My daughter recently bought the Lego Gungan Sub for her brother on his birthday, the only Star Wars themed set he received this year.
My son just turned 12 and this is the first year he has not received one of the larger Lego Star Wars sets for his birthday. While we have given him a Lego set for every birthday (and Christmas) for the last 11 years or so, he has always requested “Star Wars”. This year, like many fans, he was heavily invested in Lord of the Rings and so asked for Helm’s Deep instead (which is absolutely awesome but I’ll save that for another review!).
My daughter, however had her eye on the Gungan Sub and so the tradition of Star Wars Lego remained in tact for another year 🙂
Lets take a closer look:
Lego Gungan Sub – A Little Background
The Gungan Sub featured in only one Star Wars movie, Episode One The Phantom Menace.
Having journeyed to the planet Naboo, Jedi Master Qui Gon Jinn and his padawan Obi Wan Kenobi find themselves in the company of a clumsy, but cute (hey, ask anyone under the age of 8), creature by the name of Jar Jar Binks.
Jar Jar takes them to his underwater city, Otoh Gunga, where the Jedi request transport to the city of Theed.
Using a vehicle the Gungans call a “Bongo” they travel through the planet’s core to the other side of Naboo and arrive at the grand capital.
The “Bongo” is what we know as the Gungan Sub and is a beautiful merging of natural forms with advanced technology.
Lego Gungan Sub
Set 9499
Lego Set Number: 9499
Pieces: 465
Minifigures: 4 (Queen Amidala, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn and Jar Jar Binks)
Price: US $69.99 / £54.99 /AU $99.99
Ages: 8-14
Released: August 2012
Theme: Star Wars Lego
Instructions in PDF: Available at Lego.com
Best Prices: Amazon I Amazon UK
The Lego Shop (Earn VIP Points): Lego Shop US | Lego Shop UK | Lego Shop AUS
Lego Gungan Sub – Set 9499 Description
Navigate the underwater world of Naboo with the Gungan Sub!
Jar Jar Binks guides his friends Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn through the watery core of planet Naboo in the elegant Gungan Sub. Built to resemble some of the many creatures that inhabit the underwater world, the Gungan Sub features a large cockpit, cargo bays, storage boxes, rotating tail propulsion, missiles and even a mini-sub with harpoon.
• Includes Queen Amidala, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn and Jar Jar Binks
• Features opening cockpit, 2 cargo holds, 2 cargo containers, rotating tail, 4 flick missiles, detachable mini-sub with harpoon and 2 Lightsabers
• Detach the mini-sub!
• Fire the missiles!
• Rotate Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi minifigure heads to reveal decoration with underwater breathing devices!
• Gungan Sub measures over 16″ (43cm) long and 10″ (27cm) wide
Lego Gungan Sub – Set 9499 Images
Lego Gungan Sub 9499
The Brick Life Review
The one thing that people mention when talking about this set is the minifigures.
And not all the minifigures, just one.
The Lego Queen Amidala minifigure that comes with this set is almost worth the price of the set itself – it is THAT beautiful.
I could appreciate the photos other people have taken, but until I actually held it in my hand I couldn’t quite undertand how awesome this figure is – a thing of beauty.
With the amount of detail Lego are putting into figures this year, we are very lucky Lego fans indeed! I just can’t wait to see what Lego has in store for Star Wars and other themes like Lord Of The Rings over the next year or so.
Anyway, moving on to the other parts of the set 🙂
The Gungan ship is very cool, better and larger than I expected. The escape pod is a nice touch and adds levels of playability to the set that would be otherwise hard to find in a medium sized vehicle.
The blue swirly motor at the back distinguishes the sub from most other vehicles in the Star Wars universe, most of which are very angular and “mechanical”. The Gungan city was such a beautiful, Art Nouveau inspired moment in the film, it is nice to have a small part of it depicted in Lego (now we just need an Otoh Gunga playset!),
The other minifigures have their own strengths, the two Jedi come with rebreather prints on one of their (two sided) faces, adding to the aquatic theme of the set.
And Jar Jar? Having another Gungan can’t be a bad thing, even if half the world’s population blame him for ruining their childhood.
Overall it is a great little set, a tad too expensive for my liking but the presence of Queen Amidala will drive up prices on the secondary market so I don’t expect the price-tag will drop too much over time.
The Gungan sub is a wonderful addition to our collection and I would recommend it to fans of Star Wars and minifigure collectors.
The comics are in a square paperback book format, measuring roughly 7.8 x 8 inches and contain only 24 pages. Having said that, the books are full of humor and gently poke fun at the characters and scenarios of the Star Wars Universe in a way that only Lego based products can.
