Tag Archives: Star Wars

LEGO Star Wars is one of the most popular LEGO themes of all time. Far beyond X-wings and TIE fighters, there’s a whole expanded universe of inspiration, and an army of LEGO fans ready to build whatever comes out of George Lucas’s head next.

This purple pod racer is anything but poodoo

Pod racing is back! Last year, we rounded up a slew of new pod racing mocs from AFOLs and LEGO designers, but now a new competitor zooms in courtesy of Kyle Collard, aka Lord of Vador, and this one’s a stunner. (Of course, we wouldn’t expect anything less from Kyle, whose Mustafar moc was one of our favorite builds of 2025.) The engines roar with greeble detail thanks to the larger scale. I didn’t appreciate just how big this build is until I saw the cables connecting the cockpit. This racer is huge! The size also allows for beautiful color blocking and smooth curves in the fins.

Kyle based the design on a piece of concept art from Alexander “Minze” Thümler, but the LEGO version incorporates purple as the primary accent color. As the builder explains: “The color scheme stays dark and aggressive: dark purple, dark blue, and light gray, layered with pearl dark gray and flat silver to give the engines weight and metallic depth. The white accents are decals—kept clean to cut through the darkness.”

Kyle’s racer has me pushing Galactic Racer to the top of my most anticipated game releases:

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TIE Striker in flight, afternoon delight

I saw this sweet LEGO TIE /sk X1 Striker by Auto’s Builds and somehow the chorus to a cheesy provocative tune popped into my head, hence the title. Now I’m making it your problem. But now that you’re hearing it too, you have to admit this Coruscant Air Guard checks all the right boxes: Star Wars, cool-ass spaceship, and striking design aesthetics. Auto tells us the TIE Striker is ideal for navigating Coruscant’s dense architecture and crowded skylanes. The Air Guard fitted their variant with precision weapons and under-wing guided missiles to minimize collateral damage. What’s the Earthly equivalent to this? An Apache helicopter maybe? I can’t speak for the Apache’s maneuverability within a city but seeing any of these gunships in your rear view means your days of doing that afternoon delight stuff are numbered.

We were on the verge of greatness...

If you’re a long-time reader of The Brothers Brick, you know we tend to praise the talent of the best LEGO builders out there. A recent diorama by Abe Fortier (aka Hypolite Bricks), the first of 12 tributes to Rogue One, is technically masterful. Lah’mu’s landscape with a cutaway of the dark soil, the domed homestead, and the builder’s signature black frame at the base are absolutely top-notch. The vignette effortlessly captures the entire plot of the scene.

And yet, there’s one little detail that leaves me longing. You see, Abe’s build can’t quite capture the scene’s tension and desperation! Yes, glossy and colorful LEGO bricks are to blame. I wish the grass wasn’t quite this bright, and if only there was a way to build that unsettling, stormy wind that hangs in the air during the tense exchange…

Nevertheless, Abe reached the ultimate goal: he made me wish this were an official LEGO set. Seriously—what a perfect candidate for an 18+ diorama. Give us more Rogue One sets like this, LEGO!

And by the way, don’t miss the detailed video showing the building process. Or feel free to revisit the movie’s opening scene to soak in its dull, unsettling vibe once again.

“And I thought they smelled bad before the race!”

Everyone knows Tauntauns are the Star Wars universe’s most adorable arctic ride/sleeping bag. But did you know they make great racing beasts, too? Will (@montivalbricks) leaves icy Hoth to assemble a sorrel Tauntaun gelding, tacked up and ready for the derby. The builder does a phenomenal job capturing the tauntaun’s features from small elements. A roller skate nose offers perfect nostrils, and minifig hands kick off as toes.

Will created this impressive racing beast for the Star Wars Factions RPG, a LEGO storytelling universe where builders can compete in challenges tied to a shared story world. That means we get plenty of lore to accompany the build, so we know that the mount is named Dicastery and that the jockey is Tur C’otte, a NeuroSaav employee. Will’s excellent build won first prize in the Canto-Key Derby. Congratulations to Dicastery and his builder both!

LEGO unveils Smart Play system – LEGO bricks and minifigs that play back [News]

The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) isn’t the usual venue for LEGO to break big news – techies love displaying LEGO, but the bricks themselves aren’t your typical cutting-edge gadgets. That’s about to change with the announcement of the Smart Play system. Smart Bricks communicate with Smart Minifigures and Smart Tags that integrate sensors and spatial awareness into your builds, thanks to microchips smaller than a single stud. You can read about LEGO’s design process for the Smart Brick here.

As rumored, the new system debuts with the Star Wars theme with three all-in-one sets coming this March. Each of these will include a Smart Brick, charger, and at least one Smart Minifigure and Yag. The all-in-one sets include: 75421 Darth Vader’s TIE Fighter (69,99 EUR / 69,99 USD / 59,99 GBP), 75423 Luke’s Red Five X-wing (89,99 EUR / 99,99 USD / 79,99 GBP), and 75427 Throne Room Duel & A-wing (159,99 EUR / 159,99 USD / 139,99 GBP). Presumably other sets will expand the Minifigure and Tag range but wouldn’t include a charging station.

LEGO has, of course, experimented with ways for bricks and circuits to talk to each other before. Mindstorms empowered curious builders to experiment with robotics and programming as early as 1998. The Dimensions toys-to-life video game platform let gamers scan physical toys to activate the models in-game. Vidyo and Hidden World sets played with augmented reality apps. Most recently, the Super Mario line uses a smart figure and sensors to let players assemble courses, collect coins, and playback sounds and expressions.

As the sensors in Smart Play are smaller and more powerful, they seem primed to make it easier for kids to integrate sound effects, music, lights, and game behaviors into physical sets that are much closer to your typical LEGO models. Just how robust those behaviors are, we’ll have to see. Right now it looks like the primary focus here is on imaginative, physical play rather than the more STEM focused initiatives like Mindstorms and Spike. I’m very curious to see how adult LEGO fans integrate these new functions into creations.

LEGO’s press release follows

TBB’s best and worst sets of 2025 [Feature]

We at the Brothers Brick got through quite a lot of LEGO this year. We had 81 reviews penned by both in-house and guest writers, and that’s not even counting the sets we bought of our own volition! As you know, we’re an opinionated bunch. We all have our favourites: LEGO kits that wowed us with new parts, interesting techniques, or just downright charm. On the other hand, you can’t win them all, and there were a fair few duds this year too. We’ve listed some of our picks for both categories below. Agree or disagree? Tell us in the comments! What were your most and least favourite sets from 2025?

Let’s get the bad out the way first, shall we?

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Star Wars January Playsets – Simple pleasures [Review]

Brickbot Studio here with a look at the smaller Star Wars playsets coming to stores on January 1st. 2025 had Star Wars fans debating whether LEGO could still deliver good value with its galactic offerings. In addition to a pair of midi-scale vehicles and a new brick-built BB-8, LEGO is releasing a quartet of sets priced between $10-$23 based on The Mandalorian and The Clone Wars. Will this budget wave of sets win us over? Let’s have a look!

Our reviews of the January Star Wars playsets follows

General Grievous, you’re taller than I expected

The buildable Technic Star Wars figures from a decade ago received generally mixed feedback, but several of the molded and printed parts were a big hit. This topic reappeared with the release of 75434 K-2SO Security Droid this year, with many builders and collectors discussing the possibility of using the molded head from the buildable K2SO instead. Builder nobu_tary takes a similar approach here with an expert build of General Grievous, using the head from the buildable figure in set 75112. This is a sizable build with a ton of great details all over. The most impressive aspect of the build is that it captures Grievous’ especially tricky shape and proportions very well, and when compared to the Technic buildable this version feels so much more like the Separatist leader that we’ve all grown to love.

LEGO Star Wars 75441 Venator-Class Attack Cruiser [Review]

Now I’m not going to claim any particular powers of manifesting. But when I reviewed 75404 Acclamator-Class Assault Ship, I mentioned that a Venator would make a great match for the existing Invisible Hand set. Fast-forward two years, and what comes across my reviewing desk? Why, 75441 Venator-Class Attack Cruiser, coming next January 1! You’re welcome, Venator fans. And there are many of you – so this set should be quite the hit. With 643 pieces and pre-orderable (is that a word? It is now) for US $79.99 | CAN $99.99 | UK £69.99, it’s certainly a bit of a hit to the wallet. (Prices may be slightly friendlier on third-party sites such as Amazon or eBay after general release). But price-per-piece isn’t everything, so let’s see how the venerable Venator stacks up!

LEGO Star Wars 75441 Venator-Class Attack Cruiser | 643 Pieces | Available January 1, 2026; Pre-orders open now | US $79.99 | CAN $99.99 | UK £69.99

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

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You underestimate my clutch power!

LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game (and its subsequent appearance in The Complete Saga) has become a cult classic among both Star Wars and video game fans, and Alex Lyman assembled all of that nostalgia in this wonderful little vignette. Capturing the moment on Mustafar where this co-op game became a versus game, Anakin and Obi-Wan duel it out here in a world that is viewed through the HUD of the game. The stud progress bar is a visual icon (though we’re still a ways off from True Jedi here), and we fully appreciate the purist approach to representing the character avatar and lives. The mosaic texture used to detail the lava and backdrop is effective and adds to the nostalgia with some simulated pixelation.

While it may not be instantly obvious upon first look, this build actually has a 3D element that leverages the stud depth of the vignette. It adds a nice element that makes this scene feel at home with the Star Wars vignettes or most recent book nooks.

LEGO Star Wars 75440 AT-AT: Super little stomper [Review]

When is a starship not a starship? Why, when it’s part of the LEGO Star Wars Starship Collection, of course. This line of statues has given us plenty of microscale versions of larger ships from the galaxy far, far away. So far, they have all been true to the sub-theme’s name; but coming out next January 1 is 75440 AT-AT – decidedly not a starship! No matter, though. It should still make for a nice little model. Pre-orders are open now with an asking price US $64.99 | CAN $84.99 | UK £54.99; third-party sellers like Amazon or eBay might also have it available after general release. At 525 pieces, it’s one of the smallest versions of this walker LEGO has ever released as a stand-alone set. But size, as Yoda tells us, matters not…

LEGO Star Wars 75440 AT-AT | 525 Pieces | Available January 1, 2026; Pre-orders open now |US $64.99 | CAN $84.99 | UK £54.99

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Judge it by its size, do we? Click here to find out if that’s the case!

LEGO Star Wars 75452 BB-8: aren’t you a little small for a droid? [Review]

It’s a question that’s been on my mind ever since I saw Star Wars: the Force Awakens. Not who Rey’s parents were, or why the Death Star is the size of a planet now. I still wonder: when BB-8 flicks his little flame in response to Finn’s thumbs-up, is he giving a thumbs-up back? Or is he giving a slightly ruder gesture? We may never know. What we can figure out is which response a LEGO version of the droid will elicit. 75452 BB-8 Astromech Droid marks the second LEGO iteration of this roundest of droids, and is considerably smaller than the 2017 model with a part count of 569. Pre-orders can be made now for US $89.99 | CAN $119.99 | UK £79.99, with a general release date of January 1. Other sellers across the galaxy may have it too, such as Amazon or eBay. Let’s get the ball rolling on this review!

LEGO Star Wars 75452 BB-8 Astromech Droid | 569 Pieces | Available January 1, 2026; pre-orders open now | US $89.99 | CAN $119.99 | UK £79.99

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

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