Hoth garb thanks to a new design with both torso and leg printing. Also exclusive to the build is a new version of Chewbaca, which has a light speckle of snow over his brown fur. It’s on the more subtle side, but certainly leans into the Hoth theming. To round out the set, there’s a single Hoth Rebel trooper.

While not technically a minifigure, the Hoth AT-ST also includes yet another character from the Star Wars universe, a Probe Droid. The build on this miniature creation is about as good as we have ever seen from the LEGO Group, and actually uses quite a fair amount of bricks to deliver a neat little model. Not to mention, this is the very first time we’ve gotten the Imperial spy in its accurate gray color, which looks really great to see even if it took over two decades to get the detail correct.

How the LEGO Hoth AT-ST compares to other versions

The most novel aspect of the latest Imperial chicken walker has to be the fact that it ditches the designs we’ve seen in the past for something entirely new in the brick-built world. AT-STs first made a debut in Empire Strikes Back on the snowy planet of Hoth before the more memorable inclusions in Return of the Jedi, with the latter having the look that many Star Wars fans have come to expect.

Though in that very first appearance, which quite frankly is a blink and you’ll miss it inclusion, the Hoth AT-ST has a different design than its later counterpart. For this new set, the LEGO Group executed on that quite well. So even if you don’t like the design or feel like something is off about its lankier than usual legs or shrunken head, that’s

Here’s what the Hoth AT-ST looks like compared to the past two versions of Imperial walker from Rogue One and The Mandalorian. You can really see not only the ways in which the LEGO Group has updated its design since 2019, but also adapted the build to match its source material.

9to5Toys’ Take: 

All told, the $49.99 price point for the new LEGO Hoth AT-ST feels pretty accurate. There’s a lot to like about the build if you can get over the weird, yet accurate design and includes some pretty great minifigures to boot. It’s a pretty easy recommendation coming from this builder, who is loving the Hoth theming present in the LEGO Star Wars 2022 lineup so far.

I really do think that my favorite aspect of the build though has to be that the LEGO Group even decided to go with the accurate version to what we saw on-screen in Episode V. With the company getting a lot of flack for not paying mind to the details, the execution here is spot on and a nice change of pace.

So if you’re ready to press buy and are waiting for a final verdict, this is definitely worth a spot in your collection. The $50 price point is as acceptable as they come, and any kind of discount going forward will make this even more notable of a set. It delivers just about everything I could reasonably want from a kit of this size and focus, with an execution that while not perfect, sets the pace for the LEGO Star Wars 2022 lineup.

Buy the LEGO Hoth AT-ST now from Amazon and LEGO

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