The WORST Years of LEGO Star Wars... (1999-2001)

In this video I'll be looking at every single LEGO Star Wars set released between the years 1999 and 2001 and giving them a score out of 10, which I'll then be comparing to every other year we've looked at so far, to determine which year is the best of all time, for LEGO Star Wars!
Every Video in the Series:
1999 - • The WORST Years of LEG...
2012 - • Why 2012 Is The BEST Y...
2013 - • Why 2013 Was The BEST ...
2014 - • Why 2014 Is The BEST L...
2015 - • Is 2015 the BEST year ...
2018 - • Was 2018 the WORST yea...
2020 - • Is 2020 The WORST Year...
2021 - • Was 2021 the WORST yea...
2022 - • Why 2022 is the WORST ...

[@SzoltS1]

The old lego sets has their own charms, I wouldn't call these the worst years of lego star wars, I'd rather say 2016-2018 were the worst. All the trash Solo movie sets, trash Force awakens and Disney trilogy sets. Literally bought maybe like 3 sets overall from these years, while I would still buy a good half of 1999-2001 sets

[@eightcoins4401]

I personally liked the Disney Trilogy sets. They were better than the movie.

[@LinkiePup]

“Worst year” I’d argue that those were the best sets because of how in accurate they were. They were TOYS not model kits. The sets we get today are model kits. Not play sets.

[@troopper1026]

You realize we get both right?

[@eightcoins4401]

@@troopper1026 I think they didnt convey what they meant well. What they're saying is basically, the old lego Star wars sets priortized being Lego over being Star Wars. Its why they were heavily inaccurae. They wanted to keep the lego charm of the time. Meanwhile nowadays, even the playsets got lots of little pieces for details to try to be as accurate as possible. It's why even without looking at inflation, we went from a Tie-Fighter being 20 bucks to 80 bucks by now.

[@eightcoins4401]

It's imo kinda unfair to look at these sets only regarding accuracy, ignoring play functions. For example, the 2000 MTT could be folded out into a base.

[@LegoManCam]

The old sets definitely had added value with the other builds, but I kind of figure you can still just do that with any lego set today, and look online for insparation

[@AClassicBrick]

Great video! I have to bring up one point though: "The Sets of back in the day don't look nearly as good as Sets nowadays" is only half the truth. The other half is that these sets were better for play and especially better to rebuild and do own creations as a kid. A more simple palette of pieces and building techniques ensure, that kids learn how to do their own builds. Also kids wont be disappointed by their own mocs when they compare them to the sets themselves as the simpler look did help to make a kids moc fit in most of the time. If a kid tries to build something else out of the pieces of a modern Star Wars set, they firstly would be missing essential building pieces that just aren't included in many sets these days, like normal bricks. Secondly there is no chance that their creation would look as good and smoothed as the Set itself looked. The sets therefore tend to not be rebuild as much anymore. Also I think that what LEGO is trying to do with their modern sets is deny that they are LEGO as much as possible by smooting over every sharp angle, every visible stud to erase the trace of the sets being made from LEGO bricks. It to me is a great but characterless look. LEGO is at its best when they do enough to get across the idea, but don't go overboard with cluttering details in my opinion. I prefer many of the original sets to their modern counterparts. And that doesn't even come from nostalgia, I never had any of these sets as a kid except for the desert skiff. I did have more modern Star Wars Sets though and always thought they were overdesigned. The skiff was aktually the one I played with and rebuild the most while the rest collected dust. Furthermore the more LEGOish asthetic of these models make them fit in with other contemporary themes better than modern Star Wars does with the rest of the themes on the shelves. The classic Sets look like Star Wars made by LEGO, modern Sets feel like model kits. Since I now officially have every Star Wars Fan in outrage I might add that I always thought flesh tone minifigures hit uncanny valley. And the blue colour of the TIE Fighter isn't all that wrong as if you watch Episode V the Tie Fighters actually appear blue in many shots, as the blue screens reflected on the filming models while filming. Since the movies were the main source for LEGO back then, I can see why they chose blue, as that is the colour they appear in to be in the movie.

[@LegoManCam]

Definitely true thanks for the comment! I remember seeing all those old re-builds that always looked pretty cool!

[@GrantGraff]

So what your saying is that you want Lego to intentionally make theirs sets look worse so when a kid tries to build a Lego level moc, it is actually Lego level. I think literally everyone would prefer to have a better looking set over Lego tricking them that they are a good moc builder.

[@AClassicBrick]

@@GrantGraff Not necessarily, what I'm saying is that the building techniques don't need to be as advanced as they are nowadays, especially not for playsets. Super hyper detailed models is what the 18+ Icons series is for. What I mean is that there is merit in having a simpler parts palette and simpler techniques so that the imagination that LEGO once was all about can fill in a few gaps. The functionality for these old sets was there and the looks mostly were too, be it with a little more sharp angles than nowadays. Can only say it for Star Wars from looking at parts list, but recently built quite a few modern sets from 2023 and 2024 and all of those include really specific small pieces to make details. To built something as simple as a house out of LEGO you would have to buy the whole portfolio before you even had enough bricks. I'm not saying I want them to go back to this style of 1999 for Star Wars sets. I'm just saying that instead of "better" or "worse" they are just "different" from the sets that come out nowadays. They have their advantages and disadvantages

[@eightcoins4401]

Also ironically, the 1999-2001 Star Wars sets were better than non liscensed lego options.

[@Eisenwald64]

1:24 The "outpost" is a moisture vaporator; we see one just like that when they enter Mos Espa. The N-1 starfighter, AAT and landspeeder are from what I heard are minifigure-scale. The blue in some sets was due to the original movie models having a sand blue coloration, which came out in 2001. 8:29 They did have a relatively decent build of Neva Kee's podracer; the one with rear-mounted engines.

[@OBBRICKS72]

I was so sad when you gave the 1999 vulture droid a 6/10 I love that set

[@eightcoins4401]

I can see why. You had to basically rebuild it to have flight mode since the small turntable didnt exist yet.

[@bulletgrievous]

Why is Yoda on the thumbnail? The figure was released on 2002! 🤔

[@BrandonScott-mi5pz]

EXCELLENT WORK. LEGO MAN CAM LEGO STAR 🌟 WARS SETS

[@LegoManCam]

he looks old enough ahaha

[@AtticusPiscioneri-b1y]

Lol

[@bulletgrievous]

@@LegoManCam He does lol

[@eightcoins4401]

Not really important to any point in the video, but I thought it'd be kinda funny trivia: The first playscale Tie Fighter with no Blue was released in 2009 (Darth Vaders Tie Advanced). 2001: Og Tie-Fighter, Blue 2003: Tie Bomber, Blue 2005: Og Tie-Fighter Reissue with Light Up Darth Vader , Blue 2006: Tie Interceptor, Blue 2007: Tie Crawler, Blue The sole exception is the 2006? I think UCS Darth Vader's Tie Advanced

[@Oscar-ek2jx]

0:51 there are modern lego city sets that look worse than this

[@kahuls._.3794]

FAR better than this year I’ll tell you that.

[@johnemmert9012]

I remember the early days... When Scout Troopers predated OG stormtroopers, and I have modded all of my original trilogy sets from this era to look more like the reference models. I had 7110, my first Lego Star Wars set, and I got two copies of 7128.

[@user-xi1in9oo9p]

2005 for best

[@samwecerinvictus]

Awful take. These sets were pretty great for these limitations and also made convincing models from the movies while still keeping within lego’s style. The minifigures were top notch!

[@NomicFin]

I find it amusing that the Y-wing pilot seems to just be reusing a Space Police II minifigure head.

[@anthonyalzamora4566]

I always thought those preexisting minifigure faces with headsets/microphones printed on them looked really on brand for Star Wars, which is why I really like the original Y-Wing pilot and Dutch Vander minifigures

[@elihutchinson007]

I think 2004 was the worst year because of how few sets there were compared to other years.

[@grov508]

Disagree. The best years were 1999-2008 everything after that has no charm.

[@starstrike_]

Man I think the best years of lego star wars are 2003-2005 and 2008-2014

[@eightcoins4401]

I wasnt really sentient in 2003 and never owned the set, but the 2003 AT-AT still is the only one to look accurate thicknesswise to me. All the later ones seem too thin. Exception being the walking AT AT since that one iirc is just 2003 one retooled to fit the motors.

[@BrickyMcghee404]

🚨| TRUTH ALERT |🚨 It wasn’t.

[@LegoManCam]

Did you make it to the end of the video?

[@BrickyMcghee404]

@@LegoManCamyes however I disagree (No offense) mainly just cause of personal preference. This was such a nostalgic time for me.

[@sooshee5239]

@@BrickyMcghee404 i agree but it is hard to judge what is considered a good lego set nowadays especially when comparing older sets to the newer ones. back then this is the best lego could've done with the available pieces and it wouldve looked incredible for the time. its just a same people dont look at it like that anymore because of current standards of lego sets.

[@GrantGraff]

He also forgot that because Lego has poorer building techniques back in the day, a lot of sets were unstable and fell apart. Also the brown bricks would break.

[@AClassicBrick]

​@@GrantGraff the old brown bricks were very stable. The "briddle brown" period was a few years later with the reddish brown around 2010. I also must add that when it comes to general Set stability I'm not sure whst you mean. I own a good amount of old Sets from 1984 to 2003 and none of them fall apart as long as you dont throw them down a flight of stairs.

[@TearsOfABroken]

gasgango

[@Drifteri]

4th

[@EricBrindle-dp8kq]

please more

[@kirillslavitonov9486]

Inflation is great, credit-based fractional reserve banking, no currency backed by silver/gold! Read the history of central banking to know who to blame!

[@bennnybaby1593]

First

[@rattlesnake551]

shut up

[@Darnley_10]

Guess what

[@LonelyGamer4]

Big chungus

[@GrantGraff]

I get how people have nostalgia for this time period, but those building techniques were awful compared to now. If lego relieced any of these sets today they would be constirered the worst set of the year.

[@AClassicBrick]

And nowadays the pieces are awful compared to back then, you win some you lose some :/

[@eightcoins4401]

Lego didn't have alot of bricks that exist nowadays in 1991-2001. Alot of sloped pieces only got introduced in 2002. Look up RR Slugger's the great lego plague of 2002 for a look at one of the most widespread pieces

[@d1nq887]

The main reason for lego are kids and kids don't care how it looks so those sets were the biggest wins of the time also the price was cheap so parents could get it for kid

[@googleuser3163]

Old sets are bad and people who like them are cringe

[@flimsfilms4755]

Wild take from this guy I personally love the simplicity of these old sets and have nostalgia for the yellow mini figs

[@eightcoins4401]

I have no nostalgia for the time since I was only born in 2001, but looking at images of them the really old sets got a certain charme. It feels way more like something a kid could make from generic Lego pieces to the time than Star Wars sets nowadays

[@googleuser3163]

@@eightcoins4401 please don't spread misinformation it's illegal to the law

[@salkinreslif9830]

I don't want to bring this point up, but this is clearly no missinformation, but an opinion instead.