At the end of August, Disney+ will offer yet another glimpse of that galaxy far, far away with Andor, the TV series that serves as a prequel to Rogue One (itself a prequel to A New Hope). Not much is known about the series beyond the fact that Diego Luna is returning to play the title character Cassian Andor, the soldier who helped Jyn Erso steal the Death Star plans. Well, we’ve gotten our hands on LEGO’s Andor tie-in set, 75338 Ambush on Ferrix, and we’re ready to share its secrets with you. This 679-piece set will be available August 1st for US $69.99 | CAN $89.99 | 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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Unboxing the parts and instructions

The packaging for this set is as you’d expect: the standard Star Wars logo and graphic design, with a shot of the included set in action. In this case, Andor and Luthen Rael (played by Stellan Skarsgård in the show) ride a speeder bike as Syril Karn pursues them in a Tac-Pod ship.

The reverse side features Karn emerging from the rear opening of the Tac-Pod as Andor and Rael rush at him from their parked speeder bike. Inset images demonstrate the functions of the Tac-Pod, including wings that fold up into landing position and a working cannon with swivel action.

Inside the box are 6 individually numbered bags, a sticker sheet, and an instruction manual featuring the newer white “letterbox” framing on the cover.

There are two types of pieces worth noting in this set. The first is the espresso handle bar/round plate combo, appearing in dark green for the first time. The set only uses two of them, but a third one was included as an extra piece in the review copy’s inventory. These are fully concealed within the final model, so swapping them out for a more common color won’t impact the build at all, and you can poach these rarer colored ones for use in your own creations without sacrificing the display quality of this set.

The other part of interest is the newer windscreen that debuted when Speed Champions made the switch to 8-wide scale. The windscreen appears here in trans-black with a new sci-fi styled printing that I expect builders will be really taken with. As you’ll see, the light gray printing here doesn’t match perfectly with the light gray pieces that make up the ship’s hull. Nevertheless, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this used on a lot of custom spaceships or even minifig scale DeLorean builds.

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The build

The first bag is devoted to building Andor’s speeder. It’s a simple yet effective affair, making use of the new Speed Champion 2×6 plate/axle hole brick combo to make up the main bike body. The front is augmented with plenty of railing and a cleverly twisted whip to give it the appropriate sci-fi detailing. There’s room to seat two minifigures and side clips for carrying their weapons.

After Bag 1, the rest of the bags are devoted to construction of the Tac-Pod ship. There’s a lot of technic pieces involved, and lift arms are connected in creative ways to achieve the ship’s slanted hull shape. (Take note of where the dark green handles are sticking out at the front.)

Next you build up a bit of the ship’s interior and attach the rear section that will hold the ship’s engines.

Once the ship’s side doors and engines are attached, the front section of the hull gets completed using a 2×2 dome bottom to plug into those dark green espresso handles to create angled panels at the front of the craft.

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The final model

The final model is a gimmick laden starship that younger builders will have lots of fun with. Between a cannon that fires round tiles, an opening cockpit, pivoting wings, and doors in the sides and rear of the ship, I often found myself making “pew” and “pssssh” noises as I moved things around and set them into position. While the set might have a few too many exposed studs to please the choosier adult collectors, there are a nice number of ingots and pentagonal tiles to keep the ship from looking too boring.

With both side doors open, you can see clearly through to the other side of the ship, and the interior includes seating for at least four more figures, as well as a gray storage container and red fire extinguisher. While the rear section also has a door that opens (as seen on the box back), that door doesn’t actually allow access into this middle portion of the ship, as there is a wall of structural elements in the way.

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The minifigures

The set includes three minifigures that are almost entirely new. Andor and Rael use new printings on their legs, torsos, and heads, and even feature new hair pieces. Andor’s hair is perhaps a touch too long based on how he appeared in the show’s trailer, and it almost reminds me more of Steve Harrington’s trademark locks from Stranger Things. Rael’s hair piece is a thinning blonde hair, and his face is riddled with age lines to match. Karn’s head and legs are pieces available in numerous other sets, but his torso and hat feature new printing.

All three figures feature printing on their back torsos as well.

Andor and Rael also have double-sided heads with more intense expressions.

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Conclusion and recommendation

While I have no media connection (yet) to cloud my judgment of this set, I still found it to be an enjoyable build and the final model to be super playable. It breaks down to a little more than ten cents per piece, but the numerous brand new minifigure parts helps soften that blow. If you like Star Wars (or even just spaceships and general sci-fi), this set will offer a pleasant afternoon’s building. If you can find it on sale, you’ll be extra happy with it.

75338 Ambush on Ferrix is a 679-piece set available August 1st for US $69.99 | CAN $89.99 | UK £69.99.

It may also be available from third-party sellers on Amazon and eBay.

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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