Yesterday I started my previews of the LEGO Star Wars The Force Awakens sets by taking a look at Poe’s X-Wing Starfighter 75102, and so it logically follows that today we should look ahead to the vehicle that (according to the catalog) is meant to combat that slick Halloween-colored Starfighter. This Star Wars Episode VII vehicle has a name that harkens back to the Original Trilogy, but you sure wouldn’t know it at a glance: it’s the LEGO First Order Snowspeeder 75100!

Disney is all about calling back to the classic Star Wars movies with the upcoming trilogy, so I’m not at all surprised to see The Force Awakens including callbacks to the OT such as a snow planet, Snowtroopers and a Snowspeeder. I am a bit surprised, however, that said Snowspeeder is totally different from the models seen in the Empire Strikes Back.

The LEGO 75100 First Order Snowspeeder vehicle will measure 3″ high, 6″ wide and 8″ long–so basically, it’s your typically-sized medium brick-built vehicle. The features of the set will include “storage, stud shooter, rapid-fire shooters, hidden wheels”, and rotating engines. I’m a big fan of modern stud shooters in Star Wars sets, and I’ll definitely be curious to see if the studs shoot automatically when you rotate the engines or if there’s some sort of manual trigger that needs to be pressed.

Three minifigures will be packed-in with the 75100 LEGO Star Wars First Order Snowspeeder set, and all three are unique to this set (for now): two First Order Snowtroopers minifigures and one First Order Snowtrooper Officer minifigure (with pauldron denoting his rank). Clearly Disney isn’t eschewing everything from the prequels, as they’ve learned that there’s money to be made on having differently-ranked army-builder troopers in their new trilogy galaxy!

The First Order Snowspeeder set will retail for $39.99 in stores and contain 444 pieces. That’s almost exactly 9 cents per piece, which is a fantastic value for a licensed Disney set these days! 40 bucks is still a bit expensive for army-building, but at least the set is a strong value and you get three First Order Snowtroopers for each Snowspeeder that you buy.

Personally, I’m not totally infatuated with the new era design for the Snowspeeder from TFA, but I’ll be picking up at least one copy of this set on release day to begin my army of First Order Snowtrooper figures. I believe these minifigures will be the only representation for the Episode 7 Snowtroopers on Force Friday (although I could be wrong, since the information regarding what’s actually coming out on that day is such a mess).

The LEGO Episode VII First Order Snowspeeder set is scheduled to be officially released in stores and online on Friday, September 4th 2015 for the big “Force Friday” event taking place. That’s also my birthday, by the way, so please send money to assist in my Force Friday purchasing. Heh.

What do you think of the new-and-(maybe) improved Snowspeeder design for the new Star Wars trilogy, brick fans? Will you be adding this set to your post-OT collection this year, or are you waiting to see if this very differently-designed Snowspeeder captures your heart in The Force Awakens first?