One of the very first vehicles seen on screen in Star Wars is at long last coming to the LEGO Ultimate Collector Series (UCS) with 75341 Luke Skywalker’s Landspeeder. This dilapidated two-seater civilian vehicle is nearly as iconic to Star Wars as the X-wing or Millennium Falcon and has appeared in minifigure scale numerous times, starting with a simple 49-piece version in the original LEGO Star Wars lineup in 1999. The new UCS version is considerably larger with 1,890 pieces and measuring nearly 20 inches long (50cm). It also includes a display stand and minifigures of Luke and C-3PO. The UCS Landspeeder will be available just in time for May the Fourth sales this year, with VIP access starting May 1 and general availability on May 4. It will retail for US $199.99 | CAN $269.99 | UK £174.99.
The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
Unboxing the set and contents
The Landspeeder comes in a large box that’s similar in size to other UCS sets such as the A-wing, and it follows the now-standard clean black box aesthetic with the Ultimate Collector Series text quite small in the upper right corner. Around back, there are a few detail shots of the model along with a few film frames showing the landspeeder in A New Hope.
Inside the box are 14 bags numbered across 11 steps, plus two more unnumbered bags of large elements. The instructions and sticker sheet are bagged together, and that deliciously bubbled canopy also gets its own packaging.
The sticker sheet is pretty large, but only includes a small handful of stickers, as the bulk of it is taken up by the large info placard—a finicky piece that LEGO still refuses to print, even though on a premium $200 set like this it absolutely should be printed onto the tile. Nearly all of the rest of the stickers add some dark red striping to various bits of the landspeeder.
The canopy comes wrapped in a flat sheet of thick cling plastic rather than loose in a bag, which turns out to be an excellent way of ensuring it arrives in pristine condition. It’s not a method I’ve ever encountered from LEGO before, but I hope they employ it again. The sheet is reusable so I immediately set it aside to protect some other pieces in my collection that aren’t in use. The canopy, of course, is a brand new element. With a footprint of 14×14 studs and four bricks tall at the peak, it’s among the largest canopies LEGO has ever created. There’s really no way LEGO could have done justice to the bubbly landspeeder cockpit at this scale without this new element.
The canopy is the only wholly new element, but there are a few other elements of note. First of all, this set is a goldmine for nougat elements, with 302 spread across 16 elements. Some of them are new in nougat to this set, such as the mudguards.
One part I was very surprised to spot in this set were white Technic frictionless half pins. Technic half pins have appeared in white before, in just seven sets released between 2002-2005, but for the rest of their 40+ year history, they’ve only been available in grey and blue, and white ones command a premium on the secondary market (at the time of writing, before this set has released, the 6-month average price on BrickLink for white half pins is $4.20 each). The Landspeeder bucks that trend and includes nine (plus an extra), even though they’re completely buried in the model and aren’t visible on the finished design. Just to make this even more of a head-scratcher, the set also includes two common grey half pins. The most obvious explanation is that the white pins will appear in more sets soon, and weren’t produced exclusively for this set, but that remains to be seen.
The build
As with a great many models, the landspeeder kicks off a basic foundation of large plates. The interior is an explosion of reds, greens, and blues which makes it easy to keep your place as the build progresses.
The body of the landspeeder is pretty straightforward, consisting mostly of simple studs-up construction. The bottom edges of the craft are lined with inverted slopes which only come in a 1-stud wide version, so you’ll line up 34 on each side. At this point, you’ll start to get a feel for the scale of the vehicle as the dark red interior seat bottoms go in.
As the sides get built up, a few bits of detail are added with nougat wheel arches turned sideways to make the landspeeder’s scalloped edges.
The rounded nose is built as a completely separate sub-assembly, and it’s where we first delve into some more complex building techniques, as the large quarter-circle slopes don’t come in matching top/bottom versions, so the bottom ones are flipped upside down. There’s also some very interesting techniques to hold the very tip of the nose in place which at first it seemed way over-engineered. But once the curved flex tubing is added later, it’s apparent that the extra strength this design provides is needed.
The top of the engine uses several soft rubber hoses and whips for the exposed wiring; it’s nothing too tricky to build, but it is so refreshing to see details like this making their way into official LEGO sets.
Once the engines are attached, the landspeeder itself is complete. The only the left is to build the display stand.
The landspeeder has two small holes on the underside where the stand slots in, but the rest of the vehicle’s underside is unremarkable. If I had one wish for this model it’s that it were a little closer to the film prop, as opposed to the in-universe vehicle. The real prop had a regular vehicle chassis with wheels that were crudely blurred out (via petroleum jelly on the film) to make it “float”. I would have loved for this landspeeder to include flip-down wheels so that it could be pushed around “floating” on the ground. But I also understand why LEGO didn’t go this route, as UCS models have always tried to be as accurate to the in-universe designs as possible. Still, it seems a relatively easy modification to make, so undoubtedly some fans will design a great conversion.
The completed model
The UCS landspeeder is a fantastic-looking model. While the nougat color at first struck me as a bit too vibrant, after looking at the source material a bit, it’s really the closest color in the LEGO palette to the film’s prop.
The details along the sides and the exposed engine are well-done. While a fan design might be able to get a bit more accurate, it would surely sacrifice stability considerably. The flex tubing for the smoothly curving sides, however, is just perfect. And of course, that new windscreen is just gorgeous.
The cockpit’s interior is solid, though the two black consoles on the dash are missing their screens.
I would have liked to see some removable panels in the long hood with technical details beneath; the interior structure could easily accommodate it.
Perhaps someday LEGO will create miniland-scale figures to accompany UCS sets, but for now, here’s a miniland-scale R2-D2. And speaking of figures, let’s take a look at them now.
The minifigures
Like all recent UCS sets, the landspeeder comes with a few relevant minifigures to display on the stand. Here you’ll get Luke Skywalker and C-3Po. I think the set really ought to have included R2-D2 as well, since after all it’s R2’s running away and Luke chasing him in the landspeeder that’s the catalyst for the whole plot. This version of Luke is the same design that’s been kicking around since 2016, which is a shame. It’s a nice version but there is room for updating; specifically it would look better with double-molded legs with tan boots. C-3PO is a new version, however, and does have a double-molded right leg with a light grey bottom.
C-3PO’s printing is identical to the new design that came in this year’s 75339 Death Star Trash Compactor Diorama, except that it adds printing on the sides of the legs, and of course, the double-molded leg itself makes it pretty distinct. While it’s true that C-3PO’s right leg is a different color from the rest of his body, on-screen it’s a very subtle difference and the light grey used here is far too jarring. So even though this figure is more “exclusive”, coming in a $200 set, I prefer the version from the $90 compactor.
Conclusions and recommendation
The landspeeder is another excellent entry to the Ultimate Collector Series. It’s a delight getting a peaceful, civilian vehicle from Star Wars for a change, and the model does the original justice and looks great on your shelf. As I’ve mentioned, it’s not quite perfect, but all of my complaints about the landspeeder itself are very minor nitpicks (the lack of side screens in the cockpit, the need for more compartmented details, etc) and they’re easy to ignore. The minifigures, however, are a pretty distinct letdown. This version of Luke isn’t even remotely exclusive to this set and is due for an upgrade, especially as one of the two collectible figures in a $200 “Collector” set. C-3PO is exclusive, but feels like it misses the mark and falls short of the far cheaper version from the Diorama Collection. But unless you’re specifically a minifigure collector, you’re buying it for the landspeeder and the figures are just a bonus. And in that case, this set earns an easy recommendation.
The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
