LEGO Rancor Pit (75005)

The arrival of this set sort of took me by surprise, as I didn’t expect it until early 2013. But a couple of days ago it popped up on Amazon.com, so I ordered one right away. (It’s still available there as of now for slightly less than the $60 retail price.) It comes with the pit itself, a Gamorrean (the same one that came with the Jabba’s Palace set), a Jedi Luke (apparently a new figure, although it looks similar to ones we’ve had before), the rancor keeper (a new figure) and of course the rancor itself, which is the star of the show.

It’s pretty clear that they intend this to be a companion set for Jabba’s palace rather than a standalone piece. There are indentations on the bottom of the palace playset that fit in the pyramid shapes on the top of the Rancor Pit, allowing you to place the rancor directly under Jabba’s throne. This is an awesome idea, and something that people were hoping would be possible ever since they released the palace. The two sets don’t actually attach to each other in any way (the palace just sits on top) but the pyramids on the top of the rancor pit ensure that the palace won’t slide around.

I neglected to take a photo of this, but the entire wall with the portcullis (seen below) swings outward, allowing you to access the inside of the pit more easily. There’s also a handle (the red part below) that lets you keep the portcullis up or have it come crashing down on any unsuspecting rancors that might be around.

The rancor figure itself is fantastic. It’s quite large and has a moveable jaw, as well as moveable arms and fingers (two of them on each hand, anyway). It bears more than a passing resemblance to the vintage Rancor Monster figure.

Obviously you can have him hold a figure in his hand.

But he can also “eat” figures. He can’t swallow them all the way, but this is more than enough.

Here is the set on top of Jabba’s Palace. When you attach the rancor pit, you need to remove the tower from the palace set, or it will be left standing in midair, which looks a little odd.

Now we can finally have Oola drop directly into the rancor’s waiting jaws…

You can of course recreate his defeat as well. The rancor keeper has two faces, including this “sad” one.

Here’s my current display of the new Jabba legos (including the new skiff and sarlacc). It’s a bit cramped, but it’s the best I could do with the single IKEA Detolf shelf I had available. I’m extremely pleased with these sets. In fact, I’d say that in terms of detail and playability, the LEGO sets are the best Jabba toys they’ve made. I really hope the rumors of a new LEGO Sail Barge are true…