I try not be a really negative guy, so I felt badly when I posted that the Rancor set is shitty.
It really is though. The thing is completely unimpressive. Is it supposed to be an inescapable prison? They don't even have any walls. Although there is a door. That's handy.
The gate is actually attached to a swinging mechanism which is kind of cool. I'm not sure the purpose of having it swing open though to be honest, but there you go. Further access to the open room.
The gate itself is held aloft by a set of Technic pins that allow you to stop it at various heights. It works well, but is really poorly thought out (more in that in a minute).
The highlight of the set!
The Rancor fits.
The Rancor dies.
Malakili cries. I really do love that he has a sad face.
The highlight of the build itself is a hidden compartment. I wish there were more features like this in LEGO sets. Monster Fighters really did well in this regard.
Here's how it looks with Jabba's Palace (after my daughter played with it. Just noticed those unattached bricks and my OCD is going crazy). Seriously. It's like they aggressively tried to be underwhelming with this combo. When they're stacked the tower that comes with Jabba's set doesn't even attach properly.
That's not even the biggest problem with attaching them though. Check out the placement of the gate here.
The skeleton is lifting the gate as high as it will go. When Jabba's Palace is resting on the pit, the gate simply can't go any further. I'm stunned that a "paired" set would be so gimped given that it's the main play feature of one of the sets.
Once I built the palace I felt ok about the price point. It's still really expensive but the detail and figs go a long way toward making up for it. This set just feels tacked on and lazy. I would absolutely not recommend it.
Bonus:
Luke has the classic hairpiece which continues to exhibit this annoying feature:
Luke also comes with an extra long accessory. Must've seen Sail Barge Leia.
Also, Punk Rock Rancor is hard as fuck.
