Let’s take a trip back in time. No, we’re not going to head all the way back to 2005 when the Venator-Class Republic Attack Cruiser first made its appearance on screen in Revenge of the Sith, but it’s close. The year is 2007, and I’ve just begun my junior year of college at the University of Minnesota (Go Gophers!). I go with some friends to IKEA for dorm room accoutrements, and we stop at the Mall of America on the way back. It’s at that mall’s LEGO store that I, irrational college student that I am at the time, purchase 10143 Death Star II. It was epic! I sat in my room watching Episodes I through VI while I assembled the great ball of bricks, feeling my love of the SW Universe course through my fingers and into this mammoth set I could barely afford. To this day, it’s the only LEGO Star Wars UCS set I’ve ever purchased. I thought back on this time quite a bit as I tackled the construction of the latest offering in the Ultimate Collector Series: 75367 Venator-Class Republic Attack Cruiser. Star Wars certainly has come a long way since then, as has LEGO. You’ll have to read on to uncover my nostalgia-laden build of this new model. Constructed of 5,374 pieces, and available from LEGO stores and their website on October 4 (October 1 for Insiders), 75367 Venator-Class Republic Attack Cruiser retails for US $649.99 | CAN $849.99 | UK £559.99.

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.

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The box and instructions

Measuring 20.5″ (52 cm) wide, 19″ (48 cm) tall, and 15″ (38 cm) deep, the box for this model is a real beast! As usual, the front of the box shows off the main ship contained inside, as well as logos for LEGO, Star Wars, and Disney. The upper right corner even has an indicator of the Ultimate Collector Series, of which the Venator is a part. And yes, I know that’s not the full name of the cruiser. But for the sake of brevity, I’ll refer to it by that nickname for the rest of the review. The back of the box shows a rear three-quarter angle of the model, along with the info plate and included figures. There’s also an array of stills from the movies of this infamous Republic spaceship.

Within this outer shell I find two smaller boxes, breaking up the build into two parts. While the fronts have a fairly simple design, the sides are adorned with more movie stills (of varying quality). Given how deep marketing had to go to get all these pictures of the Venator, it’s clear that this cruiser is far more famous from its contributions to the Clone Wars cartoons than the Prequel Trilogy. It would’ve been nice to see some images from those sources instead of just the movies (especially because this set supposedly celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Clone Wars series by Tartakovsky).

These boxes combined hold four instruction booklets, a sticker sheet, 48 numbered bags, and 2 unnumbered bags. I’ll show off the bags in groups as we move through the build below and… Hold on, did I just say sticker sheet?! This is a $650 set, and there’s a sticker sheet?! Well, I guess that’s okay. For the Death Star II, I had a sticker for the info placard I had to stretch over a bunch of 1×8 tile, so I’m sure that still… Oh, that’s the only printed piece besides the minifigures and another brick for the “stand.” Well then!

This set shouldn’t have stickers. They’re big and awkward and were a high-anxiety stress-fest to apply. But even beyond that, I think I’d still be just as mad if these were printed slopes and tiles. All of these patterns have viable solutions in brick in this model, especially those applied to the 2×6 slopes. At this scale and for this price, the brick-built solution will always be preferred, and it’s a shame they didn’t use it here.

Shaking off my sticker rage, the first instruction booklet has the first few pages dedicated to the subject of the model, as well as some words from the designers. And I do like the 4 different graphics used on the book covers.

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The build

Like with some of my other reviews of large sets, I like to break up the build into chunk-olas, each covering a section of the build instead of going bag-by-bag. Bags 1-7 build out the frame of this model. There’s nothing too special here, just your standard combination of Technic and System connections to add that much-needed stability. I did appreciate the red and blue slopes on either side, helping to provide some orientation when working on the next few sections, something I’ve noticed LEGO sets have been doing more and more.

Bags 8-12 flesh out the aft portion of the cruiser as well as the frame. The shaping here is quite nice, with clean lines of dark gray stretching the length of the section. And there’s plenty of open connection points left here, no doubt for the engines coming in a few steps. I will say this is one of the more awkward sections of the build process, with so much unfinished frame to swing back and forth when working on one side and then the other. Unavoidable in all practicality, but know that you can commiserate with me should you take on the mega-build yourself.

The Venator’s central tower is next, made with bags 13-17. This was by far my favorite part of the set. The texturing is glorious, really showing off what this plastic medium can do! While I know it’ll eventually be covered with engines, I wish the aft had some of this extra attention to help mix up the build process a bit. The use of the tiles in clips at the very top of the towers is a perfect detail, and one of the best techniques used on the ship. However, I did find that the flaps held in place by gravity became problematic when having to flip the section upside-down as I progressed through the steps. And the final connection to the frame was quite difficult to interpret from the instructions. But these were two minor and fixable issues in a beautiful string of building.

In the last portion of Box 1 of this build, we cover the underside of the main “wings” using bags 18-23. It was here that the great plate sandwiching began in earnest. Unavoidable for this kind of set, it’s still a bit of a grind. The finished product is quite nice, and has more detail than I expected for an infrequently-viewed angle.

It was also in this section where disaster struck. Included in my set was a damaged 1×2 grille piece in dark bluish gray. Below I have a shot comparing it to the spare part I used instead from my own collection. I do hesitate to bring this up, as I know many people on the internet like to talk about TLG’s falling quality standards and how things aren’t as good as they used to be. But I think that moments like these are the exceptions that prove the rule. This is such a notable experience for me because I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve had a part quality issue in a LEGO set. I’ve been in this hobby for over 30 years now, have purchased thousands of sets, and used to work in a quality control laboratory. LEGO remains my gold standard for QC in industry simply because instances like this are so rare, and I think that’s something we should talk about a lot more!

Getting back to the review, bags 24-29 make up the sides and underside of the bow portion. I apologize for the picture of the bags, but bag 29 forgot to read the call sheet during photos and was late. In this portion, it’s once again a lot of plate stacking. I do appreciate the ability to generate such clean lines using wedge plates here. And that transition from the “wing” section to the nose section is terrific!

Bags 30-33 construct the engines, and this was a real treat! Interesting Technic techniques fit all the large wheel pieces together in these thruster tubes of pearled dark metal. The click of the connection of the trans-light blue 3×3 dish to the end of each engine was particularly satisfying, and the end result looks superb on the model. And is that bag 29 trying to sneak into the photo. No way, buddy! You had your chance. Set your alarm next time.

The next two bags, 34 and 35, make up the outer edges of the “wings.” Given the proper bend using tow-ball joints, these are another satisfying part of the build process. And I very much like the doors on the sides into the hangar bays. With one closed with a blast shield and the other open containing a sole miniature Republic Gunship, these details help bring the build to life! While I know it would be difficult to add more features like this into the set, it still could’ve benefitted from some of these finishing touches.

Bags 36-41 take care of the tops of the “wings,” and we’re once again in plate sandwich mode. At this point, these sections are starting to fly by. Details like the dark red striping and textured dark gray sections help these panels stand out. And the eight gun turrets mounted on this portion are well-designed. I do wish we had some small Trade Federation ships or Jedi Starfighters dogfighting along one of these panels, but I understand how that could be a stretch.

In the penultimate section, bags 42-47 bring the top of the bow to life. The technique here is very interesting, using a double layer of plates and tiles to cover the entirety of the nose section, as well as provide the required bevel down the center of the panels. The striping of dark gray under plates of light gray is striking and well done. And again, what a gorgeous seam between the “wing” and nose segments!

Wrapping up the build, bag 48 provides a few missing panels, the tip of the nose section, some cannon batteries, the placard stand, and the minifigures. All remaining holes are covered at this point, and the model feels complete. The 1x4x3 brick with the Clone Wars 20th anniversary image is nice, though at the end of this feels quite out of place. The Clone Wars TV show of 20 years ago didn’t feature one of the two included minifigures, is not included in any of the artwork associated with this set, and is only briefly mentioned in the instruction manual by Jens Kronvold Frederiksen, Design Director and Creative Lead for LEGO Star Wars. I shouldn’t complain, as I appreciate an excuse to give this wonderful ship its due in LEGO form, but… well, we’ll talk more about that later.

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The minifigures

And now the part you’ve all been waiting for! Let’s talk about these two included figs. First we have Captain Rex, a fan favorite trooper in his blue-trimmed armor. Not seen in a set since 2013, this version is fully-detailed and comes with a beautiful cloth pauldron (similar in look to the 2013 version). While the torso and leg printing, both front and back, is intricate and elaborate, his helmet is the real win here. All those little tally marks really make this clone stand out! And don’t miss the patch on his forehead. My guess is that this is a much-needed Bad Batch version of Rex, post-chip removal.

This is our first time getting a young Wullf Yularen, admiral of the Republic fleet. The elder version of this officer was available up to 2018 in a polybag. His two-sided face features both a straight gaze and a smile, with a dark brown hair piece covering the unused one. Yularen’s torso is similar to an Imperial officer, and his booted legs are dual-molded. While I’m not a huge minifigure person, these are some quality inclusions.

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The final build

With the last brick in place, the Venator clocks in at 43″ (109 cm) long, and it’s quite the heavy model. Lifting at the base where the stands enter the body, the model is actually quite swoosh-able, and I may have made many engine noises carrying it back and forth from build area to photo backdrop. Taking the whole thing in, I see no glaring errors, no missing details that should be there.

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Conclusions and recommendations

Throughout the build process, I tried hard to recapture that magic I felt back in college with the Death Star II, but it just wasn’t going to come. Design shortcuts like the use of stickers ate at me. The flimsy “20th Anniversary” justification for a UCS ship we should’ve had well before we had 3 giant-size X-Wings wore away at me. And the overblown price, $150 USD more than this set should ever cost, gnawed at my mind. This would be an easy recommendation to buy at $500 USD, because the model is quite excellent (stickers aside). While it does involve a lot of plate-stacking, I didn’t lament my time performing that repetitive task when taking in the beauty of the final product. The details and accuracy to the CG model are wonderful, and I can see myself putting this on my bookshelf for sure!

But the Venator is the epitome of where Star Wars as a whole sits in the modern zeitgeist: something well-made (or at least well-intentioned, Book of Boba Fett) hidden beneath a thick film of hyper optimization for marketing and profit. I’m not saying that marketing and profit shouldn’t be a part of the equation (LEGO and Disney are businesses after all), but the coefficients in front of those variables are way too big today for everything Star Wars, to the point that they detract from the enjoyment and nostalgia of the product. To their credit, it’s a balance that LEGO has had much better luck striking when using their own IP. In other words, this set exists for the wrong reasons, and yet the designers succeeded in spite of that. If you find it at a significant discount and you have the money to spend, I highly recommend. Otherwise, save your money for something with better bang for your buck.

75367 Venator-Class Republic Attack Cruiser contains 5,374 pieces and will be available from LEGO stores and LEGO.com on October 4 (Oct 1 for Insiders). The set will retail for US $649.99 | CAN $849.99 | UK £559.99.

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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.

See below for all the pictures from this review: