Tag Archives: Return of the Jedi

LEGO Star Wars 75382 TIE Interceptor: the Ultimate Collector Series returns to its roots [Review]

2024 marks an auspicious year for LEGO Star Wars, as it hits its quarter-century. The theme has evolved and changed a lot over the years, but one mainstay has been the Ultimate Collector Series, which launched just a year after the Star Wars theme’s debut. 7191 X-Wing Fighter and 7181 TIE Interceptor were the first sets to be released under this banner in the year 2000. While the former has seen two re-releases, one of which is on shelves at the moment, the latter has not been re-visited at this larger, detailed scale – until now. With 1,931 pieces, it will retail for US $229.99 | CAN $299.99 | UK £199.99 (non-Insiders can get it from May 4th). Has it been worth the wait? Read on to find out!

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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Even by Ewok standards, this village is really small

This year celebrates a very important Star Wars anniversary. One that brought the Ewoks and their home on the forest moon of Endor to everyone’s living rooms. Huh? Return of the Jedi? What’s that? No, I’m obviously talking about 10236 Ewok Village‘s tenth birthday! LEGO builder ABrickDreamer knows what I’m talking about. To celebrate, he’s recreated this legendary set in a more diminutive form. The original is pretty expensive on the aftermarket, so this is definitely a more wallet-friendly alternative. It’s a faithful recreation, even including the catapult and a very cute little speeder bike alongside the iconic treetop village. Happy birthday, 10236! If you want to keep celebrating Star Wars anniversaries, why not peruse our Return of the Jedi archives?

An Ewok Village redo and redemption

A LEGO builder who goes by the name of Simulterious tells us that they took apart the Ewok Village 10236 set and regretted it. Yeah, we know all about regret here at TBB, don’t we? Wait, what the hell does that mean? Anyway, they turned their regret into a redo and redemption of sorts by building a new version depicting what the set could look like today. I’m enjoying the use of shields as sort of a thatched roof design and the diversity of leaves is a welcome change from the old set. This builder also rectifies the obvious omission of the AT-ST from the original. Even though there seem to be slightly fewer Minifigures (that are visible, anyway) this would be an insta-buy for me if this were a real set. While we most certainly have our regrets, (wait, that again?) showcasing this builder’s work isn’t among them. Check out our Simulterious archives to see what I mean.

Staying hidden on the forest moon.

Two Rebel soldiers find themselves a little too close to the Empire for comfort in this vignette by Jonas. Thankfully, Jonas has constructed a lush amount of Endorian flora for them to hide among. The Imperial Soldiers have it easy, with their elevated walkway and a dirt road constructed from some surprisingly elaborate techniques. Hopefully they don’t look too closely at what’s hiding in the local vegetation.

I seek an audience with Your Greatness to bargain for Solo’s life

Luke Skywalker was dedicated to getting his friends back at all costs. Star Wars fans share in that dedication when constructing their detailed reproductions of scenes from the series. Here, Anthony shows us an excellent slice of Jabba’s Palace from an iconic scene in the Return of the Jedi. The detailing captures the throne room well and I love the bottles with spilled liquid along the edges of the display. I also enjoy how Anthony decided to portray the scene. On top of the notable characters, the builder staged the display at a great scale and in a way that evokes some emotion. Having Luke’s back to the viewer helps us imagine that we are in Luke’s place, facing down a wretched scumlord holding our friends captive. Paired with the dramatic irony of knowing what’s in store for our hero, I think it helps add a feeling to the model that hits me right in the nostalgia.

Felt cute, might bring down a Super Star Destroyer later

I love it when LEGO builders use unexpected pieces in their creations. There’s even contests revolving around using a seed part in a variety of builds. After all, LEGO is all about creativity, and thinking outside the box. I (Mansur “Waffles” Soeleman) grew up with Technic and Bionicle, which both contain strange LEGO parts that you don’t see mixed with the usual building system. However, I am a firm believer that even the most unconventional LEGO parts can fit perfectly with the common ones. That was partly my inspiration in building a perfectly minifigure-scale RZ-1 A-wing Starfighter from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.

Find out about the build process and the weird parts Waffles used to build his A-wing!

Not a very “chicken” walker

Known to fans as the “chicken walker”, this LEGO All Terrain-Scout Transport (AT-ST) model by builder Lewis Kiwi is anything but a wimpy chicken. I’d use this beast to stand up to rebel scum any day of the week.

This has to be the most well-built AT-ST I’ve ever seen. From the top of the highly-detailed roof to the bottom of the articulated feet, this AT-ST outshines even the Ultimate Collector’s Series AT-ST set. Just look at the joints! The blasters! The engine work!

Some of the best LEGO creations have a level of detail that implies more detail beneath it. Notice how simple pieces like tubing and fans draw your eyes into the walker’s interior, making you wonder where those tubes connect to and how the walker is powered.

Where Lewis shines the most, however, is in his color schemes. This AT-ST uses light gray as the main armor layer, while underlying dark gray form the walker’s structure. This effect establishes the battle-readiness and is a detail not seen in many of the AT-ST models built over the years.

LEGO Star Wars 75291 Death Star Final Duel takes us to the Emperor’s Throne Room [Review]

With beloved minifigures and generally excellent vehicle designs in the LEGO Star Wars theme, location-based playsets often get a bad rap by comparison. Back in 2016, I described 75137 Carbon Freezing Chamber as half-formed, oddly over-engineered, ugly, and ultimately baffling — one of the worst LEGO sets I’d reviewed in recent memory. Then in 2018, we argued that the $350 75222 Betrayal at Cloud City doesn’t even live up to LEGO’s own product description, despite some stellar mid-scale vehicles and improved carbon-freezing chamber. Given that history, we were skeptical of 75291 Death Star Final Duel (US $99.99 | CAN $139.99 | UK £89.99), which includes 775 pieces with five minifigs and will be available starting September 1st (with the now-standard caveats about COVID-19 shipping). But has LEGO exceeded our low expectations?

Read our hands-on review of LEGO Star Wars 75291 Death Star Final Duel

LEGO reveals 7 new Star Wars sets for late summer 2020 including Galaxy’s Edge and upcoming 2020 advent calendar [News]

LEGO has revealed seven new Star Wars sets based on everything across the galaxy including the films, television shows, a visual dictionary, and even Disney’s theme park land, Galaxy’s Edge. The sets include two brand new ships, multiple desirable minifigures, a few refreshed models, and the 2020 LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar. (Spoiler alert: we’ve included photos of the Advent behind the jump at the far end of this article.)

The seven new sets join four other upcoming LEGO Star Wars models already announced earlier this year, including 75288 AT-AT, 75280 501st Legion Clone Troopers, 75292 The Razor Crest and 75317 The Mandalorian & The Child BrickHeadz. All these new sets should be available globally starting Sept. 1st.

Click to take a closer look at each new LEGO Star Wars set.

LEGO 75275 A-wing Starfighter revealed as next Star Wars Ultimate Collector Series set [News]

LEGO has revealed the next Star Wars Ultimate Collector Series set as the 75275 A-wing Starfighter. Originally sighted in The Return of the Jedi, the A-wing model comes with 1,673 pieces, pivoting laser cannons, and an A-wing Pilot minifigure.

The set will be available for US $199.99 | CAN $259.99 | UK £179.99 starting on May 1st, just in time for May the Fourth celebrations. LEGO will also offer a gift-with-purchase set featuring the “Death Star II Battle” with all Star Wars purchases more than $75 from May 1-4 or until supplies run out, as well as double VIP points on Star Wars sets and select Star Wars items on sale.

Take a closer look at the LEGO Star Wars UCS A-wing Starfighter

It’s...wait for it...a trap!

Useful or not, some folks have a special talent, a gift, if you will, that is unique to them. Maybe they were even born with it and don’t know of their uncanny abilities until it happens. Some folks can wiggle their ears, some have really bendy thumbs. My talent; I write sensitive poetry about the man from Nantucket. I should recite some for you sometime. Okay Yaramanoglu built this stylized Admiral Akbar and his talent is to alert anyone within earshot that something is a trap. Whether it be a mousetrap, bear trap, or in this case, a deadly game of cat and mouse sprung by a ruling Empire against a Rebel Alliance, Admiral Ackbar is the gravelly voice of authority. Identifying traps probably earned him the admiral position. In every case so far, however, he’s been quite adept at identifying traps after they have sprung, not before. Some foreknowledge could prove helpful in many cases, Admiral.

When you’re near a sarlacc, everything’s the pits

With the recent release of The Rise of Skywalker, Star Wars builds have been multiplying faster than Star Wars spin-offs and sequels. For me, none of the sequels/prequels/spin-offs comes close to the magic that is the original trilogy, though I am always happy to see more of the galaxy far, far away; yet the builds inspired by it all are getting better and better. Take this microscale build of Jabba the Hutt’s sail barge from The Return of the Jedi by Okay Yaramanoglu. It captures all of the essential details, from the sarlacc to the bantha and the smaller skiffs, all within a 16×16 stud footprint. Some true fans may object to the beak on the sarlacc, but it is still well done. Perhaps we can edit it out later, when the special edition is released.

The rowboat is an inspired touch for the sail barge, recreating the hull shape so effectively I am shocked to have never seen it done before (or perhaps I’ve just been living under a Krayt dragon skeleton for too long, and it has been done before). The red sails could use some dust or sand on them, since everything on Tatooine is dusty and sandy, but the simple pieces imitate the shape perfectly for this scale. The old Technic toothed plates give some clever connections for the skiffs, and the hair for the bantha is amazing. All in all, I think this is a great Pit of Carkoon.