Following the presentation from Darwin316 mod allowing a better integration of the Rancor Pit in Jabba's Palace, Alex has just sent me by email his modified version of these two sets together.

Same principle as the previous mod for the extension of the Rancor cellar with here an exterior cladding of the most beautiful effect.
It's clean, simple and the rendering of the exterior in Tan with C-3PO and R2-D2 arriving in front of the palace gate is really nice.

If you too have managed to credibly integrate the Rancor Pit, please send me your photos by email.

Darwin316 reacted like many of us when he discovered what LEGO had planned to interconnect the set  75005 Rancor Pit released at the end of 2012 with the set 9516 Jabba's Palace : He was disappointed by the risky side of the thing ...

It must be said that the complementarity between the two sets is not immediately obvious if we trust the advice of LEGO which can be found on the back of the box of set 75005 : You have to detach the tower from the palace and it ends up casually next to the Rancor Pit itself topped by Jabba's palace.

Darwin316 took the Rancor by the horns (which he does not have) and modified both sets to achieve a magnificent compromise: The Rancor Pit has been extended to cover the entire available area under the palate and the base of the palate has was itself extended to cover the entire cellar at Rancor.

The result is really excellent, we get a coherent whole, playable, displayable, etc ...

Other photos of this magnificent modification are available in the dedicated topic at Eurobricks.

This set that we have already talked about a lot (a little too much probably) presents a major interest which should in itself justify the purchase of this box: The possibility of connecting the Rancor's lair to that of Jabba in the set 9516 Jabba's Palace.

BrickieB, again, was able to get the set in Belgium 75005 Rancor Pit and lifts the veil on the supposed interconnection possibilities offered by LEGO in a mini-review on Eurobricks.

LEGO indicates on the back of the box that the two sets are intended to be grouped. The solution indicated by the manufacturer is to detach the side tower of Jabba's Palace and place it next to the two remaining elements assembled together.

It is a moderately satisfactory compromise but which brings a real playful added value to the whole. Only regret, you have to spend more than 200 € at LEGO to obtain this result. A little less by seeking elsewhere on the internet.

Fortunately, the minifigs are there to reassure me. They are superb and the Rancor is really imposing, evidenced by this photo of BrickieB on which he poses next to Jabba.

In any case, this set will saturate my shelves, even if I think that the interconnection with the set 9516 could have been a little more worked, by proposing for example an additional floor to be inserted under the tower of the palace.

On the playability side, it's different. The palace trap mechanism will take advantage of the presence of the Rancor Pit and will allow a few poor creatures to be thrown into it, including poor Oola ...

Gunner, a Eurobricks forumer, ventured to offer a 3D rendering (on the left in the image above, the two visuals on the right are those of LEGO) of what the set of the two LEGO Star Wars sets could look like 9516 Jabba's Palace and Rancor Pit connected to each other.

If it is now obvious that LEGO designed this Rancor Pit with the possibility of inserting it under Jabba's palace, it remains to be seen how it was thought of. Since the palace tower is detachable, it shouldn't be part of the equation, and Gunner's 3D rendering leaves me confused about the orientation of the Rancor Pit.

I would wait to see the back of the box of the set containing the Rancor Pit to see how LEGO considered the thing from its side ...

FBTB has also published its photos of the LEGO Star Wars Rancor Pit set unveiled at Comic Con.

I have chosen two for you, the first shows us the Rancor from a closer perspective and the second reveals the mechanism that allows you to drop the gate of the Rancor lair.

No idea of ​​the price yet, FBTB is putting a price up to $ 59 but not officially confirmed, and the release date is set for January 2013. 

For the rest, go to the FBTB flickr gallery.