The 2000 Star Wars Podracing Bucket
The Only LEGO Star Wars Set That Comes in a Bucket
292 pieces. A bucket. Four podracers. One “Generic Alien.” And the only LEGO depiction of the Mos Espa Grand Arena arch ever made.
In 2000 LEGO released a Star Wars set that came in a bucket. Not a box. A bucket — the same format used for basic brick sets aimed at the youngest builders. It was an odd choice for a licensed Star Wars product, and it was never repeated. Twenty-five years later it remains the only LEGO Star Wars set ever packaged this way, which makes it a genuine curiosity in the catalog even before you get to what’s inside.
The Set
Set 7159 — the Star Wars Podracing Bucket — contains 292 pieces, three minifigures, and enough parts to build four miniature podracers and a Start/Finish Line arch. It retailed for $24.99 and was aimed at ages 5-8 — younger than most Star Wars sets of the era. It launched on June 1, 2000 and was retired on December 31, 2001 — just 18 months on shelves.
The bucket itself measures approximately 8.375 × 10.5 × 8.375 inches. It is square, plastic, and unmistakably a bucket. The first time you see a sealed example on a shelf or in a collection it stops you — nothing else in the LEGO Star Wars catalog looks like it.
The Builds
The set contains four miniature podracers — Anakin Skywalker’s, Aldar Beedo’s, Neva Kee’s, and Clegg Holdfast’s — along with a tan observation arch representing the Mos Espa Grand Arena Start/Finish Line. This is the only LEGO set to ever depict that arch, which gives the set a unique place in the catalog beyond its unusual packaging.
The podracers are deliberately smaller than the dedicated podracer sets released in 1999 and 2000 — this is a feature, not a bug. The set was designed as a starter-level build with a higher proportion of generic elements than most Star Wars sets, closer in spirit to a basic brick bucket than a display-quality model set. One reviewer described it as “basically a Star Wars-branded starter set” — which is probably exactly what it was intended to be.
The scale mismatch with the dedicated sets is worth noting for completists — the Anakin podracer in this set is noticeably smaller than the version in 7131 Anakin’s Podracer or 7171 Mos Espa Podrace. They are not interchangeable as display pieces.
The Minifigures
Three minifigures are included: Anakin Skywalker (Boy), Jar Jar Binks, and a figure originally labeled only as “Generic Alien.”
That Generic Alien is the collector story of this set. Nine years after the bucket was released — in 2009, when the LEGO Star Wars Visual Dictionary was published — the Generic Alien was formally identified as Aldar Beedo, a Glymphid podracer who participated in the Boonta Eve Classic. He was tasked with eliminating Sebulba during the race, failed, and finished third behind Anakin. He is not a prominent character. But he is unique to this set in his original form, which makes him the reason serious collectors open the bucket.
The minifigure itself is a genuinely unusual construction — assembled from a selection of random droid parts, including what appears to be a Battle Droid torso and a roof slope element, topped with a head sourced from the 1998 Aquazone Hydronauts line. One reviewer charitably described it as “a bizarre fusion of battle droid and roof slope.” It bears almost no resemblance to the source character. LEGO themselves apparently weren’t sure who it was for nine years.
A second version of Aldar Beedo was produced in 2001 for set 7186 Watto’s Junkyard — a single-piece molded figure, unpainted, but more anatomically accurate. Neither version is anyone’s idea of a LEGO Star Wars highlight. But the 7159 version, assembled from parts that had no business being a Glymphid podracer, has a deranged charm that the cleaner 7186 version completely lacks.
Why Complete Sealed Examples Are Rare
The bucket format is both what makes this set distinctive and what makes sealed examples harder to find than you might expect for a mass-market retail product. Buckets are not boxes. They do not stack cleanly. They are harder to store without damage. The plastic handle and lid assembly is prone to wear. And the bucket itself — unlike a standard LEGO box — is not something most people feel compelled to keep after opening.
Many people who bought this set in 2000 opened it, built the podracers, and discarded the bucket. The set was aimed at 5-8 year olds — the demographic least likely to preserve packaging. An 18-month retail window means fewer total units sold than longer-running sets. The result is that sealed examples in good condition command a substantial premium: approximately $388 new versus $42 used — a nearly tenfold difference that reflects just how rarely the bucket survived intact.
In This Collection
This collection holds two examples — one sealed, one opened. The opened example was purchased specifically to access the unique Aldar Beedo minifigure. The parts from the opened set were retained for use in MOC builds rather than discarded — a practice that reflects a broader collecting philosophy: every opened set has value beyond its minifigures, and nothing gets wasted.
The Verdict
The 7159 Podracing Bucket is not one of the great LEGO Star Wars sets. The builds are small and simplified. The Aldar Beedo minifigure is objectively strange. The bucket packaging, while distinctive, was clearly a one-time experiment that LEGO never felt compelled to repeat.
But it is genuinely unique — the only bucket in the Star Wars catalog, the only depiction of the Mos Espa arch, the only version of the Generic Alien who turned out to be Aldar Beedo nine years later. For a completist collection it is essential. For a general collector it is worth owning for the curiosity factor alone. And for anyone who wants to display a piece of LEGO Star Wars history that genuinely looks like nothing else in the cabinet — the bucket is hard to beat.
7159 Star Wars Podracing Bucket
Released: June 1, 2000 | Retired: December 31, 2001
Pieces: 292 | Minifigures: 3 | RRP: $24.99 | Age: 5-8
Unique minifigure: sw0046 Aldar Beedo (Generic Alien) — unique to this set in original form
Current value: ~$388 new, ~$42 used
Brickset: 7159-1 | BrickLink: 7159-1
