As part of their second 2010 Star Wars wave, Lego have released a playset based around events from the fifth movie Empire Strikes Back, which is incidentally celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Set 8089 recreates the opening sequence of the movie, generally considered to be the best of the saga, when Luke Skywalker is captured by a large bear-like creature known as a Wampa. The Wampa brings Luke back to its cave and suspends him from the ceiling by his feet in a primeval kind of frozen storage system.

The set comes with 297 pieces and is the first set to feature a Lego version of the Wampa, following on the heels of last year's Lego Hoth releases which were the first sets with a Lego Tauntaun. This latest set also comes with the ice cave playset, Luke Skywalker in Hoth attire, a snowspeeder and pilot Zev Senesca. Zev was released in the Hoth Rebel Trooper battle back earlier this year but this time comes with his own snowspeeder.

Given the piece count the set is obviously quite small but manages to pack a fair degree of playability into the two distinct playset/vehicle elements. The snowspeeder is a pared down version of earlier stand alone releases but manages to look and function well. It features a working winch at the back and the cockpit opens. For kids it is highly swooshable, sturdy and easy to hold.

The cave is fairly sparse and come with a skeleton, animal ribcage and a meat joint while there is a flick fire concept in the cave which allows Luke to retrieve his lightsaber using the Force.

The figures are, as always, a joy to behold. Both Luke and Zev feature printing on both sides of their torso and do justice to their cinematic counterparts. The highlight of the set has to be the Wampa. Lego have done a great job sculpting the creature to the target audience. He is not too cartoonish but not too scary.

Given the fairly high price point of $40 the set will not appeal to everyone but it has a high level of playability with the ice cave and a vehicle. The wampa is simply "icing" on the cake.