Brickbot Studio here with a look at the smaller Star Wars playsets coming to stores on January 1st. 2025 had Star Wars fans debating whether LEGO could still deliver good value with its galactic offerings. In addition to a pair of midi-scale vehicles and a new brick-built BB-8, LEGO is releasing a quartet of sets priced between $10-$23 based on The Mandalorian and The Clone Wars. Will this budget wave of sets win us over? Let’s have a look!
Our reviews of the January Star Wars playsets follows
The buildable Technic Star Wars figures from a decade ago received generally mixed feedback, but several of the molded and printed parts were a big hit. This topic reappeared with the release of 75434 K-2SO Security Droid this year, with many builders and collectors discussing the possibility of using the molded head from the buildable K2SO instead. Builder nobu_tary takes a similar approach here with an expert build of General Grievous, using the head from the buildable figure in set 75112. This is a sizable build with a ton of great details all over. The most impressive aspect of the build is that it captures Grievous’ especially tricky shape and proportions very well, and when compared to the Technic buildable this version feels so much more like the Separatist leader that we’ve all grown to love.
Better late than never, right? We’ve done reviews on almost all of the sets in LEGO’s Star Wars summer range. But astute readers may have noticed one set missing, one that’s caused quite the stir in the community: 75413 Republic Juggernaut. It has 813 pieces, and includes 8 minifigures, including the long-awaited Galactic Marines and Commander Bacara. But it’s had something of a frosty reception so far, largely down to its price of US $159.99 | CAN $199.99 | UK £139.99. So, finally, let’s take a look at it ourselves, and crunch some numbers to see if said reception is justified!
Earlier this year, we saw a Republic starfighter that hadn’t been seen in LEGO form for several years hit the market. Now it’s not groundhog day – but on August 1, we are getting another LEGO Star Wars Republic starfighter that hasn’t been seen on shelves since 2008! This time, it’s 75432 V-19 Torrent Starfighter; a craft that appeared early on in the Clone Wars animated series, but was seldom seen subsequently. With 567 pieces, it has an RRP of US $64.99 | CAN $84.99 | UK £59.99; you might see it on third-party retail sites like eBay or Amazon, too. Let’s see if it will receive a torrent of praise!
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.
The first reveals of the next wave of LEGO Star Wars sets has jumped out of hyperspace! The quintet of sets covers a wide age and price range, with all set to release August 1, 2025. The headline act is 75417 AT-ST Walker, the second iteration of the scout transport at Ultimate Collector Series scale and first in almost two decades. That one is 1,513 pieces for US $199.99 | CAN $259.99 | UK £179.99. At the other end, we have our second Slave I (Jango’s version) of the year, and two massive clone sets that include some long-awaited Galactic Marine and Commander Bly minifigures.
Originally introduced in the Phantom Menace, the Multi-Troop Transport (MTT) has seen several LEGO iterations in official Star Wars sets. But none of them have shown the vehicle in the blue-and-grey CIS livery seen in the Clone Wars animated series. The Minikit Guy has also previously built an MTT in Trade Federation brown – but they have updated it to its Separatist colours! And what a model it is, made up of either 10,000 or 11,000 pieces. Hang on – 10 or 11 thousand? Why the difference?
You’ll have to click through the link to find out!
Sometimes, official LEGO sets end up feeling just a tad off when it comes to proportions for minifigures, but this custom model by Gubi0222 looks pretty much perfect compared to the on-screen walkers seen in both the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated show as well as the very brief glimpse of the walker on Kashyyyk in Revenge of the Sith. The small wheel rims make the perfect hip joint, and I do love a good roller skate used for details.
Here’s a shot from the side to better appreciate the ball joints holding the walker’s legs in place, as well as the wonderful shaping of its nose armor.
The variety of amazing builds we feature here at The Brothers Brick certainly leaves me (Ben Dodds) inspired to go and try out some of the ideas we see. And whilst work has kept me busy these last few months, any free time I’ve had has been spent running away from screens and into the LEGO drawers (amid actual running!). In this small free time that I have had, I’ve found myself building Star Wars vignettes. They’re small, and the challenge is to get as much in the scene without it looking cramped. One such scene is well timed with the release of the Ahsoka series and revisiting the Rebels team. Here, with the Rebels figures I have, we find the Spectre team mid-heist in a face off against pursuit unknown.
With each build I try to give myself a challenge. And here, I wanted to see what I could build with curved Roller Coaster rails. For this, I looked to turn them into a stairwell, and this little scene grew from there, using the escalator pieces as the stairwell itself. Making the limited connections work was a challenge, but it adds a central focus to the build while also allowing me to furnish the build with a water feature. I also added a flourish of vegetation to detract from the inevitable grey that was unescapable here. It is LEGO Star Wars after all!
Dive further into the universe of Star Wars TV below!
LEGO.com has published detailed about the forthcoming 75354 Coruscant Guard Gunship. Clone Wars fans have been eating well recently, yet the Republic Gunship had only been recently available as a UCS set. However, that’s been changed as of today. Consisting of 1,083 pieces, the craft is in the unusual colour scheme of the Coruscant Guard, which featured in a handful of episodes in season six of the Clone Wars – as did most of the minifigures included, among them Padmé Amidala and Clone Commander Fox. Together with the Ahsoka sets unveiled at SDCC, this set will be available starting from the 1st of September. While pricing in some regions is still unconfirmed, the price according to LEGO.com was US $139.99 | CAN $179.99 | UK £TBD.
See more pictures after the jump!
One of the things I love about the LEGO community is that no matter how many times something’s been done, it’s possible for someone to build a new take on a model and add more details and accuracy. Star Wars ships are a prime example; because of their ubiquity both in official sets and fan models, there’s no end of inspiration and various designs, and Thomas Jenkins has crafted a jaw-dropping new version of the LAAT, better known as the Republic Gunship from Attack of the Clones and The Clone Wars. Thomas has used lots of great design details here to make a super accurate minifigure-scale version, with clever bits ranging from the oars on the engine nacelles to the backpack on the nose. But perhaps the most impressive thing is that all of the detailed color blocking is brick-built.
LEGO builder Tim Goddard proves you don’t need a metric ton of bricks to present an epic scene from Star Wars. Here this cute little N-1 Starfighter has equally cute Vulture Droids on its tail. It’s a dicey predicament to be sure but I have faith in the N-1 pilot (is it Anakin?) and their ability to get out of any sticky situation. Tim Goddard has gotten into plenty of sticky situations as of late and somehow most ended up tiny and cute. Click the tiny and cute blue link to see what I mean.
Continuing his line of midi-scale LEGO Star Wars ships, FlyInSpace has built an Omicron-class attack shuttle. Specifically, it’s the Havoc Marauder – the flagship and mobile base of Clone Force 99, the Bad Batch, which LEGO also released as an official set, 75314 Bad Batch Attack Shuttle. There is nothing Bad about this fan-built model though! A singular wedge element is used upside down for the angular cockpit, and it’s the perfect piece for it. There’s some great texturing in the wings and body of the ship as well, with ski poles, ingots and roller skates used to give some added detail at this small scale. The edges of the solar panel wings are very well done with clips and bars (albeit with some fragile-looking connections). Perhaps that’s why Wrecker needs to be so careful with it!
