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.

Show me again the power of the darkness...

Sometimes it’s just fun to play with minifigs. Despite all the LEGO Star Wars sets I’ve built to review over the last month since the movie’s release, there are still some key characters from The Force Awakens missing from my collection. One of the most intriguing new factions is the Knights of Ren, of whom we only really get to know Kylo Ren, their commander. There was, however, a brief flashback that showed a squad of Knights lit up by lightning on a rain-drenched battlefield, so I thought I’d take a crack at building minifig versions of the Knights of Ren.

While the minifigs themselves are just your usual “figbarf,” I’m pretty pleased with the presentation. I’m not skilled with Photoshop or GIMP, so I primarily just use the Photos app on my Mac. First, I took my photo of the minifigs on a black cardboard background. With a screenshot from the movie trailer as a reference, I began post-processing by darkening the photo significantly, and reduced the warmness to get the bluer tones for the background as seen in the movie (which fortunately still kept the minifigs black). Next, I found a free online tool that lets you add effects like rain and a vignette to photos, so I processed a copy of my photo with that tool (first the rain, then the darker, blurred vignette border).

All in all, it was fun to build the minifigs, taking me back to my early days online, but I particularly enjoyed finding easy ways to post-process the photo to mimic the movie still.

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LEGO Star Wars Microfighters 75127 The Ghost [Review]

I’ve never watched either Star Wars Rebels or The Clone Wars animated TV shows, but I’ve appreciated some of the minifigs and bought a few of the sets on discount for parts. I regret not picking up 75053 The Ghost when it went on pretty deep discount late last year, given the ship’s great design, reminiscent of bombers and naval patrol aircraft from World War II like the B-17 or PBY Catalina. I’m mildly consoled by the release of 75127 The Ghost, part of the latest wave of LEGO Star Wars Microfighters. 75127 The Ghost includes 104 parts and 1 minifig, and retails for $9.99.

Click through for the full review

LEGO SW Microfighters 75125 Resistance X-wing Fighter [Review]

LEGO continues its Star Wars “Microfighter” series with Wave 3, released in January. With new sets from The Force Awakens, 75125 Resistance X-wing Fighter is the first Microfighter we’re reviewing here on The Brothers Brick. This set includes 83 pieces and the usual solo minifig, and retails for $9.99.

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This ain’t your dad’s snowspeeder

Yet more evolved Star Wars goodness emerging from the current From Bricks To Bothans contest. I love this next-gen snowspeeder from Don Wilson. He’s taken a classic craft from the original trilogy and created his own version of how it might look 30 years later.

The model has a lovely shape, still evoking the classic snowspeeder lines, but somehow managing to look all-new at the same time. There’s some great color blocking and sticker use, and the integration of the cannons into the hull is fantastic. I’d have blogged this even if it hadn’t have been Star Wars-related, but such a classy reinvention of an old favorite just makes it all the better.

Hoth’s Moving Castle?

This cracking Castle-themed AT-AT build by Adam Dodge properly made me chuckle. This wouldn’t be a bad little Castle tower, even without the legs. There’s a nice variety of greys, textured bricks, and jutting roofs to break up the walls. But plonk said tower on top of a set of medieval AT-AT legs, and you’ve got a really fun build. I like the cannons mounted on the side of the “head”, and those flags and line of bunting add a welcome splash of color. There’s even a skeleton hanging in a cage beneath the beast’s belly!

If I had one suggestion for improving this, it would be to change those radar dish elements at the hips. They’re too smooth for my liking. I’d have liked to see something a bit craggier, maybe some big cogs, suggesting hefty medieval machinery at work. However, that’s nitpicking – a minor niggle in an otherwise great model.

I’d like to see this creation in a mechanical battle to the death with one of my own models – this Troll AT-AT from a few years ago. Bring it on Adam! Your Crownies are going down!

LEGO Star Wars 75101 First Order Special Forces TIE Fighter [Review]

While we’ve largely focused on the “good guy” sets like 75102 Poe’s X-wing Fighter from The Force Awakens since their release in September, our coverage would be incomplete if we didn’t also review “bad guy” sets like 75101 First Order Special Forces TIE Fighter. The set includes 517 pieces and 4 minifigs, with a retail price of $69.99, though it has been consistently 20% off at $55.99 on Amazon since nearly its release last September.

Now that we’re nearly a month after the movie’s release, I will reference SPOILERS in this review. Again, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

I’ll share one non-movie spoiler, though: This is an unexpectedly awesome set — you need it.

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“What if the trade federation had designed the Y-Wing bomber?”

Asking (and answering) that question is space_e. The classic Y-Wing has been redesigned to have a walking ground mode and again proving my theory that turning anything into a robot makes it infinitely better. Like the evolved B-wing Andrew highlighted earlier this week, this is an entry in FBTB’s current contest, which ends in two days.

Here’s hoping that someone working on Star Wars: Episode VIII catches a glimpse of this and takes inspiration. Also: hey LEGO, could we get another official Y-Wing set? it’s been too long.

LEGO Star Wars 75132 First Order Battle Pack [Review]

Contrary to the resource-strapped organization in The Force Awakens, the First Order in the LEGO Star Wars universe certainly doesn’t lack stormtroopers, helped along by new releases like the 75132 First Order Battle Pack, which accompanies the 75131 Resistance Trooper Battle Pack we also reviewed recently. This battle pack has 88 pieces, the usual 4 minifigs, and retails for the normal $12.99.

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75137 Carbon Freezing Chamber from Empire Strikes Back [Review]

We’ve been so focused on LEGO Star Wars sets from The Force Awakens that you’d think we’d forgotten there was an Original Trilogy thirty-odd years ago (I deny the existence of any Prequel Trilogy). For their January 2016 assortment, LEGO hasn’t neglected Episodes IV, V, and VI though. Although still a challenge to find here in North America, LEGO sent us a copy of 75137 Carbon Freezing Chamber from The Empire Strikes Back and I’m pleased to bring you this review.

The set includes 231 pieces and three minifigs. Once available, we expect this set to retail for around $30 in the US (it’s £19.99/29.99€ in Europe).

As we noted when the first official pictures of January 2016 LEGO Star Wars sets appeared back in December, the interior of Cloud City on Bespin hasn’t been depicted in a LEGO set since the rare 10123 Cloud City was released in 2003.

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LEGO Star Wars 75133 Rebel Alliance Battle Pack [Review]

Although there still seems to be a supply chain issue here in North America, where new 2016 LEGO sets are rather hard to come by, our friends in Billund have sent us another batch of sets that we’ll be reviewing here on The Brothers Brick over the next week or two. LEGO continues to expand its range of minifig-centric Battle Pack sets with 75133 Rebel Alliance Battle Pack, alongside the 75131 Resistance Trooper Battle Pack I reviewed over the weekend. The set has 101 pieces, including 4 minifigs, with a price of $12.99.

Click through to read the full review

CHIPS – Central Headquarters Imperial Pursuit Squad

In a rather unexpected conceptual mashup, SPARKART! has titled his pair of Imperial Scout Troopers on Endor “CHIPS,” or the “Central Headquarters Imperial Pursuit Squad.” Actual minifigs are wildly out of proportion, so their massive heads are put to good use in these large-scale figures astride nicely detailed scout speeders.

SPARKART!’s Star Wars twist on the American TV show that aired from 1977-1983 (the same years during which the Original Trilogy was released) is Imperial propaganda, of course, with a rather amusing backstory:

CHIPS followed reel-life troopers Larwil Jonbak (TB-1337) and Eriest Frapon (TB-1983) through several tours of duty throughout the Empire and Outer Rim territories. The series ended with a cliff-hanger; On the forest moon of Endor, the troopers were captured by the Rebellion. As vile terrorist human Rebels looked on and laughed, our heroes were readied to be cooked alive by the Ewoks…

Slayn & Korpil A/SF-02 B-wing assault starfighter

Our friends over at FBTB are hosting a “Star Wars Evolved” contest inspired by the upgraded T-70 X-wings in The Force Awakens. The premise of the contest asks the question, “What would other Star Wars vehicles look like 30 years later?” xiei22 answers the question for the B-wing with this chunky blue and white beauty.

I’m a sucker for schematics, so here’s a nice graphic explaining the enhancements. The original B-wing packed the punch of a capital ship, so the extra guns and rotating turrets are a particularly lethal upgrade.

(The builder doesn’t specify the model number for his B-wing, but I’ve taken the liberty of incrementing it, just like the Incom T-65 X-wing became the T-70.)