LEGO Star Wars 40806 Gingerbread AT-AT: a sweet deal for Life Day [Review]
Ever since its first Advent calendar back in 2011, Star Wars has been a regular feature of LEGO’s holiday season offerings. Even so, in the last few years, it’s felt like they’ve been ramping up the Life Day celebrations. We (well, LEGO employees) got to see an extremely limited candy cane X-wing in 2019. In 2023, it was a small diorama with Finn, Rey and Chewie to coincide with an animated Christmas special. And this year, we get 40806 Gingerbread AT-AT – a set as unique as it is festive! We haven’t been entirely complimentary of this year’s Star Wars sets; can we end on a high note?
LEGO Star Wars 40806 Gingerbread AT-AT | 697 Pieces | Available October 1 |US $59.99 | CAN $79.99 | UK £54.99
The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
The box and build
Within our suitably wintery box (presumably this is somewhere on Hoth), we have 5 paper bags, plus two loose flexible cable elements and the instructions.
The body of our walker is first. While the exterior has plenty of sweet-treat details, the interior is full of festive trappings. We have stockings, a cosy fireplace, cocoa and a cookie, and presents, of course. There’s even a tiny model of a Death Star, represented by a light bluish grey Technic ball joint!
The colour of choice for this gingerbread juggernaut is dark orange, and there’s a decent selction of parts here – particularly wedge plates. White is used to represent the icing that acts as the gingerbread equivalent of cement. I like the use of hinges to keep the lines nice and thin!
Taking a break from the body, we move on to the head. Until it’s fully assembled, it does feel a bit fragile, what with all those hinged assemblies, but the final thing is pretty solid. There’s another great detail here in the form of the candy cane cannons.
With that attached via a Technic axle (we’ll take a look at the full thing so far shortly), we can focus on the legs. Click hinges give some articulation, with what look like gingerbread s’mores around the outside. The icing motif continues on the feet with look like giant cakes. It’s at this point of the build that I started to feel really quite hungry.
Thankfully, we don’t have much more to build! It’s pretty much just the external armour plating to go. A wreath is the next item to be ticked off our Christmas cliché bingo card. Cliché it may be, but it’s still a nice detail to hide among the chocolate anti-studs.
A couple more bits of panelling, plus some hanging Christmas lights around the outside, and our gingerbread AT-AT is ready to be devoured by a hungry Wampa. I need to grab a snack myself before I try and chow down on this.
The minifigure
Right, my hunger is sated for now – and good job too, because we have a bona fide gingerbread man to pilot our AT-AT. A gingerbread Sith lord, in fact! Unlike his ride, he’s decked out in light nougat, so perhaps slightly undercooked? Either way, it’s still a great figure.
The piping and candy theme works really well for Vader’s suit in this style. Even the cape gets some printing, and it feels like a real luxury item. The only slight disappointment is that there’s no face under that helmet. Then again, creating a scarred and deformed head in gingerbread form might have been a rather morbid task for LEGO’s bakers…
The finished model
And here is that finished AT-AT! With such a prevalence of grey in the Star Wars universe, this is a really fun take on the venerable walker.
It has been considerably downsized compared to even playscale AT-ATs, and the roof does need to be up for someone to pilot it. But since it’s so obviously just for fun, this doesn’t really matter. If anything, it just adds to the goofiness.
Thankfully, he can fit inside the body. Access is pretty good thanks to the side panels that lift up as one. There’s a clip to hold his lightsaber too. Normally I’d say leaving it on the floor would be a safety risk, but since this is a gingerbread Vader, I’m assuming that blade is made of red gelatin or something!
The articulation is reasonably good – certainly good enough to make it look like this walker walks the walk.
However, the click hinges are so stiff that you’re very likely to pop some of the leg plating off while playing with them. This was a constant frustration between photos for me. It’s a shame the head isn’t articulated too. I know AT-ATs are supposed to be machines, but we can’t help but anthropomorphise them as dogs; having that articulation would’ve given this set even more personality.
Conclusion and recommendation
As I alluded to in the intro, LEGO Star Wars has had a decidedly mixed year. We’ve found few sets bringing something new to the theme, and fewer still that are worth their asking price. Happily, though, this set accomplishes both. To be frank, the idea is bonkers. But building it and playing with it put genuine smiles on my face. It’s so creative.
Is it in any way canon or universe-accurate? No. But is it one of the most fun Star Wars sets I’ve built in recent years? Absolutely. If you want a fun Star Wars-adjacent build to gift someone this holiday season, this would definitely be my pick.
LEGO Star Wars 40806 Gingerbread AT-AT | 697 Pieces | Available October 1 |US $59.99 | CAN $79.99 | UK £54.99
The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
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